If there’s one thing you can say with certainty about cyber-security in 2017, it’s that many companies are going to fail because they are simply not doing the right thing. Fundamental flaws still exist.

Until the technical people lift their heads up and see that security and business are different sides of the same coin, we will inevitably see more damaging attacks. When security people learn to speak in the language of business they will begin to understand just where in the organization they need to apply their expertise.

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Vivaldi Technologies -- led by Opera co-founder Jon S von Tetzchner -- has released Vivaldi 1.5, the latest version of its customizable web browser for Windows, Mac and Linux.

The big talking point in version 1.5 is Vivaldi’s integration into the Philips Hue IoT ecosystem, but the new release also adds a number of more universal features, such as support for tab drag and drop, which makes tab stacking much simpler than before.

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This is my promised column on data security and the Internet of Things (IoT). The recent Dyn DDoS attack showed the IoT is going to be a huge problem as networked devices like webcams are turned into zombie hoards. Fortunately I think I may have a solution to the problem. Really.

I’m an idiot today, but back in the early 1990’s I ran a startup that built one of the Internet’s earliest Content Distribution Networks (CDN), only we didn’t call it that because the term had not yet been invented. Unlike the CDNs of today, ours wasn’t about video, it was about the daily electronic delivery of PDF editions of newspapers and magazines. Canon told us that if the New York Times, say, would make a PDF version of its daily paper, the Japanese company would give an ink jet printer to every electronic subscriber, making their money solely on replacement ink cartridge sales. Communication would be between the CDN and printer with no PC involved. It was effectively an Internet of Things, circa 1994. Obviously, we failed, but learned a lot along the way.

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In an effort to expand into the auto market, Samsung has announced that it will purchase Harman for $8 billion to gain access to both its automotive and audio offerings.

The American company Harman is best known for its audio equipment, though it also has a large presence in the automotive market. Last year, the company earned over $7 billion, of which its connected car devices and audio systems accounted for 65 percent of the total sales.

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Digital certificates are an essential part of online security and as the number of Internet of things devices continues to grow they'll become more important still. But as we rely more on certificates so managing them becomes more complex.

Cyber security solutions company Comodo, the world's leading certificate authority, is launching the latest release of its Comodo Certificate Manager (CCM), a full-lifecycle digital certificate management platform which makes it easier for enterprises to manage their certificates.

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Philips Hue light bulbs could be vulnerable to a cyber attack, according to researchers who have developed a proof-of-concept worm capable of spreading from bulb to bulb with the power to turn the lights on and off.

The researchers efforts at gaining access to the connected light bulbs was detailed in their paper titled IoT Goes Nuclear a ZigBee Chain Reaction. The worm they created was able to gain access to the Philips Hue devices by exploiting hard-coded symmetric encryption keys that are used to control devices over Zigbee wireless networks.

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Have you ever imaged your refrigerator or coffee maker being a threat to you? Probably not. That’s a problem of sci-fi and the future, right?

With the Internet of Things (IoT), the future is becoming the present. More and more IoT devices are coming into everyday life. We pay attention to how convenient it is for our thermostat to know when we’re coming home and therefore turn on the air or heating, and how our jackets can tell us about our health. We often don’t pay attention to how it transmits that information to an outside source. The IoT is a huge advantage for the modern world, but it has some dangers as well. Here are five that you should be on the lookout for.

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What once was the plot of creative Hollywood blockbuster movies is now becoming a reality. The Internet of things (IoT) continues to grow as consumers, businesses and governments recognize the benefit of connecting devices to the internet, be it smart phones, wearable devices or smart homes. It is estimated that the number of connected devices in use by 2020 will be 30 billion, one in five cars will be connected vehicles in the next five years and by 2025 the IoT is predicted to have a global economic impact of US $11trillion.

The growing presence of connected devices is increasing efficiency in homes, workplaces and other areas of life that have seen the introduction of the IoT. Despite the expansion of connected devices however, there remains a number of consumers who are reluctant to adopt the IoT due to security concerns.

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Last month, Canonical released a beta of Ubuntu Core 16. This is not a typical Linux distribution, but instead, one that is focused on Internet of Things and the cloud. What makes the operating system particularly interesting is the use of "Snaps" -- an ingenious modular way of handling software. It combines applications and dependencies into one convenient package.

Today, Ubuntu Core 16 achieves final release status. You can download it immediately for free for PC, Raspberry Pi, and more. With all of the IoT-related botnet news nowadays, this is arriving at the perfect time.

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The number of DDoS attacks fell more than 40 percent to 97,700 attacks in the second quarter of 2016 according to the latest threat report from DDoS security service Nexusguard.

The report reveals there was a sharp dip in distributed reflection denial of service (DrDoS) attacks, with DNS-based attacks falling 97 percent compared to the previous quarter. However, recent DDoS attacks on cybercrime journalist Brian Krebs and OVH, a French internet hosting provider, broke records for speed and size.

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The Internet of things is predicted to revolutionize the way in which we live our lives, with many industry experts tipping it to have the biggest technological impact since cloud computing.

The reason behind such a bold claim is that IoT devices have the potential to be more pervasive than any other form of technology. By embedding Internet connectivity into everyday objects we can open every facet of our lives to technological innovation. In truth, it is impossible to say with certainty what the future impacts of this will be, and there are just as many Internet of things doomsayers as there are enthusiasts.

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We've already seen concerns about the threats Internet of Things gadgets may pose in the home, with hackable Barbie dolls and snooping Smart TVs. Not to mention that the latest Dyn DDoS attack was carried out using unsecured IoT devices.

IoT devices are starting to become commonplace in businesses too so the potential for problems can only grow. Security company ForeScout, along with leading ethical hacker Samy Kamkar, has been investigating the risks these devices pose.

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San Diego, Calif. As a general rule I never connect to public WiFi networks, which is fine except when attending an event at a hotel ballroom where T-Mobile cellular is like an apparition dancing around a Halloween grave. So as Wendell Brooks, CEO of Intel Capital, begins his speech, I sit typing narrative offline rather than tweeting live. There’s irony, I suppose, reporting old style, about investments in new innovations.

Welcome to the trials and travails of the Intel Capital Global Summit, which kicks off today and goes through October 26. Looking at the lineup, I expect to hear about newfangled tech that would make news reporting so much easier if available—although 4G cellular data would be good enough for today.

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Internet of things (IoT) is expected to make an enormous impact on pretty much every industry in the upcoming months and years, but it seems as organizations don’t really know how to secure their devices. This is according to a new report by ForeScout Technologies, which surveyed 201 senior IT decision makers in the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

First, the report says the threat surface is going to increase dramatically. An average business will operate 7,000 IoT devices in the next 18 months, which is "far more" than what the average company is used to securing and defending. Second, almost two thirds (65 percent) have "quite", "little", or "no" confidence in identifying and controlling their IoT devices. And third, the biggest challenge seems to be having IT functions working together.

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There is a 12 year old vulnerability in OpenSSH that hackers are now using to attack Internet of Things (IoT) devices and remotely generate traffic. Akamai Technologies' researchers Ory Segal and Ezra Caltum have identified the old vulnerability and dubbed it SSHowDowN Proxy.

The researchers say hackers are using it to target CCTV, NVR, and DVR devices, satellite antenna equipment, networking devices such as routers or hotspots, and internet-connected NAS devices.

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