Category: News

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…

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Although no market-sensitive data was compromised, the hackers stole personal information Hackers targeted the European Central Bank on Monday, stealing personal information data after requesting a ransom. The hacker, whose identity is not known, stole 20,000 email addresses, plus telephone numbers and addresses. The details are said to belong to people who registered for ECB events and although some of the data the company held was encrypted, email addresses, phone numbers and physical addresses were not. However, the personal data was held in a separate database to market-sensitive information that was…

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Earlier this year, Microsoft announced “Skype Translator”, a ground breaking feature which would allow two people speaking in different languages to have audio conversations. At the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference event, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a development to that project — Skype Translator now facilitates video conferencing as well. On stage, a Microsoft executive demonstrated the feature by speaking to a German person through a Skype Video call in front of 16,000 people and the CEO. The demonstration showed real-time audio translation from English to German, and vice versa. Nadella hopes…

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A Russian hacker group has attacked the news site CNET. It later said it stole usernames, encrypted passwords and emails for more than one million users.   CNET was informed about the hack attack via a Twitter conversation CNET said a representative from the group – which calls itself ‘w0rm’ – informed it about the hack via a Twitter conversation. A spokeswoman for CBS Interactive – the owner of CNET – said the firm had “identified the issue and resolved it”. According to CNET, w0rm offered to sell the database for 1…

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I’m pleased to announce that Microsoft has acquired InMage, an innovator in the emerging area of cloud-based business continuity. Our customers tell us that business continuity – the ability to backup, replicate and quickly recover data and applications in case of a system failure – is incredibly important. After all, revenue, supply chains, customer loyalty, employee productivity and more are on the line. It’s also very complicated and expensive to do. CIOs consistently rank business continuity as a top priority, but often don’t have the budgets or time to do…

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Microsoft officials are beginning to sound the support warning bell for customers running a number of its popular products, including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and more. As the second half 2014 rolls in, Microsoft is stepping up its warnings for approaching support deadlines for some of its key products, including Windows 7. A few definitions worth knowing: Mainstream support is the typically five-year period when Microsoft provides free patches and fixes, including but not limited to security updates, for its products. When a product exits the mainstream support phase, Microsoft…

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A new group seeks to provide its members insulation against attacks by patent trolls Google, Dropbox and a few other high-tech firms have come up with a new way to help defend themselves against patent trolls. Patent trolls, or “non-practicing entities,” are companies that buy up old patents and try to monetize them by accusing others of infringement. They usually request a one-off licensing fee to end a lawsuit, something many companies reluctantly pay because it’s cheaper than defending the claim. The practice has become a significant problem in the…

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Five people have been arrested for running fake scam websites, imitating government services Five people have been arrested for operating websites offering to help web users pay tax or apply for driving licences and passports. The operatives were actually scamming the visitors, taking their money and identities but not providing the goods and were arrested under the Fraud Act. The Advertising Standards Authority and Citizens Advice received 5,700 complaints about the websites, which all included misleading web addresses, ending in variations of the ‘gov.uk’ domain suffix, such as ‘govuk’ and…

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IBM Connections 5 Gives Organizations a Secure, Unified Platform to Deepen Engagement with Clients, Employees and Partners IBM today introduced new cloud and on premisessocial software to help clients better connect, collaborate and share information with key stakeholders inside and outside their organizations.  The latest version of the market-leading IBM Connections platform features an open and fully integrated suite of social and real-time collaboration, analytics and content management tools, all securely delivered on any screen or device. Ranked by IDC as the worldwide market share leader in enterprise social software, IBM Connections helps organizations drive deeper collaboration and…

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Cisco today announced a strategic engagement with Electronics City Industries Association (ELCIA) to develop Asia’s first end-to-end ‘Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation Hub’ in Bangalore. Riding on India’s fast growing Internet penetration, this collaboration will help establish the foundation for a new ecosystem to help Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) companies and other companies of electronic city engaged in IoT product development. ELCIA has been chosen for this ambitious project as it is the only brown field ESDM cluster in the country, which has received an in principal approval…

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