Cortana comes to the enterprise with Power BI preview -- will it push Windows 10 adoption?
Companies are very good at collecting data. Hell, some entities, like Google, make an entire business out of the collection. There is nothing wrong with this -- actually, it is quite wise to collect as much data as possible. The problem, however, is that data is worthless unless you use it and sadly, it is not uncommon for data to be underutilized and sit dormant. In other words, unless you can use it to tell a story, your efforts are for naught.
Luckily, solutions such as Microsoft's Power BI can be used to create value and present data to executives in a meaningful and easily-digestible way. Today, Microsoft announces a new public preview that marries Power BI and the popular voice-assistant, Cortana, in a brilliant marriage of data presentation and interaction.
Microsoft trolls Apple for peace
Advertising rarely gets as good as this! Microsoft sets the mood for the season in a new spot where its New York store staffers serenade Apple specialists for "peace on Earth". A children's choir joins the caroling, creating a classic! This is award-winning advertising in the making. Filming at night adds terrific ambiance, topped off with Apple 5th Avenue Store employees embracing their Microsoft retail rivals.
If Microsoft is the British Empire, then Apple is the American era. Oftentimes, the mighty are arrogant and condescending about their dominance, and it's rare that they sue rivals for peace -- from a position of dominance. The humbled fallen must adopt new tactics in the New World order. For Microsoft, that means cooperation. If nothing else, the commercial is a metaphor for the new Microsoft.
How DDoS attacks have evolved in 2015
As with most other cyber threats, the world of DDoS attacks seldom stands still, with new techniques constantly evolving to make them more effective and harder to defeat.
Security strategist Andrew Lemke, writing on the IBM Security Intelligence blog, has taken a look at some of the most significant DDoS developments of the past year.
How to securely manage the Windows 10 devices in your network
Microsoft’s decision to make Windows 10 a free upgrade means that, according to industry analysts, more than 350 million Windows machines are expected to be on Windows 10 within the next 12 months. This can create a huge gap between enterprise IT teams and employee devices.
While "free" has accelerated the adoption of Windows 10, what truly sets this release apart from others is that Microsoft plans to expand Windows 10 to an unlimited number of devices via the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is becoming an increasing topic of conversation both in and outside of the workplace, in particular in discussions around how to secure these connected devices.
Google Chrome can now cut data usage by up to 70 percent
Websites are rapidly growing in size, making it harder for mobile device users to keep their data usage at reasonable levels. Connecting to Wi-Fi can make a huge difference, but free hotspots are not available everywhere. This is especially true when we are talking about developing markets where, for many, browsing the Web can prove to be a too costly affair.
But, at least in Chrome's case, it is possible to minimize data consumption by turning on Data Saver. In my experience, I see data savings of around 40 percent with this mode enabled. And now Google is rolling out an even more aggressive version for the Android version of its mobile browser, which promises to cut down data usage even further.
WAFS allows simple, secure file sharing and collaboration across the world
Secure information exchange specialist GlobalScape has used this year's Autodesk University in Las Vegas to launch an upgraded version of its Wide Area File Services collaborative software platform, WAFS 5.
WAFS 5 simplifies enterprise collaboration, eliminates errors, and decreases bandwidth usage, providing secure, near real-time data access to both on-premises and cloud-based files located anywhere in the world.
Cyber Monday a success? Amazon and Adobe think so
The "biggest online shopping day" is now behind us. Cyber Monday certainly brings out the deals, but do people really take advantage of them? According to a couple of announcements it would seem that the answer to that is yes.
Both Adobe and Amazon are reporting record sales, with Adobe citing a number of $3 billion. That same number was reported this morning by CNN. Obviously these are not sales to Adobe, but it tracks the data in general. The company calculates $11 billion in total was spent between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday. It also claims that "out-of-stock" rates hit an all-time high.
In-memory platform delivers faster operational intelligence
Until recently big data tools have been used to provide detailed analysis of large, stored data sets, but there's now increasing demand from industries such as eCommerce and financial services to have instant analysis on live data.
To meet this demand, in-memory computing specialist ScaleOut Software is launching a new version of its StateServer product which offers continuous and instant access to fast-changing data for large enterprises with ever increasing application workloads.
How to extract the contents of a setup file without installing it first
Application installers are supposed to save you time, automatically configuring your PC to properly run their host application.
Unfortunately, many setup programs only exist as a way to get adware onto your system, sometimes without you even noticing.
New platform seeks to integrate business communication
In large organizations you'll often find employees using multiple different platforms to work on and exchange files, making integration of activity difficult.
Israel-based Fastee is looking to solve this problem with the launch of a new platform which allows business team members, service providers and customers to quickly communicate in one place and provides them secure access to any shared material.
Windows 10's growth continues to slow as Windows 7 and 8.x gain share
NetMarketShare has released its usage share figures for November, and they make for interesting reading. As you would expect, Windows 10 grew its share again, but the growth rate is clearly tailing off, continuing the trend we’ve seen over the past few months.
Windows 7 and 8.x users show no great rush to migrate to the new OS, with only Windows XP shedding users.
Raspberry Pi generates predictable SSH keys
The ultra-cheap Raspberry Pi computers have a security flaw which results in the devices generating a weak and predictable SSH key, new research suggests. The researchers say the computer’s operating system, Raspbian, should be patched to avoid the flaw.
"As soon as the systems start up systemd-random-seed tries to seed /dev/urandom, but /var/lib/systemd/random-seed is missing, because it hasn’t been created yet", explains the developer oittaa.
RogueKiller 11 ships with rewritten kernel driver, ADS detection
French developer Adlice Software has released RogueKiller 11, the latest edition of its powerful malware detection tool.
The new build comes with a completely rewritten kernel driver, delivering more efficient scans and improved reliability for the latest versions of Windows.
Google killing Chrome for 32-bit Linux
If you live in the web browser, using a Linux-based operating system makes a lot of sense. By combining say, Ubuntu and Google Chrome, you can have a very secure and easy-to-use platform running the world's best web browser. A bloated and heavy Windows 10, for instance, could be unnecessary.
Sadly, if you are like me, and the first thing you install on any fresh Linux-based operating system is Google Chrome, you might be in for a world of trouble. You see, Google is killing Chrome for Linux; well, the 32-bit version at least. Is Google making a big mistake?
The threats of November 2015, Linux ransomware leads the way according to new report
November is almost in the books and we're into the holiday season. Unfortunately that means some people would like your money to shop with. November was about ransomware, not just viruses, trojans and malware, or at least that's what a new report has found.
Dr Web states that Linux was at the top of the list in terms of what could go wrong. Linux.encoder.1 ranked as the top threat of the month. This is a derivative of Trojan.encoder.737 which was found in 2014 and has since been changed into this iteration.
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