Why moving to the cloud is right for government agencies
Over the last few years in enterprise IT, the fight between on-premise software and cloud services has been dominating tech conversations. Today, many businesses realize we will never return to the in-office routine we experienced before the pandemic. As remote and hybrid work becomes the norm, constituents now expect to be communicated through various channels, including mobile.
The introduction of mobile-focused operations showcases the need for technology system improvements within the public sector.
Will quantum computing ever be available off-the-shelf?
It goes without saying that quantum computing is complex. But people buy extraordinarily complex things through simple processes every day. After all, few smartphone buyers know how their devices work. Even a humble bar of soap arrives on the shelf only after the raw materials are extracted, refined, manufactured, packaged, shipped, and stocked.
The question is: will quantum computing’s complexity ever be contained to the point where end users can buy it "off-the-shelf"? The answer is: that depends on what you mean by off-the-shelf.
Europe is getting tough on big tech -- when will the US do the same?
In March, the European Union (EU) took a significant step toward reining in Big Tech offenders with the Digital Markets Act. Targeting the gatekeepers of today’s digital economy, the law is a historic piece of legislation and is a critical next step in the broader fight to level the playing field.
However, this watershed moment has failed to reach the US, which continues to fall short in protecting consumers and innovative small businesses from predatory tech companies. Congress must stop playing catch up with Europe and take a leadership role to protect its constituents. Courage and cooperation across the aisle are needed to strengthen the laws that protect the majority. Big tech, their lobbyists, and those seeking to fund their next election are far too cozy as mega-companies continue to exploit their dominance and suppress innovation. The lack of US action is embarrassing, as our friends across the pond take decisive steps.
Ubuntu Preview for Windows Subsystem for Linux is now available in the Microsoft Store
The arrival of Windows Subsystem for Linux in Windows 10 and Windows 11 opened up a world of new opportunities for users of Linux-based distros. Until now, Ubuntu fans have been limited to installing Long Term Supported (LTS) releases, but this is changing.
Recognizing that there are plenty of people who like to be on the cutting edge, Canonical has announced that preview builds of Ubuntu will now also be made available to download and install from the Microsoft Store.
The Silicon Power Blaze B07 USB-A flash drive can kill germs and keep you healthy
With cloud storage continuing to grow in popularity, USB flash drives have largely fallen out of favor with consumers. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, as USB flash drives are both easy to lose and are susceptible to failure -- the cloud is arguably more safe and secure. With that said, there should always be a need for local storage; sometimes you just can't trust certain documents, such as company secrets, to the cloud.
Understandably, it is hard to get excited about a new USB flash drive these days. However, a new USB-A offering from Silicon Power is actually quite interesting. Called "Blaze B07," it looks like a standard flash drive, but it has a really cool stand-out feature -- it is coated in an antibacterial substance in an effort to fight germs and sickness! This would be very beneficial in an office setting where a flash drive is passed around from person to person.
How the Okta breach exposed organizations' cybersecurity immaturity
In early March 2022, authentication security company Okta reported that there had been an attempt to compromise the account of a third-party customer support engineer from Sitel in January. The organization released a statement claiming that the matter had been investigated and contained.
Okta CSO David Bradbury later admitted that up to 366 customers may have been breached, apologizing for not notifying customers earlier. In the weeks since the attack, Okta has released a conflicting statement arguing that the attack affected just two customers, although this is perhaps naïve and hard to prove. Okta has said it recognizes the broad toll this kind of compromise can have on customers, but there is little to suggest that the attackers aren’t already lying dormant inside the networks of further customers.
CCleaner 6 is here, complete with better updating mechanism and a unique Performance Optimizer
In the world of system optimization and clean-up utilities, there are lots of names vying for attention, but it is CCleaner that wins the popularity contest. It has been a while since the app received a significant update but that changes with the release of CCleaner 6.
There is a lot to talk about in this latest release, but the headline grabber is the new, unique and patented Performance Optimizer feature. While many performance optimization techniques found in other apps make only a subjective differences, the boost given by this new feature can be measured in benchmarks.
Best Windows apps this week
Four-hundred-ninety in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.
The KB5013943 update for Windows 11 is causing application start issues on some devices. Affected users may want to check Sofia's article, as it contains a workaround.
Open source security plan aims to deliver on development, patching and more
White House officials, The Linux Foundation, OpenSSF and 37 private sector tech companies have announced a 10-point open source and software supply chain mobilization plan and $150 million of funding over two years.
At a summit meeting yesterday several participating organizations came together to collectively pledge an initial tranche of funding towards implementation of the plan. Those companies are Amazon, Ericsson, Google, Intel, Microsoft, and VMWare, pledging over $30M.
Emotet rockets to the top of the malware charts in Q1
The latest Threat Insights Report from HP Wolf Security shows a 27-fold increase in detections resulting from Emotet malicious spam campaigns in the first quarter of 2022.
Based on findings from millions of endpoints running HP Wolf Security, this makes Emotet the most seen malware family in the period accounting for nine percent of all malware captured.
The challenge of guarding against supply chain attacks [Q&A]
In recent years we've seen a trend towards attacks targeting the software supply chain rather than being directly against businesses.
Attacks can include poisoning the software components, stealing secrets to compromise an account, or modifying code repositories to allow for exploits.
Microsoft warns that KB5013943 update is causing authentication failures in Windows 11, Windows Server and more
Following the release of this month's Patch Tuesday updates, Microsoft has issued a warning that installing the KB5013943 update can lead to authentication issues for various Windows services.
The update was released on May 10, and was meant to -- among other things -- fix an issue with screen flicker in Safe Mode. But in addition to causing error messages for some users, the KB5013943 update has also led to authentication failures Windows domain controllers.
Enterprises struggle to discover cloud access policies
Cloud use is commonplace among large enterprises, with 82 percent of organizations with $1B or more in revenue using three or more clouds, up from 66 percent last year.
However, with the majority of companies (70 percent) using two or more identity systems, 75 percent of respondents say they lack the ability to easily discover all existing access policies, according to a new study conducted by Osterman Research for Strata Identity.
UK consumers willing to give up social media rather than part with more data
A new study shows that 63 percent of the UK population distrust social media due to privacy concerns and what's more as a result of privacy issues or other public scandals involving social media, 30 percent of consumers have either disabled social media (17 percent) or plan to within the next 12 months (13 percent).
The research, from digital experience company Acquia, shows only 27 percent say they would be willing to part with more data to retain access to platforms. While 48 percent indicate that recent revelations about data sharing practices have led to them using social media less often.
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