Google unveils new Nest smart home stuff
Google bought Nest more than seven years ago now, and since that acquisition, there have been many cool smart home devices to come from the search giant. Under the Nest branding, there's not just smart thermostats and cameras, but other products too such as doorbells and speakers. Ultimately, the name "Nest" has become synonymous with the smart home.
Today, Google unveils some new Nest smart home devices, and they are all camera-related. There is a new doorbell (with integrated camera) plus three new dedicated security cameras. What's notable is that the new doorbell and one of the new cameras can be run from a battery, meaning they do not require a hardwire power connection. One of the cameras features nifty floodlights too.
Microsoft releases Windows 11 Build 22000.120 with changes to File Explorer
With a rumored RTM date of sometime in October, Microsoft is hard at work on Windows 11 and today rolls out a new build to Insiders in the Dev Channel.
There aren’t any major new features in Build 22000.120 but there is a new Family widget and some minor tweaks to File Explorer.
Why AI isn't the only answer to cybersecurity [Q&A]
Read about any new cybersecurity product today and the chances are that it will be keen to stress its use of AI in some form.
But are we expecting too much from AI and are companies adopting it just because it's on trend? We spoke to Nadav Arbel, co-founder and CEO of managed SOC platform CYREBRO, to find out more about AI's role and why the human factor is still important.
Get 'Cloud Computing For Dummies, 2nd Edition' (worth $21.00) FREE for a limited time
Cloud computing is no longer just a clever new toy in the world of IT infrastructure. Despite the nebulous name, it’s become a real and important part of our information architecture -- and tech professionals who ignore it or try to skim their way through risk falling behind rapidly. The new edition of Cloud Computing For Dummies gets you up to speed fast, clarifying your Cloud options, showing you where can save you time and money, giving you ways to frame your decisions, and helping you avoid weeks of research.
In a friendly, easy-to-follow style, Cloud Computing For Dummies, 2nd Edition demystifies the Cloud’s virtual landscape, breaking up a complex and multi-layered topic into simple explanations that will make the various benefits clear and ultimately guide you toward making the most appropriate choices for your organization.
Microsoft reveals Windows 11 Snipping Tool
When it comes to Windows, sometimes Microsoft overthinks and overdesigns things -- remember the Windows 8 nightmare? MS Paint is a wonderful tool that people have enjoyed for decades. Microsoft famously tried to replace it with Paint 3D, but no one wanted that as it was terrible. Look, people know what they like and Microsoft should respect that. Apps like Paint, Notepad, and the Snipping Tool are simple to use and work well.
Well, folks, it seems like Microsoft is finally starting to get it. After threatening to kill off the popular Snipping Tool, the company today announces that not only is the app alive and well, but it has a very bright future.
Is AI actually you?
This seems like a great time to ask this question, as it might not matter soon. With the direction things are heading, we may soon arrive at an intersection where the blurring of identity reality and identity fiction is so extreme that we’ll simply stop asking what is authentic personhood.
Case in point, a story out of Paris in July outlines not a dystopian future, but a troubling present reality. The piece recounts the story of computer-generated YouTube storytime videos. The genre is pretty much what it sounds like:
Tackling the cyber threat to manufacturing businesses
The manufacturing industry has become a major target for ransomware attacks. The reason is simple: if criminals can cripple the operational technology that controls the manufacturing plant, a company will rapidly come to its knees. With no product to sell, any company will fear for its existence -- and with that fear, the criminals believe any manufacturing company will be more likely to pay a sizable ransom to stay in business. Sophisticated cyber criminals understand this. They choose and research their targets and set their ransom to the maximum amount they believe the company can afford to pay.
For many years, the manufacturing industry didn’t worry about cyber threats. Its operational technology (OT) was air-gapped from outside interference, and was therefore safe from external compromise. This is no longer true. The advent of the fourth industrial revolution -- otherwise known as business digitisation -- has eroded that airgap. IT and OT are now totally interdependent. Bringing down a manufacturing company’s IT will almost certainly have a knock-on effect against its OT.
Enterprises back data science but don't have the skills and tools to make it work
Enterprises are overwhelmingly counting on data science as a key to their long-term success, but flawed investments in people, processes and tools are leading companies to fail in their best efforts to develop, deploy, monitor, and manage models.
New research from Domino Data Lab shows that while 71 percent of data executives say their company leadership expects revenue growth from their investment in data science, 48 percent say their company has not invested enough to meet those expectations.
ThreatX platform gives businesses a clear view of their API attack surface
APIs make life easier for developers by allowing easy access to various program functions. However, this functionality also makes them an increasingly attractive target for attack.
Web application and API Protection platform ThreatX is launching new API catalog capabilities to provide enterprises with a clear view of their API's attack surface, as well as the operational health of any APIs in production.
Vulnerabilities are back as people return to work
After a slump during the pandemic, vulnerability disclosures are once again showing growth according to the latest Vulnerability QuickView Report from Risk Based Security's VulnDB team.
The report shows 12,723 vulnerabilities disclosed during the first half of 2021 and the vulnerability disclosure landscape saw a growth of 2.8 percent compared to the same period in 2020.
100 percent of companies experience public cloud security incidents
A new study from threat detection and response specialist Vectra AI finds that all respondents have experienced at least one security incident in their public cloud environment in the last 12 months.
The study of over 300 IT executives, with 70 percent coming from enterprises with more than 1,000 employees, shows a rapid expansion and reliance on AWS services while simultaneously pointing up security blind spots within many organizations.
Financial intelligence network aims to secure the cashless economy
Over the last year there has been a significant move away from using cash. In the US alone ATM withdrawals are down 58 percent, 41 percent of consumers have switched from cash to online and phone payments, while 55 percent don't plan to switch back to using cash.
But while this is convenient for the consumer it opens up more opportunities for fraud and cybercrime. Financial risk management firm Feedzai is aiming to boost digital trust, by adding pre-transaction behavioral intelligence to prevent financial crime in real-time before it happens.
Microsoft pauses Windows 365 trials after running out of capacity
Microsoft introduced its subscription-based Windows 365 last month, and earlier in the week announced general availability for the service that makes it possible to run full versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11 in the cloud.
If your business was planning on joining the Cloud PC revolution but hasn’t already done so, you might have a bit of a wait on your hands before you can take the service for a spin -- struggling to keep up with demand, Microsoft has paused its free trials.
Microsoft releases PowerToys v0.43.0 with an absolute barrel load of fixes and changes (plus a bit of telemetry)
If it feels like a while since there was an update to PowerToys, that's because the last significant release was a little over a month ago. But now Microsoft has broken the dry spell by pushing out PowerToys v0.43.0.
Sadly, there are no new utilities to play with in this particular release, but it remains important. In terms of bug fixes, improvements and changes, this is one of the biggest updates to the suite of tools in quite some time. There is also the slightly controversial addition of telemetry to one of the utilties.
Micron launches insanely fast Crucial P5 Plus PCIe 4.0 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD
The transition to PCIe Gen4 is in full effect, with more and more computers and motherboards having the new standard. Whether or not the user truly needs the benefits of PCIe 4.0 is debatable, but it is still cool regardless. After all, it is important to continually push boundaries.
One of the best aspects of PCIe 4.0 is faster solid state drives. For instance, today, Micron unveils the latest such SSD from Crucial. Called "P5 Plus," the PCIe Gen4 M.2 SSD is insanely fast. The drive features 6600MB/s read speed across all capacities. The 1TB and 2TB capacities offer 5000MB/s write speed, while the 500GB variant offers 3000MB/s.
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