IT Executive news

• 5 ways to beef up your resume over the summer

  23-06-2016 23:02
  
  In today's digital world, companies are struggling to find IT professionals with the cutting-edge skills they need to drive innovation and growth. If you're an IT professional looking to land a new role or a professional looking to make a career change, summer's the perfect time to brush up on new skills. And the availability and affordability of online learning has made it easier than ever to add critical hard and soft skills, even those from elite learning institutions like Harvard, MIT and Co
  
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• Boston Dynamics' latest robot stymied by a banana skin

  23-06-2016 22:35
  
  Boston Dynamics, the Google-owned robot maker that's apparently up for sale, has a new four-legged robot small enough to walk around a house, agile enough to load your dishwasher, and not quite clever enough to avoid banana skins on the floor.Called Spot Mini, it's a smaller version of the company's Spot robot. Spot was developed for use by the U.S. military and took part in tests with Marines last year.In a video posted to YouTube on Thursday, Spot Mini is seen in several configurations. In one
  
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• Why Russian hackers, not a lone wolf, were likely behind the DNC breach

  23-06-2016 22:31
  
  Proving who pulled off a cyber attack is never easy and sometimes impossible. That’s the reality investigators face as they try to figure out who breached the network of the Democratic National Committee, which revealed last week that hackers had made off with confidential documents including research on Republican presidential opponent Donald Trump.Russia was fingered as the likely suspect, until a hacker calling himself Guccifer 2.0 stepped up and claimed that he acted alone. But despite
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Beyond Acronyms: Humanizing Big Data and Information Governance through Mindful Storytelling

  23-06-2016 22:00
  
  “Data governance applies to everything that we do,” shared Janice Haith, Department of Navy’s Deputy CIO. And, being responsible for complex, mission-critical initiatives such as enterprise architecture, software licensing, information assurance, data and help desk consolidation, and compliance, to name a few – means there is a lot of data to be dealt with. But, just like with any organization, IT must tell impactful stories that convey why an initiative must be undertake
  
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• BrandPost: Why the Cloud Makes Your Job Easier

  23-06-2016 21:36
  
  As a manufacturing technology professional, you’re responsible for a lot of mission critical processes in your business. Keeping systems up and running while fighting fires may be a regular part of the job, but it leaves you no time for strategic analysis into better, more efficient processes and systems. Cloud ERP changes all that. No longer do you need to spend the night at the office monitoring the plant floor and barely keeping up. The cloud makes your job easier while making you more
  
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• Oracle will give cloud users first dibs on its next big database update

  23-06-2016 21:25
  
  Oracle's namesake database may have been born on-premises, but the next big update to the software will make its debut in the cloud.Oracle Database 12c Release 2, also known as Oracle Database 12.2, is slated for release in the second half of this year. It will first be made available in the cloud, with an on-premises version arriving at some undefined point in the future.“We are committed to giving customers more options to move to the cloud because it helps them reduce costs and become m
  
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• Microsoft: Government's data gag order practices worse than first thought

  23-06-2016 21:09
  
  Microsoft has significantly upped the tally of U.S. government gag orders slapped on demands for customer information, according to court documents filed last week.
  In a revised complaint submitted to a Seattle federal court last Friday, Microsoft said that more than half of all government data demands were bound by a secrecy order that prevented the company from telling customers of its cloud-based services that authorities had asked it to hand over their information.
  The original complaint --
  
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• BrandPost: CIO Interview with Mark Veronda, CIO of Global Solutions Group, Hitachi Solutions

  23-06-2016 20:51
  
  Few tech-driven enterprises are as diverse or as historic as Hitachi and its subsidiary, Hitachi Solutions. Global Solutions Group CIO Mark Veronda gives his take on how a truly global company balances rapid growth, business transformation, security, risk management, and technology alignment. What is your big focus as CIO?There are three main areas of concentration that focus on business transformation, technology alignment, and user experience.Business transformation and continuous improve
  
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• GozNym Trojan turns its sight on business accounts at major US banks

  23-06-2016 20:41
  A hybrid Trojan program created for financial fraud has started redirecting users of four large U.S. banks to rogue websites in order to hijack their accounts.GozNym is a relatively new threat, first discovered in April, and is based on the Nymaim malware dropper and the Gozi banking Trojan. Like most banking Trojans, GozNym can inject rogue code into banking websites displayed in local browsers in order to steal credentials and other sensitive information.However, in addition to this old techni
  
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• Financial services firm adopts agile for digital development

  23-06-2016 20:39
  
  Financial services companies have traditionally shrunk from the notion of releasing applications that haven't been thoroughly baked and battled tested. But in today's digital world, companies that agonize over building the perfect app risk losing out to more nimble competitors. That's why many companies are turning to agile software development to push more products out the door and rescue other projects from oblivion.This is certainly true for Principal Financial Group, a provider of insurance,
  
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• Microsoft's pricey Surface Book is getting stomped by the ancient Surface Pro 3

  23-06-2016 20:31
  Though deciding between the Surface Book and the Surface Pro 4 was an agonizing choice for PCWorld editors, customers apparently know what they want: The Surface Pro 3—yes, the older one.
  AdDuplex, a Windows-specific ad network which compiles data on Windows machines, estimates that an even third of all Surface users are using a Surface Pro 3, a convertible tablet Microsoft phased out when its successor, the Surface Pro 4, began shipping in late 2015. SP4 sales are closing fast, though: A
  
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• BrandPost: App Dev., Agile, and You, Part 1 — Building an Agile Bridge: How CIOs can talk to developers and business leaders about moving at the speed of business

  23-06-2016 20:30
  
  In an era of digital transformation, speed is of the essence. The changes and opportunities that digital technologies are bringing, from data analytics and cloud adoption to IoT and mobile, are so quickly changing and evolving that, in order to remain competitive, no department can sit idly by. Instead, whether it’s marketing, finance, operations or IT, every corner of the company needs to capitalize on the vast digital opportunities coming down the pike. How can the CIO and the IT or
  
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• Battle lines are drawn: IBM prepares Power9 to take on Intel and ARM

  23-06-2016 20:29
  
  IBM has many goals with its upcoming Power9 chip, and one is to challenge the dominance of Intel's x86 chips in the data center.The company wants chips based on Power architecture to take a double-digit server chip market share by 2020, Doug Balog, general manager for Power Systems at IBM, said in an interview.It'll be a three-way battle between x86, Power, and ARM, which has a similar goal of a double-digit market share in the next four years. IBM's Power is off to a better start in terms of so
  
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• Facebook takes on critics with political bias class

  23-06-2016 20:01
  
  After facing allegations that it was actively suppressing conservative views, Facebook has responded by adding an employee training class focused on political bias.
  Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg announced the addition of the political bias class to the company's ongoing course on Managing Unconscious Bias during a talk she gave at the American Enterprise Institute, according to The Daily Signal.
  "We have a managing bias class that all of our leaders and a lot of our employees have taken that I w
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 8 things to do after installing Fedora 24

  23-06-2016 19:35
  
  Getting startedImage by ThinkstockI have been playing with Fedora 24 on my Dell XPS 13 (2016) since it was released earlier this week, and it looks great. Fedora is an all-around distribution that has separate editions for separate audiences, and that makes it a lean distro. You get what you only what you need without any bloatware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The enterprise software acquisition funnel

  23-06-2016 19:32
  
  In science, everything that is observed to happen must have a cause. Although the root cause of most problems with major software purchases can be traced to inadequate requirements, what is the cause of that problem? Why do so many organizations have inadequate requirements?  The answer is that few know how to evaluate and select enterprise software. While it looks deceptively easy, in practice it is anything but.Anybody who has worked with sales & marketing would be familiar with the s
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Red Hat announces Ceph Storage 2

  23-06-2016 19:05
  
  Red Hat has announced the release of Ceph Storage 2, an update to its open source, software defined storage management system.
  Ceph Storage 2, which is based on the Jewel release of Ceph, comes with several new capabilities that enhance support for object storage workloads and make it easy to use. Some of the new capabilities include:New global object storage clusters, which provide a single namespace and data synchronization between clusters operating in multiple regions.
  Improved security via
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Is digital health the snake oil of our times?

  23-06-2016 18:07
  
  Last week, the CEO of AMA, Dr. James Madara, raised eyebrows when he characterized everything from ineffective electronic health records (EHR) to consumer health apps as “snake oil.” He declared that digital health tools were making physicians less, not more, effective and was particularly critical of the lack of progress on interoperability. Interestingly, this also coincided with the findings of multiple surveys released last week on healthcare IT adoption and value-based care
  
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• AWS, Microsoft cloud win US government security approval

  23-06-2016 17:38
  
  Three vendors, including Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, have won a key U.S. government authorization that allows federal agencies to put highly sensitive data on their cloud-computing services.The AWS GovCloud, Microsoft's Azure GovCloud, and CSRA's ARC-P IaaS have received provisional authority to offer services under the high baseline of the government's Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), a set of security standards for cloud services.The FedRAMP high ba
  
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• Look whose coming for the CEO role

  23-06-2016 16:50
  
  Digital is the way of the marketplace today. One look at our hyper-connected, data-driven ways of working, and it’s clear that digital is also the way of the future. In the midst of rewiring business models, mindsets and mechanisms for the digital age, it’s important to ask about leadership. Who has the skills and experience to take on the challenging job of digital transformation today and tomorrow? Who from across the senior leadership ranks is best equipped to be CEO? Will it be C
  
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• Look who's coming for the CEO role

  23-06-2016 16:50
  
  Digital is the way of the marketplace today. One look at our hyper-connected, data-driven ways of working, and it’s clear that digital is also the way of the future. In the midst of rewiring business models, mindsets and mechanisms for the digital age, it’s important to ask about leadership. Who has the skills and experience to take on the challenging job of digital transformation today and tomorrow? Who from across the senior leadership ranks is best equipped to be CEO? Will it be
  
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• Don't snooze on Fitbit's new sleep schedule feature

  23-06-2016 16:42
  
  Most of us got the memo about sitting being the new smoking, but another health memo is making the rounds: Sleeping poorly is the new sitting.OK, I just made that up, but plenty of research suggests most of us don't get enough sleep. Average sleep quality is often only "fair" or "poor." And fewer than seven hours of sleep each night, combined with poor sleep habits, lead to health risks, according to the Centers for Disease Control.Can mobile apps and activity trackers help? Sure, but there's on
  
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• BrandPost: Colocation: Make the Future of IT a Reality

  23-06-2016 16:31
  The movement to colocation—or colo—is accelerating and will have profound implications for enterprises and service providers. Colocation involves renting space in a third-party data center and can also include a mix of hardware, software, and services. The tactic is surging at a 16% compound annual growth rate through 2020, from $25.70 billion in 2015 to $54.13. By 2018, 65% of companies’ IT assets will be off-site in colocation, hosting, and cloud data centers, according to I
  
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• BrandPost: Get Ready Get Set Go Mobile

  23-06-2016 16:18
  Like almost any endeavor in IT today, a one-size mobility plan does not fit all enterprises. Your mobile deployment will be unique to your company, and researching and implementing the diverse components involved—including mobile devices, network equipment, security infrastructure, mobile security policies, and compliance requirements—can be daunting.Deciding on the security and mobility requirements of users throughout the enterprise is also a major challenge. The enterprise needs
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: One-third of Azure virtual machines now run Linux

  23-06-2016 16:07
  
  Linux is steadily increasing its dominance on Microsoft Azure. During his keynote at DockerCon in Seattle this week, Mark Russinovich CTO of Microsoft Azure said that the share of Azure virtual machines running Linux has grown from 25 percent to 33 percent in the past year.In a blog post discussing Microsoft's container innovations, Russinovich cited a Forrester report, saying that “…over forty percent of CIOs view adoption of open source technologies as critical for them in the nex
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Nearly 1 in 3 Azure virtual machines now run Linux

  23-06-2016 16:07
  
  Linux is steadily increasing its dominance on Microsoft Azure. During his keynote at DockerCon in Seattle this week, Mark Russinovich CTO of Microsoft Azure said that the share of Azure virtual machines running Linux rose from 1:4 to nearly 1:3 in the past year.
  In a blog post discussing Microsoft's container innovations, Russinovich cited a Forrester report, saying that “…over forty percent of CIOs view adoption of open source technologies as critical for them in the next year &nd
  
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• The number of corporate users hit by crypto ransomware is skyrocketing

  23-06-2016 16:05
  The prevalence of ransomware programs, both those that encrypt data and those that don't, has exploded over the past two years, with companies being increasingly targeted.Based on an analysis by security vendor Kaspersky Lab, more than 2.3 million users encountered ransomware between April 2015 and March, a jump of almost 18 percent over the previous 12 months.This includes programs that only lock the computer's screen to prevent its use as well as those that hold the data itself hostage by encr
  
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• Microsoft Edge more power efficient than rivals? Not so fast ...

  23-06-2016 15:43
  
  Microsoft this week launched a PR blitz aimed at convincing consumers that its Edge browser uses less power than any of its rivals, and the company offered an impressive array of measurements to back up the claim. But do Microsoft's metrics stand up to scrutiny?Having covered the tech world for decades, I know that nothing is more subject to fudging than product testing conducted by the companies that make the products. Microsoft isn't necessarily doing anything underhanded, but consumers should
  
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• Gartner’s top 10 security predictions

  23-06-2016 15:26
  
  Forward looking IT security pros need to better address known risks, monitor closely the value of shadow IT devices and solve the inherent weaknesses introduced by the internet of things, Gartner says.
  The consulting firm has taken a look at five key areas of security concern that businesses face this year and issued predictions on and recommendations about protecting networks and data from threats that will likely arise in each.
  The areas are threat and vulnerability management, application an
  
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• How CIOs can improve B2B social marketing

  23-06-2016 15:25
  
  B2B social marketing received a significant boost earlier this month when Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. In the future, CIOs and IT professionals can play a critical marketing role within their organizations, because marketers need advocates, educators, integrators and strategic advisors to help them weave through the complexities required to effectively use social media. 
  Much of the business-centric marketing that occurs on social media today is rudimentary and separate f
  
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• BlackBerry goes into the red as revenue drops by a third

  23-06-2016 15:20
  
  It looks as though BlackBerry CEO John Chen will still be in charge long enough to launch another couple of phones -- although don't expect any new flagship models.Chen was re-elected chairman of the board for another year on Wednesday.He still plans to launch two new mid-range phones in the next nine months, one of them as early as July. They'll be cheaper than the Priv, BlackBerry's first Android phone, but with the same level of security, he said Thursday.Shareholders might not have given him
  
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• What iOS 10 can tell us about the new iPhone

  23-06-2016 15:18
  
  There was a time when WWDC belonged to the iPhone. From the S cycle to the Retina display, FaceTime, and the App Store, some of the earliest iPhone breakthroughs were unveiled at Apple’s annual developer’s conference, with long stretches of keynote time devoted to specs and speed instead of software.
  These days there’s a better chance of an Android app making an appearance on the big stage than a new iPhone. But even as WWDC has consciously shifted away from splashy hardware r
  
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• At least we get bacon

  23-06-2016 14:57
  
  You won't be seeing a policewoman or a female construction worker in your emoji keyboard anytime soon. Actually, you won't be seeing any of the proposed "women in the workplace" emojis, because they all were rejected by The Unicode Consortium this week.As I wrote a few weeks ago, representation is important. Up-and-coming generations are all digital natives who grew up with iPhones and tablets in their hands. They've been text-messaging and using emojis for years to express themselves and digita
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: What dark mode looks like in iOS 10

  23-06-2016 14:00
  
  One of the biggest disappointments of WWDC 2016 was the lack of a dark mode in iOS 10. Many people had expected Apple to announce it but, alas, the company didn’t do so.That has led many to expect that it might still happen in a later iOS 10 beta, and sure enough a dark mode was found hidden in the first iOS 10 beta.Zach Epstein reports for BGR:
  Several developers have begun digging through the iOS 10 beta code to see what goodies they can find, and one goody in particular had Apple fans b
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 8 tech conferences every project manager should attend

  23-06-2016 14:00
  
  Tech conferences for a project manager's bucket listImage by ThinkstockTechnical project managers (PM) – or project managers who mainly focus on tech-related implementations and projects – don't necessarily need to be on the cutting edge of the latest technology. In some companies and industries, they may not really need to be technical at all. Good project management best practices can often get a PM through many types of project engagements. However, the PM who has a technical back
  
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• BYOD can pose privacy risks to employees

  23-06-2016 14:00
  
  Companies that use remote device management software to oversee employee devices used for business have the ability to collect a lot more information than employees may be comfortable with, according to a report released today.
  "The intent of these MDM solutions is not to spy on employees, but to monitor for things like malware and general security," said Salim Hafid, product manager at Bitglass, which produced the report.
  But if the company wants to, these tools provide the ability to do a lot
  
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• How to prepare for (and prevent) ransomware attacks

  23-06-2016 13:58
  
  You've likely heard all about "crypto ransomware," or simply "ransomware," a specific type of malware that attempts to hold your digital existence hostage by encrypting personal files and then offering decryption keys in exchange for payment. When the malware first takes root, it shows no outward signs that anything is wrong. Only after the malware does its nefarious work in the background are you presented with the ransom, typically via demands for Bitcoin or other forms of digital currency.Som
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Who is watching after your agile money?

  23-06-2016 13:24
  
  Copyright © 2016 Technology for Alpha LLC. PART I - A modern day interpretation of 
  the AGILE MONEYfesto
    In a recent report, Gartner estimates that about a half of today’s enterprise software is developed using agile or iterative methodologies. IDC predicts that 90% of enterprise software development projects will be rooted in the agile concepts by 2018. Thanks to the digital revolution and two decades of experimentation with the agile methodology, many companies are
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 6 steps to 100% project meeting attendance

  23-06-2016 13:00
  If we are invited to a meeting, we may dream of skipping it and playing a round of golf or possibly even just getting some productive work done that would otherwise have to wait till later in the day. But if it's our meeting, we are focused on filling the seats. Why? Because if we call a project meeting and we invite people, then we need those people there for the information they can provide or for the information they need to hear. Good, productive meetings are not time wasters. If you are mak
  
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• United Kingdom has the strongest security globally, report says

  23-06-2016 12:39
  
  Powers rankingImage by Imran AliThere is no denying the global nature of the 21st century, businesses have embraced economic globalization and have expanded operations across the world. Yet, entering new countries can pose financial, operational and legal risks to an organization. Business laws or practices can widely differ between countries, and contracting local vendors can introduce new risks to an organization, including cyber risk.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please
  
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• 3 tips for better data visualizations

  23-06-2016 12:30
  
  Making charts with data is easy. Coming up with charts that show what's important in your data takes skills beyond simply mastering visualization software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• UniSystems, Cegeka en OTE winnen Europees contract

  23-06-2016 12:20
  Het Unic2EU Consortium, bestaande uit UniSystems, Cegeka Group en Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE), heeft een contract van de Europese Commissie in de wacht gesleept ter waarde van 34 miljoen euro.Het gaat om het derde lot uit de aanbesteding voor het zogenaamde Natacha III Framework, dat betrekking... lees meer
  
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• Europese werknemer wil data in EU houden

  23-06-2016 12:09
  Werknemers in Duitsland, Frankrijk en het VK vertrouwen hun werk-gerelateerde gegevens eerder toe aan dienstverleners in andere EU-lidstaten dan aan bedrijven buiten de EU. Maar een aanzienlijk deel vertrouwt opslag in de cloud in het geheel niet. Daarop duidt onderzoek in opdracht van beveiligingsspecialist Blue Coat... lees meer
  
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• More code deploys means fewer security headaches

  23-06-2016 12:00
  
  Organizations with high rates of code deployments spend half as much time fixing security issues as organizations without such frequent code updates, according to a newly released study.
  In its latest annual state-of-the-developer report, Devops software provider Puppet found that by better integrating security objectives into daily work, teams in "high-performing organizations" build more secure systems. The report, which surveyed 4,600 technical professionals worldwide, defines high IT perfor
  
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• Don't just code: Career advice from the programming masters

  23-06-2016 12:00
  
  As a career path, software development couldn't be hotter. Programming languages are proliferating and the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that demand for developers will grow at rate of 17 percent from 2014 to 2024 -- much faster than the 7 percent average for all occupations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• A look inside the Microsoft Local Administrator Password Solution

  23-06-2016 12:00
  
  Windows administrators have a problem -- passwords. Specifically, administrator passwords that lurk out there, identical across machines, just ready to be compromised. But there is finally a solution at the right price that mitigates this problem almost completely. Interested? Let's dive in.The solutionTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Intel, SAP, other tech companies pledge to get more inclusive in hiring

  23-06-2016 08:39
  
  Intel, SAP, Lyft, Spotify and VMware are among over 30 Silicon Valley companies that on Wednesday signed a pledge that they would take action to make their technology workforce "fully representative of the American people, as soon as possible."The absence of diversity in the tech industry in Silicon Valley was highlighted about two years ago by civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, who pressed some companies to release data on their employment of Blacks, Hispanics and women. Many tech companie
  
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• Google Fiber will add urban coverage and wireless by acquiring Webpass

  23-06-2016 05:21
  
  Google Fiber is acquiring Internet service provider Webpass to be able to increase its urban coverage quickly and offer customers a combination of fiber and wireless delivery of high-speed Internet.For Google Fiber, which has typically worked with cities in planning and building a fiber network from scratch, the acquisition will give the Alphabet business a headstart in many markets, particularly in dense urban areas.The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Google did not immed
  
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• Startup Preempt detects, blocks bad users, devices

  23-06-2016 03:18
  
  Preempt is a startup whose virtual appliance acts as a behavioral firewall that ranks the risk a user or device represents and responds automatically based on policies set by corporate security pros.
  The platform can spot and block certain attacks without intervention by the security team, which frees up time for them, says Ajit Sancheti, co-founder and CEO of the company.
  The platform picks up on odd behaviors such as individuals logging in from machines they don’t normally use, which co
  
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• Columbus wins DOT’s Smart City Challenge

  23-06-2016 03:17
  
  And then there was one.
  Out of the seven finalists in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge, Columbus, Ohio, emerged the winner this week. The city will receive $50 million in grants from the DOT and Vulcan Inc. to implement its smart city plan.
  Columbus will also receive about $90 million in local matching funds, including $19 million in public money. That gives the city a total of $140 million to upgrade its transportation network.
  “This grant, combined with
  
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