IT Executive news

• Early Version of Cortana on Windows 10 Leaked Via Video

  05-12-2014 23:32
  
  Via rumors and other leaks, we’ve known for a while now that Microsoft’s digital assistant, Cortana, should appear in Windows 10. Now, a video appears to prove it.
  WinBeta obtained the code to either Cortana or a leaked build with the Cortana executables built in, and gave Cortana a spin. Because the assistant isn’t actually connected to the cloud services, Cortana throws up an error message when it’s time for her to do anything truly useful. It’s also early days as far as the UI i
  
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• Hadoop successor sparks a data analysis evolution

  05-12-2014 23:05
  
  If 2014 was the year that Apache Hadoop sparked the big data revolution, 2015 may be the year that Apache Spark supplants Hadoop with its superior capabilities for richer and more timely analysis.“There is a strong industry consensus that Spark is the way to go,” said Curt Monash, head of the IT analyst firm Monash Research.“Next year, you will see a lot of [Hadoop] use cases that transcend Hadoop,” said Ali Ghodsi, CEO and co-founder of Databricks, a company formed by a number of the
  
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• Google to begin contacting customers about in-app refunds

  05-12-2014 22:45
  
  Google will soon begin to contact customers who made in-app purchases on Android devices about potential refunds under a settlement of an unfair billing complaint by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.The FTC said Friday that it has given final approval to a settlement of at least US$19 million proposed in September. In its September complaint against Google the FTC accused the company of allowing children to make repeated in-app purchases through apps available on Google’s Play store withou
  
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• The Hour of Code leert kinderen programmeren

  05-12-2014 21:22
  De aandacht in het onderwijs voor programmeren kan beter. Daarom roepen Nederlandse internetondernemers leraren, ouders en vrijwilligers op mee te doen aan The Hour of Code van 8 t/m 14 december. Hierdoor worden kinderen op het spoor gezet van een toekomstige baan of ondernemerschap in de ICT-sector.
  
  The Hour of Code... lees meer
  
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• Property Exchange Australia kiest Verizon voor beveiliging transacties

  05-12-2014 21:22
  Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) heeft Verizon gekozen voor het beveiligen van zijn online hypotheektransacties. Met behulp van Verizons ‘smart credentials’ identity-authentication oplossing maakt PEXA het handmatig invullen van vele formulieren overbodig en kunnen consumenten makkelijker in real time... lees meer
  
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• IoT zorgt voor betere bedrijfsresultaten

  05-12-2014 21:22
  De meeste organisaties die IoT-oplossingen hebben geïmplementeerd, hebben daar meetbare resultaten mee behaald, zoals verbeteringen van de klantervaring, samenwerking, productiviteit en zakelijke inzichten. Een enquête door Harvard Business Review in opdracht van Verizon duidt hierop.
  
  Het onderzoek had ten... lees meer
  
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• Aan de overheid geoutsourcet?

  05-12-2014 21:22
  Burgers in Nederland besteden diverse basisfuncties aan de overheid uit, variërend van veiligheid en onderwijs tot gezondheidszorg en infrastructuur. De overheid brengt op haar beurt bepaalde functies en taken onder bij andere instanties, bij lagere overheden of (geprivatiseerd) bij het bedrijfsleven. 
  
  In... lees meer
  
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• Remember When Cisco Sued Apple Over the iPhone Name?

  05-12-2014 21:07
  
  Cisco Systems' General Counsel Mark Chandler, explaining Friday's blockbuster patent and copyright infringement lawsuits against switching rival Arista Networks (NASDAQ: ANET), emphasized that "I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve initiated suit against a competitor, supplier or customer."
  Chandler might be right, but he's probably pretty close to having to resort to his second hand for counting lawsuits. And when Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) does sue, it makes a splash. Remember
  
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• Most Workers in Developed Countries Worry About Tech of the Future

  05-12-2014 20:39
  
  Workers believe that smartphones, tablets, laptops and other computing devices have made them more productive, but they have a nagging worry about the increasing role of technology in their lives.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Top 10 Tech stories 2014: Backlash! Disrupting the disruptors

  05-12-2014 20:25
  
  Blowing up entrenched business models and picking up the profits that spill onto the floor is a time-honored tradition in tech, these days known by the cliche of the moment, “disruption.” This year everyone was trying to push back against those upstarts, whether by buying them like Facebook did, reorganizing to compete with them like HP and Microsoft have done, or just plain going out against them guns blazing, as it seemed that every city and taxi company did with Uber. European courts f
  
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• Bebe Stores says credit card data hacked

  05-12-2014 20:10
  
  Women’s clothing retailer Bebe Stores has become the latest national retailer to be hit by an attack on its credit card payment system.The company said Friday that the cardholder name, account number, expiration date, and verification code could have been stolen by hackers who apparently had access to the company’s payment processing system between Nov. 8 and 26.The incident came to light in late November when Bebe said it noticed suspicious activity on computers that operate the payment
  
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• 5 Great Free Windows Tuneup Utilities You Need Right Now

  05-12-2014 20:07
  
  Want a faster, cleaner, better-running PC? Then check out these five free downloads to clean up and speed up your computer.
  CCleaner 5.0
  The latest version of my favorite tune-up tool of them all is finally out, CCleaner 5.0, and it's a must-have for anyone who wants a faster PC, more privacy, and wants to degunk their PC. The same core tools are there, as in previous versions: It cleans out junk files, temporary files, unneeded files, and other files that could be privacy-invaders. And it s
  
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• Intel plunks down billions to expand in mobile market

  05-12-2014 19:50
  
  Intel has bought its way into the tablet market, but success seems years away in smartphones, despite billions of dollars spent.The allure of mobile devices has led Intel to take some uncharacteristic moves that defy the company’s proud tradition of designing and manufacturing chips in-house. Intel has partnered with Chinese companies to build some smartphone and tablet chips, and is relying on third parties to manufacture those chips.Intel bets the partnerships will accelerate its business
  
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• Splashdown! Orion Completes Successful Maiden Voyage

  05-12-2014 19:41
  
  After orbiting the Earth twice and climbing 15 times higher than the orbit of the International Space Station, NASA's new spacecraft, Orion, today completed its maiden voyage and returned safely to Earth.
  After lifting off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:05 a.m. ET, the uncrewed Orion splashed down right on target in the Pacific Ocean, almost four and a half hours later. At mid-day, a recovery team made up of members of the U.S. Navy, NASA and Lockheed Martin was in the process of
  
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• Mass surveillance programs do not violate human rights, UK tribunal rules

  05-12-2014 19:20
  
  Internet mass surveillance programs are lawful and do not violate human rights, a U.K. tribunal has ruled.The U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) made the ruling in a case that rights groups brought against the U.K. government over alleged mass surveillance on U.K. citizens via programs run by the British intelligence agency GCHQ and the U.S. National Security Agency. Both programs were brought to light in documents leaked by Edward Snowden last year.However, those programs are legal
  
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• Report: Intel’s Wearable Push May Go Upmarket with TAG Luxury Watches

  05-12-2014 19:12
  
  After tackling earbuds, eyeing smart glasses and dabbling in fashion, Intel will reportedly try a TAG smartwatch on for size.
  An unnamed source told Business Insider that Intel and TAG Heuer may announce their collaboration at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, or they could wait for a separate reveal later in the quarter.
  But don’t expect a smartwatch with a full-blown display. Instead, the device will likely be an analog timepiece with built-in sensors for measuring activity and s
  
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• Why It’s (Finally) Time to Embrace Thin Client Technology

  05-12-2014 18:31
  
  Earlier this week, I was at Dell’s analyst update on its thin client business and it got me thinking about how thin clients were supposed to replace personal computers. An experience that was instant on/off, that embodied simplicity and reliability and that not only had the performance of a PC but could be updated without any user impact was a compelling idea.Unfortunately, the compromises were initially far too great. Today technologies like NVIDIA Grid, MU-MIMO, and hosted services like M
  
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• New Communications App Wire Tones Down Encryption Claims

  05-12-2014 17:42
  
  Wire, the new communications app backed by Skype co-founder Janus Friss, debuted to much fanfare this week. But mere days later, the app is already embroiled in controversy after an answer in its user FAQ oversold the company's security chops.
  Wire uses end-to-end encryption for its voice calls, which should make it nearly impossible for anyone to eavesdrop depending on how the encryption was implemented. Hurrah! 
  But Wire can also be used for sharing photos, links, and text—all of which
  
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• In battle for sub-$200 smartphones, consumers will be the winners

  05-12-2014 17:25
  
  If you plan to buy a cheap smartphone next year expect to get LTE, an HD screen and a good-looking device, as competing manufacturers and chip vendors lower prices.Smartphone manufacturers have always put effort into the development of entry-level smartphones. But growing competition will result in some real improvements for consumers in 2015.This year, it was disappointing to see that smartphones in the sub-$200 segment didn’t get bigger upgrades. Motorola’s Moto E and the new Moto G lac
  
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• EU ministers backpedal on one-stop data protection shop plan

  05-12-2014 16:55
  
  European Union countries members are backpedaling on a plan that would give U.S. tech firms a one-stop shop to deal with data protection issues in the EU.Justice ministers had discussed a plan to let tech firms like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple deal with only one data protection authority (DPA) in Europe. The plan, drafted by the European Commission in 2012, is one of the main pillars of the EU’s data protection reform.However, during a meeting of justice ministers in Brussels on T
  
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• Cisco Slaps Arista Networks with Patent, Copyright Infringement Suits

  05-12-2014 16:47
  
  Cisco today filed two lawsuits against data center switch competitor Arista Networks for allegedly violating its intellectual property.
  One suit is for patent infringement, which charges Arista with violating 14 Cisco patents for 12 features in the Arista EOS operating system. The second suit is for extensive copying of Cisco’s user manuals and command line structures, right down to the grammatical errors within them.
  “This is not an accident but a strategy,” says a source familiar wit
  
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• Grueling Endurance Test Blows Away SSD Durability Fears

  05-12-2014 16:46
  An oft-discussed drawback to solid state drives was that they were ultimately unreliable. Despite the performance gains for your PC, it was only a matter of time before “poof!” your SSD would just up and die with almost no warning.
  But an ongoing project from Tech Report demonstrates what the experts have been saying for some time: fearing an SSD’s untimely death is more about myth than substance.
  TR recently reported that after a year of testing the durability of six SSDs, four died a
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Use Novelty to Reignite Drive

  05-12-2014 16:35
  
  Think of a time when you got to pursue something new, perhaps a new assignment to turn a team around or a new job to revamp your company's software. Did you feel on top of the world? If you're like most people, you felt a boost of enthusiasm. But what about a few months or years later? Even if you were meeting your goals, did you feel as though you were going through the motions, putting another square peg into another square hole? I bet you did, because it's our human nature.       �
  
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• Wire App from Skype Co-Founder Targets Hipsters, Minimalists

  05-12-2014 16:16
  
  Wire is a new, free communications app for Android, iOS and Mac OS X from Janus Friis, a Skype co-founder. Does the world need another Skype competitor? Maybe. In my opinion, however, Wire doesn't fit that bill, at least not yet.
  Skype's various mobile apps are by no means perfect. Call quality varies dramatically, especially in video chats. The interface can be a wee bit convoluted, particularly in the desktop Mac client. Skype has been around for 10 years, however, and it has a huge
  
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• Destructive malware that hit Sony Pictures similar to other data wiping programs

  05-12-2014 15:50
  
  A malware program with data wiping functionality that was recently used to attack Sony Pictures Entertainment bears technical similarities to destructive malware that affected organizations in South Korea and the Middle East in the past.Security researchers from Kaspersky Lab, Symantec and Blue Coat Systems independently reported that Trojan Destover, the malicious program used in the Sony Pictures attack, relied on a legitimate commercial driver called EldoS RawDisk to overwrite data and mas
  
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• Report Highlights Discrepancy in Retailer Call-Response Time

  05-12-2014 15:35
  
  Even if you do most of your shopping online, there are times when you need to call a retailer. (You remember how to do that, right?) If you called Newegg, Best Buy or GameStop during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping festival, chances are you were frustrated.
  That's because those companies were the slowest to answer their phones, according to a report on 40 of the largest retailers by StellaService, a market research company. On the other hand, if you called L.L. Bean, J.Crew or Saks Fi
  
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• BrandPost: Calculating Route Office 365

  05-12-2014 15:21
  Browse any of the IT headlines these days and you can’t help but notice Office 365 pops up quite a bit. There is a lot of chatter out there about Microsoft’s new platform. Look through the blogs and you’ll find a plethora of questions people have and their struggle to navigate tough decisions on what to do. Our team has learned about numerous wrong turns along the way, folks heading in a direction that just seems to add costs, time, and maybe even a few gray hairs. Our Microsoft team ha
  
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• New IT Outsourcing Model Boosts Bottom Line

  05-12-2014 15:16
  
  Faced with increased competition and pricing pressure, global service providers have been increasing their focus on their most lucrative
  
  business segments in recent years. And that restructuring is beginning to bolster their bottom lines. During the second quarter of 2014, IT
  
  outsourcing providers saw the highest growth in their operating margins in five years, according to outsourcing consultancy Everest Group.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Sto
  
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• With shopping spree, SoftBank hopes to lay more golden eggs

  05-12-2014 15:05
  
  Masayoshi Son, the maverick head of Japanese mobile giant SoftBank, has sunk millions into a taxi app and floating wind turbines, all in one week. It was nothing unusual, though.Indeed, over the past six weeks, the parent company of U.S. carrier Sprint has invested nearly US$1 billion in companies outside Japan. The bulk of the cash went to Snapdeal, India’s largest online marketplace, part of Son’s goal of plowing $10 billion into the subcontinent over the next 10 years.To read this arti
  
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• Should Chief Marketing Officers Be Involved in Security and Privacy Decisions?

  05-12-2014 14:39
  
  In a report issued today by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the management consulting firm urged Chief Marketing Officers to get more involved in data protection.
  "In a lot of organizations, it gets relegated to an IT problem or an IT function," said Carolyn Holcomb, PwC's data protection and privacy leader.
  She also recommended that CMOs be brought into the budget and strategic discussions at an earlier point.
  "One of the key things that we recommend in this space is a strong data governance progra
  
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• Brain-O-Magic Holds Math Contest, Graduation Ceremony - India West

  05-12-2014 13:43
  
  India West
  Brain-O-Magic Holds Math Contest, Graduation Ceremony
  India West
  I'm looking for franchisees to open up more centers,” said Brain-O-Magic founder Puja Kasliwal, a Silicon Valley-based IT executive. “Brain-O-Magic is a phenomenal program that has made a lasting impact on children, giving them focus, confidence and ...
  
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• Agile Meets Collaboration for Better, Faster Software Product Delivery

  05-12-2014 13:42
  
  Software developers increasingly use specialized Agile tools, such as Rally and Atlassian JIRA for individual tasks, but with many teams working simultaneously on products at every stage in the definition and development lifecycle, it's easy for information to get lost and for teams to lose sight of the bigger picture: what's being built, why it's being built and how to track progress.
  
  A new alliance between agile workflow solutions company Jama Software and enterprise collaboration technol
  
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• The Next 'Sea Change' in Recruiting: Mobile

  05-12-2014 13:34
  
  Successful recruiting is about making connections with candidates on their own terms -- if those terms include being able to search for and apply to open positions on their mobile device, you'd better have a mobile presence or candidates will pass you by.
  
  "Remember how quickly Internet adoption took hold in the 1990s? Mobile technology adoption is on pace to far exceed those adoption rates," says Dan Finnigan, CEO of career networking and recruiting site Jobvite.
  
  "The majority of Internet
  
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• 5 Privacy Fixes Your Facebook News Feed Needs by New Year’s

  05-12-2014 12:44
  
  It seems like Facebook is constantly adding new settings or changing old ones. Sometimes it’s under the guise of simplifying your options, like with the
  new Privacy Basics walk-through. Other times it’s because new kinds of ads are coming and Facebook wants you to be prepared. So there’s no better time than
  the present to update your privacy permissions than the present. Let’s face it: You’re not going to remember to check on your Facebook settings once the
  chaos of hol
  
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• PC Gaming's 10 Biggest Surprises of 2014

  05-12-2014 12:30
  Wait, what just happened?Image by Flavio EnsikiOn the surface, 2014 wasn’t exactly an exciting year for gaming. Big-name sequels abounded. Microsoft and Sony’s new consoles launched last year; Valve’s vaunted Steam Machines, after a crushing wave of hype, were delayed until next year. Even Intel’s newest processors and AMD’s next-gen graphics cards were a no-show.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Holiday Gift Guide 2014: Top-Notch Tech for $150 or More

  05-12-2014 12:30
  
  Find the perfect tech giftMaybe we're biased, but we think tech gear always makes a great present. Who wouldn't want to open up a gift-wrapped package to find a sleek new smartphone or a colorful speaker that can fill a room with sound?The cleverly designed, exactingly made gear in Part 1 of our holiday gift guide will please technology lovers of all stripes, from party-givers to lifeloggers. When possible, we've included a range of prices as offered by various retailers, but be aware that price
  
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• What Windows Phone Needs: A Truly Fabulous Flagship Phone

  05-12-2014 12:00
  Apple has the iPhone; Google the Nexus line. Microsoft has a bunch of numbers that don’t mean much to anyone.
  It’s not that Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform is heading in the wrong direction. It’s not really headed anywhere at all. Microsoft needs to figure out what Windows Phone stands for, fast—and capitalize upon it with a flagship phone that embodies all of those features.
  That’s the upshot of a report on Windows Phone, released Thursday, that paints a dim picture of the fu
  
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• HP ElitePad 1000 G2 Review: Business-Grade Tablet Comes at a Price

  05-12-2014 12:00
  
  HP ElitePad 1000 G2
  
  The ElitePad 1000 G2 has many of the bells and whistles you'd expect on a corporate tablet -- particularly one starting at $739 list (4GB memory, 64GB drive). What HP offers that the others don't is a long-established assortment of docks/jackets that bulk up the machine (and the price tag!), while adding features you'll probably want.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Disk storage market grows with inclusion of ODM vendors

  05-12-2014 10:55
  
  Disk storage sales grew more strongly in the third quarter, helped by sales of non-branded storage gear sold directly to datacenters.Third-quarter disk storage sales jumped 5.1 percent year over year, reaching US$8.8 billion, according to research firm IDC. This was a change from the anemic growth the market saw earlier this year, brought on by falling demand in mature markets.Sales of server-based storage with high capacity were up 10 percent in the third quarter. But the big bright spot was
  
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• Android 'DeathRing' Malware Being Preloaded on Cheap Smartphones

  05-12-2014 10:27
  
  For the second time in a year, Chinese-made Android smartphones have been discovered pre-flashed with malware, this time a Trojan security firm Lookout Mobile has ominously dubbed 'DeathRing'.
  On infected handsets, DeathRing pretends to be a ringtone app but can be used to download other malware, communicating with its command and control via SMS or even the ancient WAP.
  It activates once the device has been rebooted five times or, in other cases, the device has been accessed 50 times by its
  
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• Are you a digital leader or a digital latecomer? - Diginomica

  05-12-2014 09:23
  
  Diginomica
  Are you a digital leader or a digital latecomer?
  Diginomica
  There's a growing divide in how companies view the IT executive job profile. While many CIOs function as enterprise business strategists, others report feeling sidelined and relegated to running data centers and keeping costs down, notes the CIO ...
  
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• Intel to host Jesse Jackson on tech employee diversity

  05-12-2014 08:35
  
  Intel is hosting a meeting organized by Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition, which has been demanding higher employment for blacks, Latinos and women in tech companies.The meeting on Dec. 10 follows the participation of the civil rights leader at a Microsoft annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, where he asked, among other things, for a commitment from the company that it would actively search for people of color and women for future board openings and C-suite level positions.The
  
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• Apple, Xiaomi smartphones found violating privacy laws in Taiwan

  05-12-2014 07:00
  
  Smartphones from Apple, Xiaomi and others have been violating Taiwan’s privacy laws by collecting user data and sending it back to company servers, according to a government regulator.Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (NCC) revealed the preliminary findings of its investigation during a legislative session on Thursday. The regulator has been examining the phones since August to see if they met local security requirements.The investigation has so far found problems with 12 phone
  
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• US Senator introduces bill to block FBI backdoor access

  05-12-2014 06:40
  
  U.S. Senator Ron Wyden on Thursday introduced a bill that would prevent the government from forcing companies to design backdoors or security vulnerabilities into their products to aid surveillance.The Secure Data Act aims to preempt moves by the government to better eavesdrop over newer communications technologies, and is part of an overall bid by some legislators to place curbs on extensive government surveillance.A key legislation that would put curbs on the bulk collection of phone record
  
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• 'SpoofedMe' attacks exploited LinkedIn, Amazon social login flaws

  05-12-2014 03:10
  
  IBM’s X Force security researchers found an easy way to gain access to Web accounts by taking an advantage of an oversight in how some social login services are configured.Those services allow someone to login to a Web service using, for example, their LinkedIn credentials. It’s a convenient way for users to create new accounts on websites by using existing information.But in one instance, the researchers found they could gain control of accounts at Slashdot.org, Nasdaq.com, Crowdfunder.c
  
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• Editorial: Following Texas' lead - Anniston Star

  05-12-2014 01:28
  
  The Elkhart Truth
  Editorial: Following Texas' lead
  Anniston Star
  It's executive action.” Wipe away the legalese and grand talk about political overreach, and this is yet another example of Alabama's elected leadership spending time, money and mental energy on issues that don't move our state forward. That politics ...
  Texas leads states in lawsuit over Obama immigration orderTucsonSentinel.com
  
  all 1,029 news articles »
  
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• Azure updates and human error caused Visual Studio Online outage

  05-12-2014 01:00
  
  The second of two lengthy outages that hit Visual Studio Online in November was caused by the same kind of issues as the first, Microsoft has just disclosed.Visual Studio Online, which allows developers to plan and track software development projects and share code, was unavailable for just over seven and a half hours on Monday of last week. It was preceded by another outage the prior week.In both cases, updates to Azure were to blame, and procedures that hadn’t been followed delayed the pr
  
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• Quion groeit door migratie van hypotheekportefeuille BNP Paribas

  05-12-2014 00:49
  Dienstverlener voor de financiële sector Quion groeit vanwege migraties van bestaande hypotheekportefeuilles en door nieuwe hypotheken. Het bedrijf is business partner voor financiële organisaties op de Nederlandse markt voor hypotheken en consumptief krediet. Quion biedt  oplossingen voor het opbouwen,... lees meer
  
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• Nyenrode en InterExcellent lanceren leergang IT Regie Management

  05-12-2014 00:49
  Op 5 januari 2015 starten Nyenrode Business Universiteit en InterExcellent met de nieuwe leergang IT Regie Management. De leergang is gemaakt voor ervaren ICT-managers die zich willen ontwikkelen in regievoering over de hele keten van informatievoorziening. Deelnemers aan de leergang ontvangen na succesvolle voltooiing... lees meer
  
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• Nederlandse as-a-Service-sector gezond

  05-12-2014 00:49
  De Nederlandse IaaS- en outsourcing-sector is volwassener geworden: meer dan de helft van de partijen is ouder dan tien jaar. Ruim twee derde van de bedrijven wordt beoordeeld met een gemiddeld tot laag financieel risicoprofiel. Onderzoek door adviesbureau VOISS wijst in deze richting.
  
  De onderzoeksresultaten geven... lees meer
  
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