White House refutes claims it wants to build its own 5G network
Documents that came to light recently suggested that the Trump administration was considering creating a government-controlled 5G network. It was an idea viewed in a dim light by the FCC, but now the White House has denied it has such plans.
Despite the unearthing of a memo to the contrary, the US government insists there are no such plans under consideration.
Data professionals waste half their time on futile activities and repeated efforts
Analytics and data science is having a major impact on the commercial world, but a new report shows that data professionals are wasting half of their time each week finding, protecting, or preparing data -- costing organizations significant amounts of money.
The research commissioned by self-service analytics company Alteryx, and conducted by IDC, surveyed 400-plus individuals performing data functions across North America and Europe.
Privacy: Judges say the UK's Snooper's Charter is illegal
Judges have ruled that the UK government's digital surveillance program -- known variously as the Snooper's Charter and the Investigatory Powers Act -- is illegal.
In the case brought by human rights group Liberty, appeal judges found that the preceding Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 (DRIPA) -- which ultimately became the Snooper's Charter -- failed to offer adequate protection to people's data. Of particular concern was the fact that private data could be shared between different agencies without sufficient oversight.
Arcserve launches affordable cloud disaster recovery service
Disaster recovery has often been a choice between maintaining system availability at high cost, or choosing a cheaper solution at the expense of longer recovery times.
Now data protection and recovery specialist Arcserve is launching a new direct-to-cloud disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) and backup as a service (BaaS) solution aimed at mid-sized businesses.
iPhone X is a best-selling smartphone
The iPhone X was among the best-selling smartphones in major markets like Europe, Japan and US in December, according to a new report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Apple's flagship helped iOS gain market share in five major European markets.
Kantar Worldpanel ComTech's report comes just after Nikkei claimed that iPhone X was selling bellow expectations. Nikkei based its analysis on supply figures from Apple's partners, which may not accurately reflect consumers' interest in the flagship.
Virgin Mobile to offer cheap, 'pre-loved' iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus handsets
Virgin Mobile has announced plans to offer Certified Pre-Loved iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus handsets in the US. Starting in February, the company will be offering the phones for between $379.99 and $429.99.
It is already possible to buy a Certified Pre-Loved iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus from Virgin Mobile, and by adding the newer handsets to the program, the company is offering a cheaper way to buy a more recent iPhone.
Facebook's latest News Feed update gives local news a boost
Facebook recently promised big changes to the way its News Feed works, and Mark Zuckerberg has now revealed that the social network will start to place a greater emphasis on local news. At least it makes a change from constantly banging on about fake news.
It's part of the company's desire to increase civic engagement, with the Facebook CEO saying that there is a direct link between reading local news and people getting involved in helping out with local causes. The changes are coming to the US first and will then spread to the rest of the world.
Samsung unveils high-performance 800GB SZ985 Z-SSD
Solid state drives are all the rage nowadays, and it is not hard to see why. Not only are they much faster than traditional mechanical hard drives, but they consume much less electricity too. While power consumption might not be a big deal for home users, it can really add up in the enterprise where many drives are in use. In other words, a reduction in energy use can really benefit data centers and other business uses.
Today, Samsung unveils a new high-performance SSD aimed at the enterprise. The "SZ985 Z-SSD," as it is called, uses special Z-NAND memory. The drive is designed for The Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, supercomputing, and more. With that said, there is no reason enthusiasts can’t use it on their PCs.
Trump administration wants to nationalize 5G, but the FCC is not impressed
Leaked documents show that the Trump administration is considering plans to nationalize the 5G network. In the documents, seen by Axios, a senior National Security Council official says that a centralized, government-controlled 5G network is needed to offer security against China.
But while the government may believe it makes sense for it to be in control of the future mobile network, the idea has attracted vocal opposition. Among the opponents is FCC chairman Ajit Pai.
Security warning: Lenovo Fingerprint Manager Pro has a hardcoded password backdoor
If you have a ThinkPad, ThinkCentre or ThinkStation system, Lenovo has an important security patch for you to install. And you should install it right now.
Reporting vulnerability CVE-2017-3762, the computer manufacturer says that it discovered a weak algorithm used to encode fingerprint data could be bypassed with a hardcoded password. The problem affects the Lenovo Fingerprint Manager Pro utility for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1.
Moving to 'intelligent operations' will help businesses thrive
Organizations that can harness the combination of innovative talent, diverse data, and applied intelligence will be best placed to use data-driven insights to improve business outcomes and enhance the customer experience, according to new research.
The study conducted by HfS Research for professional services company Accenture shows that 80 percent of those surveyed are concerned with disruption and competitive threats, especially from new digital-savvy entrants.
iPhone X sales reportedly below expectations
Smartphone buyers are not all that impressed with the iPhone X. According to a new report released by Nikkei, Apple saw "slower-than-expected" sales in major markets like US, Europe and China during the holiday season.
Nikkei claims that, as a result, Apple has decided to halve the production target for its flagship smartphone in the first quarter of 2018 from 40 million units to 20 million units.
New solution delivers universal threat intelligence
Threat intelligence is becoming an essential part of protecting systems. But this information often comes from many different sources, making it hard to see the big picture and limiting flexibility and effectiveness.
To address this issue, Recorded Future is launching a new product providing centralization, collaboration, and customization of intelligence. Called Fusion, it's powered by machine learning and allows users to centralize and customize proprietary and internal threat data with external threat intelligence.
Linus Torvalds announces Linux kernel 4.15 with a focus on Spectre and Meltdown
After a long wait, the much-anticipated Linux kernel 4.15 is finally here. While these kernel releases are always important, this one is particularly noteworthy. Why? Because it largely focuses on Spectre and Meltdown mitigation. With that said, it is not only about those vulnerabilities, of course.
Linus Torvalds, the inventor of Linux, has been quite critical of Intel’s patches of the aforementioned vulnerabilities, and Microsoft seemingly agrees -- the Windows-maker has disabled one of Intel’s shoddy "fixes" with an emergency update. With kernel 4.15, Torvalds is quick to say that the work on Spectre and Meltdown is far from finished.
Strava says military users should opt out of heatmap feature to avoid revealing secret army base locations
Military personal who used the fitness app Strava have unwittingly contributed to revealing the location of secret army bases around the world. Strava published a "heatmap" of global user activity in November, and from this data visualization the location of secret military bases was accidentally exposed.
The company argues that the information had already been made public by users who chose to share their location data. It goes on to suggest that military users might want to consider opting out of the heatmap feature of the iOS and Android app.
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