The conflict between snooping governments seeking to defeat encryption and users demanding ever more robust privacy tools has turned into an arms race — and it’s time for arms control talks, Microsoft’s general counsel said on Tuesday. Resolving that conflict requires a new consensus on how to balance public safety …
Apple’s security technologies for Mac OS X may still miss iWorm, a piece of malware discovered in late September that infected thousands of computers. Apple released an update for its XProtect antivirus engine to detect iWorm, but the update only detects when iWorm’s installer is launched, which is a one-time …
A federal bankruptcy judge on Tuesday ordered that virtually all the information Apple and its former sapphire supplier had wanted kept secret be placed in the public record by noon ET on Friday, Nov. 7. At the same time the order was handed down, Apple and New Hampshire-based GT Advanced …
The Department of Defense (DoD) has picked SGI to build a new petaflop supercomputer, due to be delivered by next spring, as part of its High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP). The new computer will enhance the compute capabilities of the DoD Supercomputing Resource Center (DSRC) at the U.S. Army …
In a letter to lawmakers Tuesday, five of the nation’s top computing research organizations defended a research grant to study how information goes viral. The groups were responding to claims that the government-funded effort could help create a 1984-type surveillance state. The controversy arises over a nearly $1 million research …
Facebook received nearly 35,000 requests for user data from governments around the world during the first half of 2014, up 24 percent from roughly 28,000 requests made during 2013’s second half. The uptick indicates the value governments place on the personal information Facebook has on file for its 1.35 billion …
Google renewed its push to lead the public cloud platform market today, announcing price cuts and offerings designed to help enterprises set up cloud services quickly and easily. “IT departments are still bearing the burden of handling IT assets in the sky,” said Brian Stevens, vice president of cloud platforms …
A co-founder of the Pirate Bay file-sharing service who had fled from Swedish authorities was nabbed at the border between Thailand and Laos, according to local news reports Tuesday. Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij, 36, who was convicted of assisting in copyright infringement by a Swedish court in 2009, was arrested …
Some of the most widely used messaging apps in the world, including Google Hangouts, Facebook chat, Yahoo Messenger and Snapchat, flunked a best-practices security test by advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The organization evaluated 39 messaging products based on seven criteria it believes such tools should meet in …
The U.S. National Security Agency’s mass collection of telephone records within the country is an unprecedented violation of privacy by the government, a lawyer challenging the surveillance program argued Tuesday. A U.S. appeals court should uphold a lower court’s preliminary injunction against the phone records program as a way to …
The new Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, is deploying new wireless beacon technology to help fans use a special stadium navigation app on their smartphones and other devices. The beacon signals, which have been in use since Aug. 2, run over Bluetooth Low Energy (4.0) and are …
Microsoft and Dropbox today announced a partnership that will integrate each company’s corporate offerings — Office 365 on Microsoft’s part, Dropbox for Business on Dropbox’s — with the other’s services. The two firms, which have been competing in the cloud storage and file sync market — Dropbox’s bread and butter, …
Welcome to my regularly curated collection of fresh insights gained into Apple’s legendary co-founder, Steve Jobs across the last few weeks. Office politics Jobs understood the value of good product design. He also understood the way a good office layout can inspire good staff. That’s why he became obsessed over …
Workday is expanding its move into analytics with a series of specialized, predictive applications designed to help staff in HR and financial management roles retain top workers and make more accurate forecasts. “The new order is prediction and recommendation,” said Dan Beck, vice president of technology products. If Netflix can …
A recent report from Ponemon Institute shines light on the lack of oversight IT security leaders have over the file sharing practices within their own company. Based on a survey sponsored by Intralinks and administered to 1,100 IT professionals across three countries, half of these IT leaders admitted they engaged …
Microsoft added three new big data services to its Azure cloud platform yesterday as part of its ongoing efforts to make Azure a leading platform for big data services and to make it ready to tackle the Internet of Things (IoT). “Every day, IoT is fueling vast amounts of data …
If you’re in the market for a chain saw or a leaf blower, you might consider a product from Stihl. But you won’t find the company’s products at Home Depot or Lowe’s. Stihl operates an independent dealer-only retail distribution program that its leaders say is instrumental in helping the company …
Three CIOs discuss how they have learned to handle the staffing and organizational changes caused by cloud computing. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here (Insider Story) …
Largely ignored in the enterprise mobility craze of the last few years, which saw the acceptance of bring-your-own device (BYOD) policies, were the risks incurred when employees use their personal computers to access business data. Now, with PCs designed to operate more seamlessly with smartphones and tablets, enterprise IT could …
CARFAX, the online vehicle tracking and valuation website, built its first database in 1984 based on technology named OpenVMS. At the time, it was cutting edge for its ability to handle millions of records. But the company grew. “We had a hard time scaling it and finding people to work …
A cyberespionage group that has built its operations around a malware program called BlackEnergy has been compromising routers and Linux systems based on ARM and MIPS architectures in addition to Windows computers. Security researchers from antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab released a report Monday detailing some of the custom modules that …
Organizations tend to fall into two categories when it comes to posting job openings: those with crappy job ads and those that have a clue. CIOs who have a clue are involved in the process rather than relying solely on an HR admin to “post something on the site.” To …
USB is an acronym for Universal Serial Bus; at least that is what it has stood for since 1999 when it was patented. But now it may take on a new meaning and instead stand for Ultimate Security Breakdown. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, …
As the old saying goes, a lie may take care of the present, but it has no future. Nowhere is this truer than when conducting a job search. In a hyper-competitive talent market, it can be tempting to embellish your work history, exaggerate your IT skills or even claim to …
CoreOS is a slimmed-down Linux distribution designed for easy creation of lots of OS instances. We like the concept. CoreOS uses Docker to deploy applications in virtual containers; it also features a management communications bus, and group instance management. Rackspace, Amazon Web Services (AWS), GoogleComputeEngine (GCE), and Brightbox are early …
Nest, the smart thermostat from Google, is about to get a little faster at learning your preferences. The company will roll out a big software update this week that includes a new, smarter algorithm for figuring out how you like the temperature set in your home and then making those …