IT Executive news

• FCC looks to higher frequencies for 5G mobile

  22-10-2015 22:37
  
  Frequencies once considered useless for most mobile services could start showing up on phones and other devices in a few years under a plan by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. On Thursday, the FCC adopted a proposal to make four high-frequency spectrum bands available for services including mobile voice and data and machine-to-machine communication, or the Internet of Things. Though some of those bands are already used for technologies such as satellite, they have never been appr
  
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• Deep into Drupal, Cisco starts to give back to open source community

  22-10-2015 22:34
  
  Cisco’s Jamal Haider acknowledged during a presentation this week that his team that works on the company’s open source-based customer support portal hasn’t given much back to the wider Drupal community yet, but he said this talk at the sold-out Acquia Engage conference in Boston is part of an effort to change that.
  And why not? Cisco has plenty of reasons – more than $400 million of them, in fact – to be grateful for Drupal since migrating its Support Communi
  
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• When it comes to spam, IBM's SoftLayer is the host with the most

  22-10-2015 22:33
  
  IBM may be the fastest-growing vendor in the worldwide security software market, but it's also the owner of the world's largest source of spam.That's according to a Wednesday report by security expert Brian Krebs, who called out the company's SoftLayer subsidiary for being "the Internet’s most spam-friendly" service provider.SoftLayer currently holds the top position on antispam nonprofit Spamhaus.org's list of the world’s worst spam support ISPs, which it defines as the ISPs with th
  
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• Elon Musk responds to Consumer Reports' negative rating of Tesla Model S

  22-10-2015 22:18
  
  Tesla CEO Elon Musk today tweeted out a response to Consumer Reports' negative reliability rating of his company's flagship all-electric sedan, the Model S P85D.
  Consumer Reports gave the $104,000 electric car a "worse-than-average" rating in its latest report about the predicted reliability of new vehicles based on a user survey that included more than 1,400 owners. Owners complained about problems with the drivetrain, power equipment, charging equipment, the giant iPad-like center console, an
  
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• Tech support scammers put Mac owners in crosshairs

  22-10-2015 21:58
  
  Technical support scammers have begun targeting Mac owners, a security researcher said today, adding them to much larger pool of potential victims running Windows because Apple's operating system has been relatively untouched by malware.
  "These scams aren't being done with cold calls, but by aggressive malvertising," said Jerome Segura, a senior security researcher with San Jose, Calif.-based Malwarebytes. In some cases, Segura said, legitimate online ad networks are being abused by criminals.
  
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• Microsoft says Edge browser extensions will arrive in 2016

  22-10-2015 21:05
  Microsoft has never said when to expect extension support for its Edge browser, but now we have a timeframe: 2016.
  As news begins to leak out about when the so-called ”Threshold 2” Fall Update to Windows 10 is expected, one component that won’t be included is support for Windows 10 Edge extensions. Microsoft said in a statement that that capability won’t be available until 2016.
  “We’re committed to providing customers with a personalized web experience, which
  
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• Ruckus acquires onboarding provider Cloudpath

  22-10-2015 20:57
  
  Wireless infrastructure manufacturer Ruckus announced Thursday that it would purchase Cloudpath Networks, best known for its Wi-Fi onboarding software products, for an undisclosed sum.
  Ruckus said in a statement that it would “immediately” begin to integrate Cloudpath’s software into its Smart Wi-Fi offering, praising the company’s technology and saying that it would help Ruckus users bring new devices into BYOD setups more easily.
  + ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: On the hunt fo
  
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• Chase's tweet backing PIN credit cards was a mistake, bank says

  22-10-2015 20:33
  
  JP Morgan Chase Bank tweeted in error that its chip credit cards would be getting PIN security, a bank spokesman confirmed Thursday.
  The tweet, posted mid-day on Wednesday by @ChaseSupport, said: "Your security is our priority! We're planning to add Chip and PIN to our credit cards in the near future."
  "That tweet was sent in error yesterday," said JP Morgan Chase Bank spokesman Paul Hartwick in an email to Computerworld. "At this time we do not have current plans to offer chip-and-PIN credit c
  
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• How WD installed a circuit breaker in its SanDisk deal

  22-10-2015 20:27
  
  Before Western Digital (WD) drops $19 billion to buy SanDisk, it's going to make sure certain conditions must be met.
  In September, Chinese tech company Unisplendour announced plans to buy a 15% equity stake in WD for about $3.78 billion. The move gives Unispelendor the ability to nominate one of WD's board members and a foot in the door of the North American and European hard drive market.
  WD stated in its SanDisk announcement that it will pay one price if it closes on the Unisplendour deal --
  
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• Brocade CEO says they built an easy button for IP networks, are benefiting from SDN/NFV

  22-10-2015 20:20
  
  Brocade is best known for its storage network products, but CEO Lloyd Carney, who has lead the company for almost three years now, says Brocade is making great strides on the IP network side of the house by reducing complexity. The timing is good, Carney says, because the arrival of Software Defined Networking/Network Function Virtualization has buyers looking at alternatives to their legacy suppliers. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently stopped by Carney’s office for an updat
  
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• HP just dropped out of the public cloud – now what?

  22-10-2015 20:11
  
  While HP’s announcement that it will shutter its Helion Public Cloud early next year didn’t surprise those who watch the market closely, the move does raise questions about what’s next for HP and other cloud vendors.
  HP plans to focus on two major areas: Bringing efficiencies to customers’ on-premises environments, and arming its partners with HP hardware and software to build out hosted clouds.
  Analysts say HP is the latest example of a legacy IT vendor that has had to
  
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• Redmondology: Parsing clues about Windows 10's next update release date

  22-10-2015 20:08
  
  When will Microsoft release the first major update to Windows 10?
  No one really knows except the people at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Fortunately for outsiders, even the short stretch of Windows 10's life so far offers clues about Microsoft's process.
  First, a bit of backstory.
  Microsoft has purposefully been vague in describing the intervals between releases to the "Current Branch" (CB), one of four update-and-release tracks and the one all consumers and many small businesses
  
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• Comcast may launch a wireless service powered by Wi-Fi and Verizon next year

  22-10-2015 18:40
  
  Comcast could soon take another shot at the quadruple play as it reportedly looks to launch its own wireless phone service.
  Unnamed sources told Bloomberg that the cable giant is “moving closer” to introducing a service that relies on both Verizon’s wireless network and Comcast’s own Wi-Fi hotspots. The sources didn’t give a timeframe, but analyst Jonathan Chaplin believes a market trial could kick off within six months, followed by a broader launch by this time ne
  
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• BrandPost: 5 Takeaways from the Gartner Symposium ITxpo

  22-10-2015 17:29
  
  This year’s Gartner event in Orlando was the world’s largest gathering of CIOs and proved to be enormously informative, as always. Let’s look at some of the highlights from the Symposium:
  It’s a digital business. What does becoming a digital business mean? Always on, always connected, self-service, automation, mobile, cloud, big data, IoT, pay-as-you-go and more. According to Gartner, “digital business watches what the customer does, not just what the customer want
  
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• 7 big threats to innovation and how to overcome them

  22-10-2015 17:08
  
  Innovation is the cornerstone of a successful business, so why is it so elusive to many companies? To determine the biggest roadblocks, consulting firm Imaginatik conducted a study of 200 professionals in its "State of Global Innovation" report. 35 percent of those surveyed were senior management, board members or C-Suite executives, and 76 percent of respondent's organizations had 1,000 employees or more. The results offer insight into what makes innovation stall at large companies.There's litt
  
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• These 15 Excel keyboard shortcuts will help you become a spreadsheet master

  22-10-2015 16:32
  
  Yesterday, we published a list of 15 Excel functions everyone should know to help you on your way to spreadsheet mastery. If you want to be efficient as possible while using your newfound knowledge, however, it pays to learn some basic keyboard shortcuts.
  There are tons of shortcuts for Excel out there—here’s a list of 200 for Excel 2013 alone. But trying to learn such a large number can be overwhelming, confusing, and ultimately inefficient.
  Instead, we’ve put together a
  
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• U.S. CIO tells IT leaders to trust the cloud

  22-10-2015 15:21
  
  This week, the U.S. federal government's most powerful IT steward bestowed unbridled praise upon the largest cloud providers, during a Google for Work webcast. Tony Scott, U.S. CIO, even suggested there is no safer place to store data than in the cloud."I see the big cloud providers in the same way I see a bank," he says. "They have the incentive, they have skills and abilities, and they have the motivation to do a much better job of security than any one company or any one organization can prob
  
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• Major Windows 10 PC update tipped to land in November

  22-10-2015 15:17
  Microsoft is getting ready for its next major update to Windows 10, dubbed Threshold 2, and to hear Paul Thurrott tell it we’ll be getting the update next month. We’ve been hearing about a major update to Windows 10 this fall, which will be followed by the major ”Redstone” updates in 2016.
  Thurrott doesn’t specify a date for the Threshold 2 release—although Zac Bowden over at WinBeta says it’s coming Monday, November 2. Whatever the exact date is,
  
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• Attackers hijack CCTV cameras and network-attached storage devices to launch DDoS attacks

  22-10-2015 15:06
  
  We've reached a point that security researchers have long warned is coming: insecure embedded devices connected to the Internet are routinely being hacked and used in attacks.
  The latest example is a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack detected recently by security firm Imperva. It was a traditional HTTP flood aimed at overloading a resource on a cloud service, but the malicious requests came from surveillance cameras protecting businesses around the world instead of a typical comp
  
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• No VAT to pay on bitcoin exchange transactions, says top EU court

  22-10-2015 15:03
  
  Bitcoin exchanges do not have to levy value-added tax on the margins they make when exchanging bitcoins for conventional currencies, the European Union's highest court ruled Thursday.The decision turned on whether bitcoins are to be considered a form of currency, but did not address whether they are legal tender.The Court of Justice of the EU had been asked by the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court to interpret the 2006 EU directive on a common VAT system as it applies to the operation of a bi
  
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• Ubuntu Wily Werewolf trots out easy-install OpenStack

  22-10-2015 15:00
  
  If there's one Linux distribution that has worked hard -- overtime, even -- to associate itself with OpenStack and all it represents, it's Canonical's Ubuntu.
  And if there's one message Ubuntu has been working hard to promote, it's the company's dedication to the painless deployment and maintenance of OpenStack -- as is the case with Ubuntu's 15.10 release, aka Wily Werewolf.[ InfoWorld unveils the Bossies -- the best open source products of the year. | Track the latest trends in open
  
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• On the hunt for merger or acquisition? Make sure your target is secure

  22-10-2015 14:24
  
  Security experts regularly exhort organizations to improve their security not just internally but externally as well, in their business relationships with third parties.
  In many cases, it is more than an exhortation – it’s a mandate. Last year’s updated standards for the payment card industry (PCI) made a point of addressing third-party risks.
  But some evidence suggests an area of third-party relationships where security still lags is mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
  In a s
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Back to the future project management

  22-10-2015 14:19
  
  Ok, this may be a bit cheesy to take on now given the 30th anniversary of the Back to the Future original movie and the Cubs current baseball success (though that looks like it's over with), but the concepts I'm going to present here should have already been in place to make our jobs easier by now.I can look back to 1985 (ok, for me it's more like 1990) and say...here's what I would have expected by now in 2015 to make our jobs as project managers easier. In fact, the entire business world could
  
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• Report: Infosec women make progress in governance, risk and compliance

  22-10-2015 14:14
  
  Women account for just 10 percent of the information security workforce, a new report shows, but are making progress in governance, risk and compliance jobs.
  The absolute number of women in cybersecurity jobs has been growing, but they're not even keeping up with the growth of the industry as a whole, according to a report released earlier this month by research firm Frost & Sullivan. In 2013, women made up 11 percent of the global information security workforce.
  The report, based on a surv
  
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• People close to Steve Jobs discuss controversial new film

  22-10-2015 14:00
  
  'Steve Jobs,' a film of high drama and intrigueImage by Matthew Yohe/Wikipedia CCThe making of the new film "Steve Jobs" included almost as much drama and intrigue as the life of the man it portrays. The team working on the film, based on Walter Isaacson's official biography, suffered numerous setbacks during the last four years, including a high-profile Sony hack that occurred during production, and it was almost never made. Controversy continues to surround the movie as a war of words erupts b
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 6 questions that could save you millions on your next cloud migration

  22-10-2015 13:57
  
  Migrating to the cloud is never an easy task – and keeping costs under control is especially difficult when migrating with incumbent, legacy IT vendors. Companies like Oracle are reported to be paying sales people three, five or even seven times higher commissions to get customers to sign new cloud contracts. That, combined with mixed degrees of cloud buying experience on both the buyer's and seller's side of the table, has made it easier than ever to get rushed through the cloud sourcing
  
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• How to become an independent IT consultant

  22-10-2015 13:48
  
  In my previous article I talked about the first half of the journey toward consulting – increasing responsibility as an employee, from getting direction, to owning your own process, to finally being a trusted advisor to senior management. The next step, the step of faith, is leaving the safety of the employer to the cold, external world.Today I'm going to cover that next step of going independent, including a bit of my own story. If you have enough capital, you can go independent tomo
  
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• Don't overdo biometrics, expert warns

  22-10-2015 13:47
  
  Biometric data such as fingerprint scans is being collected too widely and too casually, according to security company Protegrity USA.
  "Today, many of the major banks are using biometrics to log into your accounts on your mobile devices," said Protegrity CEO Suni Munshani.
  As biometric access replaces passwords it adds convenience for users. But many companies are deploying the technology too casually, he said.
  "Biometrics should be used in a far more cautious manner," he said.
  According to Gar
  
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• KPN en Esri Nederland gaan samenwerken in NL-cloud

  22-10-2015 13:28
  Esri Nederland, specialist op het gebied van geografische informatiesystemen (GIS) en KPN gaan een strategische samenwerking aan om Nederlandse cloud-diensten voor het ArcGIS-platform te ontwikkelen en aan te bieden. Met dit platform kunnen organisaties kaarten maken en geografische analyses doen, onderhoud... lees meer
  
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• Nexus 6P review: This is the way Android phones should be

  22-10-2015 13:00
  
  I am in love with a Nexus phone.
  This is not an exaggeration. I wasn’t crazy about the Nexus 6P when I first laid hands on it, but now I’m totally and completely enamored.
  I didn’t think it was possible for Google to make a Nexus phone that could excite me. Frankly, I’ve never been that interested in Nexus devices because they were always missing some particularly important feature that Samsung, HTC, or LG did better—or they weren’t compatible with Verizon&rs
  
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• Twitter CEO to developers: We messed up

  22-10-2015 12:00
  
  Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, speaking at the Twitter Flight conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, apologized for the company’s subpar relationship with developers and stressed the need for an open dialog.
  Developers have led the way in innovating with Twitter, Dorsey said. “Developers took our service from day 1 and made Twitter [have] a much more global reach.” He cited applications that enable a plant that tweets when it wants water and a pothole that tweets to local officia
  
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• The power of PowerShell: An intro for Exchange admins

  22-10-2015 12:00
  
  Managing Exchange can be a significant time sink, and you may be surprised to find that much of the time spent administering Exchange is pure waste -- unless, that is, you’re already tapping PowerShell.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Surface Book vs. MacBook Pro: It isn't twice as fast. It's three times as fast

  22-10-2015 12:00
  
  Of course we had to pit the Surface Book vs. the MacBook Pro. It’s like Ford vs. Chevy, or Coke vs. Pepsi. Each side has its diehard fans, plus others who just want to know which is better.
  Microsoft claims its new Surface Book is “twice” as fast as its equivalent MacBook Pro. Well, we ran some benchmarks, and hate to say it, but Microsoft lied. The Surface Book isn’t twice as fast. 
  It’s three times as fast.
  Read on for the details.What Microsoft meantFirst,
  
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• Researchers warn computer clocks can be easily scrambled

  22-10-2015 03:18
  
  In 2012, two servers run by the U.S. Navy rolled back their clocks 12 years, deciding it was the year 2000.The servers were very important: they're part of a worldwide network that helps computers keep the right time using the Network Time Protocol (NTP).Computers that checked in with the Navy's servers and adjusted their clocks accordingly had a variety of problems with their phones systems, routers and authentication systems.The incident underscored the serious problems that can occur when usi
  
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• Storage giants are getting bigger, but prices will stay small

  22-10-2015 02:11
  Hard-drive giant Western Digital's planned acquisition of SanDisk is just the latest of several deals that could reduce the number of companies making storage gear. Will this trend eliminate choices and let manufacturers raise prices?No, according to analyst Jim Handy of Objective Analysis. Buying hard drives and flash won't get harder or more expensive, precisely because selling them will remain a cut-throat business for the foreseeable future, he said. The proposed US$19 billion buyo
  
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• The security talent shortage and your leadership opportunity

  22-10-2015 01:47
  
  Reframing the talent shortageImage by Steven Guzzardi“Identify your problems, but give your power and energy to solutions.” -- Tony RobbinsMuch is written about a talent shortage in the security industry. The theme weaves into presentations. We discuss it in the hallways, on podcasts, and when we get the chance. Many offer examples of their challenge to hire someone -- as evidence that we face a global crisis.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Twitter apologizes to, tries to woo back, developers

  22-10-2015 01:46
  
  Jack Dorsey, Twitter's newly appointed CEO, took to the stage at the company's developer conference today and basically asked programmers for forgiveness.
  "Somewhere along the line, our relationship with developers got a little bit complicated, a little bit confusing and little bit unpredictable," he said in the keynote of Twitter's Flight conference in San Francisco today. "And we want to come to you today, and first and foremost apologize for the confusion. We want to reset our relationship a
  
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• House panel hears retailers' concerns about chip-and-signature cards

  22-10-2015 01:45
  
  Three representatives of small businesses said at a U.S. House hearing Wednesday that new chip-embedded credit cards need to have added PIN security instead of the chip and signature favored by most banks and card companies.
  The hearing took place nearly three weeks after an Oct. 1 deadline for retailers to update their payment terminals to accept chip cards or face liability for card fraud.
  [ Find out more: FAQ: What you need to know about chip-embedded credit cards ]To read this article in fu
  
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• NetApp's new CEO talks about hybrid cloud, customer challenges

  22-10-2015 01:44
  
  EMC isn't the only enterprise storage company going through dramatic changes. In June, former storage high-flyer NetApp announced that CEO Tom Georgens had left the company and was being replaced by long-time insider George Kurian, who had previously served as executive vice president of product operations.
  I think the overall sense is that execution has been an issue at NetApp, whether it's on the sales front, the development front moving things along more quickly, or on the competitive landsc
  
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• France votes to expand open-source use

  22-10-2015 01:43
  
  French voters voiced strong support for a proposal that will see the country’s government expand the role of free and open-source software in a national referendum on technology called the Digital Republic bill.
  More than 147,000 people voted on the Digital Republic bill’s 662 accepted proposals, and two open-source measures were the second- and third-biggest vote getters. One proposal called for France’s schools and universities to use GNU/Linux software, and end Microsoft&rs
  
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• Amazon’s case for running containers in its cloud

  22-10-2015 01:40
  
  Like many vendors across the cloud computing and hosting market, Amazon Web Services is evolving its platform in an attempt to convince customers that its cloud is the best place to run application containers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• The sun will soon set on HP's Helion Public Cloud

  22-10-2015 00:08
  Earlier this year HP let slip that the public cloud may not be a place it wants to compete, and on Wednesday it followed through on that suggestion with an announcement that it will shutter its Helion Public Cloud for good."We have made the decision to double down on our private and managed cloud capabilities," wrote Bill Hilf, senior vice president and general manager for HP Cloud, in a blog post announcing the news.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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