Kim Dotcom offers $5m reward in Megaupload piracy lawsuit
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is offering $5 million to whistleblowers willing to help him fight his online piracy case. The German national believes that the information being used against him by the US and New Zealand governments was obtained illegally.
"We are asking for information that proves unlawful or corrupt conduct by the US government, the New Zealand government, spy agencies, law enforcement and Hollywood," he said in an interview with TorrentFreak.com.
Smartsheet helps bridge cloud technologies across the enterprise
Ensuring a free flow of information between systems is important to any enterprise's productivity and overall success.
But the rise in cloud usage means that information may be stored in lots of different places and that's a problem when it comes to making it easily accessible.
Free cloud-based protection against spear phishing
The biggest threat to both organizations and individuals online comes from zero-day exploits that aren't picked up by conventional antivirus protection.
In many cases an infection starts with a phishing email which can appear legitimate but contains links to malicious content.
Canon launches Irista photo cloud storage locker
There are no shortage of options nowadays for storing photos. You can turn to physical media, like external HDDs, general-purpose cloud services, like Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive, and specialized services, like Flickr. Physical media usually offers higher storage capacities, but cloud services are more easily-available.
I prefer a combination of the two, uploading photos snapped with my smartphone in the cloud and keeping photos taken with my DSLR on a NAS (Network Attached Storage). Why? Because smartphone photos are small in size, which allows me to store plenty of them on a free cloud storage plan, while DSLR photos are huge, by comparison, as I only shoot RAW, which is where a large HDD comes in. (I might move most of them to Flickr one day though, as 1 TB for free is enticing.) But, if you want to go all-in on cloud storage for photos, Canon just unveiled its own dedicated service, called Irista, which warrants some attention.
VMware warns Amazon AWS plugin may lead to vendor lock-in
VMware is locking horns with Amazon Web Services (AWS) over the latter’s decision to implement a new hybrid cloud connector that VMWare warns is a dangerous precursor to vendor lock-in.
A blog post from VMware’s CTO Chris Wolf explained that the recently released AWS Connector for vCenter, a plugin that allows AWS cloud services to be run inside VMware-designed environments, will create significant complications down the line.
Queen's speech proposes life sentences for cyber criminals in the UK
Edward Snowden is on the run, living in exile as a means to evade the long arm of US law. The United States seems keen to have him prosecuted for leaking documents that have arguably put national security at risk. He acted in good faith, but has been branded a cyber criminal. Today in the UK, the Queen gave her annual speech -- well, it's really a speech written by the government, but dear Liz reads it out so she gets to call it hers -- and she revealed that cyber criminals could face life sentences for their endeavors, and that existing punishments for digital crimes cold become harsher.
Singled out for particular attention are those "cyberattacks which result in loss of life, serious illness or injury or serious damage to national security, or a significant risk thereof". Those committing such acts could be put behind bars for life. But the proposals do not end there. The aging Computer Misuse Act could be updated, so that criminals that cause "a significant risk of severe economic or environmental damage or social disruption" incur a 14 year term compared to the current 10.
The new industrial revolution -- machines rise up to become our equals
The Internet of Things is just the latest buzzword that is being used to push all manner of products. Let's cut to the chase -- it's just about "stuff" (other than obvious things like computers and phones) connecting to the internet. Nothing more than that. But this dismissive-sounding definition is not meant to undermine the importance or the significance of the IoT. We've spent the last 20 years or so getting used to the idea of accessing the web, harnessing what it has to offer, exploiting it in various ways and finding all manner of methods of using it to make life easier, more entertaining, and more profitable. The evolution of the Internet of Things sees this taken to the next level.
We are on the cusp of a new industrial revolution. Many would say that the wheels are already in motion. The tired -- very, very tired -- example of what the Internet of Things is about, is the prospect of owning a fridge that will be aware of when you run out of milk, and then either alert you or place an order on your behalf. This is a very simplistic view of things, but it is the communication between devices that will be the hallmark of things to come. Inter-device communication, or machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity. Devices that can be left to their own devices (ahem) are approaching in ever-growing numbers, and there are advantages to be gained.
Microsoft reveals impressive user numbers for everything (except Windows 8.x)
Today, during a keynote address at Computex in Taipei, Tony Prophet, corporate vice president of Windows Marketing, discussed recent Windows developments including Windows with Bing, relaxed certification requirements, Windows 8.1 Update, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows universal apps.
He also talked about the value of Microsoft cloud services across devices, and revealed some hugely impressive numbers relating to everything from Office 365, One Drive and Skype to Xbox Live and Bing.
Symantec's cloud storage experiment fails completely -- Norton Zone set to close
While there’s certainly no shortage of cloud storage solutions to choose from, Norton Zone’s appeal -- on paper at least -- is the security it offers users. Content is encrypted when uploaded and stored in Symantec’s own secure data center, and the service automatically scans files for malware before they can be downloaded. As is fairly typical, you get 5GB of storage for free.
Or rather you did. Symantec has made the decision to discontinue Norton Zone and wind down support of the service over the next 30 to 60 days.
Big Blue is watching you -- IBM patent aims to help stamp out fraud
Proving who you are online is usually a matter of entering passwords or other codes. Which means if your information falls into the wrong hands someone else would have no problem pretending to be you.
IBM has been working on this problem and has patented a technique that analyzes online behaviour to work out if you really are who you say you are.
Reset the Net shows a groundswell of opposition to the NSA
Internet heavyweights such as Reddit, Imgur, BoingBoing and the WikiLeaks Party are joining forces to encourage internet users to take control of their privacy. Reset The Net is a campaign that flips the virtual bird at the NSA by inviting people to make use of privacy and encryption tools to keep themselves protected online. Also involved are such names as Greenpeace, Amnesty International and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the campaign is gathering momentum as internet citizens find themselves increasingly disillusioned by the post-Snowden world.
We have already seen an upsurge in the use of online encryption, but this has been largely employed by those who are more technically minded. The Reset the Net website asks web users to make a pledge: "On June 5, I will take strong steps to protect my freedom from government mass surveillance. I expect the services I use to do the same". Reset the Net is not an end in itself, but more of an awareness-raising campaign that aims to educate people as much as send a message to the NSA and its ilk.
New partnership brings easy-to-use encryption to Microsoft email users
The best way to keep data from emails and attachments from falling into the wrong hands is to use some form of encryption. But it needs to be easy to use if it's going to be effective.
Systems integrator and network consultancy BrightPlanIT has announced a partnership with DataMotion that will see it reselling cloud-based solutions for secure email, file transfer, customer contact and forms processing.
Pirate Bay founder arrested as Demonoid returns from the dead
The Pirate Bay saga is one that has been running for a number of years now, and the latest chapter sees one of the founders arrested in Sweden. Peter Sunde had been on the run for two years after failing to make an appearance having been sentenced to two years in prison. He had been handed an eight month term for aiding and abetting breach of copyright laws, although those associated with the site have long-maintained that they should not be held responsible for the sharing of copyrighted material as no data was stored on the site.
Sunde had been sought by Interpol and his arrest coincided with the eight-year anniversary of the police raid of Pirate Bay servers. He had been living in hiding in Berlin, but having family in Sweden meant that he often returned to the country. Torrent news website TorrentFreak reports that the arrest was a joint operation between Swedish and Polish law enforcement agencies.
Acer unveils Build Your Own Cloud (BYOC) Experience Center
Acer has opened its BYOC Experience Center in Aspire Park over in Taiwan, a place which is designed to showcase the firm's Build Your Own Cloud ecosystem and its usefulness to both individuals and business organizations.
This is all part of Acer's push into cloud territory, as it looks to diversify away from the PC hardware business which has been hit hard lately by a downturn in demand (as tablets have gathered much momentum).
My two years with Chromebook
Colleague Alan Buckingham is on a summer sojourn using HP Chromebook 11. I took similar journey during August and September 2011, but the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook -- much as I liked the overall user experience -- couldn't satisfy my needs. In May 2012, with Samsung Chromebook Series 5 550's release, all changed. I started down a permanent path, looking back once for a few weeks. I am a Chromebook convert and eagerly watch to see where Alan will be when the summer sun fades to autumn colors.
"Can I use Chromebook as my primary PC?" It's a question I see often across the Interwebs. The answer is different: You can use Chromebook as your only computer. The only PCs in my home are Chromebooks. There are no Macs or Windows machines doing double duty. Chromebook is more than good enough. Most people will be surprised just how satisfying Chromebook can be -- and how affordable. For 96 cents more than the cost of one entry-level MacBook Air, you can buy from Amazon four HP Chromebook 11s -- the model Alan uses now. User benefits are surprisingly similar.
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