Leaked emails show HBO offered hackers $250,000 to delay Game of Thrones leaks
The hack suffered by HBO has been in the headlines for the last couple of weeks, not least because it led to the leak of episodes and scripts. The anonymous hackers were known to have made a ransom demand, but details of how this was handled were not made public.
Now a leaked email suggests that HBO offered the perpetrators a sum of $250,000 to delay the leaks. But rather than offering up the sum as a ransom payment, HBO refers to the money as a "bug bounty payment."
The value of analytics and big data in digital transformation
Big data and analytics are topics firmly embedded in our business dialogue. The amount of data we’re now generating is astonishing. Cisco predicts that annual global IP traffic will reach 3.3 ZB per year by 2021 and that the number of devices connected to IP networks will be more than three times the global population by 2021, while Gartner predicts $2.5M per minute in IoT spending and 1M new IoT devices will be sold every hour by 2021. It’s testament to the speed with which digital connectivity is changing the lives of people all over the world.
Data has also evolved dramatically in recent years, in type, volume, and velocity -- with its rapid evolution attributed to the widespread digitization of business processes globally. Data has become the new business currency and its further rapid increase will be key to the transformation and growth of enterprises globally, and the advancement of employees, "the digital natives."
Containers have long-term value in the enterprise
In an era where the preferred application platform is the cloud and DevOps is set to drive performance in today’s digital economy, industry skeptics still view containers as "over-hyped," with no long-term value in the enterprise.
However, with large investments from Amazon, Google and Microsoft, the option of containers is becoming a viable solution -- and over the next three years, predictions are that it’s set to see a huge rise in its implementation.
New Kodi update arrives -- download it now!
Kodi has been in the news a lot lately, and not for the best reasons. While the software itself isn’t illegal, using third-party add-ons to watch copyrighted content is, and many of those add-ons have been pulled recently following threats of legal action. Controversial add-on site TVAddons even vanished briefly from the web, before reappearing a week ago.
Despite all this, it’s business as usual for the Kodi Foundation which does its best to distance itself from the piracy accusations so often leveled at it, and the team has just released a new build for the popular open source media player.
How the connected world is testing the testers
With the emergence of IoT, everything becomes connected; there is a continuous blurring between real world and digital world where everything is moving to become predominantly digital. Apps are location-aware, context-aware, and aware of everything around them (supply chain, logistics network) and that’s bringing the custom device world into mainstream industry-wide. Bring together any device (custom or mainstream, mobile or fixed) and everything is connected and focused on the experience of the end user.
In this new world, mobile apps are being rolled out continuously and at a far greater speed. Change is fast, and customer expectation sky high. Add to that we are living in a diverse and fragmented technology world across different platforms and devices with increasing adoption of AI and machine learning, with security as an ongoing and ever-increasing challenge.
SoundCloud lives!
While streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify are all the rage nowadays, they aren't necessarily enough. Independent artists aren't always served well by the aforementioned services. A platform like SoundCloud can be preferable, allowing an artist to experiment and share songs with fans more directly. It is even a great way to discover emerging artists.
Sadly, there have been rumors for a while that SoundCloud could eventually shut down. You see, while the platform is beloved by many, it doesn't exactly generate profits. Well, those fears can be quelled for now, as SoundCloud has received an influx of cash from two investors -- "The Raine Group" and "Temasek." In other words, it can crawl out of the prematurely-dug grave. While this is great news, it doesn't guarantee the platform is destined for a long life. In addition, the current CEO of SoundCloud is stepping aside, although not leaving entirely.
Windows 10 Mobile-powered Elite X3 doesn't sell, so HP hikes the price
HP is not one of the most pragmatic players in the smartphone industry, so its decision to release the Elite X3 flagship with Windows 10 Mobile when the platform was clearly dead hardly raised any eyebrows. Hiking the price nearly a year after its launch, however, is harder to understand -- to put it kindly.
The Elite X3 is a failure even by Windows smartphone standards, based on usage data from AdDuplex, so you can imagine just how well it is doing in the grand scheme of things. To put things into perspective, Windows smartphone sales dipped below the one million units mark this year. The high price of the Elite X3 has been a massive contributor to its terrible performance.
OnePlus 5 camera promo features people getting killed with a chainsaw
It is hard not to fall asleep watching promo videos for smartphones. That's why we rarely write about them. Today we make an exception for the new OnePlus 5 camera ad, which, depending on how you look at it, is either really stupid or brilliant -- but memorable nonetheless.
Called Lake Blood, it's the story of a chainsaw massacre. The promo features a teenage girl, a bloodied man and the chainsaw killer that's following him. It's not your typical combination of characters, is it?
Manufacturers are cybercriminals' biggest target
Cyber-attacks all over the world are becoming increasingly sophisticated, according to a new report by the NTT Group company. According to the same report, these attacks are also growing in frequency.
The Global Threat Intelligence Center (GTIC) 2017 Q2 Threat Intelligence Report says cyber-attacks were up by 24 percent globally, in the second quarter of 2017.
Phishing is the top threat faced by organizations
Both users and their endpoint devices are the primary target for cyber criminals with phishing being the most prevalent threat according to a new report.
The study from research and education specialist the SANS Institute finds security professionals rate phishing at 72 percent, spyware at 50 percent, ransomware at 49 percent, and Trojans at 47 percent as being the top threats today.
Best Windows 10 apps this week
Two-hundred-and-forty-three in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days.
This week saw only a couple of new releases for Windows 10. Noteworthy ones include the new Telltale adventure game about Batman, Enjoy Brick, an app to browse all Lego sets and models, and Reddit Slideshow, an interesting app to create image slideshows from images posted to Reddit.
Giveaway: Get Auslogics File Recovery 7 ($29.95 value) FREE for a limited time
You give your computer a spring clean by removing a ton of files you’ve stored for years. Then you realize a few weeks later that you accidentally deleted important documents or old photos and there’s no quick and obvious way of retrieving them.
The solution is a dedicated file recovery application. There are few better than Auslogics File Recovery 7 and we’re offering you the full version, worth $29.95, across this weekend. It’s always worth having a file recovery program within your suite of system tools.
The top five cloud security myths debunked
Increasingly businesses are moving their data and applications to the cloud. But there are always concerns about how secure the information is.
Network security company Portnox has put together an infographic looking at some of the myths surrounding cloud security and explaining why they're ill-founded.
Former MI5 chief says UK government should not weaken encryption
The UK government has made no secret of its desire to exert greater control over the internet, and home secretary Amber Rudd has gone as far as suggesting that encryption should be weakened -- and backdoors should be included in software -- to make it easier to carry out surveillance on terrorists.
Lord Jonathan Evans, the former chief of MI5 in the UK, acknowledged that encryption had got in the way of monitoring communication between extremists, but said this should not be used as an excuse to weaken security.
Google adds phishing protection to Gmail for iOS
A few months ago, Google brought phishing protection to Gmail on Android. Now the company is doing the same for the iOS version of the app.
The feature is rolling out over the next few weeks, and it offers a couple of safety nets to protect users from visiting potentially dangerous links in emails.
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