Plugable updates USBC-VAMETER power meter tester with rotating screen
Do people call you a nerd? If they do, are they correct to call you that? Hey, look, there is nothing wrong with being nerdy. Hell, here at BetaNews, we are happy to be a judgement-free zone when it comes to nerdiness. If you are a weird nerd that like to tinker with computers and electronics, we fully embrace you. You are home here.
And that's why I bet you are the type of person to appreciate the second generation of a product from Plugable. Called "USBC-VAMETER," this little dongle serves one purpose -- to feed you information about the power being passed through a USB-C cable. You can use this for troubleshooting or just because it's super cool to know this info. The device can detect currents in both directions, and the second-gen model also has a rotatable screen orientation -- a huge improvement over its predecessor.
Digital transformation projects accelerated by pandemic
A new report from cloud business management company Sage reveals that 52 percent of companies say they have accelerated digital transformation plans by three years or more due to the demands of lockdown.
The study of more than 1000 finance leaders across US small and mid-size businesses also shows a growing confidence that they will return to pre-pandemic revenue levels by the end of 2021.
Microsoft launches Surface Laptop 4 with a choice of Intel and AMD processors
If you’re in the market for a new Windows 10 laptop, then Microsoft’s latest hardware release could be of interest.
The new Surface Laptop 4 comes with either a 13.5" or 15" PixelSense touchscreen display, and for the first time you can choose between Intel 11th Gen Intel Core processors or AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors with Radeon Graphics.
Malicious bot traffic hits new highs
New data from Imperva Research Labs sees the highest percentage of bad bot traffic (25.6 percent) since the company began reporting traffic in 2014.
At the same time traffic from humans fell by 5.7 percent. More than 40 percent of all web traffic requests originated from a bot last year, suggesting the growing scale and widespread impact of bots in daily life.
Enterprises under-resource cloud security despite increasing risks
While spending on cloud services is high with over half of respondents to a new survey spending $10 million or more, 32 percent say they are doing less than they need to, or nothing at all, to ensure the security of their cloud resources.
The study carried out by Osterman Research for Sonrai Security finds respondents have an average of 7,750 identities with access to sensitive cloud data. Overpriviledged identities are ranked a high risk by 41 percent of respondents, just below bad actors/cybercriminals at 46 percent.
Logitech Voice M380 Wireless Mouse with Speech Input is exclusive to China
When is a mouse not just a mouse? When it has a dedicated voice button, apparently. In collaboration with Baidu, Logitech is launching an all-new mouse which features such a button. Called "Voice M380 Wireless Mouse with Speech Input," Logitech's newest product is exclusive to China and is priced at 199 RMB -- that's equivalent to about $30 here in the USA.
It appears to have no thumb buttons, but it does have both vertical and horizontal scrolling -- a feature I adore for working with large (particularly wide) spreadsheets. Besides the off-white color seen above, it will also be available in graphite and rose.
Businesses get better at detecting cyber intrusions
The latest Mandiant M-Trends report from intelligence-led security company FireEye finds that businesses are getting better at dealing with cyber intrusions.
The median dwell time -- the time between the start of a cyber intrusion and when it’s identified -- has come down from over a year in 2011 to just 24 days in 2020 and has more than halved from 2019's median dwell time of 56 days.
Happy Identity Management Day
Every dog has its day as the saying goes and it's increasingly the case that every aspect of information technology has one too -- a day that is, not a dog.
Today is Identity Management Day, created by the The National Cybersecurity Alliance and the Identity Defined Security Alliance. It's the first one so you can forgive the lack of greetings cards and themed balloons in the shops but there is plenty of industry comment.
Microsoft adds new Windows Tools to Windows 10 for tweakers and administrators
For power users looking to customize, personalize, optimize and control Windows 10, there are lots of tools available in the operating system. The problem is that they are spread out across multiple locations which can mean a lot of traveling back and forth.
Microsoft is changing this with the introduction of a new Windows Tools folder which brings together elements of the Control Panel, Administrative Tools and more.
New platform helps enterprises prevent breaches on SaaS apps
As more and more data moves outside the network perimeter into SaaS applications, this can become a blind spot for security teams trying to control access.
To address the issue DoControl is launching a fully automated SaaS data access platform, providing data access monitoring, orchestration, and remediation across major SaaS apps, including Google Drive, Box, Microsoft OneDrive, Salesforce, and others.
New Target Temptation Engine aims to predict where attackers will strike
Traditional cybersecurity solutions throw up lots of information, making it hard for businesses to identify the threats that they should be prioritizing.
To help security teams focus on the issues that matter most, Randori is launching a 'Target Temptation Engine' that aims to offer defenders the attacker's perspective.
Tackling the social engineering bonanza caused by the Microsoft Exchange hack [Q&A]
In early March, Microsoft disclosed that Chinese hackers had exploited software vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange on-premises servers to gain access to the email accounts of thousands of Microsoft customers.
While these companies are now laser-focused on deploying patches and other security measures to remediate the vulnerabilities in their email software, Josh Douglas, VP of product management -- threat intelligence at Mimecast, believes these technical fixes will only go so far.
Creative Sound Blaster GC7 is a USB DAC and amp with Super X-Fi for gaming streamers
If you want to be a world famous video game streamer on Twitch or YouTube, nothing is more important than having an interesting personality or gimmick. It doesn't matter how good you actually are at playing video games; if you are a boring person, no one will tune in. As more and more people stream themselves nowadays, it is important to have quality hardware too. Viewers want good audio and video quality.
Creative has long been the king of computer audio, and its newest product should be very interesting to both gamers and game streamers. Called "Sound Blaster GC7," it serves as both a USB DAC and amplifier, and it has intuitive controls with big knobs and buttons. It even features Creative's legendary "Super X-Fi" technology. And yes, as a gaming product, it of course has RGB lighting too.
Linux could run on Apple M1 chips in just a few months
Apple's latest M1-based range of laptops and desktops has impressed many with the impressive speed boost over Intel chips. While many macOS fans have been eagerly waiting for their favorite apps to be ported across, others have been waiting to the arrival of Linux.
And with the launch of version 5.13 of the Linux kernel, this should become a reality. The hard work of developers means Linux support could be coming to M1 Apple devices as soon as June this year.
DuckDuckGo's Chrome extension blocks Google's controversial new FLoC tracking technique
That Google tracks internet usage is hardly news -- it how the company has operated for years, and it is central to its business model. But the search giant recently started testing a new technique for delivering targeted ads to people called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), and it's now enabled for millions of users by default.
While Google is insistent that FLoC is "privacy-preserving mechanism" and one that " enables ad selection without sharing the browsing behavior of individual users", the algorithm remains controversial for many. The cookie-free technique uses fingerprinting which the likes of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other privacy groups have expressed great concern about. For anyone who would like to block Google's new tracking method, DuckDuckGo's Chrome extension is here to help.
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