GM tried to buy Lyft

Lyft logo

General Motors (GM) currently holds some nine percent stake at Lyft, the US ride-sharing startup. However, according to new reports, firstly coming out of The Information, GM was interested in purchasing the other 91 percent, as well.

How much money would that be? Well, if nine percent is $500 million, the entire company would be around $5.5 billion. Lyft, apparently, turned the offer down and instead wants to go for another round of funding.

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US businesses slowly embracing Privacy Shield agreement

Data protection

The new program that replaces the Safe Harbor agreement is being picked up by US companies, but very, very slowly.

In the first two weeks since the US Department of Commerce started accepting applications for the Privacy Shield transatlantic data transfer program, just 40 companies have been certified.

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Keeping a clean backup environment when chaos abounds

Backup key

Around the globe, IT directors are experiencing a common problem. What is that problem, you ask? The fact of the matter is backup environments worldwide are becoming increasingly challenging to manage. You might be asking yourself how this assertion could possibly be accurate, especially with the sudden boost in technology. Truth be told, the increase in technology is part of the problem.

Many directors in the IT world are finding themselves with less support, but are not asked to do any less. Things can quickly get chaotic when staff is not replaced, IT budgets shrink, service-level expectations continue to rise, and ROI-based business cases are created for purchased hardware even though storages spaces are completely maxed out. Sounds like a mess, right?

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Malware hits 20 major hotels, customer data may be stolen

Hacker laptop

As many as 20 hotels in the US have been hit by malware, and fears are spreading that customer data, including credit card information, was stolen.

According to a Reuters report, hotels under attack include Starwood, Marriott, Hyatt and Intercontinental -- all part of the HEI Hotels & Restaurants.

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How to verify your HIPAA compliance

Checklist

Keeping patients’ confidential records secure is of utmost importance to healthcare organizations and the vendors who work alongside them. Not only is the proper safeguarding of information a good practice, it’s the law.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) seeks to protect the sensitive data of patients and to empower healthcare practitioners to keep that information safe through strong security and privacy policies.

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Technology at the Rio Olympics

Rio 2016 Olympics flag

The 2016 Rio Olympics is well and truly underway and technology is now playing a more prominent role -- both for the athletes and fans -- than ever before.

John Rakowski, director of technology strategy at AppDynamic, takes a look at the different types of technology being used in Rio during this Olympics season, featuring payments, video streaming and data.

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3 ways to secure your hybrid datacenter

Hybrid Cloud

To unleash the power of the hybrid cloud, enterprises need to create increasingly complex environments using a growing number of resources on top of Infrastructure-as-a-service platforms (IaaS). However, creating robust network topologies on top of IaaS is challenging and complicated. So, how can organizations implement a true, connected, secured hybrid cloud datacenter solution? A hybrid networking environment may look the same, but actually acts differently. Cloud providers’ tools and configuration often limit flexibility, jeopardizing visibility with poor network control.

Building a proper hybrid datacenter requires a deep understanding of the provider environment to connect, secure, segment, configure routing and enable access policy with a mix of internal and external subnets. What follows are three options for securing a hybrid cloud datacenter built on Amazon Web Services. If you don’t have a hybrid cloud datacenter with AWS, you can learn more about implementing one here.

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New key hack exposes 100 million Volkswagen cars

Volkswagen

Back in the day, people had to walk into a bank in order to rob it. They also had to walk into a car in order to steal it. Nowadays, people rob banks from the comfort of their home (or their parents’ basements), and it’s only a matter of time before they start hijacking cars the same way.

According to a couple of researchers, whose work has been covered by Wired recently, we’re already halfway there -- a new vulnerability has been found which allows hackers to remotely unlock 100 million Volkswagen cars.

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Apple gets green light to build Irish data center

apple_logo_glass_building

After months of back and forth, Apple has finally gotten the approval to build its first data centre in Ireland. The approval was given by the Irish planning body -- An Bord Pleanala -- last week, despite being opposed by a couple of individuals and local businesses.

The planning body said the 197-hectares data center, to be built in a forest on the west coast of Ireland, will significantly boost local economy. The opposition says the building will have a negative effect on the local wildlife, and could have a negative effect in terms of flooding.

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Consumers apps better made than enterprise apps

Smartphone apps

Consumer grade is the new enterprise grade, a new survey by ScaleArc says. The annual survey among IT decision makers has revealed that consumer apps seem to be much better than enterprise apps, because they’re faster, and more reliable.

"It is clear that consumer grade is the new enterprise grade", says Justin Barney, president and CEO of ScaleArc. "IT decision-makers who build enterprise apps recognize that they, and the general public, have a better experience on their personal apps than their work apps. We’ve all lost patience with websites and apps that don’t offer optimal performance".

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Asian countries lag behind in data storage security

combination lock

Asian nations are not very secure places to keep your digital data, a new report by secure data centre Artmotion suggests.

The report was built on data from the UN, World Economic Forum and Transparency International, among other groups. Titled Data Danger Zones, it ranks more than 170 nations on how good they are at keeping data secure.

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Notebook shipments are 'healthier', says TrendForce

Apple MacBook Air laptop hands keyboard office desk

Notebook shipments have returned to a somewhat "healthier" state, but the second half of the year, which is traditionally seen as the "peak" in shipments, is expected to be weaker than usual. These are the highlights of a new report by market analysts TrendForce.

Total number of notebook shipments for the first half of 2016 hit 74.18 million units, representing a four percent decline compared to the year before, and TrendForce sees this as a return to a more healthy state.

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5 reasons CEOs need to start caring about data governance

office-collaboration_contentfullwidth

Business leaders everywhere now recognize information as a strategic asset. Many executives value data governance as a powerful tool that reduces risk and supports data-based decision making. But what is data governance, what does it do,  and what day-to-day support does it offer to CEOs?

A company’s digital wealth requires consistent, company-wide information management. Data governance is an umbrella term for the standards and practices that guide how information is managed and used in businesses. It provides a framework, which ensures that important data assets are used consistently throughout the organization. But wait, you say, isn’t information management the CIO’s role? Yes, but inconsistent data management can affect a company’s ability to meet its business goals. That’s when it’s time for a CEO to monitor and guide company-wide data governance policies and practices. Here are some examples of when CEO attention and guidance would be required.

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Russia fines Google over breaking antitrust rules with Android

Google to cough up $19 million in kids' in-app purchases case

Google has been fined 438 million rubles ($6.75 million) by the Russian antitrust authority for abusing its market position following a complaint by Yandex, Russia’s biggest search engine.

Google has been found guilty of forcing Android smartphone makers to install its search engine on their devices, which has been seen to breach "protecting competition" laws.

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Many students are interested in starting a business

boy girl laptop students

A third of students are either considering starting a business, or already have one, new research from Santander Universities says. This equates to a total of 518,000 students, who generate £913 million every year, the report adds.

However, it’s not (just) money that motivates these people. Instead, they’re more interested in pursuing a hobby or personal interest (70 percent). Financial gain is only placed second (58 percent), right before work experience (26 percent).

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