IT Executive news

• Microsoft is bringing its crown jewel SQL Server to Linux

  07-03-2016 22:51
  
  When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella extolled his company's love for Linux -- an open source operating system it previously opposed -- it would be natural to assume that commitment came with a few caveats. On Monday, the company doubled down on its love for open source in one of the most surprising ways possible.SQL Server, one of the most popular pieces of database server software, and a crown jewel of Microsoft's enterprise software empire, is coming to Linux. To read this article in full or
  
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• Users will get faster free Wi-Fi from hubs in New York

  07-03-2016 22:21
  
  New York City is replacing pay phones with new high-tech wireless hubs that will dish out free, high-speed Wi-Fi service, charge mobile devices and provide access to city services.
  In coming months, the city will install about 7,500 LinkNYC hubs, which include an Android tablet for surfing the Internet, connecting to city services and making VoIP calls. The hub will also include a wireless hotspot for connecting smartphones, tablets and PCs to the Internet.
  But the new technology has one p
  
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• New Juniper Security CTO promises open framework for software defined network security

  07-03-2016 21:28
  
  The new Juniper Networks liaison between the company’s engineering team and its customers says it will take time, but Juniper’s software defined security networking (SDSN) will eventually support third-party devices to help build security into the network fabric itself.
  It’s part of a shift from network security to a secure network that is flexible thanks to software defined networking, says Kevin Walker, Juniper’s Security CTO.
  The SDSN framework is designed to leverage
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 6 tips to help you excel in a new leadership role

  07-03-2016 21:03
  
  Studies have shown that it takes a typical employee six weeks to feel comfortable in a new job. However, as the new leader of an organization, you will be far behind the curve if it takes you six weeks to settle into your position. Fortunately, there are a number of steps you can take to make sure you get off to a fast start, even if you know it will take some time to truly understand the needs of the new organization.1. Assess the new organization
  A key task when assuming a new position is to d
  
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• Dropbox has half a billion users, but it needs more paying businesses

  07-03-2016 20:29
  
  Dropbox has long been an incredibly popular choice for cloud file storage and sync, and the company announced Monday it hit an important milestone: It has 500 million registered users. That number leaves out a lot of information. It's unclear whether Dropbox has 500 million unique people registered to use its service, or if it has 500 million registered accounts, with some people using multiple accounts. The company also didn't say how many of those accounts are active. Dropbox also sa
  
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• It's AI vs. humans in this week's history-making Go face-off

  07-03-2016 20:10
  
  When IBM's Deep Blue beat chess champion Garry Kasparov back in 1997, the world was agog over AI's potential. This week, Google DeepMind's AlphaGo system will face an even tougher test in a series of matches against a top-ranked master in the ancient game of Go.The tournament will in many ways be an ultimate challenge for the artificial-intelligence system following its victory last fall -- roughly a decade earlier than anyone had expected -- over European champion Fan Hui.To read this article i
  
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• Microsoft doesn’t need Windows anymore

  07-03-2016 19:28
  
  When you think of Microsoft, what product first comes to mind? Windows, you say? How quaint.Yes, you’re probably reading this on a Windows-based PC, but Windows itself matters less and less to Microsoft. Ed Bott recently broke down Microsoft’s latest 10-Q, its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission. What he found out about how Microsoft is making money these days is very interesting.Do you think that Windows is number one in bringing in the cash? It’s a reas
  
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• Cloud Security Training and Certification

  07-03-2016 19:18
  
  More and more enterprise organizations are planning and deploying into cloud platforms.  This trend is occurring despite organizations historical push-back on cloud services claiming that they are less secure than private on-premises data centers.  Even though there is evidence to suggest that cloud application attacks are on the rise, there are best practice methods to secure cloud services.  On one hand, internal data center services may be tucked nice and neat behind the corpor
  
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• Microsoft's Edge reverses trend, gains share among Windows 10 users

  07-03-2016 19:11
  
  Microsoft's Edge browser made gains in user and usage share last month, but the default browser of Windows 10 remained the choice of a minority of users -- according to some sources, a very small minority.
  Edge, the designated default browser for Windows 10, grew its user share -- a measurement by American analytics vendor Net Applications that represents the portion of users worldwide who run a specific browser -- by nearly five percentage points in February, climbing to 30.7% of those running
  
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• Verizon's 'Supercookie' FCC settlement requires opt-in for some tracking

  07-03-2016 19:02
  
  Verizon Wireless is getting slapped with a fine and privacy requirements after inserting undeletable tracking cookies into users’ browsing sessions.
  As part of a settlement with the Federal Communications Commission, Verizon will have to get users’ permission to share these “supercookies” with third-party partners. However, users will still have to opt out of tracking by Verizon itself. Verizon will be notifying subscribers about the changes, and has also agreed to a $1.
  
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• How to seize control of your privacy with Mozilla's Firefox browser

  07-03-2016 18:56
  
  When it comes to online privacy, Mozilla’s open-source Firefox browser is probably the best choice for keeping your data away from prying eyes. Even though Mozilla does have some behavior-based advertising on its new tab page, it’s still by far the browser maker that most respects your right to browse unmolested.
  Nevertheless, Firefox does require several tweaks if you want to avoid privacy-invading tactics like ad tracking. Here's a rundown of the basic steps you can take in t
  
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• Verizon Wireless settles FCC complaint about supercookie tracking

  07-03-2016 18:29
  Verizon Wireless, in a settlement over its use of so-called supercookies to track mobile customers, will notify them about its targeted advertising practices and will obtain their permission before sharing personal identifiers with third parties.The company, in its settlement with the Federal Communications Commission, will also seek customer permission before internally sharing information gleaned by tracking its mobile customers using undeletable supercookies, the agency said Monday.
  
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• Meerderheid bedrijven slecht voorbereid op overgang naar digitale diensten

  07-03-2016 18:08
  Organisaties die haastig nieuwe online diensten ontwikkelen en aanbieden investeren vaak te weinig in adequate beveiligingsmaatregelen. Dit zorgt voor aanzienlijke risico’s, vooral op het gebied van toegang voor gebruikers. Daarop duidt onderzoek van consultancy Capgemini en beveiligingsspecialist RSA.
   
  Zes... lees meer
  
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• Maintainers of new generic top level domains have a hard time keeping abuse in check

  07-03-2016 17:28
  
  Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) that have sprung up in recent years have become a magnet for cybercriminals, to the point where some of them host more malicious domains than legitimate ones.Spamhaus, an organization that monitors spam, botnet and malware activity on the Internet, has published a list of the world's top 10 "worst TLDs" on Saturday. What's interesting is that the list is not based on the overall number of abusive domains hosted under a TLD, but on the TLD's ratio of abusive doma
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Open source app Transmission compromised to deliver Mac OS X ransomware

  07-03-2016 17:11
  
  Ransomware named KeRanger was discovered by security firm Palo Alto Networks on Friday, March 4th. Crackers somehow managed to upload two modified installers of Transmission for OS X onto Transmission's servers.
  Palo Alto Networks immediately notified both Apple and Transmission about the compromise. Transmission removed the infected installers, updated the software and pushed a notification that users will see upon running Transmission:
  Read Immediately!!!!
  Everyone running 2.90 on OS X should
  
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• Supreme Court denies Apple appeal in e-books price fixing case

  07-03-2016 17:00
  
  Apple will pay US$450 million as a settlement for e-book price fixing after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the company's appeal of a lower court's antitrust ruling.The Supreme Court's decision Monday ends Apple's appeal of the antitrust case against the company and five book publishers and upholds a June 2015 antitrust ruling at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Apple had agreed in 2014 to pay a $450 million settlement in the case, brought by the Department of Justi
  
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• Gogo buys more satellite capacity after lawsuit over slow in-flight Wi-Fi

  07-03-2016 16:32
  
  In-flight Internet provider Gogo plans to boost access speeds after a legal spat with customer American Airlines over slow service.Gogo plans to add bandwidth in two stages, first by buying more capacity on geostationary satellites from Intelsat and, some time after 2018, adding links to a future low-earth-orbit satellite system being built by OneWeb.Unsatisfied with the speed of Gogo's existing service, customer American Airlines recently took the company to court in a dispute over whether thei
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Stick with the Mac App Store for safer OS X software downloads

  07-03-2016 16:19
  The recent news that the popular torrenting app Transmission had been compromised to include ransomware shocked many OS X users. This is one of the first times that OS X has been directly targeted for such a malware attack.And it has some OS X users, myself included, wondering if it might be a better idea to stick with the Mac App Store instead of downloading software from third party Web sites.I'll share my thoughts about that below, but first here's some information from Palo Alto Networks on
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: OS X Transmission ransomware: Why you should stick with the Mac App Store

  07-03-2016 16:19
  The recent news that the popular torrenting app Transmission had been compromised to include ransomware shocked many OS X users. This is one of the first times that OS X has been directly targeted for such a malware attack.And it has some OS X users, myself included, wondering if it might be a better idea to stick with the Mac App Store instead of downloading software from third party Web sites.I'll share my thoughts about that below, but first here's some information from Palo Alto Networks on
  
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• Outmatched by Twitter and Facebook, Meerkat steps away from live streaming

  07-03-2016 15:17
  
  Meerkat may have effectively kicked off the current livestreaming boom, but it’s looking to switch gears.  
  Re/code reported Friday that Meerkat plans on moving away from the open, public livestreaming that the company is known for, and instead will focus on other video-centric social networking features.
  Although Meerkat continues to attract lots of viewers, CEO Ben Rubin told Re/code, the company is struggling to maintain an active userbase of streamers. The company also cited
  
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• The 6 hottest new jobs in IT

  07-03-2016 15:13
  
  When CompTIA conducted an intensive examination of the IT employment market last year, it uncovered demand for jobs whose titles would have been meaningless only a year or two ago: augmented reality designer, Internet of things architect, container developers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: A business guide to project portfolio management

  07-03-2016 14:48
  
  After agreeing what a project is and what it is not, I will define what project portfolio management (PPM) is through a business angle. The example I will share is from a large European bank for which I worked before, during and after the financial crisis in 2008. The bank had been severely hit by the crisis, and was trying to find survive. We  had more than 150 large projects (above 500.000 euro), but no one had a clear view of the status and the benefits that should be derived from those
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: A business guide to portfolio management

  07-03-2016 14:48
  
  After agreeing what a project is and what it is not, I will define what project portfolio management (PPM) is through a business angle. The example I will share is from a large European bank for which I worked before, during and after the financial crisis in 2008. The bank had been severely hit by the crisis, and was trying to find survive. We  had more than 150 large projects (above 500.000 euro), but no one had a clear view of the status and the benefits that should be derived from those
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How to fight the ongoing war between business and IT

  07-03-2016 14:06
  
  On the television comedy show Saturday Night Live, Actor Mike Meyers portrayed Linda Richman, host of Coffee Talk.  One of her famous lines was “Talk amongst yourselves,” as she was verklempt and couldn’t talk for a moment.  She would always introduce a topic of discussion which was usually off beat and awkward to the say the least.  In one episode she states, “Talk amongst yourselves.  The topic? The Civil War.  It was neither civil or a war.&rdq
  
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• CIO's Web portal brings construction company into the digital age

  07-03-2016 14:01
  
  As CIO of J.E. Dunn Construction Group, John Jacobs' most significant IT project was crafting a new Web portal that gives building stakeholders access to digital blueprints and other crucial commercial documents related to construction projects. But it wasn't until a demonstration of the platform's capabilities at a conference in November that he realized how powerful the software had become.
  John Jacobs, CIO of J.E. Dunn Construction Group.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, pl
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The innovator’s dilemma and enterprise IoT platforms

  07-03-2016 14:00
  
  The innovator’s dilemma has been one of the axiomatic principles of enterprise software markets since the industry’s inception. In his famous book, Clayton M. Christensen explains how big companies are often disrupted by smaller, more innovative startups creating an almost unavoidable dynamic in competitive markets.From databases to CRM systems, the innovator’s dilemma has been a golden standard in enterprise software markets. Recently, the enterprise Internet of Things (I
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 3 key steps to shutting down a project

  07-03-2016 13:56
  
  We sometimes have clients who find that, for whatever reason, they must cancel a project. It may be lack if funding, it may be a change of organizational direction and priority, and it could be that the only guy really championing the effort just got fired and no one else cares about the project that much. It happens.But let's turn the tables. How many times do we find that we have to cancel a project on one of our project clients? Has this ever happened on one of your projects? What could possi
  
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• Suspected Bush family hacker Guccifer to be extradited to US

  07-03-2016 13:43
  
  Romania's highest court has approved the temporary extradition of a convicted hacker accused of breaking into the email and social media accounts of a Bush family member and U.S. government officials.The court ruled Friday that Romanian national Marcel Lehel Lazăr will be extradited to the U.S. for a maximum of 18 months to face charges brought against him there.Lazăr was indicted in June 2014 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, accused of hacking into the
  
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• 7 questions to ask before implementing ITIL

  07-03-2016 13:34
  
  Many organizations turn to IT infrastructure libraries (ITIL) to better manage how IT services and technology are delivered to users. But ITIL's not a one-size-fits-all solution. In some cases, you might need to customize ITIL to the needs of your organization or you might not need ITIL at all. How can you decide?"First of all, don't start by saying, 'We're implementing ITIL.' In some organizations that have tried and failed, it can be a four-letter-word. You need to emphasize that you're trying
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Make yourself a better project manager

  07-03-2016 13:28
  
  I was listening to Smooth Radio when Michael Jackson's "Man In The Mirror" came on. I had never realized before – what a great IT Project Manager he would have made!The song's all about clear messages (communication and vision) and getting it right while you've got the time (deadlines) but also "if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make the change!" I love that last bit.It will be bad news for the Project Management gurus and text book writers but
  
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• How to recognize (and manage) 5 common developer personalities

  07-03-2016 13:16
  
  Common developer personalities and how to manage themImage by ThinkstockIt's easy for CIOs to just hope all their employees will mesh well with the company culture, but that's not always the case. And when it comes to developers, no matter what the mix of personalities you have on your team, it's important to have structure and process in place to help deliver quality products fast.Kevin Wolf, vice president of Strategy and Business Development at QA Symphony, a company that develops testing and
  
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• Does your company need an innovation lab?

  07-03-2016 13:01
  
  Innovation takes time – and money, and people and resources. That’s why it’s common for a company to focus on core business activities and not build an innovation lab – a specific building or department dedicated to working on prototypes and fleshing out ideas. Part of the issue is that it can be difficult to justify and quantify the budget involved. Is it a skunkworks project that will consume resources but not deliver any value? Is it a purely a showcase for engine
  
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• Apple exec takes to op-ed page, argues against turning back the clock to 'less-secure time'

  07-03-2016 13:00
  
  Apple's head of software engineering took to The Washington Post's op-ed page Sunday to reprise many of the arguments the company -- and supporters -- have made to contest a federal court order that would compel it to help the FBI break into a passcode-locked iPhone.
  "The encryption technology built into today's iPhone represents the best data security available to consumers," asserted Craig Federighi, vice president of software engineering at Apple, in a piece published by the newspaper yester
  
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• 12 Virtual Reality headsets take the world by storm

  07-03-2016 13:00
  Beyond gamers, geeks, and teensFor some 20 years, virtual reality had been all potential, no success, all concept, no proof, all hat, no cattle.Now, finally, it is for real: 2016 is the year VR has proven to be more than just a geek fantasy. It is going mainstream with a vengeance, starting with consumer VR headsets designed for everyday entertainment and information and accompanied by an exploding software marketplace.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Hard-coded passwords remain a key security flaw

  07-03-2016 12:56
  
  From Juniper to Fortinet and Cisco, a lot of companies have been cited for having shipped products that contain hard-coded passcodes, which poses security risks to the enterprise.
  This common developer flaw is a widespread problem that isn’t likely to go away any time soon, said Alex McGeorge, head of threat intelligence, Immunity Inc. 
  Unfortunately, hard-coded passwords are an intrinsically hard problem to solve, and McGeorge said, “There is not a great solution to it. People
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 5 do's and don'ts for creating career allies.

  07-03-2016 12:46
  
  How many hours a week do you spend at work with your colleagues? 40? 50? 60? How many hours a week do you spend with family and friends? My guess is that, like many of the leaders I work with, you spend more time with your co-workers than you do at home.It’s no wonder that the concept of a ‘work-wife’ (or husband) has entered the vernacular, work-wife apparently dates back to the 1930’s! The term describes a platonic relationship with a colleague, and could easily apply t
  
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• 5 ways to attract and retain female technologists

  07-03-2016 12:30
  
  After five years at LinkedIn and a prior decade spent at tech startups, Erica Lockheimer had grown used to navigating a male-dominated workplace, despite bumping up against the occasional gender-related bias.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Verizon provides a behind the scenes look at data breaches

  07-03-2016 12:27
  
  Interesting detailsImage by ThinkstockThe Verizon RISK Team performs cyber investigations for hundreds of commercial enterprises and government agencies annually across the globe. In 2015, they investigated more than 500 cybersecurity incidents. They shared some of the details in a recent report of how they solved the cyber crimes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Enterprise ERP reaches for the cloud

  07-03-2016 12:19
  
  While small and midsized businesses have led the way in migrating their ERP applications to the cloud, enterprises have been lagging behind.
  “Three years ago, Oracle and SAP were not true SaaS solutions. We needed global language support, and didn't want to add software and IT people everywhere. Our packages are custom, and we need full integration. NetSuite guaranteed links wouldn't be lost or broken during upgrades, and we have the flexibility to go anywhere in the world. The way they h
  
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• GGZ Rivierduinen besteedt ICT-infrastructuur en werkplekbeheer uit

  07-03-2016 12:17
  Instelling voor geestelijke gezondheidszorg GGZ Rivierduinen heeft een vijfjarige overeenkomst getekend met Cegeka voor het beheren van haar werkplekken en ICT-infrastructuur.Anderhalf jaar geleden startte GGZ Rivierduinen een traject voor het uitbesteden van de ICT-infra en beheer van werkplekken. “Wij hebben... lees meer
  
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• Surprising tips from a super-hacker

  07-03-2016 12:05
  
  Virtually everyone in technology knows about Kevin Mitnick, who in the 1970s, '80s and '90s was a notorious fugitive hacker on the run from the FBI.
  (If you're not familiar with the details of Mitnick's exploits, I recommend his book, Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker.)
  Most experts also know that he's made his living since being released from prison as a security consultant. But did you know that he still hacks for a living?
  Mitnick has always emphasized the i
  
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• The ultimate hackathon survival guide

  07-03-2016 12:01
  
  Name a city, pick a date, and you’ll likely find a nearby hackathon, whether you’re in Des Moines, Iowa, or Yerevan, Armenia.Don’t think you need to be a coder
  At the other end of the spectrum, Tauberer says, some hackathons – particularly those that are not corporate-sponsored -- include no prize at all. While a demo still showcases the work accomplished, no winner is declared, and no prizes are awarded. “For me, it would be very distracting to have a winner espec
  
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• Want a job in IT? California's still the spot

  07-03-2016 12:00
  
  Where's a good place to find a job in technology? Texas, New York, Florida, Massachusetts, and Washington are all strong players, but California continues to be tops for tech employment, often by a wide margin.Industry group CompTIA's "Cyberstates 2016" report analyzed trends in the tech jobs field -- manufacturing, telecom, software, IT services, and engineering -- over the past year, broken down by state. California, with 1.15 million tech jobs, had a nearly two-to-one lead over second-pl
  
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• Inside Bank of America’s IT transformation

  07-03-2016 12:00
  
  Over the past decade Bank of America has grown by leaps and bounds internally and through an array of mergers and acquisitions. From a technical standpoint, that growth has created a complex and disparate set of data centers, computing architectures and vendor relationships.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Digitale vaardigheden verkleinen kloof mannen en vrouwen op werk

  07-03-2016 10:52
  Vrouwen die goed thuis zijn in de digitale wereld verkleinen de kloof tussen mannen en vrouwen op de werkvloer. Het niveau waarop digitale technologieën worden omarmd om meer kennis te vergaren, verbinding te maken en grotere effectiviteit te bereiken, speelt een sleutelrol bij de positieverbetering van vrouwen.... lees meer
  
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• Ray Tomlinson, email inventor who picked the @ sign for addresses, dies

  07-03-2016 05:38
  
  Raymond Samuel Tomlinson, who is credited with inventing email and putting the now ubiquitous “@” sign in addresses, has died at the age of 74.
  Tomlinson, who helped in the evolution of single-computer email into electronic mail that could send communications across network connections to other hosts, used the sign in the address to connect the user name with the destination address and provide a way to distinguish local mail from network mail.
  “I chose to append an at sign an
  
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• Apple shuts down first-ever ransomware attack against Mac users

  07-03-2016 02:50
  With the help of security researchers, Apple over the weekend quickly blocked a cyberattack aimed at infecting Mac users with file-encrypting malware known as ransomware.The incident is believed to be the first Apple-focused attack using ransomware, which typically targets computers running Windows.Victims of ransomware are asked to pay a fee, usually in bitcoin, to get access to the decryption key to recover their files.Security company Palo Alto Networks wrote on Sunday that it found the "KeRa
  
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