Kansas City gets ‘smart’: New streetcar line opens amid free public Wi-Fi zone

Many smart city proponents speak in vast generalities. They talk about the ways that Internet of Things sensors and big data will improve life for citizens while conserving water and energy resources and reducing traffic congestion.Not so Bob Bennett, the recently installed chief innovation officer for Kansas City, Mo. He's a combination of CIO, city planner and futurist with a quick grasp of technical details about what smart city technology can do. Bennett arrived at his job just four months before the city's planned opening on Friday of a shiny new downtown streetcar line offering free rides and the deployment of public Wi-Fi that spreads over two square miles, an area of more than 50 square blocks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Report: CIOs face ‘massive gap’ in talent acquisition

Only 11 percent of IT executives said they have a “robust” talent acquisition pipeline, according to a recent survey of 133 IT executives conducted by the CIO Executive Council (CEC). That’s a big problem in an increasingly competitive talent market, where corporate IT shops compete not only with each other for talent but also with cloud vendors and Silicon Valley.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Who is a target for ransomware? Everyone

Target on youImage by Andreas DantzAccording to the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, ransomware campaigns only care about the payout rather than the individual target. Ransomware, whether purchased or developed, is relatively cheap and delivery is virtually free.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Who is a target for ransomware? Everyone

Target on youImage by Andreas DantzAccording to the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, ransomware campaigns only care about the payout rather than the individual target. Ransomware, whether purchased or developed, is relatively cheap and delivery is virtually free.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

8 challenges affecting software project management

Managing projects of all sizes and levels of complexities is part of business, regardless of what vertical industry you’re talking about. Software development is no different. New in-house software development and implementations, infrastructure related projects, enhancements or upgrades, and the increasing development of web-based solutions and mobile apps are a constant within the software industry.The software industry is in an endless and rapid state of flux, influenced greatly by the globalization of a plethora of product and service offerings. There are various types of projects undertaken by the software industry and equally as many challenges, including the following:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How Hilton delivers greater convenience to hotel guests

The modern travel experience involves much hassle and aggravation. There are endless security procedures, delayed flights and the discomfort of jet lag. After all that, who wants to stand in a long line waiting to check in at a hotel?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

DDoS costs, damages on the rise

Peak-time distributed denial-of-service attacks cost organizations more than $100,000 per hour, said half of the respondents to a new survey of mid-sized and large corporations in the U.S. and Europe.And for a third of respondents, the average peak hourly revenue loss was more than $250,000.However, shutting down attacks took time. Only 26 percent said it took them less than an hour, while 33 percent said it took between one and two hours, and 40 percent said it took more than three hours.MORE ON CSO: How to respond to ransomware threats By comparison, a year ago, only 32 percent of companies said that they would lose more than $100,000 an hour, and 68 percent said it took them less than two hours to respond to an attack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DDoS costs, damages on the rise

Peak-time distributed denial-of-service attacks cost organizations more than $100,000 per hour, said half of the respondents to a new survey of mid-sized and large corporations in the U.S. and Europe.And for a third of respondents, the average peak hourly revenue loss was more than $250,000.However, shutting down attacks took time. Only 26 percent said it took them less than an hour, while 33 percent said it took between one and two hours, and 40 percent said it took more than three hours.MORE ON CSO: How to respond to ransomware threats By comparison, a year ago, only 32 percent of companies said that they would lose more than $100,000 an hour, and 68 percent said it took them less than two hours to respond to an attack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Are you ready for peak hiring season?

It's (almost) summertime and the hiring's easy -- or, at least, it's easier in May, June and July than at other times of the year, according to internal data from recruiting and hiring software platform Smart Recruiters.SmartRecruiters polled 700 companies and approximately 100,000 employees and gathered data between January 2015 and January 2016. They found May, June and July were the most strategic hiring times for companies, because those months offered the highest number of job seekers. The fewest candidates were available in October and November. For job seekers, the SmartRecruiters' data suggested that the best time to search for a new job was January, February and March when there is the highest number of open positions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A look at Apple’s rise in the enterprise with IBM’s help

Apple's credibility in the enterprise has never been stronger. During the 22 months since the company inked a once unthinkable alliance with IBM, Apple turned a corner with IT professionals by simply extending its established strengths in consumer user experience, interface design and hardware to the market, which it hasn't historically prioritized."To a certain degree it's one of those successful partnerships that's a well-kept secret," says Van Baker, research vice president at Gartner. Both companies currently take a generally low-key approach to their MobileFirst for iOS initiative, and without splashy efforts to drum up interest or highlight momentum, much of the related activity happens behind the scenes, he says. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Box launches a product just for government users

Box is launching a new offering aimed squarely at government customers in an attempt to get more public agencies to use its file storage and collaboration service.On Thursday, the company launched Box for Government, designed to make it easier for government organizations to deploy Box for their employees. That announcement was timed with Box receiving provisional authority to operate under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management program (better known as FedRAMP), a sign that the company meets key requirements for handling government data.The government push is an important move for Box, which has been positioning itself as a cloud storage and content services provider focused on serving large organizations like public agencies and enterprises. Its FedRAMP Moderate certification meets a bar set to protect types of data that include personally identifiable information. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Everybody gets WebSockets

Two summers ago, with a seemed-big-at-the-time network of 28 datacenters, not long after introducing Medellin, CloudFlare introduced support for WebSockets, initially for our Enterprise customers.

CC BY 2.0 image by Marcin Wichary

Today, with our network nearing 80 global locations, we're pleased to announce support for WebSockets for all our customers, including Enterprise, Business, Pro, and Free, with resources allocated by plan level.

What are WebSockets?

If you don't want to read RFC 6455, then this short paragraph from our previous blog post explains:

The WebSocket protocol is a distinct TCP-based protocol, however, it’s initiated by an HTTP request which is then "upgraded" to create a persistent connection between the browser and the server. A WebSocket connection is bidirectional: the server can send data to the browser without the browser having to explicitly ask for it. This makes things like multiplayer games, chat, and other services that require real-time exchange of information possible over a standard web protocol

There's a lot more technical history in that post covering how we modified NGINX to support a huge number of connections through port reuse. But the bottom line is that WebSockets are a vital technology for web sites that Continue reading

Cyber insurance can be your worst nightmare, best friend

LAS VEGAS -- Cyber insurance can pay out millions of dollars to cover the cost of data breach liability, but buying the policies can be a nightmare for info security pros, and premiums for similar coverage can vary wildly, an Interop audience was told. On the flip side, the insurance companies lack underwriters with IT knowledge, a good model for assessing risk, a common vocabulary to discuss policies clearly, and face a looming threat that a single successful attack of just the wrong kind could mean a major financial hit, says Dave Bradford, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Advisens.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cyber insurance can be your worst nightmare, best friend

LAS VEGAS -- Cyber insurance can pay out millions of dollars to cover the cost of data breach liability, but buying the policies can be a nightmare for info security pros, and premiums for similar coverage can vary wildly, an Interop audience was told. On the flip side, the insurance companies lack underwriters with IT knowledge, a good model for assessing risk, a common vocabulary to discuss policies clearly, and face a looming threat that a single successful attack of just the wrong kind could mean a major financial hit, says Dave Bradford, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Advisens.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple patches vulnerable OS X Git version that put developers at risk

Apple has released a new version of its Xcode development tool in order to patch two critical vulnerabilities in the Git source code management client.The Git vulnerabilities, CVE‑2016‑2324 and CVE‑2016‑2315, have been known since mid-March and can be exploited when cloning a repository with a specially crafted file structure. This allows attackers to execute malicious code on systems where such cloning operations were initiated.Xcode is an integrated development environment (IDE) used by a large number of developers to write applications for OS X and iOS. It includes a package called the OS X Command Line Tools for Xcode that contains the open-source Git client.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple patches vulnerable OS X Git version that put developers at risk

Apple has released a new version of its Xcode development tool in order to patch two critical vulnerabilities in the Git source code management client.The Git vulnerabilities, CVE‑2016‑2324 and CVE‑2016‑2315, have been known since mid-March and can be exploited when cloning a repository with a specially crafted file structure. This allows attackers to execute malicious code on systems where such cloning operations were initiated.Xcode is an integrated development environment (IDE) used by a large number of developers to write applications for OS X and iOS. It includes a package called the OS X Command Line Tools for Xcode that contains the open-source Git client.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Hit by DDoS? You will likely be struck again

More than half of all DDoS strikes have resulted in some kind of customer data loss, intellectual property theft or disappearance of money, according to a new report from Neustar.It’ll happen again, too. The IT firm also discovered that the vast majority of organizations (82 percent) are attacked again after the first DDoS onslaught.“DDoS attacks continue to pose a legitimate threat as a dangerous weapon used to create chaos and hold organizations hostage,” Neustar says in the report.Not many are “spared,” the security outfit says, and almost half of those blitzed once were thrashed six or more times.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Hit by DDoS? You will likely be struck again

More than half of all DDoS strikes have resulted in some kind of customer data loss, intellectual property theft or disappearance of money, according to a new report from Neustar.It’ll happen again, too. The IT firm also discovered that the vast majority of organizations (82 percent) are attacked again after the first DDoS onslaught.“DDoS attacks continue to pose a legitimate threat as a dangerous weapon used to create chaos and hold organizations hostage,” Neustar says in the report.Not many are “spared,” the security outfit says, and almost half of those blitzed once were thrashed six or more times.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Mashing Up OpenStack With Hyperconverged Storage

While innovators in the HPC and hyperscale arenas usually have the talent and often have the desire to get into the code for the tools that they use to create their infrastructure, most enterprises want their software with a bit more fit and finish, and if they can get it so it is easy to operate and yet still in some ways open, they are willing to pay a decent amount of cash to get commercial-grade support.

OpenStack has pretty much vanquished Eucalyptus, CloudStack, and a few other open source alternatives from the corporate datacenter, and it is giving …

Mashing Up OpenStack With Hyperconverged Storage was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

To go from IT to IoT, build on your skills

The Internet of Things is growing so fast, it’s an obvious place to look for career growth.IoT is already a reality at 29 percent of enterprises, according to a Gartner survey taken late last year. Fourteen percent said they would implement it this year, and 64 percent said they plan to use some form of IoT eventually.Yet, like a lot of IoT technology, jobs in this vast field are still evolving out of what's been in place for years. Instead of aiming for a whole new job, the best strategy may be to add some skills to the ones you already have.There will be plenty of new things to do in enterprises that adopt IoT systems, which can make companies more efficient and generate new sources of revenue. And some people are working on IoT full time. But for now, most companies heading in that direction are still scouting it out.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here