IT Executive news

• Disney Research demonstrates open-air wireless charging

  22-02-2017 23:14
  
  Disney Research has invented a new method of wirelessly charging mobile devices that could someday allow amusement park patrons to walk about freely while also getting their mobile devices charged.
  The technology, which Disney has dubbed "quasistatic cavity resonance" (QSCR), enables purpose-built structures such as cabinets, rooms and warehouses to generate quasistatic magnetic fields that "safely deliver kilowatts of power to mobile receivers contained nearly anywhere within."
  Disney's wirele
  
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• 58% off Alinshi Foldable Soft Silicone USB Waterproof Keyboard - Deal Alert

  22-02-2017 23:05
  
  This keyboard from Alinshi is flexible, soft, silent, waterproof, dustproof, lightweight, roll-up-able, portable and easy to store. If you're looking for a travel keyboard you can take with you and won't have to worry too much about, this one might fit the bill, especially when you consider it's been discounted 58% to just $13. See the discounted keyboard on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• BrandPost: Hyperconvergence Is Here

  22-02-2017 23:03
  
  It’s hard to ignore the benefits of new technologies in the data center. Hyperconvergence integrates compute, storage, virtualization resources, networking, and software components into a single IT device. This eliminates fiber channel switching and adds simplicity to the IT infrastructure and administration.When it comes to in-house expertise, teams running data centers are usually made up of experts in networking, experts in storage administration, and experts in servers. On top of thos
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Making Munich Microsoft again

  22-02-2017 22:37
  
  A lot has been written about this story so I am not going into detail. The TL;DR version is that the City of Munich is planning to ditch the vendor-neutral technologies that it adopted some ten years ago and go back toMicrosoft. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has written a very good article on why Munich should not do that.
  In addition to the points raised by Vaughan-Nichols, I can also see that Munich politicians are ignoring some things that are going to hurt the German economy. The IT infrastruct
  
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• Apple grabs icloud.net domain to solidify links to sync and storage service

  22-02-2017 22:21
  
  Apple this week took administrative control of the icloud.net domain, the last notable web address it did not govern that users could have linked with its online sync and storage service.
  According to WHOIS searches today, Apple acquired control of icloud.net on Tuesday.
  Apple already ruled the primary top-level domains for iCloud, the cross-device, cross-OS service that stores files generated by iOS and macOS, and more importantly, synchronizes everything from Safari browser bookmarks to photo
  
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• Controversial LTE-U tech OK'd by FCC

  22-02-2017 22:20
  
  The Federal Communications Commission announced Wednesday that it had approved two cellular base stations – one each from Ericsson and Nokia – to use LTE-U, marking the first official government thumbs-up for the controversial technology.
  FCC chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement that the unlicensed spectrum – historically, the territory of Wi-Fi – can now be used to help ease the load on carrier mobile networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please
  
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• New JavaScript library invites coders to play with Canvas

  22-02-2017 21:52
  
  Looking to blur the line between technology and art, the Sandpit library for creative coding uses JavaScript and the canvas 2D element.
  Accessible on GitHub or via NPM, and built in ECMAScript 6, Sandpit is still in development with an API likely to change before the 1.0 release. "The goal of Sandpit is to normalize and simplify the process of creating coding -- using code to make pretty things," the documentation states. "This usually takes the form of drawing onto the Canvas element, in eithe
  
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• Battle of the clouds: Amazon Web Services vs. Microsoft Azure vs. Google Cloud Platform

  22-02-2017 21:42
  
  Amazon Web Services is the consensus leader of the IaaS public cloud computing market according to industry watchers, but they credit Microsoft for closing the gap with Azure and say Google with its Cloud Platform has made considerable strides as well.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Verizon plans 5G trial service in 11 cities this year

  22-02-2017 21:37
  
  Lab tests of pre-standard 5G wireless with multi-gigabit speeds are evolving into trial services that users can actually enjoy in the real world – though not necessarily while walking around with a smartphone.Verizon said Wednesday it will launch pre-commercial 5G service in 11 markets around the U.S. by the middle of this year, joining rival AT&T in aggressively deploying the future technology.At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, carriers are expected to announce more upco
  
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• Bill Nye-backed startup uses particle accelerator to make solar panels 60% cheaper

  22-02-2017 21:18
  
  A startup has created a method for using a particle accelerator to slice microscopically thin silicon wafers that reduce the cost to manufacture solar panels by more than 60% by eliminating waste material by 50 to 100 times.
  The company, Rayton Solar, kicked off a Regulation A+ equity crowdfunding campaign in July. The campaign, which received SEC qualification last month, has garnered more than $7 million in equity reservation investments, according to its founder Andrew Yakub.
  Since the SEC's
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How to evaluate your service providers in 2017

  22-02-2017 20:45
  
  In a video discussion, General Electric’s CEO Jeff Immelt discussed digital transformation and stated that companies must “either embrace the future or you’ll find yourself not able to satisfy your customers.” Third-party IT and business service providers also face a changing market and are taking steps to align themselves with the new business realities and new market opportunities — which is what brings me to the discussion in this blog post. You need to understa
  
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• What to expect from the Trump administration on cybersecurity

  22-02-2017 20:07
  
  Look for U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to push for increased cybersecurity spending in government, but also for increased digital surveillance and encryption workarounds.That's the view of some cybersecurity policy experts, who said they expect Trump to focus on improving U.S. agencies' cybersecurity while shying away from new cybersecurity regulations for businesses. Trump is likely to look for ways for the National Security Agency and other agencies to assist the government
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 6 reasons to hire a marketing consultant

  22-02-2017 20:00
  
  It’s easy to get prideful and believe you have everything under control. While pride may be part of the human condition, they also say it comes before the fall.If you’re in need of some help, it’s time to consider hiring a consultant. The right one can bring a lot of value to the table.What’s a marketing consultant?
  While many marketers claim to be “consultants” at some point in their careers, most don’t start out that way. Consultant work is usually the
  
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• New macOS ransomware spotted in the wild

  22-02-2017 19:58
  
  A new file-encrypting ransomware program for macOS is being distributed through bittorrent websites and users who fall victim to it won't be able to recover their files, even if they pay.Crypto ransomware programs for macOS are rare. This is the second such threat found in the wild so far, and it's a poorly designed one. The program was named OSX/Filecoder.E by the malware researchers from antivirus vendor ESET who found it.OSX/Filecoder.E masquerades as a cracking tool for commercial software l
  
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• Radiation from outer space could sabotage your smartphone

  22-02-2017 19:27
  
  Next time your computer crashes or your smartphone freezes don’t be too quick to blame Microsoft, Apple or Samsung. Instead blame outer space. No, not aliens, but cosmic rays, invisible particles that continuously bombard the earth.A study by researchers at Vanderbilt University finds that “subatomic particles raining down from outer space are wreaking low-grade havoc on your smartphones, computers and other personal electronic devices.”"Semiconductor manufacturers are very con
  
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• Software glitch aborts SpaceX rendezvous with space station

  22-02-2017 19:20
  
  A software glitch caused a SpaceX cargo spacecraft to abort its rendezvous with the International Space Station early this morning.
  NASA now plans a second attempt to dock with the space station tomorrow.
  The unmanned SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, which lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, approached the orbiting station around 3 a.m. today but was unable to dock. The spacecraft waved off its planned rendezvous with the station at 3:25 a.m. ET.NASAThe unmanned Spa
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Marketing trends shaping mobile in the next 10 years

  22-02-2017 19:16
  
  Over the last 10 years, we were all over mobile marketing’s proverbial map. From being a non-existent industry (literally) to one of the most milkable cash cows in the modern era, there seems to have not been many steps between the two extremes.The increasingly rapid pace of industry development leaves a lot to be desired. At this rate, the mobile marketing trends of today are at -risk of seeming archaic another decade down the line. With that in mind, it is important to understand where w
  
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• A trove of new Android smartphones to debut at MWC

  22-02-2017 19:04
  
  Several new high-profile Android smartphones are expected to launch this weekend in advance of Mobile World Congress, which opens Monday in Barcelona.
  Analysts and published reports have said these new Android smartphones will include: the BlackBerry DTEK70 (through a license with TCL); the LG G6; Moto G5 (the Motorola brand is owned by Lenovo); Nokia 8/P1 ( HMD holds the Nokia brand); Sony Xperia X2; the Huawei P10; and at least one model from HTC.To read this article in full or to leave
  
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• Cisco touts next-gen firewall gear for midsize installations

  22-02-2017 19:00
  
  Cisco is coming out with four next-generation firewall boxes aimed at giving smaller organizations protection that is better sized to their needs and engineered to minimize performance hits as additional security services are turned on.
  The devices make up a family called the Cisco Firepower 2100 series and are built around dual, multi-core processors. That architecture enables custom processing of traffic requiring threat inspection, and also supports tagging traffic that doesn’t need th
  
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• Government workers fight Trump on his own turf -- Twitter

  22-02-2017 18:40
  
  President Donald Trump has effectively commandeered Twitter as his personal megaphone and federal employees who feel slighted or threatened by his policies have taken notice. Within days of Trump assuming the presidency, rogue Twitter accounts purporting to express views of government agencies and their staff began springing up as a new form of resistance to some of Trump’s policies.It began when the Trump administration began ordering the removal of scientific data from government website
  
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• BrandPost: Six common DevOps myths, busted

  22-02-2017 17:49
  
  Even though the DevOps movement has begun to take hold, plenty of misperceptions about DevOps still exist.
  Is DevOps a set of absolute beliefs? A miracle cure for anything that ails an organization? Does it require particular software tools? Can only the unicorns of the world get it right?
  Because it can be hard to pin down, some people mistrust the benefits of solid DevOps methodologies. And they forget that at its heart, DevOps is about responding more quickly to business and customer needs. I
  
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• What’s up with Windows patching, Microsoft?

  22-02-2017 17:36
  
  Well, here’s something different. Microsoft, for the first time since it started its monthly Patch Tuesdays in October 2003, has completely blown a deadline. There will be no major patch release in February. Instead, the patch package will be released on March 14.
  Why? We don’t know and Microsoft isn’t saying.
  Color me concerned.
  I have reason to be. Greg Lambert, chairman of Qompat, who covers software patches like paint, had hoped Microsoft would delay the patches by only a
  
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• 10 happiest cities for CIOs

  22-02-2017 17:35
  
  CIOs appear to be a relatively happy bunch, despite the pressures of the job.Robert Half Technology surveyed 2,500 U.S. CIOs in 25 metropolitan areas. As a group, the tech leaders rated their overall job satisfaction at 8.5 in a 10-point scale. Respondents from 10 cities reported above-average happiness, with Miami hosting the most content IT chiefs.The top 10 cities for CIO job satisfaction, according to the tech staffing firm, are:
  1. Miami
  2. Boston
  3. Des Moines, Iowa
  4. Indianapolis
  5. Cinc
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 3 top priorities for a Chief Data Officer

  22-02-2017 17:30
  
  Somebody told me the other day that "information permeates through the body of an organization." It is a perfect expression that helps understand how important data quality is in the digital era. After all without it, there's no meaningful information. A growing number of organizations have introduced the role of Chief Data Officer, however the priorities for this new corporate officer aren't as clear.
  Gartner predicts that by 2019, 90 percent of large organizations have a Chief Data Officer. T
  
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• BrandPost: DevOps at Wells Fargo

  22-02-2017 17:17
  
  Portions of this post were originally posted on the Puppet blog, and are republished here with Puppet's permission.As one of the world's largest banks, Wells Fargo competes by innovating its IT. At the heart of its innovation is the ability to continually launch, maintain and update software. You can get some sense of the scale when you hear that the Wells Fargo IT organization manages an infrastructure that supports 1 billion transactions per day.With more than 120,000 servers, 55,000 network d
  
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• Apple's new HQ, Apple Park, will open in April

  22-02-2017 17:05
  
  In 2011, Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed the Cupertino City Council plans for his company’s new campus. Six years later, Apple Park is set to open.
  Apple employees will begin the process of moving to the new campus in April, and in six months more than 12,000 people will work in Apple Park.
  Jobs conceived of the 2.8 million-square-foot building, which evokes a flying saucer with panels of curved glass, and Apple will honor its late founder’s memory with a 1,000-seat auditorium named Ste
  
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• MobileIron jumps into IoT market, not a moment too soon

  22-02-2017 17:00
  
  Mobile device management vendor MobileIron announced today that it would form a dedicated IoT division and hire Intel and GE veteran Santhosh Nair to run it, in a move that analysts have been quick to praise.
  MobileIron’s statement said that the company plans to have a saleable IoT product on the market sometime this year, and that the IoT offering will be designed with security in mind.
  +ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: How San Diego fights off 500,000 cyberattacks a day + Java and Python FTP atta
  
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• Virtual assistants move into DevOps

  22-02-2017 16:43
  
  Companies embracing DevOps practices are turning to chat-based and voice-guided virtual assistants to monitor applications, provision virtual machines and perform other operations. Such tools are instrumental in keeping developers and IT operations staff on the same page as they prioritize speedier software deployment in the digital era."The problems you run into in DevOps is teams are distributed," says Milan Hanson, a Forrester Research analyst who focuses on infrastructure and operations. "Yo
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Big data and the risks of using NoSQL databases

  22-02-2017 16:15
  
  NoSQL uses procedural implementation-specific structures expressed in a JSON format to represent its data model. ECMA International Standards body developed JavaScript to handle tasks in the browser. They also provided an extension to JavaScript to develop a lightweight language for interchanging data over the Internet called JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). The downside of JSON is that it lacks the capabilities to provide referential integrity. These data models are neither interoperabl
  
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• Samsung's Monitorless concept swaps your PC display for augmented sunglasses

  22-02-2017 16:13
  
  Sure, technology concept videos showing off visions for the future are fun, but concept products you can actually touch and use are far more interesting. Next week at Mobile World Congress, Samsung’s bringing an interesting concept product that’s kind of a mash-up of Google Glass and Microsoft’s HoloLens—similar to ODG’s prototype glasses we spotted at CES in January.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Today Only, Amazon Will Discount $8.62 off All Orders $50 Or More - Deal Alert

  22-02-2017 15:55
  
  Buy at least $50 worth of stuff on Amazon today, Feb 22, and you'll see a magical $8.62 discount applied at checkout when you enter the code BIGTHANKS. Yes -- it's free money. Amazon is offering this one-day discount to celebrate a 86.27 score they were given on a recent corporate reputation survey. If you've been putting off some purchases, today might be a good day to pull the trigger. Head over to Amazon and get your discount right now.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, pleas
  
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• How to create IT innovation

  22-02-2017 15:33
  
  Sixty-four percent of IT leaders say their departments are taking the steps necessary to drive innovation in their business. Are you one of them?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• How the DOT discovered its network was compromised by shadow IT

  22-02-2017 15:31
  
  When Richard McKinney set out to migrate the Department of Transportation (DOT) to Microsoft Office 365, he got a valuable lesson in shadow IT, one that could serve as a cautionary tale for other government leaders as they look to upgrade and consolidate their systems.
  McKinney, who only recently stepped down as CIO at DOT, had been leading a turnaround mission at the department since his arrival, but when it came time for the Office 365 rollout, he quickly discovered how chaotic the situation
  
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• How DOT CIO discovered a network compromised by shadow IT

  22-02-2017 15:31
  
  When Richard McKinney set out to migrate the Department of Transportation (DOT) to Microsoft Office 365, he got a valuable lesson in shadow IT, one that could serve as a cautionary tale for other government leaders as they look to upgrade and consolidate their systems.McKinney, who only recently stepped down as CIO at DOT, had been leading a turnaround mission at the department since his arrival, but when it came time for the Office 365 rollout, he quickly discovered how chaotic the situation wa
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Relationship advice for overworked and underloved IT leaders

  22-02-2017 15:20
  
  This article is part of a series highlighting key takeaways from my recently published book, Truth from the Trenches, A Practical Guide to the Art of IT Management. As a seven-time CIO, I’ve had an opportunity to observe the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of IT management up close and personal. Truth from the Trenches is my attempt to share my experiences with emerging IT leaders to help them avoid the chronic problems that afflict so many IT organizations.
  Social scientists have beco
  
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• Hybrid ERP matures as companies develop better strategies

  22-02-2017 15:09
  
  It’s hard to find a company that does not have some form of a hybrid (cloud and on-premise) ERP system. For most, that happened by accident. Someone in the organization bypassed IT and bought a cloud service to fill a need more quickly than they could with an on-premise solution. Salesforce.com, for example, has often been the start of a company’s march to a hybrid environment.Cloud applications can be relatively easy, low-cost solutions, but they do introduce new complexities when t
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: An IPFS addressable storage model for healthcare with blockchain

  22-02-2017 15:00
  
  What to do about the problem of medical record link rot in healthcare? What is link rot? Link rot is the process by which hyperlinks on individual websites or the internet in general point to web pages, servers or other resources that have become permanently unavailable. Medical information is available, but getting access proves difficult. Getting access to your unified medical profile sits well in the line of acceptable frustration, where patients are required to collect pieces of their m
  
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• Microsoft pushes out critical Flash Player patches with one week delay

  22-02-2017 14:38
  
  After deciding to postpone its February patches for a month, Microsoft released one critical security update for Windows on Tuesday that contains Flash Player patches released by Adobe Systems last week.The new security bulletin, identified as MS17-005, is rated critical for Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1, Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016, and moderate for Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2. On these Windows versions, Flash Player is bundled by default with Internet Explorer 11 and Mi
  
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• 'Tis the season to watch out for W-2 phishing scams

  22-02-2017 14:30
  
  Earlier this month, the IRS sent out an urgent alert warning to employers that this W-2 phishing scam had spread beyond the corporate world to other sectors, including school districts, tribal organizations and nonprofits.
  According to the IRS, this scam first appeared last year but is now circulating earlier in the tax season, and is hitting a wider variety of organizations.
  When a company falls victim, the costs might not be limited to just paying for some identity theft protection and warnin
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How to partner with the chief digital officer to drive digital transformation

  22-02-2017 14:08
  
  Whenever a business embarks on a strategic, multi-year business transformation program there is a strong likelihood of debate in the C-suite on overall leadership responsibilities. This is certainly going to be the case with digital transformation programs especially when there is a strong consensus that CEO leadership is a key success factor to drive digital business and that there are good reasons why they need to be vested in digital transformation. A successful transformation is go
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How third-party developers are transforming the Alexa experience

  22-02-2017 13:52
  
  As the internet of things (IoT) continues to develop in 2017, third party developers are taking advantage of Amazon’s willingness to let them work with the Amazon Alexa. There are already hundreds of devices which are certified to work alongside Alexa, which has helped Amazon gain a steps over its competitors like Google and Apple in the fight to be the dominant smart home software.Now Amazon is planning to take its ambitions a step further. On Tuesday, Ars Technica reported that “Am
  
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• LG Watch Sport review: Not the watch Android Wear needs right now

  22-02-2017 13:00
  
  Android Wear has a problem. Sales are slow. Motorola is backing out. Samsung has its own watch platform.
  What Google’s watch ecosystem needs is a reboot. New software, new hardware, fresh marketing, the works. Unfortunately, the two LG watches chosen to be the launch partners for the new Android Wear 2.0 platform fall well short of the fresh, forward-looking, “gotta have it” hardware that’s really needed. The LG Style is missing some of Wear 2.0’s best features, an
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 20 awesome Apple websites

  22-02-2017 13:00
  
  Apple is one of the richest, best known companies on the planet. Apple’s products generate reams of news, reviews, discussions and opinion columns everyday around the web.But the company’s very prominence can make it hard to know which sites to visit to get your daily fix of Apple information. There are just so many Apple related websites out there to choose from that it can feel overwhelming when you try to separate the wheat from the chaff.Fortunately, a writer at MakeUseOf has a t
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: One simple way to help employees stay healthy

  22-02-2017 12:30
  
  We’ve known for a while that the time we spend at work — and how we spend it — can have some truly profound effects on the quality of our lives. But what if there was something happening at work that was literally cutting our lives shorter?Based on a paper presented by Erik Gonzalez-Mulé and Bethany Cockburn, we now know there is such a factor: lack of job control.Research turned up by this study indicates employees with low control over their jobs faced 15.4% higher &ld
  
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• FDA 'guides' the way to medical device security

  22-02-2017 12:19
  
  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has, for the second time in two years, issued recommendations to improve the security of connected medical devices. Not mandates – recommendations.
  Which immediately raises the question: Will anything that is non-binding put enough pressure on manufacturers to spend the time and money it will take to improve device security?
  That, as is frequently said, remains to be seen.
  The FDA issued what it called “guidance” on the “postma
  
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• And the Oscar goes to… Cybersecurity!

  22-02-2017 12:09
  
  I want to thank cybersecurityImage by Davidlohr BuesoThe Academy Awards “Oscars,” is one of the major film industry awards for excellence in cinematic achievements. In anticipation of the 2017 Oscar awards, cybersecurity company Deep Instinct created its own Oscar-style references highlighting major cybersecurity events that took place in the past year. Guy Caspi, CEO of Deep Instinct, is the director of this production.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click
  
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• The best Go language IDEs and editors

  22-02-2017 12:00
  
  Google’s Go language was recently chosen as Tiobe’s programming language of 2016, based on its rapid growth in popularity over the year, more than twice that of runners-up Dart and Perl. Tiobe’s language index is based on the “number of skilled engineers worldwide, courses, and third-party vendors,” using the results of multiple search engines.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• 7 Wi-Fi vulnerabilities beyond weak passwords

  22-02-2017 12:00
  
  To keep private Wi-Fi networks secure, encryption is a must-have -- and using strong passwords or passphrases is necessary to prevent the encryption from being cracked. But don’t stop there! Many other settings, features and situations can make your Wi-Fi network as much or even more insecure as when you use a weak password. Make sure you’re not leaving your network vulnerable by doing any of the following.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider
  
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• 5 ways to spot a phishing email

  22-02-2017 11:33
  
  No one wants to believe they'd fall for a phishing scam. Yet, according to Verizon's 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report, 30 percent of phishing emails get opened. Yes, that's right -- 30 percent. That incredible click-through rate explains why these attacks remain so popular: it just works.
  Phishing works because cybercriminals take great pains to camouflage their "bait" as legitimate email communication, hoping to convince targets to reveal login and password information and/or download mal
  
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• New CIO appointments -- February 2017 edition

  22-02-2017 11:00
  
  Nearly two months in to what is promising to be a very interesting year, large companies such as Wal-Mart, Goldman Sachs, Alaska Air, and Alorica are among several firms with brand new CIOs at the helm. Hats off to these IT leaders!
  Wal-Mart named Clay Johnson as their new CIO. Johnson was formerly CIO for GE Power.
  Goldman Sachs promoted S. Elisha Wiesel as CIO, effective April 2017. Previously, Wiesel was the company's Chief Risk Officer, Securities & Head of Global Securities Desk.To rea
  
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