Compliance in business: Laws and regulations IT departments should be aware of

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In a business sense, compliance refers to a company’s efforts to obey all of the laws and regulations that govern how they can manage the business, their staff, and their treatment to their customers. The concept of compliance is to make sure that companies act responsibly and are held accountable for those actions.

This doesn’t just deal with ethical business practices or providing adequate customer service -- these regulations are put in place to safeguard sensitive data, both of the business and the customer. So why is this so important? The most obvious and valuable outcome of compliance is that it decreases your risk of fines, penalties, work stoppages, lawsuits or a shutdown of your business. It also helps to secure sensitive data, which is probably the most important aspect if your business.

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UK Government's free Wi-Fi initiative benefits 3 million public transport users

superconnected-cities

The government has been busy boasting about its SuperConnected cities project, and how many people it’s benefiting with free Wi-Fi.

The scheme has seen the introduction of free Wi-Fi on buses, trams and trains in various UK cities, and apparently over 3 million unique users have made regular use of the wireless connections while traveling.

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New London transport rules could spell trouble for Uber

Uber taxi

Transport for London will propose a new set of rules which are designed to address the cabs vs Uber struggle. The way rules are set, it seems as Uber is in for a bumpy ride.

Documents seen by the Telegraph reveal that London’s transport body is due to consult on new proposals for private hire companies that would ban some of Uber’s key features.

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YouTube will show more relevant ads in videos

youtube-ads

YouTube has announced it’s adding new capabilities to the advertising on the site. Yay, more ads on our YouTube videos, who wouldn’t be happy?

Anyway, long story short -- marketers will be able to buy ads which will be displayed during product-focused videos, such as game reviews, unboxings, product reviews and how-to videos.

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Android 6.0 Marshmallow rolling out October 5

marshmallow

Google has said that the new version of its mobile operating system, Android Marshmallow, will begin rolling out next week.

In fact the rollout of Android 6.0 will begin on Monday October 5, the Inquirer reports, when Nexus device owners will be able to snag the new OS.

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Don't expect a major increase in IT budgets for 2016

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Bad news for IT experts in the West. According to a survey, IT budgets are expected to increase by only one percent in 2016. On top of that, the IT headcount is expected to stay pretty much the same.

All of that, despite the fact that the demand for IT experts has exploded, and that Europe will need 800,000 IT security experts by 2020.

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Tens of thousands of medical devices are exposed to hackers

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Thousands of critical medical systems such as MRI machines, completely out in the open and vulnerable to a hacker’s attack, have been exposed online, the media reported on Tuesday.

According to a report by The Register, more than 68,000 medical systems from a "very large" unnamed US organization have been exposed. That institution has some 12,000 staff and 3,000 physicians, it says in the report.

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Samsung to shut down Milk Video service on November 20

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Samsung’s unloved video streaming service is shutting down on November 20th, after a lukewarm start and plummet in usage in the months after.

In a market dominated by YouTube, it was always going to be an uphill battle for Samsung Milk Video. The service worked with BuzzFeed and College Humor, but could not attract the viewers Google, Vimeo, and Twitch have won over the years.

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Yahoo wants to spin off Alibaba stake, risking billions in taxes

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Yahoo is moving forward with its plan to spin off its Alibaba shares, even though it risks a tax bill of a couple of billion dollars.

In a filing posted with the US Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week, Yahoo said that the company’s board authorized it to continue with the proposed spinoff. Yahoo added that it’s hoping the process will go without any hiccups.

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Voice authentication is insecure

voice_impersonation

It seems as voice-based user authentication is not as secure as we thought, as researchers managed to trick the machine keeping our data safe.

University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have discovered that both computers and humans are vulnerable to voice impersonation attacks. Using an off-the-shelf voice-morphing tool, the researchers developed a voice impersonation attack to attempt to penetrate automated and human verification systems.

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Maintaining momentum in an open-source community

Community

Building an open-source community takes dedication, hard work and no small number of late nights. As a community gets started there is generally a sense of momentum, ownership and deep commitment. But what happens once your community becomes established and successful? Inevitably volunteers are going to cycle in and out. As a community leader, you need to consider methods to bring in new members, spread the workload and communicate where and when the project could use help. How can you maximize growth and maintain your momentum?

At the Mozilla Developer Network we've kept our community engaged and involved for 10 years.  Here are some tips on how we managed it.

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Elon Musk expects EVs will have 1000km range by 2017

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I love Elon Musk’s predictions, they’re always so optimistic about the future of the world. The latest such statement regards electric autonomous vehicles, when we might expect them to become more of a mainstream thing, and just how good they will be.

During an interview with a Dutch publication, he said that we can expect electric cars to go 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) or more by 2017 on a single charge. That’s more than double of what such cars achieve today.

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Google Nexus 6P: Official specs and images leak

Nexus 6P leaked specs and official photo

Hardware specs for the upcoming Nexus phone have been leaked, and it seems Apple will have a tough battle on its hands this time.

Android Police has released what seem to be a couple of slides made for retail employees, with hardware specifications and images of the new phone.

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You're not alone in abandoning that shopping cart

Online Shopping Cart

If you have a habit of abandoning your virtual shopping cart before actually purchasing anything, you’re not alone. In fact, four out of ten UK shoppers do this, 50 percent of the time.

This is the result of a new research by Talend, global big data integration software provider, polling the views of online consumers across the UK.

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Microsoft working on Google Cardboard-like virtual reality headset

Microsoft VR Virtual Reality Kit Cardboard Google

It seems as Microsoft is working on a virtual reality device that bears huge resemblance to Google’s Cardboard project. The Microsoft VR kit will be given to developers attending a hackaton which will take place on October 17.

The kit works the same way Google Cardboard works -- it’s a generic headset with a slot for a Lumia phone.

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