IT Executive news

• Microservices: Simple servers, complex security

  22-09-2015 23:53
  The benefits of microservices architecture -- smaller development teams, faster release cycles, fewer dependencies, less risk -- are becoming widely known, thanks to companies like Amazon, Google, and Netflix sharing their experiences. Less widely understood are the security challenges introduced by this new paradigm, but the engineers in the vanguard have wisdom to offer on this front as well.  
  You need to keep in mind more than a few details before you rip the wrapping off the shiny new
  
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• Hold the hovercraft: These technologies are reinventing transportation

  22-09-2015 22:39
  Transportation has always been a big part of our far-out visions of the future, whether we imagine flying cars, ultra-fast tubes or Star Trek-style contraptions. While chances are slim that we'll be de-materializing and re-materializing in another spot anytime soon, fast-advancing technology will change the way we get from point A to point B in the near future. Here are the most promising advances.Hyperloop
  Undoubtedly, the Hyperloop is the most futuristic of current transportation proposals. Pu
  
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• BrandPost: Is Your Vulnerability Management Scalable?

  22-09-2015 22:29
  
  Is Your Vulnerability Management Scalable?Few businesses remain stagnant. If your business is in the fortunate situation to be growing, your IT infrastructure has to grow to support it. Growth can bring new challenges to your vulnerability management program: more IT assets to include in the program (some of which, like mobile and remote devices might be challenging to include) and more potential vulnerabilities. This is where a scalable vulnerability management solution has significance. A prog
  
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• Third-party data on iOS 9 disputes Apple's adoption claims

  22-09-2015 22:18
  
  Apple yesterday boasted that iOS 9, released less than a week earlier, had already cracked the 50% mark and had the "fastest iOS adoption ever."
  But data from Mixpanel, which sells an analytics platform to mobile app developers for tracking usage and user engagement, did not support Apple's claim.
  Although iOS 9 had accumulated a 39.7% share of all iOS editions as of 4 p.m. PT Monday -- and was several percentage points ahead of last year's iOS 8 at the same point in its post-release timeline -
  
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• With bitcoin use on the rise, African countries eye regulations

  22-09-2015 22:12
  The increasing use of bitcoins in Africa has prompted a growing chorus of government officials, legal experts and e-commerce entrepreneurs to call for the virtual currency to be regulated.In Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria, outlets like leather goods site Minku are now accepting bitcoins. South African bitcoin exchange BitX , which also operates in Nigeria, recently partnered with mobile payment and smartcard company Zazoo to enable bitcoin use via the virtual prepaid MasterCard app, VCp
  
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• IBM tackles 'shadow IT' with a new cloud security tool for enterprises

  22-09-2015 21:21
  If there's one thing that can strike terror into a CIO's heart, it's the security implications of the cloud; if there's another, it's the "bring your own" technology trend. Combine the two, and you've got the motivation behind IBM's new Cloud Security Enforcer.Thanks to having set up used a private email server while U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has become a poster child for "shadow IT," or the phenomenon by which employees bring their own technologies into the workplace, but there's
  
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• Security experts: Cyber sharing isn't enough

  22-09-2015 21:20
  
  The benefits of federal legislation to govern private and public sector sharing of cyber threat information are being oversold -- and the risks are being too easily dismissed.
  That was the consensus of a dozen speakers and panelists at the second annual Senior Executive Cyber Security Conference in Baltimore earlier this month. And it runs counter to the view held by government leaders from President Obama on down, and some leaders in the private sector as well, who've been saying for years tha
  
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• CBRE's CIO discusses the new IT operating model

  22-09-2015 21:20
  
  As CIO of CBRE, Mandy Edwards works with the company's senior global leadership team and IT organization to identify technology initiatives that support the company's most significant global priorities. Edwards has more than 25 years of progressive experience in IT and senior operational roles, and has served as CIO for several leading global companies. Most recently, Edwards was the Chief Infrastructure Officer for Sitel Corporation.CBRE Mandy Edwards, CIO of CBRETo read this article in fu
  
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• CSO Survival Guide: Securing DevOps

  22-09-2015 21:14
  
  In the past few years, DevOps has moved from a niche approach to application development to an enterprise strategy that stands front and center in organizations today.
  And the move to DevOps is happening quickly, and information security practitioners often feel they are being pulled along, reluctantly, for the ride. All of this is happening while the foundation of enterprise IT more rapidly shifts from on-premises to cloud and as the nature of development shifts to continuous integration and c
  
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• Consumers increasingly dissatisfied with PCs, tablets

  22-09-2015 20:59
  
  PC and tablet makers aren't exactly wowing customers these days. For the third year in a row, consumer satisfaction with desktops, laptops, and tablets declined, according to the annual American Consumer Satisfaction Index.Consumer complaints stretch across the board, but the nearly 3,000 people surveyed say the worst pain points are poor customer support, junky applications preloaded on new devices, and slow processor speeds.Apple on top, Acer on bottom
  Of the major manufacturers included in th
  
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• Microsoft raises prices of Office one-time licenses 5% to 7%

  22-09-2015 20:35
  
  Microsoft today launched Office 2016 for Windows, and simultaneously raised prices of the stand-alone licenses for both it and the Mac edition between 5% and 7%.
  Office 365 subscription prices -- the "rent-not-own" model that Microsoft's been aggressively pushing since early 2013 -- did not change.
  The cost of a single-license Office Home & Student 2016 edition climbed $10, from $140 to $150, a 7.1% increase. Meanwhile, Office Home & Business 2016 -- which adds Microsoft's Outlook email
  
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• HP adds protection against firmware attacks to enterprise printers

  22-09-2015 19:56
  Researchers have been demonstrating attacks against printers for years. Now, Hewlett-Packard has started building defenses directly into its printers' firmware instead of just patching individual vulnerabilities.The company's new M506, M527 and M577 series of LaserJet Enterprise printers, set to go on sale in October and November, will have built-in detection for unauthorized BIOS and firmware modifications.HP refers to this capability as "self-healing security," but it's actually a set of
  
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• New York issues first bitcoin license, brings consumer protection

  22-09-2015 19:13
  New York State's financial regulator has issued its first bitcoin license, bringing consumer protection, compliance and cybersecurity guidelines to what still is very much the Wild West of the financial industry.The BitLicense imposes some of the same conditions on companies operating with virtual currencies such as bitcoin as it does with institutions handling conventional currencies.The license was issued to Circle Internet Financial, a startup that's received millions of dollars in fundi
  
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• It’s time for PDF 2.0

  22-09-2015 18:41
  
  Anyone working in today’s business world is familiar with items in Portable Document Format (PDF). For years, this format has been commonly used and the acronym well-recognized — and for good reason. PDFs offer a great convenience. According to Wikipedia, the “PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed layout flat document, including the text, fonts, graphics and other information needed to display it.” PDFs can be taken on the road, read on any device, emai
  
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• Toshiba's $330 Chromebook 2 gets modest tweaks: backlit keyboard, Broadwell CPU

  22-09-2015 18:40
  
  Toshiba is making some modest improvements to its Chromebook 2 laptops, adding 5th-generation Intel processors and backlit keyboards.
  The base model will cost $330 with an Intel Celeron processor, while a $430 version will have an Intel Core i3 chip. Both Chromebooks have 13.3-inch 1080p non-touch displays, and weigh in at 2.9 pounds. Toshiba says it will offer up to 4GB of RAM in these laptops. (Toshiba currently sells a $250 Chromebook with 2GB of memory and a 1366x768 display; it’s unc
  
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• Chip card reality check: Oct. 1 deadline termed a 'soft incentive'

  22-09-2015 18:10
  
  Despite an Oct. 1 deadline for U.S. merchants to accept secure chip-enabled credit and debit cards, experts believe it will take years for the conversion.
  "Realistically, we should expect the adoption of chip cards in the U.S. to take a few years," said Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner who has been following the conversion for a decade, in an interview this week.
  Oct. 1 is the deadline for merchants to begin using newer point-of-sale terminals to accept chip cards. Meanwhile, banks are stead
  
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• BrandPost: Putting the Cloud to Work in Vulnerability Management

  22-09-2015 18:00
  
  Achieving cost efficiencies often plays a key role in helping an organization decide to go with a cloud-based solution rather than an on-premises one. However, when it comes to potential benefits for a cloud-based vulnerability management (VM) solution, cost savings are really just the start.Like other cloud applications, when the organization embraces a cloud-based VM solution, its security professionals are able to focus more intently on vulnerability management rather than devoting time to bu
  
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• The future of displays: OLED is the technology to beat, but LCD will continue to dominate

  22-09-2015 17:54
  OLED remains the quality standard that every manufacturer aspires to as the flat-panel industry pursues bigger, brighter, slimmer, faster, and cheaper displays. But that last goal—cheaper—will lead to manufacturers churn out LCDs more than anything else. That’s the conclusion we reached at the end of last week’s USFPD 2015 conference, put on by the market-research firm IHS Technology.Spectacular color, but still priceyOLED continues to be a rave success in picture qualit
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: iOS 9: How to use the Crystal ad blocker

  22-09-2015 17:45
  
  Ad blockers are all the rage on iOS 9 these days, with many users buying them in the app store and installing them on their iPhones, iPads and iPods. Crystal is one of the most popular ad blockers for iOS, and I'll show you how to use it in this post.
  Crystal sells for just .99 cents in the app store.
  How to install and enable the Crystal ad blocker in iOS 9The Crystal ad blocking app in iOS 9 comes with clear instructions about how to enable it.To read this article in full or to leave a commen
  
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• 4 out of 5 Google for Work customers avoid Google Drive

  22-09-2015 17:37
  
  Google launched its Google for Work suite of applications almost four years ago, and it now has a million monthly active users. However, fewer than one in five organizations that pay for Google for Work also use the Google Drive cloud storage option at least once a month, according to the company. Gmail use dominates the portfolio that also includes Hangouts, Docs and other Google apps.
  Google hasn't provided updated information on the specific number of businesses that pay for Google for Work
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: iOS 9: How to disable Wi-Fi Assist

  22-09-2015 16:55
  
  iOS 9 comes with some great new features, and one of them is called Wi-Fi Assist. Wi-Fi Assist lets you automatically use cellular data when your Wi-Fi connection performs poorly. This can be a great tool, but it can also mean that your iPhone might run up your cellular data bill.In this how-to I'll show you how you can easily disable Wi-Fi Assist in iOS 9.How to disable Wi-Fi Assist in iOS 9 Disabling Wi-Fi Assist in iOS 9 can help prevent your cellular data bill from going up too high.To read
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Advice on how to get promoted, from a retired CIO

  22-09-2015 16:41
  
  During my career, I had many people ask me what they needed to do to get to the next level or, in the long run, make it into the C-suite. Unfortunately, most of these people expected the answer to be a quadratic formula for advancement that they could simply execute and, presto, they would get a promotion.That’s because most advice on career advancement suggests that the roadmap for success involves mastering a number of specific competencies. For example, you need technical skills, you ne
  
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• Hack iOS 9 and get $1 million, cybersecurity firm says

  22-09-2015 16:29
  The market for unpatched vulnerabilities has grown so much that an exploit reseller is willing to pay US$1 million dollars for an attack that can compromise iOS 9 devices.Zerodium, an exploit acquisition company, promises to pay $1 million to researchers who can provide it with an "exclusive, browser-based, and untethered jailbreak for the latest Apple iOS 9 operating system and devices."In the context of iOS devices, jailbreaking refers to bypassing the security restrictions enforced by the mob
  
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• Is ICD-10 healthcare’s Y2K moment?

  22-09-2015 15:57
  
  The healthcare industry stands poised at the brink of a momentous change – one of which the general public is almost totally unaware. Starting on October 1, the entire industry will shift to a new set of diagnostic codes that will have to go on all claims for payment and on every other healthcare document that requires diagnostic codes. The seismic shift that this is expected to precipitate has been compared to Y2K, only with real consequences. 
  The new International Classification o
  
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• US, China appear close on cyber economic espionage deal

  22-09-2015 15:13
  
  China and the U.S. appear close to a ground-breaking agreement on cyber espionage that could be signed later this week when President Xi and President Obama meet in Washington.On the eve of the state visit, both countries have expressed a desire to stop cyber espionage for economic gain and agreed it's illegal.But the two countries are still in disagreement over whether China's government plays any part in trans-national cyber hacking for economic purposes.On Monday, U.S. National Security
  
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• How data finds the truth -- in baseball and in business

  22-09-2015 14:47
  
  NEW YORK -- If there is one thing Bill James wishes more people understood about sabermetrics — the method of empirical analysis of baseball that he had a prominent role in pioneering — it's that the data is not the point. The point is to use the data like a razor to cut through false convictions to find the truth."The reason that understanding is so difficult to build in baseball is that there's an entire industry of people selling nonsensical ideas about the data all the time," Jam
  
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• CSOs aren’t waiting for cyber sharing legislation

  22-09-2015 13:49
  
  If Congress does pass, and President Obama signs, legislation governing the sharing of cyber threat information among private organizations and with the government, those who will be the most directly affected will likely by those in IT security leadership – CSOs and CISOs.
  And, based on the debates on bills now pending in Congress, it would seem that their biggest challenges would be increased pressure to protect personally identifiable information (PII), to make sure that trade sec
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Do you really want to win that outsourcing deal?

  22-09-2015 13:44
  
  In my last post, I offered my take on why service providers lose business. In this post, I’m going to suggest one way to win it. Though most outsourcing service providers pay lip service to the idea of delighting their customers, how many really achieve it?Never mind delight; let’s face it, outsourcing satisfaction levels have always run low. And this means service providers are missing an opportunity. While it has gotten harder and harder to win and retain business, many service pro
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why business process outsourcing is being redefined as business process automation

  22-09-2015 13:39
  
  As we all heard over the last couple of months, service providers have continuously invested a great deal of effort to enable automation/artificial intelligence as part of their service offerings.Specifically related to business process outsourcing (BPO), the evidence of automated activities is more prevalent than any other type of outsourcing deal. This can be attributed to the level of standardization of processes/activities BPO services are executed – making it a perfect candidate for a
  
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• Samsung teams with Sectra to secure mobile phones for governments

  22-09-2015 13:29
  
  Sectra Communications is working with Samsung Electronics to integrate its Tiger/R end-to-end hardware encryption system with the phone maker's Knox mobile security platform to create smartphones secure enough to carry government secrets.
  The market is a lucrative one: Another company, Secusmart, has won over several government organizations in recent years with a BlackBerry smartphone equipped with a microSD encryption module. The combination, costing around €2,000 (US$2,250), is app
  
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• How bimodal IT is helping companies hire and retain workers

  22-09-2015 13:23
  
  The technology that helps run a successful business is no longer confined behind the walls of the IT department. It's slowly seeped into nearly every department within a company. For example, your marketing department might deploy a new cloud technology, without consulting IT. As a result of this growing need for technology across departments, in many enterprises IT has been split into two entities --a trend that Gartner dubbed bimodal IT in 2014.Bimodal IT breaks down into two camps and the fir
  
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• 7 reasons to hire back the right former employees

  22-09-2015 13:07
  
  The practice of re-hiring employees who left your organization no longer carries the same stigma it once did. In fact, a report produced by research and consulting firm WorkplaceTrends.com and The Workforce Institute at Kronos reveals that enterprises are coming around to "boomerang" workers.The survey, Boomerang Employees and the Organizations They Once Left, conducted in July 2015, included responses from 1,807 HR professionals, managers and employees. Nearly half of HR professionals claim the
  
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• Debit cards lag credit cards in EMV migration, putting banks at risk

  22-09-2015 13:00
  
  Three times as many credit cards will be chip-enabled by the end of the year as debit cards, making the slower banks bigger targets for cybercriminals.
  According to Deborah Baxley, principal for cards and payments at Capgemini Financial Services, an estimated 25 percent of debit cards are expected to be ready -- compared to about 75 percent of credit cards.
  The reason is that the U.S. debit card system works differently than anywhere else in the world, she said, and it took longer than expected
  
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• 5 ways to shore up security in your BYOD strategy

  22-09-2015 12:28
  
  You’d think after all this time that organizations would have finally gotten BYOD programs pretty much down pat. Don’t bet on it.
  A recent study by tyntec reveals that a vast majority of organizations still have inadequate bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies. That’s not very encouraging, considering that 49 percent of workers now use a personal mobile device for work-related tasks and spend a great deal of time on personal devices for their job.
  Further, the typical U.S. wor
  
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• Microsoft Office 2016 review: It's all about collaboration

  22-09-2015 12:00
  Office 2016 is a major upgrade, but not in the way you’d first suppose. Just as Windows 10  ties notebooks, desktops, phones and tablets together, and adds a layer of intelligence, Office 2016 wants to connect you and your coworkers together, using some baked-in smarts to help you along.
  I tested the client-facing portion of Office 2016. Microsoft released the trial version of Office 2016 in March as a developer preview with a focus on administrative features (data los
  
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• Instead of robots taking jobs, A.I. may help humans do their jobs better

  22-09-2015 12:00
  
  Despite worries that robots will take jobs from humans, a group of researchers says what's more likely, and more powerful, is that humans will eventually work cooperatively with cyber assistants.
  A soldier might be given a smart assistant that will train with him and one day do battle alongside him. A college grad just entering the workforce may get her own smart assistant that will learn along with her and provide support as she advances through her career.
  In this way, artificial intelligence
  
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• Seminar Technologie en Maatschappij: ‘Principe belangrijker dan regel’

  22-09-2015 11:52
  De toepassing van nieuwe technologieën verandert onze maatschappij in hoog tempo. Maar of dit nu altijd een verbetering is, daarover zijn de meningen verdeeld. Dat bleek tijdens het recente seminar Technologie en Maatschappij in de Amsterdamse Waag, waarbij tijdens spreekbeurten en debatten dieper werd ingegaan op... lees meer
  
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• India withdraws draft encryption policy following controversy

  22-09-2015 11:34
  The Indian government has withdrawn a controversial draft encryption policy, with a minister stating that the document was not the final view of the government.Under the policy, consumers would have been required to store the plain texts of encrypted information for 90 days from the date of a transaction and provide the text to law enforcement agencies when required under the laws of the country. The government would have also specified the algorithms and the length of the encryption keys used b
  
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• Mario Suykerbuyk, PostNL: “Data moet centraal staan, maar de klant blijft in control”

  22-09-2015 09:55
  Mario Suykerbuyk, managing director bij PostNL Data Services, kwam op het Jaarcongres Innovatie & Transformatie vertellen over data, die bij de digitalisering van PostNL een centrale rol speelt, terwijl de consument steeds meer aan de knoppen zit. PostNL heeft alle bedrijfsonderdelen die iets met data doen,... lees meer
  
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• US Congress members urged to communicate using encrypted apps

  22-09-2015 08:52
  Congress members and staff are being urged by a civil rights group to use encrypted smartphone apps such as WhatsApp and Signal rather than traditional cellular networks.Unlike cellular networks which use weak and outdated encryption, some of the newer apps use strong and modern encryption to protect their customers' communications, the American Civil Liberties Union has written in a letter Tuesday to officials in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.The move is not going to cost a lot.
  
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• Survey: Users love their desktops more than their cheapo tablets

  22-09-2015 06:57
  
  That bright shining future where they predicted consumers would forsake their fuddy duddy desktops for tablets? Try again.
  The latest survey from the American Customer Satisfaction Index showed consumer satisfaction with tablets plummeted this year by six percent, while desktops held strong.
  “Weaker customer satisfaction and slowing sales growth suggest that early enthusiasm for tablets has worn off,” said Claes Fornell, ACSI Chairman and founder. “As large-screen smartph
  
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• US legislation requiring tech industry to report terrorist activity dropped

  22-09-2015 05:56
  The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee has dropped a provision that would have required Internet companies to report on vaguely-defined terrorist activity on their platforms, a move that was strongly opposed by the industry and civil rights groups.The controversial section 603 was included in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 but Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, had put a hold on the bill, stating that he wanted to work with colleagues to revise or remove the prov
  
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• US drops effort to make tech industry report terrorist activity

  22-09-2015 05:56
  The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee has dropped a provision that would have required Internet companies to report on vaguely-defined terrorist activity on their platforms, a move that was strongly opposed by the industry and civil rights groups.
  The controversial section 603 was included in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 but Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, had put a hold on the bill, stating that he wanted to work with colleagues to revise or remove the pr
  
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• LTE standard for machines gets the green light

  22-09-2015 02:36
  
  The international body in charge of LTE will standardize a version of that technology specifically for the Internet of Things, taking on rival systems for connecting low-power equipment like parking meters and industrial sensors. At a workshop last week in Phoenix, members of the 3GPP agreed to define a standard for NB-IoT (NarrowBand IoT), which would be based on the dominant global cellular system but tuned for devices that typically rely on batteries and only send small amounts of inform
  
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• The challenge for bitcoin: Building value after the hype

  22-09-2015 02:16
  
  Two years ago, it seemed nothing could go wrong for bitcoin. The value of the digital currency was surging past $1,000, making sudden fortunes for cryptocurrency die-hards and drawing huge investments for companies working with the new "digital gold."Blair Hanley Frank Xapo CEO Wences Casares talks about bitcoin at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco on Sept. 21, 2015.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Memo to Carly: HP is shifting more work offshore

  22-09-2015 02:06
  
  Carly Fiorina, surging in the polls thanks to her performance in the Republican presidential debate last week, is not to be underestimated or believed.
  Fiorina was crisp, sharp and quick in the debate -- all characteristics that helped her become Hewlett-Packard's CEO from 1999 to 2005. But she also used her opportunity before a national audience to distort her history at HP by omitting key facts.[ Get the latest tech news with Computerworld's daily newsletters ]
  "Yes, we had to make tough choi
  
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• How to respond to Chinese cyber attacks: Call them?

  22-09-2015 02:06
  
  In this segment of The Irari Report’s discussion about Chinese cyberespionage, Ira Winkler and Araceli Treu Gomes interview Lt. Col. Bill Hagestad, author of Chinese Cyber Crime, about how companies should respond if they believe they are being hacked by China. They go into detail about where to look for signs of successful attacks, the Chinese mindset as to how they target their potential victims, how to determine the scope of the attack, how to respond to the attack, and who you should
  
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• Samsung looks to follow Apple with its own Galaxy leasing program

  22-09-2015 02:05
  
  Samsung is expected to launch its own smartphone leasing plan, following the recent lead of Apple in a long-term attempt to wrest customer control away from U.S. carriers.
  "If Apple does it, then it must be good enough for Samsung," said Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics. "The two companies are in an intense fight and Samsung cannot let Apple have a leg up on just about anything."[ Get the latest tech news with Computerworld's daily newsletters ]
  Samsung did not comment directly on an
  
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• Apple committed to producing an electric car by 2019

  22-09-2015 02:03
  
  Apple is revving up its efforts to produce a semi or fully autonomous electric car, and it has set its projected ship date for 2019, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
  Last month, several reports surfaced that claimed Apple was already testing its own electric car.
  For example, The Guardian claimed it had obtained internal correspondence that confirmed Apple's electric car efforts, dubbed "Project Titan," are further along than many had thought.To read this article in full or to
  
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• Startup Syncano wants to take some coding chores off developers' hands

  22-09-2015 00:36
  
  A startup that will provide back-end components to front-end developers says its service should make it easier for enterprises to write applications, including ones for the so-called Internet of Things.The company, Syncano, aims to help developers focus on things like user experience or unique capabilities rather than underlying functions. It make software components available through a Syncano dashboard and runs them in its own cloud. The BaaS (back end as a service) that Syncano launched
  
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