IT Executive news

• Microsoft Cloud Services Provide Construction Firm with Cost-Savings, Increased Productivity

  13-01-2015 23:46
  
  Chicago-based Walsh Group Construction is finding that buying into Microsoft’s Office 365 and Enterprise Mobility Suite is yielding a mixed bag of benefits – better BYOD, cost-saving, time-saving, increased productivity – but adopting the cloud services required a dose of blind trust in their security.
  
  Patrick Wirtz, Innovation manager, Walsh Group Construction, Chicago
  
  The services helped reduce capital and operational costs, got more applications into the hands of more workers on
  
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• Off for picturesque honeymoon, couple 'plus one' - Calcutta Telegraph

  13-01-2015 23:16
  Off for picturesque honeymoon, couple 'plus one'
  Calcutta Telegraph
  He shot for three hours in a day and flew back the next day," said Snigdha Singh, an IT executive based in the US, who had an arranged marriage in Bangalore last year. Snigdha, who was in Delhi recently for a break, said the bill came to around Rs 80 ...
  
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• Obama resurrects cyberthreat sharing proposal despite privacy concerns

  13-01-2015 23:00
  
  The centerpiece of U.S. President Barack Obama’s new cybersecurity proposal is a controversial plan that would allow companies to share more cyberthreat information with government agencies, something that worries some privacy advocates.The Obama administration on Tuesday resurrected its May 2011 proposal to give private organizations immunity from lawsuits when they share information about cyberattacks with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. Congress failed to pas
  
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• Airtel integrates yuMobile into Kenyan operation

  13-01-2015 22:20
  
  Africa’s second largest mobile operator, Airtel, has finally absorbed all yuMobile customers into its Kenyan operation after buying the company last year.The yuMobile network, formerly owned by India’s Essar Group, has been integrated into the Airtel system, with customers able to call through the Airtel network using their yuMobile numbers. This means that yuMobile customers will see yu/Airtel on their mobile phones as yuMobile continues to operate as a unique brand under Airtel.YuMobile
  
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• MIT tries to make household robots better with object-detection algorithm

  13-01-2015 22:10
  
  A new algorithm could let robots more precisely identify and handle objects around them, making them more useful at completing household tasks.The algorithm, developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers and discussed in a paper released Monday, allows robots to gather multiple perspectives of an object, quickly aggregate those images and then use that information to identify the object, according to the school.But don’t expect the algorithm to help a robot clear plates and
  
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• The World's Worst Wearable Tech Concepts (So Far)

  13-01-2015 22:09
  
  When wearables go wrongImage by AcerWearable technology is all the rage these days, so it only makes sense that everyone and his mother would want a piece of the pie.Every idea can't be a winner, though -- and for each life-enhancing gadget that makes its way into the mainstream market, we get something like a hat made for taking better selfies or pants designed to control electronics by way of carefully placed thigh slaps.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• GM Says it's Open to Talks with Google, Working on Self-Driving Tech

  13-01-2015 21:53
  
  General Motors Co., which already is working on autonomy technology, is willing to talk with Google about getting self-driving cars on the road.
  A day before the opening of Automotive News World Congress, a major automotive conference in Detroit, a GM spokesman said the auto maker isn't actively looking for a tech partner but is open to talking with Google – or any company – that is working on automotive advancements.
  "We've talked to Google about a variety of things," Dan Flores, a GM s
  
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• Microsoft to make the case for Windows 10 on both PCs and phones

  13-01-2015 21:50
  
  It has been Microsoft’s goal ever since it dumped Windows Mobile: to deliver an operating system kernel that worked just as well on a handheld device as on a laptop. Back in 2008, that goal seemed rather ambitious. And as we saw with Windows 8, it’s been something the company has never completely achieved.As Windows Phone developers discovered, that goal may finally be happening. On Monday, the Windows Phone Store posted a pre-release operating system downloader app called Phone Insider,
  
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• Uber gives Boston the gift of data

  13-01-2015 21:45
  
  Boston city officials will be the first to dip their fingers into Uber’s pot of data, under new plans laid out by the mobile car-summoning service.The effort, Uber says, is geared toward city planning in areas that include managing urban growth as well as improving traffic flows and congestion. By seeing how residents travel across a city, for instance, municipalities might have better information for creating or reducing parking zones, Uber says. Uber’s data would add to the trip records
  
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• BrandPost: Material Apps in a Material World

  13-01-2015 21:26
  
  For a few years now, really since the advent of x86 server virtualization, I’ve been hearing about “abstraction." The myth is that thanks to virtualization, application developers and IT operations don’t need to worry anymore about the underlying hardware because virtualization can take care of running it on any “commodity” server. Of course they did need to worry about this commodity server being x86, or “standard high volume” server. Oh, and they really wanted it to be “Neha
  
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• How to Be an Effective Omnichannel Retailer

  13-01-2015 21:21
  
  The dream of omnichannel retailing – creating a seamless shopping experience whether the customer is shopping online, from a mobile device or at a physical store -- got a wake-up-to-reality call at the National Retail Federation conference in New York City yesterday.Keeping pace with customers’ fast-evolving mobile and social media use is an enormous and ongoing challenge, a panel of top business executives from Macy’s, Lowe’s and The Limited agreed.“We continue to be surprised at t
  
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• Microsoft patch Tuesday focuses solely on Windows

  13-01-2015 21:00
  
  The January 2015 edition of Microsoft Patch Tuesday might be more notable for what the monthly release of security bulletins does not contain—there are no fixes for the Microsoft Explorer browser this month.To date, almost every Patch Tuesday has come with a fix for Explorer, which has long been a target for abuse by malicious attackers.All the vulnerabilities the company issued patches for Tuesday—including one marked critical—are instead found in either the desktop or server editions
  
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• Cord-Cutting Calculator Shows How Much You Can Save by Ditching Cable

  13-01-2015 20:36
  
  Sometimes less is more. Other times, less is simply less. When it comes to streaming TV, both sayings apply."Cord cutting," the buzz term for going Internet only, is catching on faster than expected. Sling TV, a $20-a-month service announced last week at the giant Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is one of the latest developments. When it goes live in a few months, Sling (owned by DISH's parent company) will join a lineup of cord-cutting services that includes Netflix, Amazon Prime and
  
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• Verizon Unveils Aftermarket Vehicle Diagnostics Service

  13-01-2015 20:14
  
  Verizon today announced a new aftermarket vehicle diagnostics and roadside assistance service that works by plugging a dongle into any car's OBD computer port.
  Once connected, Verizon Vehicle service notifies the driver of any maintenance issues, as well as connecting them to roadside assistance and online mechanic advise.
  Speaking at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Eric Goldman, president of Verizon Telematics, said the service is suited to more than 200 million cars,
  
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• Silk Road case goes to court

  13-01-2015 20:05
  
  The U.S. government has begun its case against Ross Ulbricht for allegedly running the notorious “Silk Road” online marketplace of illegal goods.The U.S. Attorney’s office of the Southern District of New York has accused Ulbricht of facilitating over $1.2 billion in sales of unlawful and illegal goods on Silk Road. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest of the Southern District of New York is overseeing the case.Texas resident Ulbricht was indicted last February, after being arrested in
  
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• Why Healthcare Providers Need to Take HIPAA Risk Assessments Seriously

  13-01-2015 19:01
  
  Whether your organization falls under HIPAA, FISMA or PCI DSS you need to do a risk assessment. Yes it’s a good thing to do self-assessment but in order to prepare for a full compliance audit it’s important to get an independent outside consultant to perform this critical assessment.
  I have worked in and audited many organizations that all too often wanted to do the minimum and were completely unaware of their full responsibility to meet their compliance. They also in many cases did not
  
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• Google's Lego-like Project Ara smartphone to get a hardware store

  13-01-2015 19:00
  
  As Google gets ready to ship the Lego-like Project Ara smartphone later this year, the company wants to ensure relevant hardware is available to coincide with the device’s release.This week Google shared details about a Project Ara store through which users will be able to buy snap-on hardware blocks for the customizable smartphone. Google is relying on outside hardware developers to make Project Ara parts like antennas, cameras, sensors, screens and batteries, which will be sold through th
  
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• Het Pareto-optimum: 20% van de systemen slokken 80% van de tijd op

  13-01-2015 18:26
  Door Marc Groetelaars – Noem eens één afdeling die niet op zijn minst een deel van zijn taken heeft geautomatiseerd? Juist. Geen enkel onderdeel van de business kan meer zonder zijn eigen applicaties. Voor medewerkers is het de afgelopen jaren stukken eenvoudiger geworden om de IT-afdeling te... lees meer
  
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• CERN krijgt real-time inzicht met in-memory datamanagement-platform Software AG

  13-01-2015 18:26
  De Europese organisatie voor nucleair onderzoek CERN pleegt grootschalig onderhoud en is de Large Hadron Collider (LHC) aan het upgraden, waardoor onderzoekers straks mogelijkheden hebben om de structuur van het universum te bestuderen en inzicht te krijgen in fundamentele natuurwetten. CERN gebruikt hiervoor het data... lees meer
  
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• Obama Proposes New 30-Day Data Breach Notification Law

  13-01-2015 17:55
  
  President Barack Obama previewed a new data breach notification law today in a speech to the Federal Trade Commission, which will set a 30-day deadline for notifications.
  He said that this year's data breaches, including the recent hack of Sony, make the economy more vulnerable.
  "Today, I’m focusing on how we can better protect American consumers from identity theft and ensure our privacy, including for our children at school," he said.
  To start with, he pointed out that almost every state
  
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• Teradata buys mobile marketing software company Appoxee

  13-01-2015 17:50
  
  To beef up its mobile marketing portfolio, analytics systems supplier Teradata has acquired Appoxee, a Tel Aviv startup that develops in-app and push messaging software designed to increase mobile user engagement.The deal closed in December, but was publicly disclosed Tuesday by Teradata. The Dayton, Ohio, company didn’t disclose financial terms of the deal.Appoxee’s software provides mobile developers with the tools to create push and in-app messages. This content can help companies reta
  
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• For BYOD, Money Changes Everything

  13-01-2015 17:45
  
  Stipends, reimbursements, credits -- there's nothing like money to ignite emotions. Employees want to be paid for using their personal phones and tablets for work, yet companies don't want to subsidize personal use. The question of who pays has made Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) so divisive.It's why employees sue employers. It's why the California Court of Appeal was forced to weigh in last year. And it's why enterprise mobile management (EMM) companies and wireless carriers are scurrying to c
  
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• Temporary sales ban hits SanDisk's SSD server business

  13-01-2015 17:40
  
  If you’re looking to buy solid state drives (SSDs) from SanDisk to speed up your servers, you might be out of luck. A California court has issued a preliminary sales ban for controller chips that SanDisk uses in its high-speed SSDs.The injunction issued against a Canadian company called Diablo Technologies, which manufactures controller chips for SanDisk’s SSDs.Under the court’s order, Diablo and SanDisk are prohibited from manufacturing and selling the controller chipset used by SanDis
  
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• BrandPost: Re-Architecting the Data Center

  13-01-2015 17:17
  
  “Disruption” has been celebrated in the IT industry for at least a decade now, despite the definition of the word being “to throw into turmoil or disorder.” Anyone who has experienced disruption knows that it can be challenging to view it in light of the opportunity that it provides. Yet, whenever disruptions have occurred throughout the history of business, amazing opportunities and surprising growth have sprung up as a result of the disruptions.In 2014 at GigaOM Structure, Diane Bry
  
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• Citrix aims to cut virtual desktop costs with next-gen XenServer

  13-01-2015 16:55
  
  The latest version of Citrix Systems’ XenServer cuts the cost of virtualizing high-end PCs by increasing the number of desktops that can run on each server.For XenServer 6.5, Citrix has been working on improving the platform’s GPU virtualization capabilities. The end result is that companies can now achieve a greater density of virtualized desktops for graphics-heavy apps using XenServer.That means fewer servers have to be used to host the desktops, which lowers both hardware and operatin
  
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• BrandPost: Happy New Year – Now Time For That New Year’s Resolution…

  13-01-2015 16:09
  
  As most of the working world slowly comes back online after the festive break and we all start thinking about fitness regimes and other changes to our lifestyles, we might want to consider a more work-related New Year’s Resolution and change our computer passwords.Survey after survey reports how insecure passwords continue to be – all too often using the default password on routers, PCs and other devices; or even using ‘password’ itself! I am also prepared to bet that a quick search o
  
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• BrandPost: Are All Hard Drives Created Equal?

  13-01-2015 15:43
  We rely on both flash and traditional hard drives to do the same jobs—store data and applications, boot and run your systems—but each type also has its own specific benefits. If you’re looking to upgrade any part of your storage infrastructure, you might be looking into flash drives since that’s the latest technology available. But when should you stick with the traditional, and when should you turn to flash? Read on to discover more about the benefits of each—and what a combination
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 5 Ways to Get Ready for Innovation in 2015

  13-01-2015 15:16
  
  Whether you're reading this in January or any other month, you know that it is time to make innovation happen. I suggest using the methods outlined in this article to ready yourself for innovation. You can gain some benefits implementing any idea from the list and gain even more from implementing all of the ideas.
  For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.- Margaret Heffernan
  Clear The Way For Innovation
  The stress you experience from constant
  
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• Vulnerabilities in several Corel programs allow attackers to execute malicious code

  13-01-2015 14:45
  
  Several photo, video and other media editing programs from software maker Corel contain DLL hijacking vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to execute malicious code on users’ computers.According to vulnerability research firm Core Security, when opening a media file associated with one of the vulnerable Corel products, the product will also load a specifically named DLL (Dynamic Link Library) file into memory if it’s located in the same directory as the opened media file.DLL files c
  
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• How to Prevent Workplace Bullying

  13-01-2015 14:27
  
  Workplace bullying an epidemic in the U.S. A recent CareerBuilder survey of 3,372 U.S.-based full-time, private-sector employees revealed that 28 percent of respondents have felt bullied at work, and 19 percent (nearly one in five workers) have left their job because of it.While it's important for employees to stand up for themselves against such bullying behavior, report incidents to senior management and meticulously document the occurrences, most of the work avoiding a negative and disresp
  
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• How to Use Ebooks to Improve Your Content Marketing Strategy

  13-01-2015 14:00
  
  "Thin" online content, such as low-quality guest blog posts, is out this year, thanks to the various Google algorithm updates of the past few years. Experts suggest that in 2015 and beyond, it will be all about "fat" content — such as ebooks."Fat content will become the focus of marketers everywhere," according to Jesse Noyes, senior director of content marketing for Kapost, who recently spoke with the Content Marketing Institute. "This includes content types like white papers, videos, eboo
  
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• Estimates Peg Mac Sales Up 19% to New Record

  13-01-2015 13:58
  
  Apple sold a record 5.75 million Macs in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, an increase of 19% that beat the overall industry by a wide margin, IDC said Monday.
  In a preliminary estimate, IDC pegged Apple's sales for 2014's fourth quarter at 5.75 million, a record for a three-month period. According to IDC, Apple sold 4% more Macs than the previous quarter, currently the record.
  If U.S. retail sales are any guide, the Mac's jump came primarily from its lower-priced laptop, the MacBook Air. "App
  
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• The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Tuesday, January 13

  13-01-2015 13:55
  
  Britain’s Prime Minister says chat apps should be banned if they can’t be spied onWith tensions particularly high over the terror threat in Europe, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said he will work to ban encrypted messaging services such as SnapChat and WhatsApp if intelligence services can’t get easy access to communications on those channels.Can immunity get U.S. businesses on the side of a data breach law?On Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama will announce a plan to protect busi
  
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• Enterprises win as cloud and on-site software vendors duke it out

  13-01-2015 13:45
  
  More price cuts are expected this year because of fierce competition between cloud and on-site software providers, and enterprises will be the beneficiaries.In particular, in the customer relationship management market, a key cloud battleground, seat prices for segments such as sales force automation are expected to decline in the next twelve months and by 25 percent through 2018, according to market research company Gartner.This will be caused by incumbent vendors heavily discounting their c
  
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• Shodan Exposes IoT Vulnerabilities

  13-01-2015 13:00
  
  The Shodan search engine can be used to find routers with exposed backdoors, unsecured webcams, and industrial control systems still using default passwords.
  It's the Google for the Internet of Things, a playground for hackers and terrorists -- and, maybe, a useful tool for companies looking to lock down their own environment.
  Shodan founder John Matherly launched the search engine more than five years ago as a marker intelligence tool, designed to provide technology companies with informati
  
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• The Risks of a Big Man-Made IT Disaster are on the Rise

  13-01-2015 12:44
  
  There's scant evidence that process improvements, security training or technology advances are reducing human errors in IT operations. If anything, the risk of technology disasters is growing, despite the industry's best efforts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Traditional Defenses Not Stopping Breaches, Claims Real-World FireEye Study

  13-01-2015 12:31
  
  If Sony's been having problems keeping out the bad guys, perhaps it's not the only firm in that sector that should be worried about its defences, according to a new analysis by security firm FireEye.
  The security firm looked at 48 entertainment and media firms running its sensors during a six-month real-world test phase between January and June 2014, finding that 91 percent were believed to have suffered some kind of breach caused by a failure in conventional defences.
  The notion of a 'breac
  
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• 26 of the Craziest and Scariest Things the TSA Has Found on Travelers

  13-01-2015 12:00
  
  GunsGuns were the big-ticket item the U.S. Transportation Security Administration found the most of in on the traveling public 2014. Through mid December there were almost 2,200 guns discovered at TSA check-ins, up about 20% over 2013. Unless you live under a rock, trying to carry a gun onto airplane should be an obvious no-no. But guns aren’t the only things that grab the TSA’s attention. Lots of grenades, and bomb-like gear is also out there – a lot. Here’s a look at some of the things
  
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• China expands Internet backbone to improve speeds, reliability

  13-01-2015 10:30
  
  Even as China cuts access to some foreign online services, it is laying more fiber optic cables to improve its connection to global Internet networks.China recently added seven new access points to the world’s Internet backbone, adding to the three points that connect through Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced on Monday.To expand its Internet backbone networks, China laid over 3,000 kilometers worth of fiber optic cabl
  
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• Fujitsu Bluetooth ring lets you write in the air

  13-01-2015 10:05
  
  Fujitsu is continuing its push into wearables for the workplace with a prototype Bluetooth ring that lets users “write” in the air so they can work hands-free.The gestural device goes on the index finger and can be used to write Japanese characters, Latin letters or numbers in midair. A linked smartphone or other Bluetooth mobile device with a Fujitsu app can instantly recognize numbers written with the ring with about 95 percent accuracy, according to developer Fujitsu Laboratories.The r
  
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• Obama revives call for immunity to companies sharing threat data

  13-01-2015 08:55
  
  Dusting off a 2011 to-do list, U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to propose legislation to protect companies sharing computer threat data with the government from prosecution, according to reports.In 2011, Obama had recommended legislation that would provide for companies to voluntarily share cybersecurity information with the federal government and had proposed offering them immunity when sharing cybersecurity information with the Department of Homeland Security.“At the same time, th
  
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• United, American airlines account fraud highlights hacker focus on travel industry

  13-01-2015 03:35
  
  More than 20 travel-related websites have experienced data breaches in the past two months, according to a security expert who tracks the trade in stolen data.Data from those websites is being sold on underground forums by cybercriminals, said Alex Holden, CTO of Hold Security, a company that specializes in monitoring the illegal trade and alerting companies if their data is found.United Airlines said on Sunday three dozen of its MileagePlus loyalty card accounts were compromised as part of a
  
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• AMD's Chip Chief Departs, as Do Other Key Execs

  13-01-2015 03:14
  
  AMD chip chief John Byrne has left the company, accompanying AMD’s chief strategy officer and its chief marketing officer out the door, according to the company.
  Byrne, as well as chief marketing officer Collette LaForce and chief strategy officer Raj Naik, have left to pursue other interests, according to AMD and a report from Reuters. AMD announced Byrne’s departure in an 8K filing that noted he’ll stay on until the end of March to assist with the transition. An AMD spokesman conf
  
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• UK prime minister suggests banning encrypted apps like WhatsApp, iMessage

  13-01-2015 02:50
  
  The U.K. may ban online messaging services that offer encryption such as WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage, under surveillance plans laid out by Prime Minister David Cameron.Services that allow people to communicate without providing access to their messages pose a serious challenge to law enforcement efforts to combat terrorism and other crimes, Cameron said Monday.He didn’t name specific apps, but suggested those with encryption would not jive with new surveillance legislation he’s lookin
  
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• 12 Geekiest Snow and Ice Sculptures

  13-01-2015 01:00
  
  Tech favoritesNot all tech weenies hunker down indoors when the snow starts piling up and the ice coats the streets. Some put on their mittens and boots and go to work creating fantastic snow and ice sculptures celebrating their tech favorites.Space Invaders alienImage by JbernhardtTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Only 8 Percent of Companies Can Track Shadow IT

  13-01-2015 00:54
  
  Only 8 percent of companies know the scope of shadow IT at their organizations, according to a new survey by the Cloud Security Alliance.
  "The low awareness of shadow IT was not a surprise," said Jim Reavis, CEO of the Cloud Security Alliance. "Anecdotally, that's what we've heard."
  In addition, when the CSA does egress monitoring, it usually finds the companies underestimate their use of cloud services by a factor of eight.
  The reason for the gap? A lack of knowledge about cloud in organiza
  
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• Computers may soon know you better than your spouse

  13-01-2015 00:40
  
  How good are you at sizing someone up? Perhaps not as good as a computer, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge and Stanford University.By analyzing someone’s likes on Facebook, statistical modeling software could characterize a person’s basic personality with an accuracy rivaling that of a spouse or close family member, according to the researchers.Analyzing such digital footprints could help computer programs to interact with people in more meaningful ways, according t
  
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