IT Executive news

• LifeLock fined $100 million for false claims

  18-12-2015 23:07
  
  I’m always skeptical about companies that promise to protect you and your family when they run a commercial showing earnest men and woman wearing headsets while sitting in a room filled with large computer monitors. LifeLock, a company that promises to protect your identity 24 x 7 is one of those companies.It turns out that my skepticism was well-founded. LifeLock this week agreed to pay a $100 million fine levied by the Federal Trade Commission for not delivering on its extravagant promis
  
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• Apple and IBM partnership yields 100 iOS enterprise apps

  18-12-2015 22:30
  
  During its 17 months of partnership with Apple, IBM has released 100 iOS apps for industry-specific functions. IBM released 48 new apps this month alone in an apparent mad dash to meet its goal of developing 100 IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps by the end of 2015.While Apple is usually eager to disclose how many apps are supported across its various platforms, its enterprise focus with IBM is evolving into a more broad pursuit focused on suites of apps packaged for specific industry needs. Collectiv
  
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• Cybersecurity bill approved, but what does it accomplish?

  18-12-2015 22:13
  
  It may have been easy for Congress on Friday to approve the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), despite past controversy around it.
  This bill does not hike federal spending or impose sweeping regulatory rules. Its main feature is something many firms will be happy to get: liability protection if they share information with the government about cyberthreats and attacks.
  CISA was slipped into the keep-the-government running $1.1 trillion spending bill. It was approved just before lawmak
  
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• CHRISTUS Health’s private cloud provides the Rx needed to accommodate change

  18-12-2015 21:57
  
  CHRISTUS Health is a sprawling healthcare operation headquartered in Irving Texas, with primary acute care facilities in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Mexico, Chile and, coming soon, Colombia, as well as long-term care facilities in Georgia, Iowa, Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. Lynn Gibson was brought in almost four years ago as CTO to help CHRISTUS gird for change, and Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently stopped by his office to get his take on where they stand and what comes n
  
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• LifeLock pays $100M to settle FTC complaint of more false advertising

  18-12-2015 21:56
  
  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday announced that the anti-identity-theft company LifeLock will pay a record $100 million to settle a contempt complaint that originated with a court order of five years ago.
  Arizona-based LifeLock, which purports to protect consumers from identity theft -- and help them regain it if stolen -- was once best known for its aggressive advertising, which splashed its CEO's Social Security number everywhere and dared hackers to steal his identity.
  In 20
  
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• Microsoft pursues analytics ambitions with acquisition of Metanautix

  18-12-2015 20:54
  
  Microsoft has furthered its pursuit of enterprise analytics with the acquisition of Metanautix, a company that makes it possible for businesses to pull together all their data and gain insights into it. Metanautix's product can pull information in from a variety of private and public cloud data sources including traditional data warehouses, NoSQL databases like Cassandra and business systems like Salesforce. Once it's aggregated, businesses can use SQL to query the resulting data pipeline i
  
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• Big data gets its first official standard at the ITU

  18-12-2015 20:53
  The United Nations' ITU agency has long worked to promote global cooperation in a variety of technical areas, and on Friday it announced its first-ever standard for big data.The new international standard details the requirements, capabilities and uses of cloud-based big data, with an eye toward ensuring that its benefits can be achieved on a global scale. It also outlines how cloud computing systems can be leveraged to provide big-data services."This new ITU standard provides internationally ag
  
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• Future LTE networks could set up shop in your office

  18-12-2015 20:43
  Your next enterprise wireless network might use LTE if Qualcomm and some powerful partners succeed in pushing cellular beyond just mobile operators.This week, Intel, Ericsson and Nokia joined Qualcomm in forming the MulteFire Alliance, an industry group to develop and promote LTE that runs only on the kind of unlicensed frequencies that companies use for Wi-Fi.LTE networks in enterprises may be a long time in coming. Where a vast industry has grown up to meet companies' indoor wireless requireme
  
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• IDC: If CIOs fail to step up on digital transformation, IT won't matter

  18-12-2015 20:05
  
  "Last year's CIO FutureScape reported that with traditional approaches IT organizations were often too slow in the face of the business's overarching need for speed, and that frustrated line of business executives were taking charge of their destiny," says Joseph Pucciarelli, Group Vice President at research firm IDC. "A year later we have found that IT organizations are further behind as we struggle to support digital transformation, which is now entering mainstream adoption."To read this artic
  
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• Microsoft move to revoke trust in 20 root certificates could wreak havoc on sites

  18-12-2015 20:01
  Tens of thousands of secure websites might start to display certificate errors to their visitors in January, when Microsoft plans to stop trusting 20 certificate authorities (CAs) from around the world.The list of certificates that are scheduled to be removed from Microsoft's Trusted Root Certificate Program belong to CAs run by private or state-owned organizations from the U.S., France, the Czech Republic, Japan, Denmark, Chile, Turkey, Luxembourg, Ireland, Slovenia and Brazil.With their remova
  
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• IBM will manage AT&T’s hosted and cloud services as part of partnership

  18-12-2015 19:41
  
   Many pundits have long-predicted continued consolidation in the IaaS cloud computing market throughout 2015 and into next year too.
  As evidence of this trend, this week IBM and AT&T announced a broad strategic agreement that will bring these two tech vendors closer together in the cloud computing market.
  +MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: Public cloud vs. on premises - which is more secure? +
  IBM will take over management of AT&T’s hosted data center offerings, including its cloud comp
  
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• What unscrupulous attorneys do to win and how to fight back

  18-12-2015 19:33
  
  I cover litigation between firms and governments and I’ve been involved in a few dustups myself. As we approach the holidays, I figured it would be fun to share what I’ve learned in the hope that some of you can learn from my mistakes and avoid making your own. So whether you are in court against your cheating spouse, nasty neighbor, ex-employer, or managing a litigation for your firm, here is my list of annoying things that unscrupulous attorneys do to win.By the way, before we star
  
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• Get an iPhone 6s for $1 at Best Buy this weekend

  18-12-2015 19:24
  
  If you’ve been holding off on getting a new iPhone 6s, this weekend might be your time to buy.
  For a limited time, Best Buy is offering the 16GB iPhone 6s for only $1 when you sign up for a two-year contract with Verizon or Sprint. This sale only will end this Sunday, December 20, and it excludes AT&T customers. The 16GB iPhone 6s model normally retails for $200 with a two-year contract. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• BlackBerry plans IoT push at CES

  18-12-2015 19:19
  
  BlackBerry CEO John Chen hopes that what happens in Vegas won't stay in Vegas.
  The company is planning to push its QNX real-time operating system into the Internet of Things at CES, the giant consumer electronics show held in Las Vegas each January, and hopes it will be a break-out success.
  BlackBerry acquired QNX in 2010, using it first in its ill-fated PlayBook tablet before going on to build the BlackBerry 10 OS on top of it. The software also shows up in many car entertainment systems.
  Chen
  
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• Sony is building new battery chemistry to make smartphones last much longer

  18-12-2015 18:54
  
  Sony is hoping to take new battery chemistry out of the lab and into actual smartphones within the next five years.
  According to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Sony is working on both lithium-sulfur and magnesium-sulfur batteries to replace today’s lithium-ion chemistry. The result could be a 40 percent gain in density by volume. Laminated batteries for smartphones would be the initial target product, with commercialization slated for 2020.
  The problem with lithium-ion is that it’s appr
  
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• The best Android smartphones of 2015, priced from high to low

  18-12-2015 18:53
  
  An Android shopper's guideDeciding on which Android phone to buy can be difficult. On top of a record 1.1 billion Android phones shipped in 2015, there were 24,000 unique Android devices in the wild this year, according to Open Signal. Android smartphones vary widely, and range in price from less than $100 to over $700.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Amazon adds managed NAT gateways to Virtual Private Cloud

  18-12-2015 17:51
  
  Amazon's Virtual Private Cloud has long made it possible to partition a hunk of AWS with a private network of its own, complete with a VPN connection for secure access.
  But setting up a VPN to access the Internet is drudgery, since connections to and from VPC have to be mapped with network address translation (NAT) using a manually created cluster of EC2 instances that serve as a gateway.[ Also on InfoWorld: How to roll your own VPN, the open source, low-cost way. | Get expert networking h
  
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• Cox must pay $25 million after failing to make pirating subscribers walk the plank, but the real loser could be you

  18-12-2015 17:40
  
  The music industry just won a major victory over an American Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the fallout could result in more draconian punishments meted out to users who engage in file sharing.
  Music company BMG Rights Management won its case against Cox Communications on Thursday. A jury in the Eastern District of Virginia found Cox guilty of contributory copyright infringement and awarded BMG $25 million in damages, as first reported by TorrentFreak.
  BMG argued that Cox was responsible f
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why big companies need to become more entrepreneurial to survive

  18-12-2015 17:39
  
  There has been a dramatic pivot in the nature of competitive advantage, with consequences no big enterprise can ignore. In an age where growth and innovation are increasingly synonymous, the term innovation is equated not with scaled incumbent market leaders, but with scrappy entrepreneurs. Look around at the fastest growing toplines and biggest disruptors—Tesla, Nest, Xiaomi, Square, Slack, Spotify. As different as their lines of business may be, they have one big thing in common: they&rs
  
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• 5 ways 2015 changed enterprise software forever

  18-12-2015 17:27
  The past year brought big changes to the core software applications and tools that companies use every day, and some of those shifts promise to have a particularly enduring impact. Here are five ways the past year changed enterprise software for good.
  1. As at home, so at work
  Compare today's enterprise software tools with those from just a year or two ago, and you can't help but notice one striking difference: the user experience. Today's software increasingly incorporates paradigms and featur
  
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• Apple partners with UnionPay to bring Apple Pay to China

  18-12-2015 17:08
  
  Apple today announced it had partnered with China UnionPay, the state-run company that is the country's only bank-card issuer, to bring Apple Pay to the People's Republic of China (PRC).
  "China is an extremely important market for Apple and with China UnionPay and support from 15 of China's leading banks, users will soon have a convenient, private and secure payment experience," Eddy Cue, Apple's top executive for the Cupertino, Calif. company's mobile point-of-sale payment service, said in a F
  
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• The French are steamed about Valve's 'unfair' game resale ban

  18-12-2015 17:01
  A French consumer association, steamed up at the way major online game platforms prohibit the resale of games, is seeking to make an example of Valve Software, operator of the Steam platform.UFC-Que Choisir has asked the High Court of Paris to rule that certain terms of Valve's user agreement are unfair and in breach of European Union law.Resale rights are not the association's only concern: In all, it considers 12 of Valve's contract clauses unfair or illegal. The others in dispute concern Valv
  
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• Why GoDaddy built its search engine from scratch

  18-12-2015 16:53
  
  When Mike McLaughlin joined GoDaddy in 2013 he asked a handful of peers whether they thought he could use commercial search software to help grow its domain name registrar business, supporting emerging small businesses looking for catchy domain names. McLaughlin, the company's newly appointed senior vice president general manager of domains, was tasked with adding support for hundreds of different name spaces and expanding the domain business internationally.Although he believed he could buy a p
  
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• Yesterday’s technologies, today’s problems

  18-12-2015 16:39
  
  When I first heard the story, I didn’t believe it. I mean, really, a Paris airport forced to shut down because a computer running Windows 3.1 crashed? Seriously?
  It wasn’t a joke. It was real. The airport had to close down because a 23-year-old operating system, never known for stability, crashed. Better that it was an operating system than an airplane, of course, but still!
  I shouldn’t have been surprised, though. All of us are guilty of hanging on to obsolete software a
  
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• Vier aanbevelingen voor meer succes met data

  18-12-2015 16:24
  Door Walter van der Scheer – Een grote meerderheid van Nederlandse organisaties (82%) vindt de mogelijkheden van big data voor de eigen organisatie groot, maar heeft moeite met toepassingen in de praktijk.Dit blijkt uit de Big Data Survey 2015, een onderzoek onder een kleine 200 organisaties in diverse... lees meer
  
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• Why we need a national IoT strategy

  18-12-2015 16:00
  
  In tech circles, few topics have been generating more buzz of late than the Internet of Things (IoT), the projected surge of smart, networked devices that promises breakthrough improvements in sectors as diverse as healthcare and energy, transportation and agriculture.[ Related: How the Internet of Things is changing healthcare and transportation ]But there's a catch.The IoT may never realize its full potential unless the government takes a more active role in promoting the technology while abst
  
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• Cisco’s greatest hits, 2015

  18-12-2015 15:55
  
  A lot of changes at CiscoImage by Stephen Lawson2015 was an extremely busy year for Cisco, with the CEO and executive leadership transition, major partnerships and product introductions, major product cancellations, competitive and strategic positioning and, of course, acquisitions. Here’s a chronological review of Cisco’s biggest hits of the year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Windows 10 upgrades for Windows Phone 8.1 devices delayed until 2016

  18-12-2015 15:52
  
  Windows Phone 8.1 users looking forward to an upgrade to Windows 10 in December are going to be disappointed. After company representatives said in October that Windows 10 mobile upgrades would start sometime this month, Microsoft is now saying it won’t happen until early 2016.
  “The Windows 10 Mobile upgrade will begin rolling out early next year to select existing Windows 8 and 8.1 phones,” a Microsoft spokesperson recently told ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley.To read this a
  
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• Apple CEO defends privacy, encryption amidst terrorist concerns

  18-12-2015 14:07
  
  Apple CEO Tim Cook staunchly defended personal privacy and the use of encryption on iPhones amidst renewed concerns about terrorists hiding covert electronic messages when they plan deadly attacks.
  In an interview with Charlie Rose on CBS This Morningthat aired Friday, Cook said the supposed tradeoff between privacy and security is "only a simplistic view—we can have both."
  Cook repeated Apple's stance that it complies specifically with court-ordered warrants to produce information as req
  
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• How to get and leverage user-generated content

  18-12-2015 13:50
  
  Adding user-generated content (UGC), such as ratings and reviews, to your website can enhance not only your search engine ranking, it can build trust between you and prospective customers – and mean the difference between you getting the sale or a competitor getting it. But how do you get customers to give you their honest feedback and how (and where) should you feature that content?Dozens of content marketing and customer experience experts offer their six top suggestions regarding the be
  
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• Juniper firewalls compromised by spy code: What you need to know

  18-12-2015 13:32
  
  Juniper Networks is warning customers to patch their NetScreen enterprise firewalls against spyware that enables attackers to take over the machines and decrypt VPN traffic among corporate sites and with mobile employees.
  The danger is that attackers could exploit the code “to gain administrative access to NetScreen devices and to decrypt VPN connections,” Juniper says in a security announcement.
  It would enable smart attackers to exploit the vulnerability and wipe out log files, ma
  
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• Court finds for Arista in EOS suit with co-founder

  18-12-2015 13:22
  
  A California court has found in favor of Arista Networks in a software ownership lawsuit filed by its co-founder.
  In a preliminary ruling, the California Superior Court, Santa Clara County found that OptumSoft, a company started by Arista co-founder David Cheriton, does not own Arista code developed to work with royalty-free licensed software. That software is OptumSoft’s TACC -- Types, Attributes and Constraints Compiler -- a platform for developing modular or distributed applications or
  
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• Microsoft partners with Chinese state-owned defense conglomerate to promote, sell Windows 10 to government

  18-12-2015 13:12
  
  Microsoft yesterday expanded its partnership with one of China's largest defense and technology conglomerates as it announced a joint venture to get Windows 10 on government PCs in the People's Republic.
  The U.S. company will partner with China Electronics Technology Group (CETC) to create C&M Information Technologies -- the name is provisional and the move will require Chinese regulatory approval -- to license Windows 10 to government agencies and some state-owned corporations, including t
  
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• Not Tor, MIT’s Vuvuzela messaging system uses ‘noise’ to ensure privacy

  18-12-2015 13:10
  
  As privacy of The Onion Router (Tor) network comes into question, MIT researchers say they have devised a secure system called Vuvuzela that makes text messaging sent through it untraceable and that could be more secure than Tor when it comes to hiding who is talking to whom.
  While it’s not ready for prime time, the messaging system makes it extremely difficult for attackers to find out which connected users are communicating with which others or whether they are sending or receiving mess
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Does anybody still use their iPhone as a phone?

  18-12-2015 13:00
  
  I recently did a post about how I fell in love with the iPhone 6 Plus again. The renewal of my interest in the iPhone 6 Plus got me thinking about smartphones, and it made me wonder why we even bother to still call them phones. Devices like the iPhone are really pocket computers and phone calls have become a minor feature at best.I keep the iOS Phone icon in a folder on my home screenFor example, I rarely use my iPhone to make phone calls. Yes, I know how weird that must sound but it's true. For
  
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• 9 great tablet deals for your holiday shopping list

  18-12-2015 12:46
  
  Tablet deals for your holiday shopping listImage by ThinkstockBlack Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, but that doesn't mean there aren't still great deals on tablets. If you're looking to get a tablet for your loved ones this holiday season, here are nine of the best deals on tablets you can find between now and Christmas.Fire HDImage by ThinkstockTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Machine learning: Cybersecurity dream-come-true or pipe dream?

  18-12-2015 12:30
  
  Want to know which of your workers aren’t working much, which ones are planning to leave soon and/or might also be planning to steal some proprietary data on the way out the door?
  Machine learning can help you spot it much more quickly than your legacy HR department, according to Ariel Silverstone, a consulting chief security and privacy officer, who said he’s seen machine learning do that with “a week’s worth of baseline data.”
  He is not the only one convinced of
  
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• In Depth: A month with the iPad Pro

  18-12-2015 12:07
  
  Imagine holding two iPad Air 2 tablets in your hands, side by side. If you could combine them into one tablet, you’d likely be more productive, right?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Alan Greenspan renews call for H-1B expansion

  18-12-2015 11:54
  
  For more than 15 years, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has been a part of the H-1B debate, calling for raising or eliminating visa caps. He did so again this week.
  Greenspan's view is that the economy will expand with the size of the talent pool. But is he a credible source for arguing that the H-1B cap needs to be increased?
  At a Council of Foreign Relations conference in New York, Greenspan was asked by Steve Liesman, a senior economics reporter for CNBC, whether productivity
  
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• Juniper warns of spying code in firewalls

  18-12-2015 03:14
  
  Juniper, a major manufacturer of networking equipment, said on Thursday it found spying code planted in certain models of its firewalls, an alarming discovery that echoes of state-sponsored tampering.
  The affected products are those running ScreenOS, one of Juniper's operating systems that runs on a range of appliances that act as firewalls and enable VPNs. ScreenOS versions 6.2.0r15 through 6.2.0r18 and 6.3.0r12 through 6.3.0r20 are vulnerable, according to an advisory.
  The unauthorized c
  
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• Bag checks and bomb-sniffing dogs could turn CES into a hellish snarl of lines, lines, lines

  18-12-2015 03:10
  
  CES, the biggest trade show on earth, is about to become the biggest hassle, too. On Thursday the Consumer Technology Association said it has implemented unprecedented security measures in light of recent “global tragedies.”
  That means police in tactical gear will roam the hallways with bomb-sniffing dogs and mix in with the drones, gadgets, selfie-sticks, and giant televisions on display from Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas.
  The biggest headaches, though, will likely be mandatory bag checks
  
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• Cyberattack prediction: Hackers will target a U.S. election next year

  18-12-2015 03:09
  A major cyberattack next year will target a U.S. election, security expert Bruce Schneier predicts.
  The attack won't hit the voting system and may not involve the presidential election, but the temptation for hackers is too great, even in state and local races, said Schneier, a computer security pioneer and longtime commentator.
  "There are going to be hacks that affect politics in the United States," Schneier said. Attackers may break into candidates' websites, e-mail or social media accounts t
  
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• In surprise move, Congress extends renewable energy tax credit

  18-12-2015 03:08
  
  Just two weeks before it was set to expire, a tax credit for installing renewable energy systems, such as solar and wind power, has been extended for five years by Congress.
  The U.S. government's investment tax credit (ITC), which went into affect in 2006, was the main catalyst for growth of solar installations in the U.S. The ITC offers a tax credit equal to 30% of a solar or wind project's costs.
  Analyst forecasts had indicated there would be a major decline in solar and wind power growth aft
  
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• To break terrorist encryption, pay off Apple and Google, expert urges

  18-12-2015 03:07
  
  To break encrypted smartphone messages used by terrorists, tech companies such as Apple and Google need to be paid by law enforcement, an expert urged Thursday.
  "If there were a financial incentive for Google and Apple to assist law enforcement, then they would be more willing to change their encryption technology to facilitate law enforcement in possession of a warrant," said Professor Darren Hayes, director of cybersecurity at Pace University, in an interview.
  Tech companies and wireless carr
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: System76 Meerkat: God of small things

  18-12-2015 03:02
  
  I run a file and media server at home to host all my files. It’s a very important machine for my work and personal life. And while I do use public and private cloud to collaborate or share files with others, I don’t use the public cloud to save personal photos or work documents. Everything lives on my local machine away from the prying eyes of spy agencies and companies.
  The regular self-assembled PC I used as my file server was taking up too much space and generating too much heat.
  
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• 8 apps to help you take the stress out of holiday travel

  18-12-2015 01:00
  
  Traveling during the holidays is an absolute pain in the derrière, but you can make it a little easier on yourself, and your travel companions, but equipping yourself with the proper arsenal of apps. Since I often travel for both work and play, I put together a helpful list of the Android apps I’ve use to make my travel days less stressful. WazeIf you’re traveling by car, Google Maps is simply not enough—even if it does integrate some of Waze’s func
  
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• 10 'Star Wars' technologies that are almost here

  18-12-2015 00:00
  
  Star Wars technologies that are closer than you might thinkImage by WikimediaOn Dec. 18, science fiction fans worldwide will feel a galactic disturbance in the Force when the new Star Wars movie hits theaters. Set several years after events from George Lucas' original trilogy, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" promises to update us on the adventures of Han, Luke, and Leia, as well as introduce a new generation of heroes and villains.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click h
  
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