The U.S. government is investigating a massive data breach that exposed personal information on around 4 million federal government workers. China is suspected of having a hand in the attack, described by an unnamed official as “one of the largest thefts of government data ever seen,” the Wall Street Journal …
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced an emergency asset freeze of two U.S. brokerage accounts connected to schemes to manipulate Avon and other stocks, thwarting any ability to cash in on ill-gotten proceeds. According to an SEC complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, the agency has tracked a …
Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) today closed its acquisition of data integration, visualization and analytics specialist Pentaho, building on its growing presence in Internet of Things (IoT), operational technology (OT), big data and machine-to-machine (M2M) analytics. “IoT isn’t just about ‘big’ data — it’s also about small data that drives big …
The average large enterprise saw 106 previously-unknown pieces of malware an hour last year, up from just 2.2 the year before, according to a new report. Check Point Software Technologies gathered network traffic from more than 60,000 enterprise gateways last year and the increase in new malware was “frightening,” said …
Businesses have been diligently working to defend against attacks and exploits for years. The problem is that much of the conventional wisdom about security is reactive and most of the security tools available are only effective against known threats. The rise over the last year or so in targeted zero …
Looking to bolster query capabilities for its NoSQL database, Couchbase this week is trumpeting the arrival of its N1QL “next-generation” declarative query language, which brings SQL-like querying to Couchbase Server, the company’s distributed, JSON document datastore. Although currently available only for Couchbase, the technology could be adopted by competitors for …
Cisco’s intention to buy Piston Cloud Computing and IBM’s acquisition of Blue Box Group, both announced this week, are bids to make private cloud platform OpenStack less of a headache for IT departments. For public, private and hybrid clouds, management capabilities are a vital differentiator and something that becomes even …
The wait is over for people who want to leave Apple’s stores with the new Apple Watch. Starting in two weeks, “some models” of the wearable will be available for purchase in Apple stores, the company said Thursday. An Apple spokesman separately specified that the Watch would be available for …
Cisco’s intention to buy Piston Cloud Computing and IBM’s acquisition of Blue Box Group, both announced this week, are bids to make private cloud platform OpenStack less of a headache for IT departments. For public, private and hybrid clouds, management capabilities are a vital differentiator and something that becomes even …
A U.S. Senate committee has voted to approve a bill aimed at curbing abusive lawsuits by so-called patent trolls. The bipartisan Protecting American Talent and Entrepreneurship (PATENT) Act, introduced in late April, now heads to the full Senate for consideration after the Senate Judiciary Committee vote Thursday. The bill targets …
Adding to a growing portfolio of software development applications, CA Technologies has acquired Grid-Tools, whose software automates the process of testing newly-built applications. CA customers will be able to use Grid-Tools’ products to build software using agile development methodologies, in which small teams work in close collaboration to quickly build …
A U.S. Senate committee has voted to approve a bill aimed at curbing abusive lawsuits by so-called patent trolls. The bipartisan Protecting American Talent and Entrepreneurship (PATENT) Act, introduced in late April, now heads to the full Senate for consideration after the Senate Judiciary Committee vote Thursday. The bill targets …
A strand of human DNA is 2.5 nanometers in diameter, and there are 25,400,000 nanometers in one inch. Now consider this, Micron this week announced it’s producing NAND flash based on transistors only 16-nanometers in size, and each microscopic cell is capable of storing three bits of data. The new …
Sprint committed on Thursday to building and managing a free, intelligent Wi-Fi network along a 2.2-mile streetcar line under construction in Kansas City, Mo. The project will be part of one of the largest smart city projects in North America, according to earlier statements by city officials and Cisco, which …
The U.S. National Security Agency is reportedly intercepting Internet communications from U.S. residents without getting court-ordered warrants, in an effort to hunt down malicious hackers. The previously undisclosed NSA program monitors Internet traffic for data about cyberattacks originating outside the U.S., according to a New York Times article published Thursday …
Google Photos, an amped up cloud-based photo storage service, organizer and editor, was one of the big unveils at the Mountain View, Calif. company’s I/O developer conference last week. Reviewers raved about it. Bloggers bragged it up. Analysts applauded it. “Google Photos looks amazing,” wrote independent analyst Ben Thompson, on …
The U.S. National Security Agency is reportedly intercepting Internet communications from U.S. residents without getting court-ordered warrants, in an effort to hunt down malicious hackers. The previously undisclosed NSA program monitors Internet traffic for data about cyberattacks originating outside the U.S., according to a New York Times article published Thursday …
Dropbox wants to gain a stronger foothold in the enterprise, and on Thursday it rolled out several new Dropbox for Business features that sweeten the deal for corporate users. New tiered admin roles are designed to help delegate day-to-day responsibilities, which could make life easier for IT administrators charged with …
Recognizing the growing tension between IT departments and enterprise users eager for more self-serve analytics tools, MicroStrategy has added heightened security and governance capabilities to the latest version of its namesake BI platform. MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise, which arrives a full six years after version 9 of the platform, promises …
The Securities and Exchange Commission staff today made available additional analysis related to its proposed rules for pay ratio disclosure. The analysis by the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) considers the potential effects of excluding different percentages of employees from the pay ratio calculation. The analysis is posted …
Earlier this month, in Monterey, Calif., a meeting organized by the Produce Marketing Association provided an opportunity for a group of local growers of crops such as lettuce, artichokes and strawberries to find out how the latest digital technologies were changing agriculture. Participants heard about how technologies like robots, drones …
Apple today said that it has nearly eliminated the backlog in Apple Watch orders, and would start selling some models in its retail stores within two weeks, or by June 18. “We’re making great progress with the backlog of Apple Watch orders, and we thank our customers for their patience,” …
When it comes to the evolution of Android, change usually seems to fall into one of three main areas. First and most immediately noticeable are the broad and sweeping visual overhauls — like what we’ve seen with Android Lollipop and its accompanying Material Design standard. On a less obvious but …
A researcher is warning that a gaming plug-in installed on over 200 million PCs contains a flaw that could let attackers steal users’ data from websites they’re logged into, such as their Web mail and social networking accounts. The technology in question, from Unity Technologies, is used by hundreds of …
While Microsoft has made its voice-driven Cortana assistant available across Windows 10 devices, Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo is porting its own helper to a different kind of hardware—a toy sheep. Developed with toy maker Tomy, the cartoonish plaything can have simple conversations in Japanese and connects via smartphones to …
If you’ve passed out from a health condition, you’ll be pleased if you’re wearing an NFC ring that can help first responders link to critical medical information—simply by touching it to a smartphone. That’s one of the functions of the Keydex NFC Ring being exhibited at Computex 2015 in Taipei …