IT Executive news

• Best Deals of the Week, September 19th - September 23rd - Deal Alert

  23-09-2016 23:05
  Best Deals of the Week, September 19th - September 23rd - Deal AlertCheck out this roundup of the best deals on gadgets, gear and other cool stuff we have found this week, the week of September 19th. All items are highly rated, and dramatically discounted!1 Free Amazon Echo Dot When You Buy 5Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device that uses Alexa to play & control music (either on its own, or through a connected speaker/receiver), control smart home devices, provide information, re
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: How to execute tech projects like business projects

  23-09-2016 21:28
  
  We execute most organizational initiatives in a certain way. Why do we do tech projects differently — and then complain? Well, things technical are not easily understood by most business folks and therefore tech projects are considered best left to the experts. This means these projects may not produce outcomes like typical business projects do. We need to reverse the situation. We need to put tech projects in the business context. Here are three suggestions.1. Start with the bus
  
  Read more

• Google tweets that it's 'whipping up something sweet' in honor of Android's birthday

  23-09-2016 20:29
  
  The official Android Twitter account caught our attention this morning with a rather mysterious tweet. It features the Android mascot with a hand whisk and a bowl of eggs surrounded by KitKat bars, marshmallows, and nougats.
  We’re whipping up something sweet for a big day tomorrow. 🎂 #Android pic.twitter.com/I4idH0F4am— Android (@Android) September 23, 2016
  You probably get the reference to the Android versions, but beyond that it isn’t clear exactly what’s going
  
  Read more

• Global Forum sharpens focus on smart cities

  23-09-2016 20:22
  
  Eindhoven, Netherlands -- The 25th Global Forum, an annual policy and strategy conference sometimes called “the Davos of ICT,” was held this week in Eindhoven, a smart city and technology hub with a rich industrial past.
  Eindhoven was the original home and de facto company town of Philips Electronics, one of the world’s leading technology giants. Then, under pressure from Asian and global competitors, Philips began a long process of exiting its historic lines of business.
  Eind
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• The next target for phishing and fraud: ChatOps

  23-09-2016 20:21
  
  This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.
  Enterprise chat applications have surged in popularity, driven in large part by Slack, which now claims to serve more than three million users daily.  What’s more, the popularity of these apps has given rise to a new phenomenon known as ChatOps, which is what happens when these new messaging system
  
  Read more

• Largest DDoS attack ever delivered by botnet of hijacked IoT devices

  23-09-2016 19:53
  
  Securing the internet of things should become a major priority now that an army of compromised devices – perhaps 1 million strong - has swamped one of the industry’s top distributed denial-of-service protection services.
  A giant botnet made up of hijacked internet-connected things like cameras, lightbulbs, and thermostats has launched the largest DDoS attack ever against a top security blogger, an attack so big Akamai had to cancel his account because defending it ate up too many re
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: Red Hat expected to rake in $2.4 billion in revenue this year

  23-09-2016 19:39
  
  The king of Linux, Red Hat, continues its growth as a leading Linux vendor that’s betting big on the cloud. Yesterday, the company announced financial results for its second quarter of fiscal year 2017 ended August 31, 2016.
  The company generated $600 million in revenue for the quarter, a 19 percent year-over-year increase. Red Hat is often credited with creating a business model around Linux and Open Source: a subscription based service and support model.
  Subscription revenue for the qua
  
  Read more

• NY regulation aims to raise bank security standards

  23-09-2016 19:38
  
  Next week, New York State will begin a 45-day public comment period on its new financial industry cybersecurity regulation -- and, so far, security experts have a favorable view of the proposal.
  Under the new regulations, banks and insurance companies doing business in New York State will need to establish a cybersecurity program, appoint a Chief Information Security Officer and monitor the cybersecurity policies of their business partners.
  According to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, this is the f
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• ICS vulnerabilities are still rampant

  23-09-2016 19:27
  
  To put it in somewhat technical terms, the nation’s industrial control systems (ICS) – part of its critical infrastructure – are not only vulnerable to compromise, they are likely compromised right now.
  Or, in Paul Dant’s much more blunt, and less technical terms, “your sh-- is f--ked.”
  Dant, chief strategist and managing principal at Independent Security Evaluators, was one of three experts on a panel titled “Securing Industrial Control Systems”
  
  Read more

• Here's what you should know, and do, about the Yahoo breach

  23-09-2016 19:26
  
  Yahoo's announcement that state-sponsored hackers have stolen the details of at least 500 million accounts shocks both through scale -- it's the largest data breach ever -- and the potential security implications for users.That's because Yahoo, unlike MySpace, LinkedIn and other online services that suffered large breaches in recent years, is an email provider; and email accounts are central to users' online lives. Not only are email addresses used for private communications, but they serve as r
  
  Read more

• Well, I never! iOS 10's voicemail transcription has a potty mouth

  23-09-2016 18:52
  
  Anyone who has looked at automatically-generated subtitles on YouTube can tell you that asking a computer to describe what a human says can lead to hilarious results. Now, Apple has brought that issue to iOS 10 with support for transcribing voicemails.It's a cool feature that makes it easy to know what your Aunt Matilda said about the gastrointestinal problems her dog is having, without actually having to listen to a three-minute-long, blow-by-blow description. But be careful about trusting it -
  
  Read more

• Cisco: New net management software lets users spot industrial Ethernet network problems quickly

  23-09-2016 18:51
  
  Cisco has rolled out a Windows-based network management package that gathers Industrial Ethernet network events and alerts IT to the event for quick impact analysis and troubleshooting, the company said.
  +More on Network World: Ethernet: Are there worlds left to conquer?+
  The product, Industrial Network Director, builds an integrated topology of all network automation and assets and lets operators zoom in on specific devices for real-time monitoring of device status and traffic statistics, Cisc
  
  Read more

• Court ruling puts future of H-1B lottery in doubt

  23-09-2016 18:02
  
  The U.S. government's attempt to stop a lawsuit challenging the legality of the H-1B lottery was rejected Thursday by a federal court judge.
  The government tried to get this case dismissed on legal technicalities but failed. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon, in Oregon, denied the government's dismissal motion in a 24-page ruling.
  This case may now be decided quickly. The plaintiffs are seeking a summary judgment with oral arguments schedule in December. If the summary judgment is granted
  
  Read more

• Privacy groups urge US FTC to investigate WhatsApp promises

  23-09-2016 17:25
  
  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission should stop mobile messaging service WhatsApp from sharing user data with parent company Facebook in violation of earlier privacy promises, several privacy groups said.The FTC should step in to stop WhatsApp from violating "commitments the company previously made to subscribers," the 17 groups said in a letter sent to the agency Thursday. WhatsApp has long billed itself as a secure and private messaging service. WhatsApp's recently released p
  
  Read more

• Best practices for pitching enterprise products

  23-09-2016 17:25
  
  I recently attended IBMEdge [Disclosure: IBM is a client of the author]. This is the first IBM conference I’ve attended since they hired screen writers and other story tellers to help them more effectively pitch products. The idea of using storytellers is a good one because often product pitches are reduced to nothing more than incredibly dull lists of technology interspersed with performance claims that often are really hard to validate and the end result is, during a show like this, the
  
  Read more

• 50% off Inateck USB 3.0 Dual-Bay Hard Drive Cloning Station - Deal Alert

  23-09-2016 17:13
  
  This gadget from Inateck will duplicate any 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch SATA HDD/SSD drive quickly and automatically without the need for a computer, by just pushing a button. Once cloning has started, an LED indicator shows you 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% completion status. Or don't kick off the cloning process, and the unit allows you to move files freely between drives as you would an external HDD/SSD. Built-in safeguards protect against overheating, overvoltage, current leaks, short circuits,
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: Tip No. 1: Hire 'A' players and empower them

  23-09-2016 17:12
  
  This is a continuation of my series "Five Tips for Leading Agile Data Management Development Teams." Here, I discuss the first tip: Hire "A" players who will build the foundation for a great self-managing team.What is an 'A' player? 
  Typically, the top 10% of talent available for a particular position would be considered “A” players, according to Topgrading by Bradford Smart.  “A” players clearly stand out above the rest. To read this article in full or to
  
  Read more

• Why 90% of customers still want their Note7

  23-09-2016 16:53
  
  Samsung reported that 90% of Note7 owners in the U.S. have opted to receive a new Galaxy Note7 as part of the ongoing recall for a potential fire hazard related to batteries in the original phones.
  Skeptics said that 90% replacement number seems high, considering the original phones could overheat and catch fire.
  But apparently many customers want the Note7's digital S Pen stylus to touch and write on its 5.7-in. high-resolution display, among other high-end features, badly enough to continue u
  
  Read more

• Dropbox biedt dataopslag vanuit Europa aan zakelijke gebruikers

  23-09-2016 16:17
  Aanbieder van cloud-services Dropbox gaat dataopslag in Europa bieden aan grotere bedrijven die Dropbox Business gebruiken. De afgelopen maanden is met partner Amazon Web Services nauw samengewerkt aan het opzetten van deze infrastructuur, die gehost wordt in Duitsland.Het bedrijf wil met deze dienstverlening... lees meer
  
  Read more

• Dollar Shave Club grooming AWS cloud services for smoother growth

  23-09-2016 16:07
  
  If you asked a CIO to sketch the ideal modern IT architecture on a few cocktail napkins, it might resemble the system fashioned by of the Dollar Shave Club (DSC), the men's grooming ecommerce company that ascended from relative obscurity to prominence thanks to sound branding and this memorable YouTube clip.Running in a public cloud, the startup uses 22 custom applications to run sales and marketing campaigns and customer service, as well as a recommendation engine. The custom-cloud combination
  
  Read more

• Apple's Siri-powered Amazon Echo rival reportedly hits the prototype phase

  23-09-2016 16:05
  
  Apple is reportedly still hard at work on a Siri-powered device to rival the Amazon Echo. The project is out of the research and development and phase and into prototyping, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who has an excellent track record with Apple rumors.
  Gurman doesn’t say what the smart home device will be, but presumably it will be some kind of speaker. The aim is for the Siri device to control smart home appliances—presumably via HomeKit—similar to the Echo.
  
  Read more

• If you're not planning for IoT, you're already behind

  23-09-2016 15:27
  
  Roughly half of the audience informally polled at last month’s CIO 100 event said they had attended an IoT event in the last 12 months. "So what were the other half [of you] doing on the most hyped word on the internet today?" asked Vernon Turner, senior vice president of enterprise systems & fellow for the internet of things at IDC.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: Censorship and healthcare's redactable blockchain trapdoor

  23-09-2016 15:00
  
  Situations exist where the ability to go back in time and perform an "undo" appear to make sense. In these contexts, we imagine a fair and balanced world operating in harmony — a utopian version of the modern internet of things.The struggle for freedom of expressionCensorship has been explained actions taken in the best interests of the public. A benevolent public concern for morality. China’s censorship of WeChat for Uber. The decision by India's film censor to cut 94 scenes f
  
  Read more

• Your local library is a treasure trove of free digital media

  23-09-2016 14:04
  
  As a professional writer and avid reader, I consume books like fat men eat Quarter Pounders with Cheese.
  However, unlike those greasy burgers — which now go for a cool $2.50 each as part of McD's gluttonous "McPick 2" combo — books and ebooks are expensive, especially new titles and hardcovers. I read at least two books a week, and at an average of $10 each, that's $80 a month and nearly $1,000 a year.
  So when I walked through the doors of the recently renovated Boston Public Librar
  
  Read more

• Acceleratorprogramma voor blockchain-toepassingen in financiële dienstverlening gelanceerd

  23-09-2016 13:25
  Technologieleverancier en adviseur voor de financiële sector Synechron lanceert een cloud-gebaseerd acceleratorprogramma met zes blockchain-applicaties waarmee financiële dienstverleners binnen enkele weken operationeel kunnen zijn. Klanten kunnen gebruikmaken van de modulaire code en een sandbox-omgeving die... lees meer
  
  Read more

• 5 tech trends that have Turing Award winners worried

  23-09-2016 12:52
  
  Technology has considerable potential to make the world better, but those benefits are far from guaranteed. Plenty of downsides can pop up along the way, and some of them have Turing Award winners especially worried.1. The internet echo chamber "Technology by itself is not evil, but people can use it for bad things," Barbara Liskov, an Institute Professor at MIT, told an audience of journalists Thursday at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum in Germany. "I do worry a lot about what's going on."The abi
  
  Read more

• Fitbit Charge 2 review: A worthy upgrade elevates the fitness-tracking essentials

  23-09-2016 12:30
  
  Fitbit's latest activity tracker combines the best of its Charge HR and Alta fitness bands at an affordable price.
  
  Read more

• Acer Liquid Jade Primo review: Acer bets big on a Windows phone as your next PC

  23-09-2016 12:30
  
  Acer's Liquid Jade Primo smartphone goes all in to replace your PC, bundling a phone, keyboard, mouse, and dock together. We put that daring concept to the test.
  
  Read more

• 6 expert tips to better secure third-party network access

  23-09-2016 12:12
  
  Third-party accessImage by Harris & Ewing Collection (Library of Congress)Earlier this year, the Soha Third-Party Advisory Group conducted a study that surveyed more than 200 enterprise IT and security C-Level executives, directors and managers about the daily challenges they face providing fast and secure third-party application access to their contractors and suppliers. The survey revealed that 98 percent of respondents do not consider third-party access a top priority in terms of IT initi
  
  Read more

• Oracle tries playing nice with Java EE rebels

  23-09-2016 12:00
  
  With Oracle now trying to get back on track with advancing enterprise Java, the company is seeking rapprochement with factions that had sought to advance the platform on their own. The two groups involved are mostly amenable to patching up the relationship.
  Oracle's Anil Gaur, group vice president of engineering, said this week he had already been in touch with some of the concerned parties. The two factions include Java EE Guardians, led by former Oracle Java EE evangelist Reza Rahman, and Mic
  
  Read more

• New Relic aims to be your dashboard of the future

  23-09-2016 12:00
  
  In Lew Cirne's view, all companies are now software companies and understanding how your software is treating your customers is key to business success. Cirne is the founder and CEO of New Relic, a cloud-based provider of application management tools. In this CEO Interview Series conversation with IDG Chief Content Officer John Gallant, Cirne explained how New Relic gets IT and business execs on the same page in improving operations and customer experience, and he described the company's new to
  
  Read more

• Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga: The shape of convertibles to come

  23-09-2016 12:00
  
  If you like the look of Lenovo's recently unveiled Yoga 910 and its 13.9-inch screen but need something a bit lighter, you may want to check out the 14-in. ThinkPad X1 Yoga. Both are convertible touch-screen laptops that fold back to become tablets, but the OLED display on the higher-end model (which is the one I reviewed) is one of the richest and most vibrant screens ever to grace a notebook. And unlike the Yoga 910, it's available right now.To read this article in full or to leave a comment,
  
  Read more

• Nederlandse datacenter-kaart gepubliceerd

  23-09-2016 11:37
  De Dutch Datacenter Association (DDA) heeft een digitale en dynamische datacenter-kaart van Nederland gelanceerd. Voor het eerst is op meerdere niveaus inzichtelijk hoe de belangrijkste datacenters in Nederland geografisch gespreid zijn én wat hun kwaliteiten zijn.Op kaart... lees meer
  
  Read more

• Vint Cerf's dream do-over: 2 ways he'd make the internet different

  23-09-2016 10:03
  
  Vint Cerf is considered a father of the internet, but that doesn't mean there aren't things he would do differently if given a fresh chance to create it all over again."If I could have justified it, putting in a 128-bit address space would have been nice so we wouldn't have to go through this painful, 20-year process of going from IPv4 to IPv6," Cerf told an audience of journalists Thursday during a press conference at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum in Germany.IPv4, the first publicly used versio
  
  Read more

• Majority of US users opt to stay with Galaxy Note7 after recall

  23-09-2016 08:57
  
  Samsung Electronics may have some comfort after its debacle with faulty batteries in the Galaxy Note7 smartphone.The South Korean company reported Thursday that about 500,000 devices, or half of the recalled Galaxy Note7 phones sold in the U.S., have been exchanged through its program.Interestingly, "90 percent of Galaxy Note7 owners have been opting to receive the new Galaxy Note7," since the phones became available on Wednesday, Samsung said. That figure suggests that most of the users of the
  
  Read more

• Dell plans to move VR content creation to the cloud

  23-09-2016 06:06
  
  Dell wants to prove that you don't need a high-end GPU in your computer to create content for virtual reality headsets.
  Instead, the company wants to move VR content creation into the cloud with new computing products it plans to release. The goal is to add more mobility and security to VR content creation.
  Among the new products planned are thin clients that run applications stored in remote servers or appliances. The servers will have GPUs that power VR content creation on  virtual deskt
  
  Read more

• Yahoo uncovered breach after probing a black market sale

  23-09-2016 04:39
  
  A hacker's attempt to sell user data he claimed was stolen from Yahoo actually led the company to uncover a far more severe breach.Yahoo confirmed Thursday a data breach, which affects at least 500 million users, but it could be unrelated to the black market sale of alleged Yahoo accounts, according to a source familiar with the matter.The information comes even as security experts have been questioning why Yahoo took so long to warn the public when it was known that a hacker was claiming to be
  
  Read more

• Hackers have a treasure trove of data with the Yahoo breach

  23-09-2016 02:33
  
  The massive breach at Yahoo means that a treasure trove of stolen data is in the hands of hackers -- putting millions of internet users at risk.At least half a billion Yahoo accounts have been affected in one of the biggest data breaches in history. Information including names, email addresses, telephone numbers and hashed passwords may have been stolen.Yahoo has blamed the attack on a "state-sponsored actor," but it's far from clear who hacked the internet company and how the culprits
  
  Read more

• Here are the 2016 Ig Nobel Prize 'winners'

  23-09-2016 01:00
  
  “Congratulations”Let’s say you’re a scientist, and you’ve worked your entire adult life at your discipline. You do a sort of offbeat study, for valid scientific reasons, and figure, hey, this’ll get a laugh in whatever journal is relevant to your field, and then somebody calls you from Cambridge, Mass., and tells you you’ve won science’s equivalent of a Razzie. These are this year’s Ig Nobel Prize winners. Enjoy.To read this article in full o
  
  Read more

• More than half of PCs don't have Windows 10 AU yet, and no one's quite sure why

  23-09-2016 00:58
  
  Microsoft appears to be taking a conservative, go-slow approach to rolling out Windows 10's Anniversary Update—enough so that less than half of all Windows 10 PCs have it more than six weeks after its official release.
  Just 34.5 percent of all PCs are running Windows 10 version 1607, aka the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, according to AdDuplex, maker of a Windows 10 SDK for third-party app makers. The majority, 59.9 percent, are still running Windows 10 version 1511, also known as the Fal
  
  Read more

Follow @ITExecutiveNews on Twitter!