Facebook has been paying people to listen to your Messenger conversations
It probably comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone, but Facebook is just the same as Google, Amazon and Apple when it comes to listening in on your conversations -- the ones you thought (or at least hoped) were private.
Following a report from Bloomberg News, Facebook has confirmed that paid contractors have been listening to audio of conversations. The company says, however, that it has put the brakes on the practice -- for now, at least.
Personal data breaches and securing IoT devices
The Internet of Things (IoT) is taking the world by storm as interconnected devices fill workplaces and homes across the US. While the intention of these devices is always to make our lives easier, their ability to connect to the internet turns them into ticking time bombs, lying in wait until their weaknesses can be exploited by opportunistic hackers.
Personal data breaches are skyrocketing in America, increasing by 60% in the last year and by 157 percent since 2015. As our interconnectivity grows, so do the opportunities that our technology will be hacked. Since every IoT device is connected to the internet, each one is vulnerable to external access if not secured properly. In the rush to manufacture these devices and get them onto the market, security has been an afterthought which needs to be urgently addressed if the number of yearly data breaches is to be tackled.
Americans would rather get food poisoning on vacation than not have internet access
I'm a big fan of raw clams and oysters on the half shell. For the most part, I have had a good experience eating them. True, eating raw mollusks is sort of like playing a game of Russian Roulette, but I have historically been very lucky. One time, however, I got violently sick -- the day before I was to take a plane from New York to Florida. Believe it or not, I still took the trip, but having intestinal distress when flying is absolutely horrid. Flight aside, I spent a good portion of my time in Florida in the fetal position, sweating and swearing off raw clams (I have since eaten them again).
Since I know how horrific food poisoning can be, I am quite perplexed by a new study commissioned by Roku. Apparently, Americans would rather get food poisoning while on vacation than not have internet access. Think about that for a second -- people would rather get violently ill while vacationing than not have access to Instagram and email. Really, America?
Parallels Desktop 15 ramps up graphics performance with Apple Metal support, unveils new integration features
Parallels IP Holdings GmbH has released Parallels Desktop 15.0, the latest major update of its popular Mac virtualization tool.
Parallels Desktop 15 adds support for the forthcoming MacOS Catalina (10.15) release, plus taps into the Apple Metal framework in macOS 10.14 or later to deliver major graphics improvements alongside other performance tweaks and a smattering of new integration features.
Free VPN apps pose a privacy risk on both Android and iOS
Both Apple and Google are allowing numerous potentially unsafe free VPN apps to remain in their app stores, despite being aware of privacy risks according to research from Top10VPN.com.
Among the string of serious privacy issues uncovered but not acted upon is the discovery that nearly 60 percent of the most popular free VPN apps are secretly Chinese-owned.
British Airways e-ticketing leaves passengers' sensitive data at risk
Less than a year on from a breach which exposed the details of hundreds of thousands of customers, British Airways systems are still leaving passengers' personal information at risk.
New research from mobile security provider Wandera has discovered an e-ticketing system vulnerability that leaves passengers' personally identifiable information (PII) exposed.
Microsoft cancels major Super Duper Graphics Pack update for Minecraft
It is now two years since Microsoft announced the Super Duper Graphics Pack for Minecraft, a major upgrade and new look for the game, but now the update has been canceled.
The company says that the "ambitious initiative" has "proved too technically demanding to implement as planned". Performance is cited as a reason for ditching the update, but Microsoft promises that it will work on developing a new look for Minecraft in other ways.
Verizon sells Tumblr to WordPress owner, Automattic
A mere two years after acquiring it, Verizon is selling Tumblr. Full details of the deal have not yet been revealed, but the micro-blogging service is being bought by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.
Tumblr came into the spotlight last year when it introduced a ban on all adult content, and anyone hoping for this to change is going to be disappointed. Automattic says the ban will remain in place.
Eben Upton dismisses the Raspberry Pi 4's USB-C flaw, blames people for owning expensive chargers
Two months ago, the Raspberry Pi Foundation brought out a brand new version of its hugely popular uncased credit-card sized computer. The Raspberry Pi 4 is described as being a "complete desktop system" for just $35.
While it’s a great little computer, it does have one big flaw -- due to a design issue, many chargers aren’t compatible with the new board’s USB-C port, so they won’t work.
Moving beyond the spreadsheet for vendor risk management
In today’s business landscape, many enterprise companies look to third-party vendors to provide them with organizational value and competitive advantage. While outsourcing has always existed in some form, globalization and the internet have caused the use of third-party vendors to increase exponentially. Previously, companies relied on third parties for non-core functions. Today, more and more critical functions are outsourced to find cost savings and efficiencies.
Because third-party vendors are an extension of an organization, businesses are held accountable for things like safety, ethics, business practices, and more. With more at risk than ever before, organizations must ensure third-party partners behave appropriately.
Getting IT & OT to speak the common language of IIoT vulnerability management
Manufacturing executives probably don’t think of renowned Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw when planning Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) deployments. Maybe they should.
Shaw’s famous quip about England and America being "two countries divided by a common language," captures the differences between corporate IT and production OT, or Operational Technology, departments. While both IT and OT teams are acutely aware of the cybersecurity challenges for successful IIoT implementations, how each department addresses those threats is based on different priorities and requirements.
Will cloud data programs become the future of DataOps?
Within enterprises, legacy platforms are becoming marginalized as modern data-driven platforms become the preferred choice for data teams. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are powerful solutions for big data that are encouraging enterprises to accelerate their digital transformation towards the cloud. It should be no surprise then that, according to Cisco, four percent of workloads will be hosted in cloud data centers by 2021. Despite this, there is some reluctance amongst organizations to build on their data programs with these solutions. Regardless, ignoring the cloud is a critical oversight for enterprises looking to meaningfully analyze the vast quantities of structured, semi-structured or unstructured data within their networks. More concerning, however, is the critical insights that will be overlooked or missed entirely by enterprises relying on legacy software.
The cloud is starting to clearly denote itself as the de facto choice for investment in big data. Canalys estimates that cloud investment will surpass $143 billion by 2020. While Fortune 500 companies have historically been reluctant to dip their toe in the digital transformation pool, there has been a radical shift in attitude in recent years. More than a corporate buzzword, the term 'digital transformation' now carries with it the promise of large ROIs and even larger data pipelines. This has lead to a culture where having large-scale, full production workloads is a tangible reality and not merely a distant goal.
Connectivity could make digital cameras vulnerable to ransomware
Modern digital cameras with wireless and USB capabilities could be vulnerable to ransomware and malware attacks, enabling attackers to hold precious photos and videos to ransom.
Check Point Research reveals that the standardized protocol known as Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) used to transfer digital images from camera to PC has critical vulnerabilities.
MSI hits 5902MHz with HyperX Predator RAM to set DDR4 overclock world record
Do memory speeds matter? A little bit, yes, but the truth is, benefits seen from incremental increases are negligible at best. Enthusiasts may spend a lot of money buying fast RAM, and hey, there is nothing wrong that -- as long as they understand it is more bragging rights than anything. Gamers, for instance, would be better served by putting more money into their GPU or CPU when building their rig.
With all of that said, it is still fun to see how fast memory can be -- especially when overclocked. RAM made by HyperX -- the gaming division of Kingston -- has apparently set a new world record. MSI used HyperX Predator DDR4 memory to achieve an insane 5902MHz!
The Hitchhiker's Guide to Ethical AI
In the 1979 cult-fiction novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, an enormous super computer named Deep Thought took 7.5 million years to conclude that "The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42."
He may not have meant it, but what Douglas Adams wrote in 1979 was a portent to why so many questions are being asked about the practical use of AI in business. The recent explosion in AI technology has largely been driven by the availability of large quantities of data, the availability of sufficient computation power and the ever-increasing demand for data analytics to support business strategy. These strategies can be driven by greater efficiency by reducing operating costs or increasing revenue opportunity by improving customer service and product availability.
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