IT Executive news

• Trump to meet with execs from Harley-Davidson, which outsourced IT

  01-02-2017 23:44
  
  President Donald Trump is schedule to meet Thursday with executives from Harley-Davidson to talk about job creation. This is also a company that has shifted IT jobs to Infosys, the large offshore outsourcing firm based in India.
  Harley-Davidson is an American icon and its motorcycles are part of the cultural fabric. But it is also a modern corporation that benefitted from tariffs in the 1980s to protect it from overseas motorcycle makers, and it has globalized its IT operations.
  In 2012, the co
  
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• Raspberry Pi roundup: Secret messages from your washing machine, smelling the fruit, and Rubik’s Cubes

  01-02-2017 23:06
  
  The one-time pad, familiar from a thousand spy novels, is still among the most secure possible ways to encode a message to keep it safe from prying eyes. A cipher based on truly random numbers, with the keys held only by the sending and receiving parties, is theoretically unbreakable.
  And thanks to the Raspberry Pi, your messages to the Glorious Motherland can be proof against western imperialist snooping – the Pi, according to an article by Nate Drake for Techradar, is a pretty good sour
  
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• Gmail will push users further away from XP and Vista

  01-02-2017 23:05
  
  Google quietly announced Tuesday that Gmail will stop supporting older versions of its Chrome browser soon, in a move that will put another nail in the coffins of Windows XP and Windows Vista.
  Users of Chrome version 53 and older editions of the browser could start being redirected to the basic HTML version of Gmail as early as December, the company said in a blog post. Starting next week, users who will be affected by the change will start seeing a banner at the top of Gmail telling them to up
  
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• Gmail will push users further away for XP and Vista

  01-02-2017 23:05
  
  Google quietly announced Tuesday that Gmail will stop supporting older versions of its Chrome browser soon, in a move that will put another nail in the coffins of Windows XP and Windows Vista.Users of Chrome version 53 and older editions of the browser could start being redirected to the basic HTML version of Gmail as early as December, the company said in a blog post. Starting next week, users who will be affected by the change will start seeing a banner at the top of Gmail telling them to upgr
  
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• WhatsApp reduces spam, despite end-to-end encryption

  01-02-2017 22:53
  
  Can a spam filter work even without reading the content of your messages?WhatsApp thinks so. Since last April, the messenger app has been successfully fighting spam abuse, even as it’s been using end-to-end encryption.That encryption means that no one -- not even WhatsApp -- can read the content of your messages, except for the recipient.More privacy, however, can raise issues about spam detection. If WhatsApp can’t scan your messages for suspicious content, say for advertisements pe
  
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• BrandPost: Wake Up to the Threat of Cyber Fatigue

  01-02-2017 22:51
  
  The ever-present threat of cyber attacks is taking its toll — not simply on security budgets, but on the psyches of business and IT executives, as well as employees. The constant vigilance against potential breaches has resulted in a rising chorus of “cyber fatigue” permeating boards that are tired of revisiting cybersecurity issues over and over again, with constant pleas from IT leadership for more money and bandwidth.In a world where IT leaders admit a breach is no longer a
  
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• AMD sets Ryzen up for a strong start as chip battle with Intel looms

  01-02-2017 22:34
  
  As a pesky underdog, AMD challenged Intel in chip innovation until the mid-2000s. AMD churned out innovations like dual-core and 64-bit chips, which kept Intel on its toes.But some disastrous technological and management decisions cost AMD dearly, and over time, buyers began to consider its processors inferior to Intel's chips. Intel ran away with PC and server chip market share.AMD now is looking to rally its dwindling fan base with a series of Zen-based chips this year for desktops, serve
  
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• Microsoft's browsers return to losing habits, fall to 25% share

  01-02-2017 22:28
  
  Microsoft's browsers last month relapsed into bad habits, again losing significant usage share to end January with just over 25%, a milepost that would have been rejected as absurdly low only a year and a half ago.
  According to data published Wednesday by analytics vendor Net Applications, the user share of IE and Edge -- an estimate of the proportion of the world's personal computer owners who ran those browsers -- fell by a percentage point last month to a combined 25.2%.
  The one-point declin
  
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• Floating solar panel market to be worth $2.7B in 2025

  01-02-2017 22:15
  
  The global floating solar panels market is expected to grow from $13.8 million in 2015 to $2.7 billion by 2025, according to a new report from Grand View Research.
  The technology, which carries photovoltaic solar panels at sea or in landlocked water basins, is expected to see significant growth over the next eight years due to the rising demand for reliable renewable power generation that does not use expensive real estate on terra firma. Kyocera Corp.The world's largest ongoing floating s
  
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• 25% off Logitech Professional Presenter R800, Presentation Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer - Deal Alert

  01-02-2017 22:11
  
  The Logitech Professional Presenter R800, with a brilliant green laser pointer, puts you in complete control of your presentation and makes it easy to direct your audience's attention to specific information from across the room - even on flat panel displays and in brightly lit rooms. To keep you focused on the crowd and not the clock, the Professional Presenter R800 provides an easy-to-set timer with silent, vibrating alerts. When you're moving around the room to engage your audience, at a rang
  
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• Apple and Samsung see smartphone declines in full year 2016

  01-02-2017 21:20
  
  Apple iPhones beat out Samsung smartphones both globally and in the U.S. in the final quarter of 2016, even though both vendors saw declines in shipments for the entire 2016 calendar year, research firm IDC reported Wednesday.
  It was the first full year that Apple has seen a decline in the iPhone shipments since it was launched in 2007, the analyst firm said.
  Up-and-coming Huawei, based in China, finished third globally for both the quarter and the year.
  The numbers were also in line with arepo
  
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• In treason case, Russia alleges security experts aided US

  01-02-2017 21:00
  
  Two officers of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and a cybercrime investigator from Kaspersky Lab have reportedly been charged with treason for helping U.S. intelligence services.
  The arrests of Ruslan Stoyanov, the head of the computer incidents investigation team at Kaspersky, and Sergei Mikhailov, the deputy head of the Information Security Center at the FSB, happened in early December and were reported in the Russian media last week.
  Since then, the arrest of a third FSB officer n
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Apple, complaining of being bullied, bullies Qualcomm

  01-02-2017 20:40
  
  Apple is accusing Qualcomm of all sorts of dastardly doings in venues around the world. The iEverything maker has filed a direct suit against the mobile technology company in the United States, seeking $1 billion in compensation. Apple’s fingerprints are also on investigations brought in South Korea and the United States by trade entities (the KFTC and the FTC). And last week, during Qualcomm’s earnings call, top management revealed that Apple had been working with Chinese authoritie
  
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• 13% off LOGITECH G430 Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset - Deal Alert

  01-02-2017 20:26
  
  Powered by advanced Dolby technology, these 7.1 surround sound headphones position you in the center of an immersive 360-degree sound field. They let you hear every detail in every direction, just as the game developer intended. Enemy fire. Sirens. Your opponent’s footsteps. When you hear what you can’t see, you win. The headset averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 2,400 reviewers on Amazon (see reviews), where their typical list price of $45.75 has been reduced to $39.99. See the dea
  
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• Everything we think we know about the LG G6

  01-02-2017 20:23
  
  With Mobile World Congress just around the corner, everyone is going to be on the lookout for the hottest new Android phone. This year that won’t be Samsung’s Galaxy S8, as the company has already announced that it won’t be bringing its flagship handset to Barcelona this year, so the attention will be squarely on LG and its G6.
  Last year’s G5 made a splash for its quirky modular concept, but after disappointing sales (and an equally flat V20), LG will be looking to capit
  
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• The problem with threat intelligence [Infographic]

  01-02-2017 20:15
  
  Organizations are drowning in threat intelligence that they recognize as being vital to their security even as they are unable to use it to identify specific threats, according to a July 2016 Ponemon Institute research report.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• GitLab database goes out after spam attack

  01-02-2017 20:01
  
  Code-hosting site GitLab has suffered an outage after sustaining a "serious" incident on Tuesday with one of its databases that has required emergency maintenance.
  The company today said it lost six hours of database data, including issues, merge requests, users, comments, and snippets, for GitLab.com and was in the process restoring data from a backup. Data was accidentally deleted, according to a Twitter message.[ Docker, Amazon, TensorFlow, Windows 10, and more: See InfoWorld's 2017 Technolo
  
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• Cisco amps-up Tetration platform with better security, reduced footprint, AWS cloud option

  01-02-2017 19:46
  
  Cisco has rolled out a second release of its Tetration Analytics package with features such as a smaller footprint and a cloud service that will go a long way toward making the system alluring to more data center customers.
  Announced in June of last year, Cisco’s Tetration Analytics is a turnkey analytics package that gathers information from hardware and software sensors and analyzes the information using big data and machine learning.
  Tetration software sensors support Linux and Windows
  
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• Tim Cook: Apple may take legal action over immigration restrictions

  01-02-2017 19:16
  
  After sending an email to employees expressing Apple’s opposition to the Trump administration’s new immigration restrictions, Apple CEO Tim Cook is now making a forceful stand.
  “More than any country in the world, this country is strong because of our immigrant background and our capacity and ability as people to welcome people from all kinds of backgrounds,” Cook told the Wall Street Journal. “That’s what makes us special. We ought to pause and really think
  
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• Samsung's Tizen 4.0 OS is in development and due out in September

  01-02-2017 19:12
  
  A new version of Samsung's Tizen OS, version 4.0, is now under development for mobile devices, wearables and smart gadgets and is due for release in September.
  Tizen is mainly used in Samsung products. The release date of Tizen 4.0 is listed on the OS's developer website, which also states that the first beta of the OS will come out in June.
  The Tizen 4.0 release date is listed as part of the Tizen .NET roadmap. The page states that "the first official version of Tizen .NET will be released in
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How entrepreneurs use gamification to boost recruitment

  01-02-2017 18:34
  
  Given that half of the adults in the U.S. play video games, it’s no surprise that the idea of using games to recruit people is fairly commonplace. One of the most famous early examples of gamification came to us courtesy of the U.S Army, which used gaming to boost recruiting efforts. It was joined by other organizations such as Marriott and L’Oreal.The US army spend 33 MILION dollars to create a game to Gamify their recruitment by @petejenkins #Gamification #GWC16 #gamfed pic.twitter
  
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• Net neutrality policy still up in the air under Trump

  01-02-2017 18:24
  During his campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump called the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules a "top-down power grab," leading many observers to expect a quick repeal.Trump's presidency is still in its infancy and it's unclear what his administration will do about the hot-button issue.It's difficult to determine what direction the unpredictable Trump administration will take, said Nathan White, senior legislative manager at Access Now, a digital rights group."The world is
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: iPad: Big revenue drop shows it’s not a replacement for the Mac

  01-02-2017 17:46
  
  Apple announced its financial results yesterday, and the company did quite well. But there was one product that showed remarkable weakness and it wasn’t the Mac. iPad revenue dropped a whopping 22 percent in the holiday quarter!Roger Fingers reports for AppleInsider:
  For the holiday quarter, iPad sales fell to just over 13 million units from more than 16.1 million in the year ago period, Apple revealed in official data released on Tuesday. Accordingly, iPad revenue was down 22 percent from
  
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• Mobile security firm offers cash to hackers for their old exploits

  01-02-2017 17:29
  
  Mobile security firm Zimperium has launched an exploit acquisition program that aims to bring undisclosed attack code for already patched vulnerabilities out in the open.Paying for old exploits might seem like a waste of money, but there are technical and business arguments to justify such an acquisition system and they ultimately have to do with the difference between exploits and vulnerabilities.A vulnerability is a software defect with potential security implications, while an exploit is the
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Don't let fear affect your job search

  01-02-2017 17:00
  
  "Anxiety is practicing failure in advance." – Seth Godin
  A big part of my leadership coaching practice deals with helping executives conduct job searches. Some of my clients are in transition and some of them are looking to get out of their current organizations. Many of them are C-level executives or leaders of teams of varying sizes and complexity. They work — or worked for — a myriad of companies and non-profits in all kinds of "verticals."But no matter how senior and
  
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• EU solves roaming puzzle by capping wholesale mobile charges

  01-02-2017 17:00
  
  Mobile network operators have grumbled that plans to abolish roaming fees across the European Union were unworkable because the wholesale prices for minutes and megabytes that operators charge one another differ from one country to the next.On Tuesday night, Members of the European Parliament agreed a solution: Regulate wholesale prices too.For years, the European Commission has been ratcheting down the surcharge that subscribers pay for mobile services consumed outside their home country -- so-
  
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• In major AI win, Libratus beats four top poker pros

  01-02-2017 16:57
  
  Marking a major step forward for artificial intelligence (AI), Libratus, an AI developed by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), has resoundingly beaten four of the best heads-up no-limit Texas hold'em poker players in the world in a marathon, 20-day competition.After 20 days and a collective 120,000 hands played, Libratus closed out the competition Monday leading the pros by a collective $1,766,250 in chips."I'm just impressed with the quality of poker Libratus plays," pro player Jason Les, a spec
  
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• Cybersecurity's million dollar jobs

  01-02-2017 16:38
  
  Jeremy King says there's some cybersecurity leadership roles at large U.S. corporations offering $1 million compensation packages. The recipients of these big pay packages include military cyber experts making a switch to the commercial sector.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• How Facebook and Google are battling internet terrorism

  01-02-2017 15:59
  
  WASHINGTON -- Social media heavyweights like Facebook and YouTube have been working with the U.S. government and other international partners as they look to take a more active role in combating terrorist propaganda and other extremist messages that have gained traction online.Officials from the popular social network and YouTube parent Google addressed the issue here at a recent tech policy conference, where they described efforts to go beyond simply removing extremist content, and actually eng
  
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• Facing visa issues, Indian outsourcers have strength in numbers

  01-02-2017 15:55
  
  Indian outsourcing companies deliver services ranging from software coding to running business processes for customers in the U.S., Europe and other countries by taking advantage of low-cost, highly-skilled staff on their home turf.These companies also sometimes send people to deliver services onsite to customers.This time-tested model, backed by state-of-the-art facilities in India, could now be challenged by President Donald Trump's plan to bring jobs back to the U.S. North America accounted f
  
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• Mac ends sales slump with record revenue of $7.2B

  01-02-2017 15:48
  
  Apple on Tuesday said that its Mac line generated record single-quarter revenue of $7.2 billion, beating the previous mark set three years earlier by $300 million.
  "The Mac not only returned to growth but generated its highest quarterly revenue ever," said CEO Tim Cook in prepared remarks during a call with Wall Street analysts.
  Apple said it sold approximately 5.37 million Macs during the December quarter, a 1.2% gain over the same period the year before and the fourth-largest number ever.
  As
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 3 simple ways to optimize your conversion rates

  01-02-2017 14:45
  
  Conversion has always been the prime focus of any business’s sales and marketing efforts. The more customers salespeople can move from “interested” to “sold,” the better. This can be an ongoing process for sales and marketing professionals who, despite their best efforts, sometimes fall short of their goals.In recent years, teams have shifted their focus to “conversion rate optimization,” a practice that strives to define the absolute best conversion rat
  
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• Sorry consumers, you’re stuck paying for a set top box

  01-02-2017 14:27
  
  If you were hoping to get rid of the set top box you are forced to rent by your pay TV provider, the new FCC chairman says forget about it. A proposal by the former boss of the commission that would have allowed consumers to access content via free apps instead of the box has been dropped from the FCC’s to do list and is essentially dead.The action by Ajit Pai, appointed last month to chair the FCC by President Trump, is hardly a surprise. Pai, not known as a consumer advocate, opposed the
  
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• How to succeed in an as-a-service world

  01-02-2017 14:01
  
  The cloud conversation is not new. We know by now that the cloud is a prerequisite to shaping scalable and resource-elastic, variable cost-based businesses. However, companies and their CIOs continue to struggle with how to work effectively in this new model, perhaps because they have underestimated the required changes.Successful migration to the cloud is not a trivial milestone. In fact, it may be one of the most significant journeys the IT organization embarks upon. It requires changes to the
  
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• Now Cisco can even network your building systems

  01-02-2017 14:00
  
  The latest network hardware from Cisco Systems gives new meaning to the words “light switch.”
  The Catalyst Digital Building Series Switch is an Ethernet switch designed to link different kinds of building infrastructure over a network. It will be available worldwide in the second quarter. It uses Cisco’s enhanced version of PoE (Power over Ethernet) to run things like lights and cameras while collecting data about those devices over the same standard cable.
  The switch embodies
  
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• Apple's Mobility Partner Program comes out of hiding

  01-02-2017 13:32
  
  You won’t find many public references by Apple to its Mobility Partner Program, an expanding effort by the company to unite with software developers/integrators to boost sales of iPhones and iPads to businesses. In fact, Apple reportedly has discouraged partners in years past from discussing MPP out in the open.
  However, the veil of secrecy surrounding the program is thinning. Apple’s public relations department didn't acknowledge my queries about MPP, such as how long the program h
  
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• What enterprise software developers can learn from consumer apps

  01-02-2017 12:56
  
  Companies are asking why the enterprise applications that their employees, customers and partners use every day can't be as simple and intuitive to use as the apps on their smartphones.They can be.In fact, corporate IT is already taking many cues from mobile consumer apps for improving user experience and speeding development of business applications.It's working. By focusing development on specific tasks, enterprise developers are producing apps faster while using fewer IT resources and less co
  
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• 5 things DevOps needs to do to secure containers

  01-02-2017 12:37
  
  Can’t we all get alongImage by PixabayDo deepening adoption and broader deployment of container technologies (from the likes of Docker, CoreOS and others) threaten to escalate into the latest skirmish between operations, developers and information security? Certainly, the potential exists to widen the rift, but in fact there is far more common ground than would initially suggest. Containerization introduces new infrastructure that operates dynamically and is open in nature, with more poten
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Seizing the value of the surge: How to use M&A to reshape your IT organization

  01-02-2017 12:30
  
  Authors: Seth Van Winkle, McCree Lake, Daniel McCarthyIn an earlier post, we explored the four dimensions of the IT workforce to assess to optimize merger and acquisition (M&A) success. As we further evaluate the IT workforce implications of M&A activity, it is notable that there is a tremendous (often underutilized) opportunity to leverage the sharp increase of work from M&A deals to redefine the IT workforce and organization. Leaders can better align technology functions to st
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Is the call center era over?

  01-02-2017 12:30
  
  The heyday of the big and bustling call center is coming to an end. While customer inquiries, outreach and grievances never go away, the ways in which they are managed are changing quickly. The majority of B2C interactions will soon be person-to-machine rather than person-to-person due to the rapid rise of RPA (robotic process automation) and artificial intelligence (A.I.).Does that mean mega call centers, which once staffed hundreds and sometimes thousands of people, will now look like data cen
  
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• What IT security pros are earning in 2017

  01-02-2017 12:00
  
  (Insider Story)
  
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• Tested: The truth behind the MacBook Pro's 'terrible' battery life

  01-02-2017 12:00
  
  Read professional reviews of Apple’s new MacBook Pro lineup, and you’ll come away thinking the new laptops have great battery life.
  Dive into a customer forum, though, and the upshot will be exactly the opposite: The new MacBook Pros have “piss poor” battery life.
  That characterization came from user yillbs on MacRumors.com. “I don’t think anyone can convince me that this thing isn’t just flat out the worst battery life ever on a MacBook,” yi
  
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• Sniff out and kick out Windows malware for free

  01-02-2017 12:00
  
  No single antimalware engine can keep up with all the malware out there. But how about 57 of 'em?[ 18 surprising tips for security pros. | Discover how to secure your systems with InfoWorld's Security Report newsletter. ]
  In this video, you'll learn how to download and run Windows Sysinternals Process Explorer to test all currently running executables on your Windows system against VirusTotal's 57 antivirus engines, which together offer the best accuracy you can ever get (with a small percentag
  
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• Pythonnet brings Python to Microsoft .Net

  01-02-2017 12:00
  
  The Pythonnet package gives Python developers interoperability between Microsoft's .Net Common Language Runtime and the CPython implementation of the language.
  Also known as Python for .Net, the package lets developers script .Net applications or build entire applications in Python, using .Net services and components built in any language targeting the CLR. It also provides an application scripting tool and enables Python code to be embedded into a .Net application. But there are limitations.[
  
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• CSOs set to make the big bucks in 2017

  01-02-2017 12:00
  
  Last year was a record one for data breaches, with some 1,093 data security breaches reported. That represented a 40 percent increase over the prior year, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. It is no wonder that information security remains one of the most top-of-mind issues for CIOs, CISOs, and CEOs. The result is continued high demand for IT security pros.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Are Apple-specific threats on the rise?

  01-02-2017 12:00
  
  Macs are really no more secure than a PC, but for many years there just weren’t as many out there because of the expense of the hardware and other issues. They've historically been a much less popular choice among both consumers, enterprises, and hackers alike.
  The PC attack surface is much wider; therefore, criminals develop malware that works on PCs because the payout is much higher. James Plouffe, lead solutions architect at mobile-security company MobileIron, said there are, howe
  
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• 5 tech battles facing Trump

  01-02-2017 12:00
  
  President Donald Trump may face protests from scientists and technologists like no other president before him.
  It's not just the tech industry that may battle Trump. New forces are arising, some grassroots, such as Neveragain.tech and a planned massive "March for Science," in Washington and elsewhere. The tech industry protest over the seven-country immigration ban is just a preview.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 10 IT skills that employers need in 2017

  01-02-2017 11:02
  
  IT skills that employers need in 2017Image by Thinkstock Unemployment rates in the IT industry are still hovering around historic lows, and some roles -- like network and security engineers and software developers -- are showing unemployment rates of around 1 percent. A recent survey from Robert Half Technology showed that the majority of CIOs will either expand their IT teams or focus on filling out vacant roles, while the 2017 IT Forecast from TEKsystems shows that confidence is high and IT bu
  
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• Zorg loopt achter met informatiebeveiliging

  01-02-2017 10:44
  Ofschoon instellingen in de zorgsector op alle vlakken vooruitgaan met hun informatiebeveiliging, gaat de ontwikkeling lang niet snel genoeg. Daarop duidt een vervolg op een eerder onderzoek uit 2015 van BDO Accountants & Adviseurs.Raden van bestuur trekken verantwoordelijkheid voor informatiebeveiliging vaker... lees meer
  
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• 5 of the most anticipated tablets of 2017

  01-02-2017 10:19
  
  Tablet might be struggling to find a place amongst hybrids, but there are still plenty of devices to get excited about in the coming year. These five tablets are slated to be some of the most exciting devices of 2017, and each offers a traditional tablet experience.iPad Air 3AppleApple typically announced iPads in the fall, but last spring it surprised everyone by announcing the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. But come fall, Apple was mum on a third generation iPad Air. That has some speculating that Apple w
  
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