Although Windows XP’s end of life date was set in 2007, many firms failed to completely remove all trace of the aging OS by the time the deadline arrived. In fact, it’s claimed that around 53 percent of businesses still have XP running somewhere in their organizations.

End of support for Windows 7 is set for January 2020 (some way off still, and Microsoft may push it back further), but Gartner says firms need to start planning for it now if they want to avoid finding themselves in a similar situation as many did with XP.

Much of the malware in circulation now focuses on using exploits in popular applications such as browsers and office packages in order to remotely execute code. Security suites and specialized anti-exploit tools are aimed at blocking these but how well do they work?

A new study by testing lab PCSL commissioned by Malwarebytes has set out to find the answer. It looks at the exploit mitigation capabilities of 12 different products: Avast Internet Security, AVG Internet Security, Bitdefender Internet Security, Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit from Microsoft, ESET Smart Security, HitmanPro.Alert3, Kaspersky Internet Security, Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit Premium, McAfee Internet Security, Norton Internet Security, Panda Internet Security and Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security.

One of my favorite idioms is "Change is Constant". No group has had to embrace that motto more than IT Operations, especially in recent years. As if the daily changes weren’t enough, we all have one more big item to deal with, the End-of-Life for Windows Server 2003.

The official End-of-Life date for Windows Server 2003 is July 14, 2015 (that’s Bastille Day for you history buffs). For IT Operations teams large and small, the date looms like a doomsday clock. Why does this particular platform end-of-life and pending migration seem so ominous? The answer, in a single word, is "Applications!"

Recent figures from Gartner put the value of the CRM software market at $20.4 billion. But does it really make a difference when it comes to converting leads into sales?

Sales software specialist Velocify has been trying to find out by using secret shoppers to submit requests through online contact forms to see how quickly companies would respond. The companies included in the study were picked from the customer section of CRM vendors' websites.

Gamescom 2014, Europe's largest gaming event and tradeshow is taking place in Cologne, Germany right now, and Sony’s PlayStation Briefing will, like Microsoft’s Xbox press conference, be one of the highlights.

The PS4 is currently ahead of the Xbox One in terms of sales, but can it keep that momentum going? We’ll find out what games will be coming up for the console later today. Expect to see some gameplay footage for upcoming role-playing game Bloodborne (a PS4 exclusive), and interesting sounding horror game, A Million Ways To Die. We’ll also hopefully see some footage from Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

IObit has launched the first public pre-release version of its forthcoming system and security suite, IObit Advanced SystemCare 8 Beta. The new build launches with a number of new tools, including brand new Protect Module.

It also showcases another redesigned user interface and introduces support for themes, allowing users to customize the program with photos.

Seeing Android apps requesting various permissions in order to install can be disconcerting for inexperienced users. How can one know if there is a valid reason to trigger them, or if an offering will maliciously use those permissions? Those are valid concerns, after all, as a third-party, that we have little control over, is entrusted with access to critical features, like the microphone or contacts list. In this day and age, you can never be too cautious.

Facebook has decided to drop the chat functionality from its Android app, asking users to turn to Facebook Messenger to message their friends. And, naturally, quite a few of its users, who are likely new to the offering and find themselves forced to use it, are voicing their concerns over its permissions, as they allow it to do some potentially dangerous things.

According to Clayton M Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, disruptive innovations are characterized by their ability to create entirely new markets rather than merely update existing markets with new products. They are black swans, rare events where new thinking and changing markets combine to create radical change.

A common example is the light bulb and Pearl Street Station -- a major gamble by Thomas Edison. Within years of its development the kerosene lighting industry was all but non-existent, and the world was a brighter place. (The kerosene industry had similarly put an end to the whaling industry -- thankfully -- a few decades earlier).

Gamescom 2014, Europe's largest gaming event and tradeshow is taking place in Cologne, Germany right now, and Microsoft’s Xbox Briefing will be one of the highlights.

The Xbox One is losing ground to Sony’s rival PS4, which is massively outselling it at the moment, but with the right games, Microsoft’s console could be right back in the running. At Gamescom we’ll get to find out what is coming up for the Xbox One.

Almost all recent PCs have Absolute Computrace embedded in their BIOS. It's a product designed to allow companies to track and secure all of their PCs from a single cloud-based console.

But researchers at Kaspersky lab have revealed that it often runs without user-consent, persistently activates itself at system boot, and can be exploited to perform various attacks and to take complete control of an affected machine.

The Sony Xperia T3 updates the Xperia T2 which, er, was an update to the Xperia T. Except that's not quite how it is. When the T came out early last year it was the flagship phone for Sony. It even had a much talked about spot in a James Bond movie. The flagship handset line from the Sony range is now the Z series, and the Z3 is due very soon. The T series is now the mid-range in Sony's stable, and the Xperia T3 is priced at £299 online at Sony's website.

Sony has worked hard to consolidate design across its handset range, and that's evident with the Xperia T3. The monolith appearance with squared-off corners and distinctive button design and placement is carried through from the Z range, though the price differential has had a clear effect on materials. Where the Xperia Z2 has a glass back that I found rather too reflective and slippy, the T3 has a more usual rubbery finish on the back that's easier on the hands and doesn't act like a mirror for the narcissists among us.

Today's IT managers are under pressure to deliver the sort of agility that's offered by the public cloud but with the security and cost benefits of using existing infrastructure.

California-based startup Platform9 has today unveiled an answer to this problem with its SaaS platform that transforms an organization's existing servers into an AWS-like agile, self-service private cloud within minutes. It significantly reduces the operational complexity for IT and offers a single point of management for Docker, KVM and VMware vSphere.

There are plenty of browser extensions around which try to block web trackers, but most have at least some issues: they’re complicated to set up, need custom configuration, use bulky blacklists, maybe there are some questions over the developer’s business model.

Electronic Frontier Foundation is trying to change all that with Privacy Badger, a trustworthy Firefox and Chrome extension which blocks tracking ads and cookies entirely automatically, no manual intervention required.

The Blackphone, billed as a super-secure consumer alternative to standard smartphones, has been successfully hacked.

The hack comes not long after Blackphone sparred with BlackBerry after the latter called the secure device "unacceptable" for enterprise and petty customers.

IBM has developed a technique that should help enterprise firms manage where their cloud data is stored.

The technology could help businesses to comply with regional legislation regarding cloud content.