Beacon advertising is becoming increasingly popular as a means of targeting consumers in specific locations with relevant messages.

It's now set to spread further as Freckle, the world's largest beacon technology company, announces a partnership with one of North America's largest mobile platform companies for publishers and media companies AirKast.

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It seems that the constant expert warnings that legacy software should be avoided aren’t really resonating with businesses across the world. According to a new report by Spiceworks, more than half (53 percent) of companies all over the world have at least one instance of Windows Server 2003.

That wouldn’t be much of an issue if the operating system’s EOL (end of life) date wasn’t a year ago (July 14, 2015). After that date, Microsoft has officially ceased supporting the product, stopped releasing patches and new updates, which means that companies still using Windows Server 2003 are actually putting themselves at a lot of cyber risk.

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Analytics is something that many enterprises are keen to make use of, but a new report finds that many businesses are approaching it in the wrong way.

The report from decision science and big data specialist MuSigma identifies gaps and shortcomings in traditional approaches to analytics and problem solving but also highlights that a majority of senior leadership believes analytics is affecting company strategy and results in positive ways.

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More than 400 businesses get targeted by CEO fraud scams every day, a new report by security researchers Symantec says. CEO fraud is a type of scam in which cyber-criminals target financial staff, often posing as CEOs or other executives, and request large money transfers.

Even though it sounds too simple to work, its success rate is actually quite high, and relies mostly on putting financial staff under a lot of pressure through a sense of urgency, not giving them enough time to think things through.

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Industrial control systems (ICS) are not supposed to be connected to the Internet, Kaspersky Lab says, as it opens a sea of opportunities for hackers. Such systems are run by energy, transportation, aerospace, oil and gas, chemicals, automotive and manufacturing, food and drink, governmental, financial and medical institutions, and should be, for the sake of security, run in a physically isolated environment.

However, Kaspersky Lab says that is not the case, and that it has found 13,698 ICS hosts exposed to the Internet, which very likely belong to large organizations. More than nine in ten (91.1 percent) host remotely-exploitable vulnerabilities, and 3.3 percent contain "critical and remotely executable vulnerabilities".

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Protecting against data breaches is always better than dealing with their aftermath. And since phishing is still one of the most popular attack methods businesses and employees need to be alert to the risks.

Authentication specialist Duo Security is launching a new, free tool to let IT teams run internal phishing simulations and assess their vulnerability to such attacks.

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While Skype remains the most popular VoIP tool, the Skype for Business mobile client has been dogged by ongoing quality and technical issues that have slowed its rollout.

A new survey by Unify Square and Osterman Research finds that 30 percent of IT teams' total time spent troubleshooting the Skype platform is devoted to the mobile client.

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Global IT spending is expected to be flat this year, hitting $3.41 trillion (£2.63tr), market analysts Gartner says. But an important factor hasn’t been taken into consideration.

Gartner says the global IT spending will be up from last quarter’s 0.5 percent negative growth. These changes are mostly driven by fluctuations in currency, so it should be business as usual. However, the forecast was made assuming the UK would not vote to leave the European Union. As we all witnessed, that surprise move has shaken global economy, so different outcomes are now also a reality.

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Data scientists can do no wrong, at least in the eyes of the companies that are clamoring to hire them. Every company wants them so they can use data to better understand and predict customer behavior. It’s why Glassdoor named data scientists as 2016’s hottest job.

However, what many organizations don’t realize is that a data scientist only sees part of the equation. Identifying and understanding patterns and using algorithms are a great start, but they aren’t the silver bullet businesses are looking for to instantly turn their data into insights that improve the customer experience.

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Many companies are keen to gain from the power of big data but struggle with the expense and operational complexity of expanding their on-premise systems.

Moving data to the cloud is the obvious solution but that too leads to issues surrounding migration. Big data-as-a-service company Qubole has partnered with software solutions specialist WANdisco to make the move easier with the launch of a Cloudera Migration Program.

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Owing to the growth of cloud and hybrid environments, IT teams are faced with increasingly complex networks that are a challenge to control and monitor.

IT management solutions specialist Ipswitch is launching a new product that allows teams to visualize, troubleshoot and monitor networks, servers, virtual machines and applications from a single piece of software.

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Microsoft has introduced new business apps and services aimed to be intuitive, deliver helpful assistance, and improve the lives of their users. The new offerings are called Dynamics 365 and AppSource.

Dynamics 365, available this fall, will unify the current CRM and ERP solutions into a single cloud service, with new apps to better manage specific business functions. Power BI and Cortana Intelligence are also integrated, to offer customers predictive analytics and prescriptive advice. Dynamics 365 will be deeply integrated with Office 365.

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Summertime is here, and for many business folks, this means working outdoors. Sure, some employees will prefer working indoors with air conditioning, but it can be quite refreshing to sit outside and enjoy the fresh air.

If you choose to work outdoors, you obviously need a laptop -- setting up a desktop and monitor under a tree or on a picnic table is not ideal. If you need an inexpensive and lightweight business-focused laptop, Acer has you covered. The TravelMate X3 is both affordable and svelte, making it a wise choice for sitting outdoors or traveling on an airplane.

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Federal government IT professionals are overconfident in their ability to detect insider threats, endpoint security firm Tripwire has found. Analyzing the confidence of IT experts regarding their efficiency in seven key security controls, it polled 763 professionals from various industries.

Almost a third say they would not be able to detect every time a non-privileged user attempted to access files. Almost three quarters (73 percent) assume their system would generate an alert or email within hours if a user inappropriately accessed file shares.

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Microsoft has launched Skype Meetings, a new and free version of its popular video and audio conferencing software designed with small businesses in mind.

The company’s latest release will feel quite similar for users already familiar with its Skype for Business solution, albeit stripped down. Whereas Skype for Business allows for meetings with up to 250 people, Skype Meetings limits the maximum participants to 10 people. However after the initial two months of using the product, that number drops down to three people.

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