IDG Contributor Network: Government worst of all industries in cybersecurity, says report

“Government, we have a problem”—to paraphrase the crew of the 1970 moon flight reporting back on Apollo 13’s technical fault. But it sounds about right to describe, in one line, the somewhat frightening state of U.S. government infrastructure—including that of NASA, which is the worst of the federal agencies—exposed recently in a report.Network infrastructure weaknesses and vulnerabilities abound, according to SecurityScorecard.The tip of the iceberg appears to be the now-famous 2015 Office of Personnel Management loss of 21 million people’s Social Security numbers and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Government worst of all industries in cybersecurity, says report

“Government, we have a problem”—to paraphrase the crew of the 1970 moon flight reporting back on Apollo 13’s technical fault. But it sounds about right to describe, in one line, the somewhat frightening state of U.S. government infrastructure—including that of NASA, which is the worst of the federal agencies—exposed recently in a report.Network infrastructure weaknesses and vulnerabilities abound, according to SecurityScorecard.The tip of the iceberg appears to be the now-famous 2015 Office of Personnel Management loss of 21 million people’s Social Security numbers and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Smartphone shipments dip as iPhone ‘fatigue’ sets in and China reaches saturation

The global smartphone market saw its first year-on-year decline in the first quarter of this year, with both Samsung Electronics and Apple shipping fewer phones, according to a research firm.Global smartphone shipments fell 3 percent annually to 334.6 million from 345 million units in the first quarter of 2015, Strategy Analytics said late Wednesday.It attributed the decline to slowing smartphone growth because of increasing saturation in major markets like China and consumer caution about the future of the world economy.Apple reported Tuesday that the number of smartphones it sold worldwide fell by 16 percent to 51.2 million units in its fiscal second quarter ended March 26. The company saw a 26 percent year-on-year decline in revenue from Greater China, its second largest market. The revenue drop in mainland China was less at 11 percentTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Comcast shouldn’t buy any companies until it fixes its core competencies

Today I’m confronted with the possibility that Comcast may buy DreamWorks. This should be banned. Why? Last Thursday, I called Comcast to move my service. No matter that I’ve had Comcast on and off (no pun intended) since 1998. Disregard the numerous complaints to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission regarding the company’s service, billing, infrastructure problems and varying forms of incompetence. During call #1, the over-eager customer service agent (CSA) disconnected my service then and there, and thus also terminated my call, as it was over Skype.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Network World teams with IDC on new Cloud Access Security Broker study

Cloud Access Security Brokers are increasingly popular because they give enterprise IT shops a centralized way to control access to multiple cloud resources.  But are they worth it?  We want to find out.Network World is teaming with IDC to field a survey of companies that have implemented or have experience with CASBs and invite you to participate. Your answers are confidential and will be reported in combination with responses from your peers.  As way of thanks, we'll send you a PDF of the survey highlights and you will be eligible to enter a sweepstakes for $250.To participate, click on the following URL or paste into your browser: https://response.questback.com/idg/casb2016/To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple needs the iPhone 7 to reignite growth

Apple depends on the iPhone flywheel effect to draw consumers into its proprietary ecosystem and throw off iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, App Store and iTunes revenues. When that effect doesn’t work, things go south, as we’ve seen in Apple’s first decline in 13 years.The decrease, in fact, marks the beginning of the end of the iPhone 6 product cycle. iPhone 6 growth spiked because of pent-up demand for iPhones with larger screens that Android competitors proved consumers wanted. Former iPhone users that became large-screen Android users returned to Apple, increasing iPhone sales. For iPhone sales to rebound from this current decline, though, the iPhone 7 must have a vital growth-reigniting feature–something really important to consumers that hasn’t been invented by a competitor.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel Does The Math On Broadwell Server Upgrades

The “Broadwell” generation of Xeon processors debuted a month ago, and now that the basic feeds and speeds are out there, customers are trying to figure out what to buy as they upgrade their systems and when to do it. This being a “tick” in the Intel chip cadence – meaning a shrink to smaller transistors instead of a “tock” rearchitecting of the Xeon core and the surrounding electronics – the Broadwell Xeons snap into existing “Haswell” systems and an upgrade is fairly straightforward for both system makers and their customers.

It all comes down to math about what to …

Intel Does The Math On Broadwell Server Upgrades was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

In rare unanimous move, House passes bill to protect email and cloud privacy

The U.S. House of Representatives, in a rare unanimous vote, has approved a bill to strengthen privacy protections for email and other data stored in the cloud.The Email Privacy Act would require law enforcement agencies to get court-ordered warrants to search email and other data stored with third parties for longer than six months. The House on Wednesday voted 419-0 to pass the legislation and send it to the Senate.The bill, with 314 cosponsors in the House, would update a 30-year-old law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Some privacy advocates and tech companies have been pushing Congress to update ECPA since 2011.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

In rare unanimous move, House passes bill to protect email and cloud privacy

The U.S. House of Representatives, in a rare unanimous vote, has approved a bill to strengthen privacy protections for email and other data stored in the cloud.The Email Privacy Act would require law enforcement agencies to get court-ordered warrants to search email and other data stored with third parties for longer than six months. The House on Wednesday voted 419-0 to pass the legislation and send it to the Senate.The bill, with 314 cosponsors in the House, would update a 30-year-old law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Some privacy advocates and tech companies have been pushing Congress to update ECPA since 2011.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

59% off StarTech SATA to USB 3.0 Converter Adapter – Deal Alert

Who doesn't love a good adapter? The USB3S2SAT3CB USB 3.0 to SATA adapter cable lets you connect a 2.5" SATA hard drive or solid state drive to your computer through an available USB port. This is one of those geeky adapters you're going to want to keep on hand. Swap between hard drives without installing in the enclosure. Clone or back up HDD drives as if they were external. It's likely you'll find many more applications once you have this in your tool box. It currently averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 2,200 people (read reviews), most of which indicate that this adapter is well made, and simply does what it claims to do. With a regular price of $29.65, the 59% discount gets you down to just $12.26. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Headaches likely to grow over auto cybersecurity concerns

The concerns around the cybersecurity of your car are likely magnify in the near term while experts try to figure out what can be done simply to eliminate risks.But while some short-term fixes may develop, forthcoming government auto cybersecurity standards won’t happen until at least 2018. Furthermore, technologies, such as message encryption and authentication, which can be used to secure and verify the legitimacy of communications occurring along in-vehicle networks—cannot be incorporated into existing vehicles. Rather, such technologies must be incorporated during the vehicle design and production process, which according to experts, will take approximately 5 years to complete, according to a report out this week by the Government Accountability Office.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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