Latest Technology News

Darling of the communication and collaboration world Slack is partnering with Oracle. The plan is to integrate Oracle enterprise software into the messaging tool that graces so many workplaces.

While neither company has yet published details of the arrangement they have come to, both have confirmed the partnership to Reuters. Slack will be used as the interface for Oracle's sales, human resources and business software.

Ethereum (or more specifically the unit of currency associated with it -- Ether), has seen immense growth so far in 2017. Of course, with any meteoric gains in crypto, it’s never long before the term "bubble" starts getting thrown around. Many within the industry have raised concerns about the rapidly escalating value of the digital currency hot on the heels of Bitcoin in terms of dominance within the space, thinking its decline is inevitable. The ETH/USD rate has shot up, and it is now traded at $294.

To correctly assess whether the Ethereum bubble is about to burst, we must first look at what a bubble is, and decide if the rapid increase in price experienced by Ether thus far in 2017 falls into the category of bubble at all.

The iPhone is rarely the first smartphone to bring a new technology to market, but when Apple decides to implement a novel feature it typically gets it right from the start. This also seems to be the case with the TrueDepth camera on the iPhone X, which is said to be a few years ahead of the Android competition.

TrueDepth works as an iris scanner and front-facing camera on the iPhone X and, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple's rivals will need around two and a half years to offer the same level of functionality on their Android smartphones.

Cyber security company Kaspersky Lab has been running an interesting experiment in London with a shop that only accepts personal data as payment.

The Data Dollar Store provided shoppers with the opportunity to get their hands on exclusive prints and artwork by street artist Ben Eine. The difference came at the checkout where the only way to pay was with Data Dollars -- a new currency created by Kaspersky Lab that consists of a customer's personal data held on smartphones such as images, video or texts.

It's no secret that Russia tried to influence the outcome of the US election last year using a variety of techniques including the use of advertising on Facebook. The social network recently said that it would share details of these ads with Congress, but would not be making them public.

But while the company is not making the ads themselves available for all to see, it has revealed some more details about them -- including the fact that they were seen by an estimated 10 million people in the US. Facebook also says that 44 percent of more than 3,000 Russian-placed ads were seen prior to the election.

Last week, Korora 26 was released. This is a Linux distribution based on Fedora 26, which was released back in July. That's the problem with using an operating system that is based on another operating system -- it can seem like you are never truly up to date. Case in point, today, Fedora 27 Beta sees release.

True, this is pre-release software, but recent Fedora Beta releases have been very stable, so it should be fine to run on a non-production machine. Just be aware that there can be bugs and the potential for data loss. If you are comfortable with using a beta operating system, you are in for quite the treat. Fans of Fedora can finally experience GNOME 3.26 -- the default desktop environment on version 27 of the distro. In addition, Fedora 27 Beta now supports TRIM on encrypted solid state disks.

Lack of visibility into endpoints poses a major issue for enterprises as IT administrators can be left in the dark about where data is and how it's being used.

This means that when data breaches occur it can take longer to detect the source. A new tool from ThinAir aims to shorten this detection time by analyzing interactions and making information available via a conversational interface.

Is your company protected from zero-day exploits? Do you even understand what these threats are and how they can affect you? If you don’t, chances are you won’t be prepared when a hacker takes advantage of one of these exploits and steals a large amount of sensitive information from you.

Zero-day exploits are no joke -- some of the most costly cyber-attacks in history have come from hackers using these vulnerabilities. They can cost you more than just a lot of money; they can make your customers lose faith in your ability to protect their information. What can you do to deal with these exploits? Fortunately, there are a few ways to keep your network and the data you store safe and sound.

Our taste for new tech has compressed the adoption cycle and introduced fresh technology into a variety of industries, including automotive. By 2020, 10 million self-driving cars will be on the road. Think about it -- that’s just three years away.

So soon, in fact, that it’s snuck up on many of us. So, what else can we expect? Here are three to keep an eye on.

Not content with trying to "combat" encryption, the UK government also wants to criminalize looking at terrorist content. The leading Conservative party has announced plans which threaten those who "repeatedly view terrorist content online" with time behind bars.

New laws will be introduced that could see consumers of terrorist content imprisoned for up to 15 years. The same maximum sentence would face those who share information about police, soldiers or intelligence agencies with a view to organizing terrorist attacks.

More risks are being created by departments outside of IT, but it's still the IT department's problem according to a new survey.

The study by identity platform SailPoint shows that 55 percent of respondents believe one of the key reasons that non-IT departments introduce the most risk is that they often lack the understanding of what actions and behaviors are potentially hazardous.

With just a couple of weeks to go until the official launch of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Microsoft is hard at work squashing the main bugs and polishing the release.

Insiders on the Fast ring have had access to all of the new features and changes in the Fall Creators Update for a while, and it won’t now be long until non-Insiders finally get their hands on the full thing.

Google has released a new beta version of Android Wear, but it's an update that's going to be of interest to a very limited number of people. For testing in the real world, the beta is only compatible with the LG Watch Sport.

While this may sound like a serious limitation -- well, it is really -- Google is quick to point out that anyone can try out the beta by installing the Android emulator. But what can you expect to find in this new release?

The UK Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, has admitted that she doesn't understand end-to-end encryption, but still wants to "to find the best way to combat" it anyway. Speaking at the Conservative Party conference, she said that Silicon Valley had a "moral obligation" to help fight the crime and terrorism she believes is abetted by encryption technology.

Despite having previously voiced support for back doors into systems such as WhatsApp, Rudd said she does not want such access, nor is she seeking to ban encryption. Saying "I don't need to understand how encryption works to understand how it's helping -- end-to-end encryption -- the criminals," she added that she wants technology firms to make it easier for police and security services to access encrypted data.

Identity and access management (IAM) is all about ensuring that the right people have the right access to the right resources and being able to prove that all the access is legitimate. But as those heavily involved in IAM know, that is much easier said than done. There’s a lot that goes into getting all of these elements "right."

First, you must set up the accounts that enable a user to get to the resources they need -- often called provisioning (and its dangerous sister, de-provisioning, when said user no longer needs that access). Second, in order for that account to grant the appropriate access, there has to be a concept of authorization which provides a definition for what is allowed and not allowed with that access. And third, there should be some way to make sure that provisioning and de-provisioning are done securely with efficiency and that the associated authorization is accurate -- i.e. everyone has exactly the access they need, nothing more and nothing less.