Smart cities: The rise of new C-level executives

Assembling a smart city dream teamIncreasingly, cities are adopting smart technology to become more energy efficient, improve transportation, make neighborhoods safer, manage traffic—basically use technology and the data it generates to create better places to live, work and visit.As they do so, they’re discovering they need specialists to head the new departments that the smart technology is enabling. And many have created new C-level executives, such as chief bicycle officer, chief innovation officer, chief data officer and chief citizen officer—to name a few. What follows is a look at nine of the newest C-level positions smart cities are creating.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why this hospital is moving to Amazon’s cloud

Since 2012 three Texas-based health care organizations have merged to create USMD Health System. During the past four years CIO Mike Yerrid has been on a mission to centralize and consolidate IT operations. And a big part of that is moving to Amazon’s cloud.Yes, as a health care organization, USMD is subject to stringent regulations for protecting patient information, and yes it’s moving to the public cloud. USMD isn’t alone. “Health care organizations are becoming more comfortable with cloud technology,” says Lynne Dunbrack, leader of research firm IDC’s Health Insights practice.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: 9 Keys to a HIPAA compliant cloud | From CSO: What to think about when moving to the cloud +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

9 keys to having a HIPAA-compliant cloud

Health care organizations are increasingly open to the idea of using public cloud services, whether it be applications or infrastructure. But to do so requires thorough planning and vigilant execution of IT operations.+ RELATED STORY: Why this hospital is moving to Amazon’s cloud +Chris Bowen, founder and chief privacy and security officer for ClearDATA, a company that helps health care organizations use public cloud services, provides nine examples of controls that can be put in place. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DDOS Attackers – Who and Why?

Bruce Schneier's recent blog post, “Someone is Learning How to Take Down the Internet" reported that the incidence of DDOS attacks is on the rise. The obvious question I have when reading these reports is "Who is behind these attacks, and why are they doing it?"

Industrial IoT is inching toward a consensus on security

IoT is complex, fast-growing and often intertwined with systems that govern things like water and power. That makes IoT security a critical requirement, but it’s one that’s not necessarily well understood.The Industrial Internet Consortium, a group that includes some of the biggest players in the internet of things, took action on Monday to clear the air. It rolled out the IISF (Industrial Internet Security Framework), a set of best practices to help developers and users assess risks and defend against them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Spousetivities in Barcelona

If you’re going to be in Barcelona for either VMworld EMEA (running the week of October 17) or the fall 2016 OpenStack Summit (running the week of October 24), then I recommend you plan for your spouse/partner/girlfriend/boyfriend/whatever to join you for what I believe are some pretty spectacular Spousetivities.

VMworld EMEA

First, let’s have a quick look at the activities planned around VMworld EMEA. What’s in store? Here’s a quick sneak peek (check out the registration page for full details):

  • Sailing the Mediterranean off the coast of Barcelona
  • A casual 3-hour bike tour of Barcelona with tapas
  • Walking tour of Barcelona with wine and food tastings
  • A visit to Montserrat, with an opportunity to hear the famed Boys’ Choir and see one of the black Madonnas of Europe
  • A full-day trip to the French Pyrenees for a mix of Catalan, Spanish, and French culture
  • A full-day tour of Roman Tarragona and a visit to the Cistercian monastery of El Poblet

Tickets for all these events are available now. These events were sponsored by VMware NSX, Veeam, VMUG, and TVP Strategy.

OpenStack Summit Barcelona

If you’re coming to Barcelona for the OpenStack Summit instead (or perhaps staying over Continue reading

Microsoft sues repeat software pirate who owes company $1.2M from prior case

Microsoft has sued a Wisconsin man for allegedly selling stolen Windows and Office activation codes, claiming in court documents that he is a repeat pirate who still owes the company $1.2 million from an earlier judgment.In a complaint filed Sept. 8, Microsoft accused Anthony Boldin, of Brookfield, Wisc., of selling software activation codes to company investigators from four different websites he maintained. Two of those websites are now shuttered -- only a message stating that the sites are no longer selling software remained Monday -- but two others continued to operate.The 25-character activation codes are a core component of Microsoft's anti-piracy technology. Although the software can be copied an unlimited number of times, the keys individually lock a license to a device or a specific user. Minus a legitimate key -- and thus, activation -- Microsoft's software retreats to a hobbled or even crippled mode.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The speed of ransomware: 3 seconds to encryption [Infographic]

Ransomware has reached epidemic proportions, especially among small and midsize businesses (SMBs). A 2015 Securities and Exchange Commission statement noted that SMBs are at "greater risk" of cybercrime, including ransomware, compared to larger enterprises, and they "are far more vulnerable once they are victimized."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

The speed of ransomware: 3 seconds to encryption [Infographic]

Ransomware has reached epidemic proportions, especially among small and midsize businesses (SMBs). A 2015 Securities and Exchange Commission statement noted that SMBs are at "greater risk" of cybercrime, including ransomware, compared to larger enterprises, and they "are far more vulnerable once they are victimized."Security service provider Arctic Wolf Networks reports that it has seen a "433 percent increase in ransomware attacks this year among our SMB customers."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Google’s new acquisition makes building chatbots easier

Google took a shot at Facebook's chatbot-building services on Monday with its acquisition of API.ai, a company that helps developers build and improve conversational interfaces for their services. API.ai has more than 60,000 developers using its platform to create conversational user interfaces for apps like Slack, Facebook Messenger and Kik. Its tools make it easier for programs to parse human language and translate it into action. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.The company offers a vast suite of capabilities for natural language understanding, including pre-defined knowledge packages known as Domains, which make it easier for assistants to understand a variety of common requests any additional coding.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

50% off Tactical Bracelet with Fire Starter, Compass and Military Grade 550 Paracord – Deal Alert

From starting fires, to fishing, to making a sustainable shelter, be more prepared for whatever the world throws your way with a tactical bracelet like this one from Aegis Gears. The band, adjustable between 6 and 9 inches, is made from 12 feet of Mil Spec grade type III paracord (in a king cobra weave) so it's extremely strong and reusable. It features a compass, a magnesium firestarter rod, and a serrated ultra-sharp eye knife fire striker. The bracelet averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 300 people (read reviews). Its list price of $26 has been reduced 50% to just $13. See the discounted Aegis Gears Tactical Paracord Bracelet S Series now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Oracle pushes hybrid by letting customers rent cloud hardware

One of the big issues facing public cloud vendors is convincing companies to take on-premises workloads and move them to a public cloud data center. Oracle is trying to enable that shift with a new set of products that allow customers to get the same hardware that Oracle runs in its data centers behind their own firewalls. Executive Chairman Larry Ellison unveiled the Big Data@Customer and Exadata@Customer machines on Sunday, building on the company's Cloud@Customer hardware offering.It's a move by the company to take advantage of Oracle's expertise building hardware and combining it with software to reach customers as they're in the process of migrating to the cloud. Ellison expects on-premises and cloud workloads will have to coexist for at least 10 years, he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM targets x86 server territory with new Power servers

IBM sold off its x86 server business two years ago to Lenovo, thinking it was exiting a cut-throat, low-margin business. But the cloud has only intensified x86 server chip sales, and IBM is paying attention.The company is adapting a new range of Power servers -- which typically run powerful systems -- for the cloud. The Power E870C and E880C servers, announced Monday, are flexible in handling many tasks and can scale for distributed computing and cloud integration.The new servers, which support Ubuntu Linux and Unix, sound similar to x86 servers powering internal and external clouds at companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon. But IBM is packing in an extra set of features to make these systems reliable and flexible for public and private clouds.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CloudFlare’s new WordPress plugin

Over 25% of all websites use WordPress, and over 10% of all internet traffic flows through CloudFlare; WordPress + CloudFlare has always been a winning combination, and now with CloudFlare’s new WordPress plugin, it's easier than ever to make your site 60% faster.

Install or upgrade to CloudFlare's new plugin to speed up your WordPress site.

Our new plugin adds all of CloudFlare's performance and security benefits in a simple one-click install of recommended settings specifically developed for WordPress.

What our plugin can do for you

One-click WordPress-optimized settings is the easiest way to setup CloudFlare for your WordPress site.

Web application firewall (WAF) rulesets, available on CloudFlare’s paid plans, has built-in rulesets, including rules that mitigate WordPress specific threats and vulnerabilities. These security rules are always kept up-to-date: once the WAF is enabled, you can rest easy knowing your site is protected from all the latest threats.

Automatic cache purge occurs when you change the appearance of your website. This means that you can focus on your website, while we ensure that the latest content is always available to your visitors.

You can also change CloudFlare settings such as the Security Level, Image Optimization, etc. from within Continue reading

Microsoft adds SMB support to retail outlets

Microsoft's retail outlets, creatively known as Microsoft Store, has been its answer to the wildly successful Apple Stores that helped push a lot of Apple product into the hands of consumers, especially Macs.Up to now, the more than 100 Microsoft Stores have been focused on the consumer market. However, Microsoft announced an expansion of the stores to include what it calls SMB Zones, providing small and mid-sized businesses with a chance to check out business-oriented products and technology and also get some consultations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Someone is learning how to take down the Internet

Over the past year or two, someone has been probing the defenses of the companies that run critical pieces of the Internet. These probes take the form of precisely calibrated attacks designed to determine exactly how well these companies can defend themselves, and what would be required to take them down. We don’t know who is doing this, but it feels like a large a large nation state. China and Russia would be my first guesses. —Lawfare

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Presenting Technical Topics To Technical People

Fred writes, “I’ve got a conference coming up in December that I’ve been invited to speak at. This is something I’ve wanted to do for sometime. However, having never done it, I’m looking for some tips on how to get started.”

Q: What’s the best way to find a topic that is new enough to be interesting, but relevant enough to be useful?

People go to conferences hoping, among other things, to gather information that they didn’t have before. What that is will vary by audience member. Designers, architects, and C-levels who are trying to stay ahead of the curve will want to know about the future — what tech is coming and the likely impact to their business and operations. Engineers and operations — the people down in the blood and guts of IT — will be more interested in hard skills.

By “hard,” I don’t mean difficult. I mean useful tools and techniques that they can bring back to their job with them and put to use.

  • When addressing a technical audience, the most engaging talks will be technical ones that go into specifics. The catch here is that most talks are in the 30 to 60 minute range. Continue reading
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