IT Executive news

• BlackBerry claims QNX automotive software is safe from CIA

  10-03-2017 23:31
  
  A day after it was revealed through WikiLeaks that the CIA has allegedly explored hacking vehicle computer-control systems, including BlackBerry's QNX OS, the company said its software is safe.
  "We are not currently aware of any attacks or exploits against BlackBerry products or services, including QNX. Still, the news is a bit frightening, now that we are in the semi-autonomous driving age and evolving towards fully self-driving cars," Marty Beard, BlackBerry's chief operating officer stated i
  
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• Fears arise that Trump has dropped ball on H-1B reform

  10-03-2017 22:36
  
  President Donald Trump's administration has signaled that it has no immediate plans to change the H-1B program. Critics are roiled. They wanted Trump to act before April 1, the day the U.S. accepts visa applications for the new year.
  But no one knows for sure. New rumors circulate that Trump will act, maybe next week, but the White House won't say.
  The IEEE-USA said Friday that Trump's inaction on the H-1B visa "will cost American jobs." The group now believes that action before April is unlike
  
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• 70% off PaperPort Professional 14 - Deal Alert

  10-03-2017 22:19
  
  One thing for certain is that every year we have to file our taxes. Stuck between gathering all the correct documentation and making sure you have everything you need in one place, it can become a strenuous process. Take control of your documents and have instant access to them all. From scanning and converting, to editing and sharing files, with PaperPort Professional 14 simplify document management and spend less time thinking about missing files and more on getting work done.
  Nuance
  
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• 33% off YETI Hopper 20 Portable Cooler - Deal Alert

  10-03-2017 21:29
  
  The YETI Hopper 20 ice-for-days portable cooler and is tough as nails so it can be hauled anywhere you want to take it.  It features a DryHide Shell and nearly indestructible straps will stand up to an abundance of abuse in the field.  It's HydroLok Zipper is completely leakproof, eliminating spills and locking in cold.  It can hold 18 cans, a limit of rainbow trout, or 20 pounds of ice.  The YETI Hopper 20 is currently selling at the discounted price of $199.99, a good
  
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• Based in C and similar to Swift, Gravity offers portable code for iOS and Android

  10-03-2017 21:20
  
  Gravity, an embeddable, lightweight programming language written in C, is an option for mobile application development while backing multiple programming variants.
  Supporting data-driven, functional, object-oriented, and procedural programming, Gravity was built for Creo Lab's Creo design tool for the Mac, but it's a standalone product, developer Marco Bambini said. Currently in beta, open source Gravity enables developers to easily write portable code for iOS and Android. It also supports desk
  
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• Google’s secret weapon in cloud computing: people

  10-03-2017 21:16
  
  SAN FRANCISCO - Google had several big tech and service announcements at this week's second annual Google Cloud Next conference here. But the company is also leveraging a surprising resource to win enterprise customers - people.
  It's surprising because Google's biggest successes have come from technology that pretty much sells itself, such as search and related advertising services like AdWords and AdSense.[ Further reading: Review: 3 services for managing all your cloud storage accounts ]
  But
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How open source has taken over our lives

  10-03-2017 20:35
  
  Open source is slowly and steadily taking over the world, without us realizing it. Here are some of the most popular consumer products that are running on open source technology.
  PlayStation 4: You may be surprised to know that the Sony PlayStation 4 gaming platform uses FreeBSD. Sony has created its own fork of FreeBSD for PS4, called Orbis OS. In addition to the kernel, Sony is also using many other open source components including Cairo (a 2D graphics library), jQuery, Lua, Mono, OpenSSL, We
  
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• Google splits Hangouts in half

  10-03-2017 20:25
  
  SAN FRANCISCO -- Google this week made good on its plan to reposition Hangouts for the enterprise by splitting the almost four-year-old service into two separate apps. A video conferencing app, Hangouts Meet and team messaging app Hangouts Chat will serve as the enterprise equivalent to Google’s Allo and Duo apps for consumers.Meet, which aims to minimize meeting friction by simplifying the entry point for audio and video conferences, is widely available now. Hangouts Chat, which is compet
  
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• Android device updates: Nougat rollout begins for the Moto Z Play

  10-03-2017 20:17
  
  The Moto Z Play is the latest in the Lenovo family of smartphones to get Android Nougat. But that’s not the only big update this week—Google’s Pixel and Nexus devices are getting several critical security patches. 
  Each week, we round up all the major software updates to hit the Android ecosystem, including phones and tablets on U.S. carriers, unlocked phones, smartwatches, and Android TV devices. Make sure your device is running the latest available software so you can e
  
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• Oil giant Shell calls for move to clean energy

  10-03-2017 20:15
  
  Because the fossil fuel industry is quickly losing public support amid reports of global warming, the industry must embrace clean energy in a more substantial way, the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell said this week.
  Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said his company plans to increase spending on renewable energy to $1 billion a year by 2020, according to reports. And he said  government policies should include a carbon tax, which will help to cut back on the most harmful pollutants.
  A carbon tax creates
  
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• CIO Quick Takes: What's your strategic focus?

  10-03-2017 19:26
  
  The year is well under way, but it's never too late to talk strategy. To gauge what lies ahead for 2017,  we teamed with the CIO Executive Council to ask IT leaders about their focus for the year. Normally for Quick Takes we ask only a handful of executives to weigh in on a topic, but this time we wanted to get a deeper and wider set of answers to this question:"What is your strategic focus for 2017?"You didn't disappoint. The 30 responses -- which come from a range of industries and academ
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Can Facebook prevent suicides using AI?

  10-03-2017 19:11
  
  For many people considering suicide, intervention from any source can bring the welcome relief and sense of worth that could prevent someone from making an attempt on their own life. With modern developments in artificial intelligence, a person may not necessarily have to play a role in detecting and acting on warning signs. Facebook thinks that it can be that intervening force for suicidal users.In a blog post dated March 1, Facebook announced that it would build new suicide prevention tools in
  
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• BrandPost: Is DevOps worth the investment?

  10-03-2017 18:11
  
  Portions of this post were originally posted on the Puppet blog, and are republished here with Puppet's permission.Over the past several years the DevOps movement has really begun to take shape. It’s a movement of IT leaders that want change – to constantly deliver awesome software to their customers and do it with confidence.To remain competitive, you’ve got to provide great software. That means simultaneously responding more quickly to business needs while also providing stab
  
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• Why Trumpcare will be worse than Obamacare

  10-03-2017 18:01
  
  The Trump presidency is starting to become a tad too ironic for me. At this point, I’m almost waiting for someone to question where the guy was born.   But the latest drama/irony this week is how he is attempting to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act and the process looks like what often happens in a public or private bureaucracy. The folks who are directing the change have somehow lost complete track of the goal and now are just focused on effectively rear
  
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• BrandPost: Discover Connection's Unique Capabilities

  10-03-2017 17:22
  
  A few months ago, I told you all about our new Distribution and Configuration Center in Wilmington, OH. It had just recently been completed, and we sure were—and are!—proud of it. With the new space, we can increase efficiency across shipping and distribution, as well as the numerous configuration services we offer our customers.Today, I’d like to invite you to learn a little more about our new facility and the services we offer. I had the opportunity to work with our team to c
  
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• BrandPost: Cut Costs and Save Time with the Latest in Digital Forensics

  10-03-2017 17:20
  
  According to the 2015 Global Cost of Cyber Crime study, the cost of dealing with cyber-attacks can rise significantly if not resolved quickly. So, as the speed of business gets faster in a digitally transformed world, it’s essential that an organization evolve in the way it responds to cyber incidents, whether they infiltrate from the outside or arise from within.No company today can afford to be left behind: That’s why the latest in digital forensics and incident response tools, tec
  
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• BrandPost: Mobility Matters

  10-03-2017 17:12
  
  Would you be more upset if you left home without your wallet, or without your smartphone?According to a JP Morgan Chase survey, two out of five U.S. consumers would leave their physical wallets at home if they used a digital wallet. Moreover, says the banking giant, the mobile phone has become the most prized possession of consumers.This growing, always-on connectivity provides businesses with great potential to capture insights about customers and workers. And the onus is on IT to figure out ho
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How unlikely collaborations are changing the future of healthcare

  10-03-2017 16:45
  
  For years, healthcare has been a poster child for misaligned incentives, with healthcare consumers either unaware of or unconcerned with costs of care. Patients were happy to let providers decide what was best for them. Adversarial relationships among stakeholders were not uncommon.Faced with increased financial responsibility for healthcare, and enabled by digital health tools, the healthcare consumer reached a tipping point in 2016, according to VC firm Rock Health’s survey of consumer a
  
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• Google offers new 'Always Free' cloud tier to attract users

  10-03-2017 16:45
  
  Google is letting its customers get a taste of its cloud for free, without a time-limited trial. The company quietly launched a new “Always Free” tier on Thursday that lets people use small amounts of its public cloud services without charge, beyond the company’s limited-time trial.The tier includes — among other things — 1 f1-micro compute instance, 5 GB per month of Regional Storage and 60 minutes per month of access to the Cloud Speech API. Using the free tier re
  
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• Persoonlijke, relevante klantenservice hangt af van drie factoren

  10-03-2017 16:33
  Consumenten willen persoonlijke, relevante service. Bedrijven moeten daarvoor drie zaken goed regelen: ze moeten een 360-gradenbeeld hebben van hun klanten, geautomatiseerde tools om de zogenaamde customer journey te verbeteren, en interactie moet naast telefoon en e-mail ook via alternatieve kanalen verlopen. Hierop... lees meer
  
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• Apple and SAP hope to create a new class of iOS developers

  10-03-2017 15:00
  
  The head of SAP’s developer initiative with Apple has high aspirations for the partnership and the impact it will have on enterprise mobility. “I believe what’s going to happen with the release of the SDK, and the continued innovation and investment, is that we’re going to create a new enterprise iOS developer,” says Rick Knowles, senior vice president and general manager of the Apple partnership at SAP.“It’s a rare developer that exists, but now we&rsqu
  
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• Danes targeted by malware spread through Dropbox

  10-03-2017 14:21
  
  Earlier this week, Danish-speaking users were hit by malware spread through Dropbox, but the company responded quickly to shut down the attack.
  According to a research report by AppRiver, the attack hit Denmark, Germany, and several surrounding Scandinavian countries on Wednesday morning.
  The attack was unusual in that it narrowly targeted a specific audience, said Troy Gill, security analyst at AppRiver.
  "Somehow, they found this language-based list of email addresses," he said. "I'm not sure
  
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• Mismatch arbeidsmarkt IT onverminderd groot

  10-03-2017 14:17
  Hoewel het aantal nieuwe WW-uitkeringen voor ICT’ers in 2016 met 12% daalde, zijn er in Nederland toch nog 7.600 ICT’ers werkloos. Tegelijkertijd is bijna de helft van de ICT-vacatures moeilijk te vervullen. Dat blijkt uit de Factsheet Arbeidsmarkt ICT, dat UWV vandaag heeft gepubliceerd.“De... lees meer
  
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• 80% CIO’s plant big data-projecten in 2017

  10-03-2017 13:08
  Big data, analytics en data-governance staan hoog op de prioriteitenlijst van CIO’s dit jaar. Van alle geplande big data projecten bestaat 70% uit real-time analyses, metadata-management en selfservice datatoegang. CIO’s lopen zich warm voor toepassingen op het gebied van KI en machine learning. Daarop... lees meer
  
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• The IT equipment you can take into battle

  10-03-2017 12:40
  
  The farmer's revengeImage by Robert Couse-BakerTo modern city folk, the scythes and pitchforks farmers use in their work may seem quaint, but of course they represent a specific form of technology—an innovation at one point that become everyday over the centuries. And as the stereotypical image of the pitchfork-wielding mob makes clear, these implements could be quickly transformed into improvised weapons. In fact, in Japan, traditional kama scythes were integrated into various forms of ma
  
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• How to use your iPhone as a mobile hotspot

  10-03-2017 12:38
  
  If you're traveling with a tablet or notebook, it can be difficult to find a reliable, secure Wi-Fi network. But if you have your iPhone and a strong 4G signal, you have instant access to a personal hotspot -- letting you bypass weak, insecure or slow public Wi-Fi networks.All the latest models of the iPhone -- since the iPhone 3G -- have built-in hotspot capabilities. Follow these steps to turn on your iPhone's mobile hotspot, and never be without Wi-Fi again.First check with your mobile carrie
  
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• Gevaar zwerfinformatie en onveilig gedrag medewerkers onderschat

  10-03-2017 12:24
  Als de eigen medewerkers (onbewust) onbekwaam handelen is de meest geavanceerde beveiligingstechnologie waardeloos. Organisaties lijken zich dat onvoldoende te realiseren en denken dat de grootste bedreigingen voor de informatieveiligheid van buiten komen. Daarop duidt onderzoek in opdracht van Xerox-dochter... lees meer
  
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• Newer car tech opens doors to CIA attacks

  10-03-2017 12:01
  
  The revelation through Wikileaks that the CIA has explored hacking vehicle computer control systems should concern consumers, particularly as more and more cars and trucks roll off assembly lines with autonomous features.
  "I think it's a legitimate concern considering all of the computers being added to cars," said Kit Walsh, a staff attorney with the privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). "There's no reason the CIA or other intelligence agencies or bad actors couldn't use those vu
  
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• Protecting the enterprise against mobile threats

  10-03-2017 12:00
  
  Mobile devices have transformed the digital enterprise allowing employees to access the information they need to be most productive from virtually anywhere. Has that convenience come at a cost to enterprise security, though? According to Forrester's The State of Enterprise Mobile Security: 2016 to 2017, by Chris Sherman, "Employees are going to continue to purchase and use whatever devices and apps they need to serve customers and be highly productive, whether or not these devices are compa
  
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• Google tries to beat AWS at cloud security

  10-03-2017 12:00
  
  Google knows that if enterprises are going to move their critical services to its cloud, then it has to offer something that AWS doesn’t. At Google Cloud Next, the company’s leadership made the case that Google Cloud was the most secure cloud.
  At the conference this week, Google unveiled tools that would let IT teams provide granular access to applications, better manage encryption keys, and enforce stronger authentication mechanisms for applications running on Google Cloud. Wh
  
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• Apple's Swift soars into Tiobe's top 10 programming languages

  10-03-2017 12:00
  
  The Swift language was introduced to much fanfare by Apple in June 2014, positioned as a modern successor to the Objective-C language that has driven iOS and MacOS application development. Now, Swift has cracked the top 10 in Tiobe's language popularity index, demonstrating momentum for the fledgling language as it approaches its third birthday. But Tiobe has doubts about how far up in the rankings Swift can move, given its Apple-centric focus.
  Tiobe's March index has Swift in 10th place with a
  
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• WikiLeaks will share CIA hacking details with companies, but can they use it?

  10-03-2017 04:06
  
  WikiLeaks plans to share details about what it says are CIA hacking tools with the tech companies so that software fixes can be developed.But will software companies want it?The information WikiLeaks plans to share comes from 8,700-plus documents it says were stolen from an internal CIA server. If the data is classified -- and it almost certainly is -- possessing it would be a crime.That was underlined on Thursday by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who advised t
  
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• 5G plans just hit the accelerator

  10-03-2017 02:34
  
  The international body crafting the 5G standard has approved an accelerated roadmap that could see large-scale trials and deployments in 2019 instead of 2020.At a meeting this week in Dubrovnik, Croatia, the 3GPP signed off on a 5G work plan that several top mobile operators and network vendors came out in favor of last week. It would create an interim 5G specification before the full-scale standard is completed.It’s important to get the next generation of mobile out into the world soon be
  
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• iPhone-or-healthcare lawmaker spent $3,000 of donors' money at Apple store in '16

  10-03-2017 02:26
  
  Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) used campaign funds last year to pay nearly $3,000 for goods and services at a Salt Lake City Apple store, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records.
  Earlier this week, the Utah congressman had suggested that Americans choose between buying an iPhone or paying for healthcare. When CNN host Alisyn Camerota pointed out that access to healthcare for low-income Americans was not the same as providing coverage, Chaffetz responded: "Americans have choices, and
  
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• How to catch March Madness without paying for cable TV

  10-03-2017 00:27
  
  This story has been updated for the 2017 season.For millions of sports fans, brackets, not baseball, herald the arrival of spring. With its big upsets, Cinderella stories, and weird mascots, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship has transcended sports to become a cultural event.
  But it’s a bittersweet time for cord cutters. If the logistics of following 68 teams through a month-long tournament aren’t arduous enough, nearly 70 percent of games are televised on cable
  
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