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U.S. gets 236,000 H-1B petitions, a new record

The U.S. received 236,000 H-1B petitions for 85,000 visas available under the program's visa caps, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said Tuesday.The visas are being distributed via a lottery, which means only about one in every three petitions will be approved.The U.S. received 233,000 H-1B visa petitions last year, the previous record. The U.S. accepts visas on April 1 for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.If history is any guide, a majority of the demand for the visa is coming from IT services, offshore outsourcing firms.INSIDER: Network jobs are hot: Salaries expected to rise in 2016 Critics believe the high number of visas represents a form of "ballot box" stuffing by IT services firms in response to the lottery system. Applicants can apply for a visa for someone who is not an employee.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 simple tools for building mobile apps fast

No-code and low-code mobile dev toolsWhile the great debate rages on between the various mobile development camps -- the pure HTML5/JavaScript/CSS3 mobile Web faction, the native code purists, and the hybrid mobile app fans -- businesses still have to create and maintain mobile applications for their employees, business partners, and customers. The one conclusion that everyone seems to reach, eventually, is that there is no single panacea in this space. Each approach and toolset has its advantages and drawbacks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Chief Risk Officers needed to battle rising corporate espionage

A growing number of organizations are adding a new member to the C-suite—the chief risk officer (CRO)—and the rise of these executives is having a direct impact on the security programs at enterprises.“Corporate espionage, terrorism and cyber attacks are ratcheting up the need for senior executives who understand all aspects of risk management and security,” says Jeremy King, president of Benchmark Executive Search, a provider of technology executive search services.INSIDER 12 habits of successful tech CEO “Many companies are finally awakening to how destructive security breaches of all types can be—from physical damage and real costs to reputation loss and customer recovery,” King says. “Previously siloed risk-management functions must be reinvented, strengthened, and funded more aggressively. Industry must re-evaluate its approach to risk management, and success will require unprecedented cooperation from board directors and those in the C-suite.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Will companies trust their communications to A.I. chatbots?

SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook says chatbots will change the way businesses communicate with their customers, but will businesses want to put their user communications in the hands of artificial intelligence?"They're a powerful tool but they're also a big risk," said Brian Blau, an analyst with Gartner. "A.I. can be a very powerful technology. Businesses are going to have to understand how to harness that power. There are reasons to be worried about it. Because we're giving chatbots the power to act on our behalf, they're taking on greater importance."Blau said he expects businesses will trust chatbots eventually, but that it will be a "measured adoption" since brands are always concerned about their perception in the marketplace.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: 4 mid-priced laptops that mean business

Every day an army of business people heads out to offices, meetings and coffee shops, equipped with little more than a smartphone and a laptop. To get the job done, that laptop has to be secure enough to protect sensitive data, rugged enough to bounce around in a backpack, and with enough battery power and performance strength to get through a day of presentations, emails and online chats. All without busting the company budget. Welcome to the world of mid-priced Windows laptops. According to Linn Huang, research director for devices & displays at IDC, today's typical business systems are far from the high-end, high-cost ultraportables and 2-in-1s that usually get media attention.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Power Shell is a powerful malware tool

PowerShell used as a tool in compound malware attacks is becoming more common, with 38% of all attacks seen by IT security vendor CarbonBlack and its partners involving the native Windows scripting language. Ben Johnson Its use is so common in enterprises for legitimate purposes that most security devices and personnel don’t regard it as a threat, says Ben Johnson, the chief security strategist at CarbonBlack.That makes it all the more effective as a component of attacks. Its scripts can run in memory only so it never creates a file on disk, Johnson says. “It creates less noise on the system,” so it’s less likely to draw attention to itself, he adds.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Power Shell is a powerful malware tool

Techstars IoT Accelator in NYC open for applications

Startup supporter Techstars has announced that entrepreneurs can now apply to be part of its 15-week IoT Accelerator at the Barclays Rise facility in New York City that starts in September. Applications are due by July 10.The mentorship-driven program will match 10 startups with Internet of Things experts from PwC, GE, Bosch, SAP and Verizon, according to Techstars. Of particular focus will be the Industrial Internet. The partner companies will offer engineering expertise, access to tech platforms and more.MORE: 10 Internet of Things companies to watch | Most Powerful Internet of Things CompaniesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Teens will sell their personal information for cash, research finds

The equivalent of about $20, or the cost of a large pizza, is the amount of cash British kids would accept in exchange for handing over their personal information, a study has found.IT solutions and managed service firm Logicalis found kids (aged 13-17) were “instinctively digital” and that they fully comprehended the value of their personal information. Not only were the young scoundrels completely au fait with how much their personally identifiable information (PII) was worth, they were quite happy to sell it—if it meant they didn’t have to work.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SPAN Port Vs. TAP: The Latency Impact

Tony Fortunato analyzes how a mirror port affects packet timing compared to a TAP.

Docker 1.11: The first OCI-compliant runtime, built on containerd

We are excited to introduce Docker Engine 1.11, our first release built on runC and containerd. This is the first OCI-compliant runtime and demonstrates the progress since donating our industry-standard container format and runtime under the Linux Foundation in June of last … Continued

9 Ways Flash Cuts Your Computing Costs

Find out how flash storage can reduce your capital and operational expenses.

Docker containerd integration

In an effort to make Docker Engine smaller, better, faster, stronger, we looked for components of the current engine that we can break out into separate projects and improve along the way. One of those components is the Docker runtime for … Continued

Fave Raves: 29 tech pros share their favorite IT products

IT favoritesWhen we asked IT pros about their favorite enterprise tech products, their picks included all kinds of hardware, software and cloud services. The common thread? Gear that saves time or money, increases IT agility or tightens security. Read on to find out what these 29 IT pros have to say, in their own words, about their tech favorites.SEE ALSO: 5 must-have network tools | Go-to storage and disaster recovery productsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Go-to storage and disaster recovery products

Drew Como credits his enterprise backup and recovery technology of choice – Veeam Availability Suite -- with helping his company to recover from a disastrous third-party software upgrade.“Once, we had a software vendor who assured us that an upgrade would be quick and easy, so we went ahead with it. In fact, it destroyed a key database,” says Como, who is senior manager of global datacenter platform services at Take-Two Interactive Software. “Everyone panicked, but I said, ‘Hey, I think Veeam’s got this.’ I crossed my fingers, did a restore, and in 15 minutes the entire database was back online.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 must-have network tools

Software-defined WAN promises a simplified, cost-effective way to manage multiple types of broadband Internet connections. While most enterprises today are only in the very early stages of piloting or implementing SD-WAN, Gartner predicts that by the end of 2019, 30% of enterprises will have deployed SD-WAN technology in their branches, up from less than 1% today. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)