UPDATE: UL responds to blogger’s criticism

UPDATE: Underwriters Laboratory has requested comments, which are appended at the bottom.Today, Underwriters Laboratory announced the UL CyberSecurity Assurance Program. I won’t call it an oxymoron, but I’m deeply worried about it. While I have faith in UL, I’m not sure if they realize the breadth and depth of what they’re getting into.UL is the reason there are only small holes in appliances and CE gear. Why? So an average toddler can’t stick something inside and become electrocuted. UL helps product vendors have liability insurance within sane ranges. They promulgate standards that vendors are responsible to adhere to for insurance sake. Test labs do the rest, ensuring that First Article Samples (and then, perhaps subsequent production samples) of products adhere to a bevy of standards—all designed to make products safer but at least insurable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Your car’s computers might soon get malware protection

Modern cars contain tens of specialized computers that control everything from infotainment functions to steering and brakes. The pressing need to protect these computers from hackers will likely open up a new market for car-related software security products.Karamba Security, a start-up based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is one of the companies that has stepped up to answer this demand. The company's anti-malware technology, unveiled Thursday, is designed to protect externally accessible electronic control units (ECUs) found in connected cars.These controllers, like those that handle handle telematics, infotainment and on-board diagnostics, can be accessed via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or even the Internet, so they can serve as entry points for hackers into a car's network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Your car’s computers might soon get malware protection

Modern cars contain tens of specialized computers that control everything from infotainment functions to steering and brakes. The pressing need to protect these computers from hackers will likely open up a new market for car-related software security products.Karamba Security, a start-up based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is one of the companies that has stepped up to answer this demand. The company's anti-malware technology, unveiled Thursday, is designed to protect externally accessible electronic control units (ECUs) found in connected cars.These controllers, like those that handle handle telematics, infotainment and on-board diagnostics, can be accessed via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or even the Internet, so they can serve as entry points for hackers into a car's network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

11 mobile tools for IT heroes on the go

11 mobile tools for hardcore IT pros on the goImage by WikipediaThe need to provide more services, with fewer colleagues to help cover them, has meant being able to respond to user needs from nearly anywhere on earth at nearly any hour of the day. To this end, I’ve been collecting tablet-based IT tools that work well over lower-speed connections to ensure the work gets done wherever I roam.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Puppet expands support for Docker, Kubernetes

Devops staple Puppet, formerly Puppet Labs, is upgrading its Puppet Enterprise IT automation platform and offering new and expanded support for infrastructure like Docker containers and Kubernetes container management.Puppet automates the software delivery process to bridge traditional infrastructure with more contemporary technology, including public and private clouds and microservices architectures. It even has been suggested as a tool for users to build their own PaaS clouds.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Puppet expands support for Docker, Kubernetes

Devops staple Puppet, formerly Puppet Labs, is upgrading its Puppet Enterprise IT automation platform and offering new and expanded support for infrastructure like Docker containers and Kubernetes container management.Puppet automates the software delivery process to bridge traditional infrastructure with more contemporary technology, including public and private clouds and microservices architectures. It even has been suggested as a tool for users to build their own PaaS clouds.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The rise of the citizen data scientist

When Mark Pickett was a captain in the Marines, he knew he couldn't be there to make every decision for his soldiers. "You can't rehearse every scenario, and there will be times when you can't communicate," he explained. "You want to groom your Marines to be able to rely on themselves and their unit." It's not so different in the business world in this era of big data. Now senior director for online analytics and business intelligence at Sears, Pickett has been an early champion of the so-called citizen data scientist movement, by which employees in multiple parts of an organization are empowered with the analytics tools and skills to get the answers they need from their data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What’s happening with the Intel executive turnover?

As a company, Intel has been as notoriously stable as its chips. You didn't hear about much turnover there. Many staff, especially executives, followed in the career path of former CEO Paul Otellini – join the company right out of school and retire from it decades later. That's because Intel was good about promoting people, and they didn't have to jump around the Silicon Valley to get a promotion or a raise.That, however, is changing, as one of the most insular company's in the Valley is seeing some real turnover in its executive suite. The latest shakeup involves the departures of Kirk Skaugen, the head of the Client Computing Group, and Doug Davis, who ran the IoT group, said they would leave the company to pursue new opportunities.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What’s happening with the Intel executive turnover?

As a company, Intel has been as notoriously stable as its chips. You didn't hear about much turnover there. Many staff, especially executives, followed in the career path of former CEO Paul Otellini – join the company right out of school and retire from it decades later. That's because Intel was good about promoting people, and they didn't have to jump around the Silicon Valley to get a promotion or a raise.That, however, is changing, as one of the most insular company's in the Valley is seeing some real turnover in its executive suite. The latest shakeup involves the departures of Kirk Skaugen, the head of the Client Computing Group, and Doug Davis, who ran the IoT group, said they would leave the company to pursue new opportunities.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How data science is changing the energy industry

Recent declines in oil prices have hit the world economy hard. Alberta, Canada’s major oil region, has witness increased unemployment due to declining commodity prices. In January 2016, Saudi Arabia increased the price of gasoline for its citizens by 50 percent given the situation. With major fluctuations in prices and the high cost of energy projects, quality information has never mattered more.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 15 big data and analytics companies to watch The energy industry uses data science to cut costs, optimize investments and reduce risk. Reducing costs with data science is a popular application in the industry: much work has focused on improving maintenance and equipment monitoring. Optimizing investment decisions takes several forms including better internal resource allocation and assisting investors. Data science also contributes to improving public safety by providing better monitoring and oversight.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Home IoT devices are wide open, security provider discovers

Reverse-engineering a password in a Wi-Fi-driven WeMo light switch by using the decryption code from the device is among the security debacles uncovered by IoT security hardware solution firm Bitdefender.To add insult to injury, Bitdefender told the device maker about the discovered vulnerability last fall, when it discovered the problem, and as of February, it still hadn’t been fixed, Bitdefender says in its study Risks in the Connected Home.And the WeMo wasn’t the only IoT device Bitdefender found lacking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Home IoT devices are wide open, security provider discovers

Reverse-engineering a password in a Wi-Fi-driven WeMo light switch by using the decryption code from the device is among the security debacles uncovered by IoT security hardware solution firm Bitdefender.To add insult to injury, Bitdefender told the device maker about the discovered vulnerability last fall, when it discovered the problem, and as of February, it still hadn’t been fixed, Bitdefender says in its study Risks in the Connected Home.And the WeMo wasn’t the only IoT device Bitdefender found lacking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI says hack tool only works on iPhone 5c

Only the iPhone 5c running iOS 9 can be unlocked by the tool the FBI bought to crack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers.The tool does not work on the iPhone 5s or 6, so it only addresses a "narrow slice" of iPhones, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said late Wednesday at Kenyon College.The government is considering whether it should disclose to Apple the flaw that aided the hack: "We just haven't decided yet," he said at the Ohio college's Center for the Study of American Democracy.A court in California ordered Apple to help the FBI to hack by brute force the passcode of the iPhone 5c. The government was concerned that, if an auto-erase feature was activated on the phone, the data that the FBI was looking for would be automatically erased after 10 unsuccessful attempts, so it wanted a workaround from Apple.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI says hack tool only works on iPhone 5c

Only the iPhone 5c running iOS 9 can be unlocked by the tool the FBI bought to crack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers.The tool does not work on the iPhone 5s or 6, so it only addresses a "narrow slice" of iPhones, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said late Wednesday at Kenyon College.The government is considering whether it should disclose to Apple the flaw that aided the hack: "We just haven't decided yet," he said at the Ohio college's Center for the Study of American Democracy.A court in California ordered Apple to help the FBI to hack by brute force the passcode of the iPhone 5c. The government was concerned that, if an auto-erase feature was activated on the phone, the data that the FBI was looking for would be automatically erased after 10 unsuccessful attempts, so it wanted a workaround from Apple.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Galaxy S7 and mid-range phones boost Samsung’s profit

Samsung Electronics’ flagship Galaxy S7 smartphones and sales of its mid-range devices in emerging markets have likely helped the company boost its operating profit in the first quarter.The South Korean company forecast Thursday that its operating profit for the quarter was likely to be 6.6 trillion won (US$5.7 billion), an over 10 percent increase from close to 6 trillion won in the same quarter last year.Revenue likely increased 4 percent in the quarter to 49 trillion won, according to the company’s guidance.Samsung has been in the past sandwiched between Apple’s iPhone at the high end and products from Chinese vendors at the mid-range and low end. But its flagship Galaxy S7 and the curved-screen version, the Galaxy S7 edge, launched commercially in March, appear to have made deep inroads into the high-end market.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HSBC is not a real bank

From a customer’s perspective it’s hard to tell if HSBC UK is some sort of performance art as opposed to a real bank.

I will add more things to this blog post as they occur to me, since this is the first time I’m writing these down in one place some of the many many absurdities are bound to slip my mind.

How are they absurd? Let me count the ways.

You can only view about one month of transaction history in your account, and you see it in the logical reverse chronological order.

For anything older, you have to check your “statements”, which have overlapping data and are in chronological order. They have the data. They just refuse to show it to me in a useful form.

So if you want to inventory one month of expenses you now have to synchronize your recent transactions (reverse chronological) with one or two overlapping chronological ones. Oh, and multiply this by two to look at debit and credit card expenses.

If you thought the main banking website was bad (and it’s terrible. If you don’t think it’s absolutely awful then you’ve never seen e.g. SEB to compare), then you should Continue reading

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