IT Executive news

• 'Hearables' and clothing to grow fastest in wearables market, IDC says

  20-03-2017 22:40
  
  Wearable devices that double as clothing or get worn on the ear will grow the fastest of all wearables in the next five years, market research firm IDC said Monday.
  Earworn devices, sometimes called "hearables," will grow by 43% every year over that period, IDC said. They started from a small base: just 700,000 devices shipped in 2016.
  Clothing will grow by 77% a year, starting at 2016's level of 1.3 million clothing wearables shipped, IDC added.
  Earwear and clothing together will still make up
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Docker and Core OS plan to donate their container technologies to CNCF

  20-03-2017 21:57
  
  Containers have become a critical component of modern cloud, and Docker Inc. controls the heart of containers, the container runtime.
  There has been a growing demand that this critical piece of technology should be under control of a neutral, third party so that the community can invest in it freely.
  Last year in December, Docker open sourced docker runtime and released it as ‘containerd’ and started shopping for an independent party to oversee and manage the project. They have foun
  
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• Samsung unveils Bixby voice assistant for upcoming Galaxy S8

  20-03-2017 21:11
  
  Samsung revealed Monday that Bixby, an intelligent voice assistant, will run on the Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone slated to be announcedMarch 29 in New York.
  Bixby will be activated using a special physical button on the side of the phone, differentiating it from some other assistants that rely on a trigger word, like "Alexa" or "Siri." Samsung also said Bixby will eventually work on millions of Samsung-made devices, potentially including TVs and washing machines.[ Further reading: 16 Android ti
  
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• Russia will strike US elections again, FBI warns

  20-03-2017 20:50
  
  Future U.S. elections may very well face more Russian attempts to interfere with the outcome, the FBI and the National Security Agency warned on Monday.“They’ll be back,” said FBI director James Comey. “They’ll be back in 2020. They may be back in 2018.”Comey made the comment during a congressional hearing on Russia’s suspected efforts to meddle with last year’s presidential election. Allegedly, cyberspies from the country hacked several high-profi
  
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• Bill Gates again tops world's billionaire list

  20-03-2017 20:39
  
  Bill Gates, co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft, was the world's richest person in 2016, the fourth year in a row he has headed the list, Forbes said today.
  But Gates' fortune did not rely on the Microsoft shares he held, filings with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) showed.
  Forbes pegged Gates' total worth at $86.8 billion, more than $9 billion more than the next-richest person on the planet, Warren Buffet. However, in a February filing with the SEC, Gates said that he ow
  
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• 50% off Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration For PlayStation 4 - Deal Alert

  20-03-2017 20:13
  
  Includes over 50 hours of gameplay, and all-new content created to celebrate 20 years of the iconic Lara Croft. And for the first time in franchise history, players can explore the world through Lara’s eyes with the game's VR support.
  
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• Pwn2Own hacking contest ends with two virtual machine escapes

  20-03-2017 20:08
  Two teams of researchers managed to win the biggest bounties at this year's Pwn2Own hacking contest by escaping from the VMware Workstation virtual machine and executing code on the host operating system.Virtual machines are in used in many scenarios to create throw-away environments that pose no threat to the main operating system in case of compromise. For example, many malware researchers execute malicious code or visit compromise websites inside virtual machines to observe their behavior and
  
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• Apple's Swift cracks RedMonk's top 15 in record time

  20-03-2017 19:32
  
  Swift, Apple's successor language to Objective-C, has made great strides in the latest biannual RedMonk Programming Language Rankings, moving up to a tie for 11th spot, after placing 17th in the mid-year 2016 rankings.
  Released last Friday, the rankings also show Microsoft's TypeScript, Google's Go, and Mozilla Rust making progress. The rankings are based on a recently retweaked formula that assesses code usage in GitHub and language discussions in Stack Overflow.[ Get started with functional p
  
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• Investor with golden touch for social startups is jazzed about the enterprise

  20-03-2017 19:03
  
  Bijan Sabet is a venture capitalist with a golden touch. His wins are as legendary as the consumer and social tech companies he helped grow into the juggernauts they are today. Spark Capital, the Boston-based firm he cofounded and where he serves as general partner, has invested in more than 100 companies to date, including Twitter, Tumblr, Oculus and Foursquare.Christopher Michel Bijan Sabet, cofounder and general partnerof Spark Capital.To read this article in full or to leave a comment,
  
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• Netgear's feature-packed 802.11ad router has dropped to $350

  20-03-2017 18:58
  
  There was a time when routers were boring gray boxes that delivered the Internet. These days, the more expensive ones look like spaceships bristling for war with an impressive feature set to boot. That's exactly the look of the Netgear Nighthawk X10, a cutting-edge 802.11ad router on sale at Amazon today for $350.
  Originally priced at $500, the Nighthawk X10 has since dropped to around $450 or so, meaning the savings on this deal is about $100, not $150. Nevertheless, that's still a pretty
  
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• BrandPost: Why transformation matters now more than ever

  20-03-2017 18:47
   
  Why transformation matters now more than ever
  By Patricia FlorissiOver the past century, while the lifespans of people took a big leap forward, the lifespans of companies took a much bigger leap backward. And by “bigger” I mean a fall of more than 50 years. To be more specific, according to a researcher and thought leader affiliated with Yale University, the average lifespan of a company listed on the S&P 500 Index fell from 67 years in the 1920s to just 15 years in the 20
  
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• DataStax sets sights on customer experience

  20-03-2017 18:13
  
  Enterprises are increasingly seeing the need for their data to generate real-time, contextually aware insights in milliseconds or even microseconds — providing personalized responsiveness every time a customer taps a screen, changes lanes in a car and so on.Responding to this need to support what it describes as the "right-now economy," DataStax, a specialist in database software for cloud applications built on the open source foundations of Apache Cassandra and Apache TinkerPop, last week
  
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• 39% off Samsung Gear 360, 360-degree High-Res VR Camera - Deal Alert

  20-03-2017 17:36
  
  The Gear 360 is smaller than a baseball, so you can just hold it and shoot. Or set it down on the included tripod and live in the moment. Look all around you -- that’s what you capture with the Gear 360. Every angle, all at once, every time. Play videos back, trim and instantly share your creation on YouTube, Facebook or Samsung VR. Right now the Gear 360 is significantly discounted from its typical list price of $350. With the current 39% off deal you can get it now for just $214 on
  
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• How IBM wants to bring blockchain from Bitcoin to your data center

  20-03-2017 17:16
  
  At its InterConnect conference in Las Vegas this week, IBM is announcing new features for its open source cloud-hosted blockchain service in an attempt to bring this distributed database technology from its initial use of powering Bitcoin to a broader market, including the financial services industry.
  Blockchain is a distributed database that maintains a continually growing list of records that can be verified using hashing techniques. Vendors such as IBM and Microsoft are attempting to commerc
  
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• Cisco issues critical warning after CIA WikiLeaks dump bares IOS security weakness

  20-03-2017 17:07
  
  A vulnerability in Cisco’s widely deployed IOS software that was disclosed in the recent WikiLeaks dump of CIA exploits has triggered the company to release a critical warning for its Catalyst networking customers.
  +More on Cisco Security on Network World: Cisco security advisory dump finds 20 warnings, 2 critical+
  The vulnerability -- which could let an attacker cause a reload of an affected device or remotely execute code and take over a device -- impacts more than 300 models of Cisco C
  
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• Bonjour Bixby: Samsung unveils its own AI aide to debut on the Galaxy S8

  20-03-2017 17:06
  
  There’s a new virtual assistant on the block. Ahead of next week’s announcement of the Galaxy S8, Samsung has introduced the world to Bixby, its own entry into the increasingly crowded AI landscape.
  Samsung is a bit late to the AI race led by Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant, but it has a bit of a different strategy. Instead of wowing us with encyclopedic knowledge, Samsung is putting Bixby at the center of the Galaxy experience. It’s calling it an intelligent interface, rath
  
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• FBI looks into Russian hack of US election, possible Trump involvement

  20-03-2017 16:36
  
  The FBI is actively investigating Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible cooperation from President Donald Trump's campaign, agency director James Comey confirmed.The existence of an investigation isn't a surprise, but Comey's announcement Monday is the first time the FBI has acknowledged an active case. The FBI typically does not comment on active investigations, but the Russian actions targeting the U.S. election represents an "unusual" case, he told me
  
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• Single-owner vintage Apple-1 for sale

  20-03-2017 16:24
  
  A German auction house that hopes to rap the gavel on an antique Apple-1 personal computer in May has pegged its likely sales price at between $190,000 and $320,000.
  The Apple-1, one of a handful verified to work, will be put on the block May 20 by Auction Team Breker of Cologne, Germany.
  The first pre-assembled personal computer, the Apple-1 lacked such amenities as a power supply, keyboard or display. Those were supplied by the computer hobbyists who bought the boards direct from the embryoni
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: macOS: Change where screenshots are saved

  20-03-2017 16:19
  
  If you take a lot of screenshots on your Mac, you might find it irritating that macOS stores them by default on your desktop. This can lead to a very messy desktop, filled with screenshot clutter.But you can easily change where screenshots are stored by default on your Mac with a simple command in the Terminal app.Here’s how you can do it:1. Open the Applications folder.2. Open the Utilities folder.3. Open the Terminal app.4. Use this command to change the location where your screenshots a
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why Apple is 'losing badly' in the smart home market

  20-03-2017 16:07
  
  Despite what it would seem, Apple was actually early to the smart home market. The 2014 release of the HomeKit app introduced the concept of what should have been an easy and popular introduction for many people to smart home features through their cell phones.The app features connectivity to Apple TV, which could connect to smart tech like lightbulbs, A/C units and lock mechanisms. The limit was the requirement of an Apple TV which, it turns out, most people weren’t interested in purchasi
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: What happens when digital technology creates exponential business change?

  20-03-2017 16:04
  
  I’ve been asking myself this question lately and am increasingly stunned by the implications. Let me explain.We all know Moore’s Law and its derivatives; however Singularity University thinker and acclaimed futurist, Ray Kurzweil, came up with the idea of The Law of Accelerating Returns way back in 2001. One thing it says is, “Technology...is a process of creating ever more powerful technology using the tools from the previous round of innovation.” He asserts that this ty
  
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• Guess goes all in on Android Wear 2.0 as it reboots its smartwatch strategy

  20-03-2017 15:34
  
  While we haven’t seen too much in the way of must-have Android Wear 2.0 wearables from traditional tech companies like LG or Google, fashion watch makers are fully embracing Google’s new mobile OS. In the past week, Tag Heuer and Montblanc have both announced Android Wear 2.0-powered smartwatches, and now Guess is looking to get some skin in the game too.
  The company announced at Baselworld that it will be releasing a range of smartwatches powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 2100
  
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• Is the rocky road to EMV retail adoption getting smoother?

  20-03-2017 15:02
  
  There was plenty of confusion to go around in October 2015, with only a small percentage of retailers ready to roll when the deadline passed for them to become EMV-compliant by installing new EMV-capable credit card readers and acquiring certifications from various payment networks.Now that over a year, and two holiday seasons, have passed by, the question is: Where does retail stand with EMV? The answer, says experts, is that it’s been a rocky road, but there have been improvements in ado
  
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• 14% off TP-Link Multicolor Dimmable Smart Wi-Fi 60W LED Bulb - Deal Alert

  20-03-2017 14:41
  
  Control TP-Link's smart bulbs from anywhere with your tablet or smartphone, or with your voice via the Alexa service. Dim brightness, fine-tune light appearance from soft white to daylight, and choose from 16 million colors to set the mood. Set timers and countdowns, or create an on/off schedule. The bulb also features an "away" mode that randomly turns on/off to give the appearance you're home, when you're away. The 60W multicolor dimmable and tunable smart bulb from TP-Link averages
  
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• The 15 highest-performing PC components you can buy today

  20-03-2017 13:06
  
  The best gear money can buyOne of the PC’s greatest strengths is its extreme flexibility. There’s a vast selection of hardware out there, of all different shapes and sizes and makes and models—so much so that even if your budget’s not a concern, buyer’s paralysis very well could be.Fear not, fellow enthusiast. We’ve got your back. These are the 15 highest-performing PC components you can buy today. We’ve even done the homework to ensure they all work fin
  
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• BrandPost: The Network Is Critical To Protect Your Business Assets

  20-03-2017 13:06
  
  Protecting your business assets — data, devices, programs, infrastructure, and people — requires a 24/7 approach that blends protection, detection, and resolution capabilities. The latter two are critical, because it’s not a question of whether you’re going to be the victim of a cybersecurity problem, but when.
  And while the focus on and commitment to cybersecurity is growing, the threatscape continues escalating, with the bad guys always a step ahead. As the saying goes
  
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• Robotica-partijen bundelen krachten

  20-03-2017 12:26
  Vijf industriële spelers op het gebied van robotica en zes wetenschapsinstellingen hebben afspraken gemaakt over verregaande krachtenbundeling om de internationale concurrentiepositie te verbeteren.De vier technische universiteiten, de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam en de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen hebben zich... lees meer
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why your small business needs a mobile app

  20-03-2017 12:21
  
  Are you app-solutely missing the boat?These days, we carry our smartphones everywhere. People are using them to play, order food, make purchases, do research, communicate, check reviews, read books, find love and generally get by day to day. Some people are even running their business from their phone! In fact, many of you probably prefer using apps over your desktop when it comes to things like checking emails, updating your social media accounts or checking your online banking.Smartphones have
  
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• Stap af van legacy-beveiliging en automatiseer

  20-03-2017 12:09
  Door Dharminder Debisarun – Het huidige dreigingslandschap is dynamisch door de alsmaar veranderende aanvalstactieken van cybercriminelen. Bedrijven maken gebruik van IT-oplossingen die de criminelen uit hun netwerken proberen te houden. Hierbij verschuift de focus steeds meer van reactief naar preventief.... lees meer
  
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• Lessons from SXSW: Life without Uber is mostly fine

  20-03-2017 12:00
  
  The biggest tech story heading into South by Southwest was Uber—and not just the company’s desperate need for a COO or its issues addressing sexual harassment claims. Last year, the city of Austin started requiring ride-hailing companies to fingerprint the drivers to ensure passenger safety. Uber and chief rival Lyft decided to leave the city in protest. Techies descending on Austin for SXSW’s interactive programming were concerned: How would everyone get around the city witho
  
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• Data the key ingredient for restaurant chain success

  20-03-2017 12:00
  
  Businesses have more data than ever about their operations, supply chains and customers. The problem is often they can’t see it, don’t know where it is, and don’t have an easy want to pull it all together and analyze it. So, they are unable to make smart decisions and can lose thousands of dollars a year. 
  It’s a challenge restaurant franchisors such as CraftWorks Restaurants and Breweries Inc. face. CraftWorks has found a solution, though—OnDemand software fr
  
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• How Google research can make the internet faster

  20-03-2017 11:59
  
  Raise your hand if you think webpage load times are great -- not too slow at all.
  No one? Well, Google may have just made big strides to increase load time for websites, while not compromising anything in the process. So how did the tech giant do that?
  In IT Blogwatch, we hit refresh. 
  So what is going on? DL Cabe gives us some background:Google...released a brand new, open-source JPEG encoder called Guetzli that can do two...neat things...it can decrease JPEG file size by 35% without a no
  
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• 6 of the most effective social engineering techniques

  20-03-2017 11:46
  
  Social engineering is the strongest method of attack against the enterprise’s weakest vulnerability, its people. Criminal hackers recognize this fact. In 2015, social engineering became the No. 1 method of attack, according to Proofpoint’s 2016 Human Factor Report.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Ultimate guide to strategic tech partners

  20-03-2017 11:38
  
  The IT vendor landscape is constantly in flux, with mergers, acquisitions, new technology developments and the growth of the cloud having a huge impact on which companies might be the most strategic partners for organizations looking to enhance their technology infrastructure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• How much is a bug worth?

  20-03-2017 11:31
  
  1Password recently raised its top bug bounty reward from $25,000 to $100,000. They increased the amount to further incentivize researchers, according to its blog. Separately Google paid out $3 million last year for its vulnerability reward program.
  But how are these figures determined?
  David Baker, vice president of operations at Bugcrowd, believes these big bounties demonstrate that organizations are really starting to think about the market and where the market is pricing vulnerabil
  
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• Coders and librarians team up to save scientific data

  20-03-2017 11:04
  
  On a windy, snowy night in Dover, N.H., about 15 people gathered in an old converted mill, staring at computer screens and furiously tapping at their keyboards.
  The group – some students, some programmers, and at least one part-time dishwasher and data entry clerk – were braving the snowstorm and volunteering their time to try to keep scientific data from being lost.
  It was one of dozens of data rescue events spread out in cities from Toronto to Los Angeles, and Houston to Chicago.
  
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• Machine learning proves its worth to business

  20-03-2017 11:00
  
  Machine learning couldn’t be hotter. A type of artificial intelligence that enables computers to learn to perform tasks and make predictions without explicit programming, machine learning has caught fire among the hip tech set, but remains a somewhat futuristic concept for most enterprises. But thanks to technological advances and emerging frameworks, machine learning may soon hit the mainstream.
  Consulting firm Deloitte expects to see a big increase in the use and adoption of machine lea
  
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• How to use data analytics to improve project outcomes

  20-03-2017 11:00
  
  Ted Friedman, vice president and analyst at Gartner, predicts the following three trends will drive fundamental changes in the use of data and analytics:
  Instead of just reflecting business performance, data analytics will become the driver of operations.Data and analytics will become infused in an organization's architecture from end to end, creating a holistic approach -- and this will include strategic project management in EPMOs (enterprise program management offices).Executives will use dat
  
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• 6 tips to avoid job search depression

  20-03-2017 11:00
  
  Searching for a new job can be a full-time job, It's a thankless, tiring -- and, yes, depressing task. Searching for roles, filling out applications, networking, tailoring endless versions of your resume to each potential job, interviewing, handling rejections -- the entire process can be so overwhelming and can leave you feeling unwanted, dejected and sad.
  "It's understandable; with the loss of a job, many people feel like they've lost control. And, in many cases, they've lost something that th
  
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• 5 tips to help you find the right hybrid tablet

  20-03-2017 11:00
  
  Hybrid tablets, 2-in-1 devices or detachable notebooks -- whatever you want to call them -- come in all shapes and sizes. In fact, the options are so expansive, it can be overwhelming to find the device that will best suit you.Whether you prefer a more traditional notebook experience or you're looking for a tablet that can perform like a notebook, it's more than likely the perfect option exists for you. But there's a lot to consider before you purchase a hybrid device, and these five tips will h
  
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• Bdrive secures files in the cloud with fingerprints and fragmentation

  20-03-2017 09:53
  
  Maximum privacy seems to be the goal for the new enterprise authentication and cloud storage services Bundesdruckerei is showing at Cebit this week.The 250-year-old state printer has moved far beyond its origins as a printer of banknotes and, later, passports, offering all sorts of secure digital authentication services.At the exhibition in Hanover, Germany, this week it's showing Bdrive, a way for businesses to securely and reliably store important files in the cloud.Unlike services such as Dro
  
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• 'Candy-bar' phones will get smartphone features with new Qualcomm chip

  20-03-2017 08:05
  
  The Nokia 3310 phone, a replica of its iconic namesake, took Mobile World Congress by storm last month. It was a surprising show of enthusiasm for so-called candy-bar phones, which remain popular in developing countries because of their rock-bottom prices.Qualcomm believes there's an untapped opportunity in such feature phones and believes it can bring smartphone-like capabilities to these handsets. So it made the 205 Mobile chip, which will bring LTE capabilities, better graphics, and more
  
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• GelTouch adds a new dimension to touch-sensitive controls

  20-03-2017 08:00
  
  The problem with a lot of touch-sensitive controls is that the communication is one-way: They can feel you, but you can't feel them.
  With touch-screen displays it's easy enough, as the button does what it says on the screen. Not all buttons are designed to be looked at as they are pushed, though. Take video-game controllers or car entertainment systems, for example, or some industrial controls. The user's attention is typically elsewhere when these are operated.
  Manufacturers can mold raised bl
  
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• Japan looks beyond Industry 4.0 towards Society 5.0

  20-03-2017 07:00
  Declining birth rate, aging population, natural disasters, pollution: Do these sound like issues the IT industry can deal with? Japanese businesses say yes, and a number of them are at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, to explain why.
  Industry 4.0 -- the building of "smart factories" in which machines monitor one another and make decentralized decisions about production and maintenance -- has been a theme of recent Cebit shows.
  Now, under the banner Society 5.0, the show's partner count
  
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• Cebit showcases security after Snowden

  20-03-2017 07:00
  
  It's almost four years since Edward Snowden leaked U.S. National Security Agency documents revealing the extent of the organization's surveillance of global internet traffic, but he's still making the headlines in Germany.
  At the Cebit trade show in Hannover, Germany, he'll be looking back at that period in live video interview from Moscow on Tuesday evening.
  There have been a lot of changes on the internet in those four years, but one of the biggest is the growth in the use of encryption.
  In 2
  
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• McDonald’s India asks users to update app after data leak report

  20-03-2017 06:20
  
  McDonald’s India operation asked users to update their McDelivery app as a 'precautionary measure' after a security firm said it had found that it was leaking personal data of over 2.2 million users.The Indian operation of the food chain, which is owned and managed by franchisees, said in posts on Facebook and Twitter over the weekend that its website and app do not store any sensitive financial data of users.The operation did not admit or deny that there had been a breach, but urged users
  
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