enews – Page 58 – *IT Exclusive News

Internet of things big security worry, says HP

August 4, 2014August 4, 2014 enews

HP found 25 vulnerabilities per device including everything from TVs to thermostats to home alarms and scales About 70 percent of Internet of things devices—including sensors and connected infrastructure—have vulnerabilities that could be exploited, according to Hewlett-Packard. HP’s data is based on it Fortify division and a scan of 10 of the most popular Internet of things devices. HP found 25 vulnerabilities per device. These devices included TVs, Webcams, thermostats, remote power outlets, sprinklers, door locks, home alarms, scales and garage openers. The findings, assessed based on the OWASP Internet…

Things with RFID chips in them will carry this logo in Europe, because privacy

August 4, 2014August 4, 2014 enews

The logo is designed to make it clear to consumers when the goods they’re carrying contain an RFID smart chip, and to bring retailers and healthcare and banking companies out of a legal “gray zone” when it comes to data protection. The European Commission has revealed a new logo for items that include radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, to keep them compliant with EU data protection rules. The scheme is voluntary, but technology trade organizations like Germany’s BITKOM have signed up to promote its use. RFID tags, used in everything…

The End of a Necessary Evil: Collapsing the Memory Hierarchy

August 3, 2014August 3, 2014 enews

Four hours and 31 minutes. That’s how much longer my HP Folio 1040 laptop estimates I can work given the energy stored in its battery. Where does all that energy go? My CPU meter shows only slight activity. I’m only running a couple of apps and I’m not typing that fast. It turns out that today’s computers spend most of their time and energy shuffling data between tiers of storage and memory. In modern systems, this hierarchy can be more than 10 layers deep. In geek land, we call this…

What’s Hot in Cloud Now? Mission-critical Cloud Computing

August 3, 2014August 3, 2014 enews

The cloud is evolving and a new front – mission-critical cloud computing — is coming on strong. Once viewed skeptically for any use, the cloud is now being tapped to deploy mission-critical applications. Driven by customer demands, businesses are finding cloud computing necessary to remain competitive and viable in the business landscape. Traditionally the cloud has been used for less-critical applications like storage or testing and development. However, customers are increasingly requiring service delivery models to satisfy their needs – think online subscription-based software – and enterprises need to adjust…

Almost 200,000 people may have been affected by US visa system crash

August 3, 2014August 3, 2014 enews

Computer problems with the U.S. State Department’s system for issuing passports and visas may have affected up to 200,000 people, it emerged Thursday, as the scale of the problem became clear for the first time. The problems began July 20 when engineers from Oracle and Microsoft applied a software patch to the State Department’s Consular Consolidated Database, which handles millions of passport and visa applications in the U.S. and at its embassies and consulates around the globe. The patch was intended to solve several months of instability but instead crashed…

SaaS: Still Not Simple-As-A-Service

August 3, 2014August 3, 2014 enews

Cost, data ownership, security, and other factors can complicate the SaaS decision. Software-as-a-service has moved well beyond the tidy world created by Salesforce.com. While there are now hundreds of successful SaaS vendors, customers have paid scant attention to the complexity this proliferation is having on their companies and end users. The first impact is cost. Subscription, per-user SaaS fees, payable monthly or quarterly, seemingly provide a low entry point. But this “cheap road in” overlooks the other infrastructure investments SaaS customers must make, including redundant connectivity from multiple ISPs to…

How Its New In-Memory Computing Platform Affects the IMC Game

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 enews

In-memory computing (IMC) used to be an option only for larger companies with deep pockets. But, because the price of RAM has decreased significantly, companies of all sizes can now use this platform to process real-time data. The main advantage of IMC is the storage of data in the RAM on multiple computers, which decreases the impact of the data on performance. By storing data in RAM instead of on a disk, the speed increases exponentially. Without IMC, companies do not have access to the full capabilities of technologies such as big…

what companies should think of when considering to employ a ‘Big Data’ solution

July 31, 2014August 1, 2014 enews

Since its public introduction in 2008 by Nature Publishing Group editors, the term “Big Data” has become a buzz-word across the industry. Although this technology still remains hidden in the shadow of bigger problems that CIOs have to solve in everyday life, the widely adopted approach of handling humongous amounts of data, dubbed with the name of Hadoop, has gained quite a momentum. While the majority of IT specialists concentrate on such issues as operations, availability and implementation, not many think of the associated security risks. Here are few things…

Phishing attacks still on the rise – bank customers suffer

July 31, 2014August 1, 2014 enews

Phishing attacks become increasingly popular among cybercriminals. Stealing passwords and posing as legitimate organizations are well-known techniques used especially in mobile banking. The most recent example was an attack targeted at customers of one of the major Polish banks. It’s important to know what these new types of threats are and how can we protect ourselves. During a typical phishing attack cybercriminals send fake emails to customers, mimicking valid communications from a well-known company or institution. Such emails usually contain a request to click the link and login on a…

10 Things You Didn’t Know You Agreed to via Terms of Service

July 30, 2014July 31, 2014 enews

The terms of service, also known as the document you’re supposed to read before signing up for a site or platform, is a treasure trove of legal guidelines, rules and permissions that few people really care about. But there are a few things you’re agreeing to, hidden within the jargon, that might change the way you use the web. Some permissions, like keeping personal information, protecting copyrights and preventing impersonation, are well-known and relatively innocuous. That said, there’s a chance you’re violating a term of service without even realizing it.…