Banks and other financial institutions spend three times the amount non-financial organizations are spending on cyber security, a new report by Kaspersky Lab has shown.

According to the Financial Institutions Security Risks research from Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, cyber security is a high priority for financial institutions, as they're coming under increased pressure from the government, top management and customers.

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Smartphones, even personal ones, are no strangers to the workplace. With the increase in adoption of BYOD initiatives, more and more employees are using their smartphones for everyday job tasks.

However, according to a new report by LaptopsDirect.co.uk, British workers are also using personal smartphones for private communication, during work hours, as well.

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The technology industry is full of jargon and buzzwords, which, if you’re not in the club, can often feel like a foreign language. When it comes to communicating new technologies and processes to other parts of the business, IT professionals need to be careful when translating these buzzwords into human-speak if they want to avoid a confused, blank look. It’s this confusion that results in a data breach, shadow IT activity, or missing out on investment in new IT equipment.

Whether it’s to educate yourself or others, we’ve de-coded the buzzwords. Now the next time someone asks you "what the blockchain you’re on about," rather than giving them SaaS, you can breakdown the meaning, benefit, and importance.

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As we reported last week, Microsoft is today launching its own business collaboration tool in an effort to fend off the challenge from Slack.

Teams is now available to Office 365 users in 181 markets and 19 languages. Where Teams is likely to score over its competitors is in its close integration with other Office products and with Skype for Business.

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On April 25th, Ubuntu Linux 12.04 LTS will no longer be supported by Canonical. Why? That is the 5 year anniversary of the release, which is the amount of support time given to an LTS (Long Term Support) version of the Linux distribution.

For many home users, this really doesn't matter, as they have probably already upgraded to a newer version. Unfortunately, some businesses do not upgrade as regularly. In fact, some organizations may not be ready to move on from Ubuntu 12.04. Tough luck? Not at all. Today, Canonical introduces Ubuntu Linux 12.04 ESM. This "Extended Security Maintenance" release is not free, however -- organizations must pay for the extended support.

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The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is used in many businesses, including critical infrastructure sectors such as energy, utilities, government, healthcare and finance. No surprise then that it's a likely target for attack.

A new survey from security and compliance specialist Tripwire of more than 400 IT security professionals shows that 96 percent expect to see an increase in security attacks on the IIoT in 2017.

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Ransomware continues to be the most lucrative business model for cyber crime, and a new study indicates that existing endpoint protection methods may not be enough to guard against it.

The survey from security awareness training organization KnowBe4 questioned more than 500 organizations about the current state of their ransomware protection, whether they were a victim of ransomware, the impact of a successful breach and their remediation tactics.

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According to Walker Information’s Customers 2020 Report, by the year 2020, customer experience will be the number one competitive differentiator for brands. With just three years to go, brands still have some work to do to get smarter about their customers, and to learn how to quickly keep pace with the numerous technology changes ahead.

From smart technology, artificial intelligence and multi-channel customer communication, technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace. As devices, customers and companies become even more connected, prioritization is the key to customer experience success. Here are five ways brands can stay ahead of the 2020 curve.

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Since October, Datto has been conducting testing designed to quickly detect ransomware in backup data sets. Here’s why: it has become a major threat to individuals and businesses over the past few years, and the cyber extortionists behind these attacks operate with increasing sophistication. SMBs can be particularly vulnerable to attacks and are more likely to pay a ransom to get their data back than large businesses.

In many cases, these attacks are conducted by large criminal organizations using wide-reaching botnets to spread malware via phishing campaigns. Victims are tricked into downloading an e-mail attachment or clicking a link using some form of social engineering. Fake email messages might appear to be a note from a friend or colleague asking a user to check out an attached file. Or, email might come from a trusted institution (such as a bank) asking you to perform a routine task. Sometimes, ransomware uses scare tactics such as claiming that the computer has been used for illegal activities to coerce victims. When the malware is executed, it encrypts files and demands a ransom to unlock them.

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If you're looking for an alternative to Microsoft's Surface Hub, Google has just the thing for you. Unveiled last October, Jamboard is a 55-inch whiteboard featuring a 4K touchscreen display, HD camera, speakers and integration with the search giant's G Suite productivity apps.

Google did not initially reveal how much it will cost or when it will be available, but the company now says that it will be priced just shy of $5,000 and will be released in just a couple of months.

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Last year's highly publicized Yahoo and LinkedIn breaches exposed millions of users' passwords to the public and saw them for sale on the dark web.

Researchers at behavioral firewall company Preempt have analyzed the leaked LinkedIn passwords to find out how many were weak before the breach occurred.

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For many business managers who are making their first foray into researching ERP software, the subject can see daunting. Search the internet for "ERP software" and you’ll be inundated with dozens of pages of information and opinion; it’s a big subject and there is no shortage of commentators, experts and marketers, all vying for your attention and, of course, a share of your IT budget.

The good news is that despite the technical acronym, the basic principles of ERP software are easily defined and once understood, a business manager is in a solid position to begin considering the different options available to their company.

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Google has announced that it plans to introduce placeholders on Google Drive. The search giant is currently beta testing the new feature, which is officially called Drive File Stream, with the help of G Suite users as part of the Early Adopter Program.

Drive File Stream enables users to access content stored in their Google Drive account without actually downloading it on their device. It works similarly to Dropbox Smart Sync or OneDrive placeholders on Windows 8.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) says it came to an agreement with Nimble Storage to acquire it for approximately $1 billion in cash.

HP Enterprise should assume, or pay out, Nimble’s unvested equity awards, with a value of $200m, at closing. According to Wall Street Journal, the deal has roughly a 41 percent premium to Nimble’s $700m market value.

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TeamViewer is looking for a piece of Amazon Chime's pie as it introduces a competitor, Blizz by TeamViewer. It is a dedicated web conferencing and collaboration solution, aimed at the needs of small and medium sized businesses and mid enterprise organizations.

The product is available right now, and comes in three plans with different functionalities.

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