Organizations take two months to patch critical vulnerabilities

business security

Organizations are taking nearly two months to remediate critical risk vulnerabilities, with an average mean time to remediate (MTTR) across of 60 days.

A new report from smart vulnerability management firm Edgescan, based on analysis of over 40,000 web application and API assessments, three million network endpoint assessments, and circa 1000 penetration tests, finds high rates of known, patchable vulnerabilities that have working exploits in the wild.

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The latest update from Microsoft shows that Windows 11 Version 22H2 is feature complete

Windows 11

It would appear that the current build of Windows 11 available to Insiders on the Dev Channel is the feature complete version of the upcoming Sun Valley 2 update -- also known as Windows 11 Version 22H2.

Last week, Microsoft released Windows 11 Preview Build 22567 to Insiders, and this was followed shortly after by the KB5012427 update. Billed as an update to "test our servicing pipeline", Microsoft did not add any new features, but it did confirm that the update will be called Version 22H2 -- and this also serves as an indication of the release date.

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Online PDF editor and converter Smallpdf buys PDF Tools for $30 million

Smallpdf and PDF Tools

Smallpdf, the online PDF editing and management toolbox, has announced that it is acquiring document processing technology provider PDF Tools for $30 million.

Both companies are based in Switzerland and have a history of working together -- PDF Tools products have been used by Smallpdf for a number of years -- so the acquisition is not a complete surprise. It sees Smallpdf spreading further into the document management market, boosting its professional offerings thanks in part to the PDF and PDF/A arciving support provided by PDF Tools.

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Silicon Power Marvel Xtreme M80 USB 3.2 Gen 2 flash drive is fast AF

We recently told you about a new flash drive from Silicon Power that was rather unremarkable and ho-hum. Called "Marvel M02," it is your typical run-of-the-mill USB-A drive. Its lack of excitement is absolutely fine, however, as sometimes all you need is a basic flash drive for general use. Not every product has to be exciting.

Well, folks, there is yet another new flash drive from Silicon Power, and it is anything but boring. While its design is nothing special, its performance is. Called "Marvel Xtreme M80," this USB-A drive offers read performance up to 600MB/s and write performance up to 500MB/s. In other words, as its name implies, this drive is extremely fast!

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The road ahead for artificial intelligence [Q&A]

Artificial intelligence

There has been a lot of buzz surrounding the adoption of artificial intelligence. According to a recent report from McKinsey 57 percent of companies are now using AI in at least one function. But how much is hype and how much is built on a sound commercial base?

We spoke to Mike Loukides, VP of emerging tech content at O'Reilly Media and author of O'Reilly Media's widely-cited AI Adoption in the Enterprise report, to discuss the current state of AI and what lies ahead.

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How to keep customers safe with the correct print security strategy

Today’s Wi-Fi printers possess an array of features that make printing easy, which are especially useful in a world where remote working is commonplace and employees use a range of different devices for producing documents. Despite their advantages, there remain some serious security gaps that hackers can easily exploit if an organization doesn’t have a robust print security strategy in place.

While most businesses do well when it comes to protecting core IT infrastructure including computers, servers and applications, they do often fall short when it comes to secondary assets such as multifunction printers (MFPs). With cybercriminals constantly circling and searching for different ways to infiltrate a company’s network, unsecured connected printers can be a key point of weakness leading to a major breach.

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The journey to intelligent office automation

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has been around longer than you might realize. At its core, RPA simply means the automation of any manually intensive IT or administrative task. For instance, scheduling an email is one early example of RPA. But over the last two years, RPA has become much easier to use and the tools have been democratized out to the business units so arduous daily tasks may now be automated easily. Think of it as a highly evolved Excel macro, created by someone in the business that automatically logs into and out of applications to make the enterprise more effective and efficient.

What's more, due to the lack of resources available, automating enterprise processes traditionally caused friction between business units and IT. Today, IT teams may focus on large, transformative automation (e.g., new ERP Systems, new services) and push everything else back over to other business units. Transforming an organization by allowing business units to accomplish more on their own -- while freeing up IT to focus on more complex and important tasks is a far more effective use of all resources. 

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Lapsus$ hackers leak Samsung source code and massive data dump from security breach

Two Samsung building logos

Samsung appears to have fallen victim to a serious security breach if the leaks from data extortion group Lapsus$ are anything to go by.

Amounting to a colossal 190GB of data, the group says it has in its possession Samsung source code and other confidential company data. It is just days since the Lapsus$ claimed responsibility for a hack that resulted in data being stolen and leaked from data stolen from GPU chipmaker NVIDIA.

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Three recommendations for surviving (and thriving) in the post-pandemic IT wilderness

With COVID-19 as the backdrop, the last two years have been both scary and exhilarating for IT teams as they delivered innovation at previously unimaginable speeds.

During this time, CIOs have overseen the enablement of remote working for millions of employees and shifted numerous legacy systems to the cloud. But as we emerge from the IT battlefield of COVID-19, what does the post-pandemic landscape look like? What new challenges will the coming months pose, and how can IT departments prepare themselves for the next wave of disruption? Below are three recommendations for where to focus IT efforts in the near term while continuing to drive business value by leveraging the speed and power of modern innovations. Let’s begin by looking backwards.

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Why your business success is in the hands of development and operations

DevOps

One of the biggest headaches of any IT leader today is managing cross-functional teams to develop and deploy software in good time. Not only does their work have to be continuously operational to stay productive, it needs to save the business money, time and all while fixing a never-ending cycle of bugs.

This is why that without a robust DevOps process in place, which is to the benefit of the entire organization, IT management leaders often feel like they are chasing the impossible. 

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The 'human firewall' and the burden of securing your organization

Whether you regard your colleagues as Layer 8 "issues" in your own OSI stack, or as a human firewall which should be able to recognize and act on inbound threats, like everything else in organizations that execute well, getting your general employee population on-board with your information security goals is ultimately a matter of culture.

And the strongest security cultures are those where each and every employee fully understands that they are on the front lines. They are extended members, and the early warning system, for your core team in the security operations center (SOC).

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New Kodi 19.4 for Android isn't available on Google Play -- here's how to get it

Whisper

The Kodi Foundation has just released Kodi "Matrix" 19.4 and you can read all about what’s new in this point release in our story here. While this is great news for Kodi users, if you run the popular home theater software on Android there’s some not great news -- you won’t be able to download this update from Google Play.

The problem lies with a change to Google’s requirements, which Kodi doesn’t meet.

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Are health apps offering wellbeing solutions or exacerbating our health problems?

In the era of smartphones, we can now manage and even improve our health on our handheld devices. Whether you’re struggling with your mental health, want boost your physical health with your exercise regime or, you’re seeking to achieve a better night’s sleep -- there’s a wide choice of apps to turn to for support.

Apps range from guided meditation to comprehensive running plans, and they can even track your sleep and mood. But are they doing more harm than good?

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Kodi 19.4 'Matrix' is here -- Download it NOW!

Five months ago, the Kodi Foundation released Kodi 19.2 'Matrix' with a wealth of fixes and changes. It followed that up a mere two weeks later with Kodi 19.3.

Now Team Kodi releases version 19.4 with yet more fixes and improvements.

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Microsoft is using the KB5012427 update to test the servicing pipeline for Windows 11

Windows 11

It is only a few days since Microsoft released a new build of Windows 11 in the form of Preview Build 22567, and already the company has pushed out a cumulative update for it.

With the release of the KB5012427 update, Microsoft takes the current build of the operating system available to Insiders signed up for the Dev channel to Windows 11 build 22567.100. So, what can you expect from this update?

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