Laut Einschätzung des US-amerikanischen Softwaregiganten stellt der mehr als drei Jahre alte Computerwurm "Conficker" immer noch die grösste Bedrohung für Firmennetze dar. Laut Microsoft-Manager Tim Rains hat sich die Zahl der Infektionen seit dem Jahr 2009 mit einem Anstieg um 225 Prozent mehr als verdreifacht.
Das südkoreanische Unternehmen LG Electronics hat dank einer steigenden Nachfrage nach teureren TV-Geräten und eines erstarkten Handy-Geschäfts wieder schwarze Zahlen geschrieben. Nach zwei Verlustquartalen wurde im ersten Vierteljahr 2012 ein konzernweiter Überschuss von 243 Mrd. Won (etwa 161,3 Millionen Euro) erzielt.
In der Schweiz gibt es erst seit 20 Jahren ein Datenschutz-Gesetz. Daran mitgearbeitet hat auch der langjährige Informatik-Professor an der ETH Zürich, Carl August Zehnder. Wenn die Anwender unvorsichtig sind, hilft nach Ansicht von Zehner auch das beste Gesetz nichts.
Sage Schweiz und Hint haben eine strategische Partnerschaft lanciert, der zufolge die Softwarelösungen Sage 200 Heimverwaltung und Sage 200 Pflegedokumentation neu als SaaS-Lösungen (Software as a Service) verfügbar werden. Ermöglicht wird die SaaS-Variante durch die Hint mit ihrer modularen E-Healthcare-Lösung Hintcare.
Die bis 2007 verwendeten, weit herum bekannten Zertifizierungen MCSA und MCSE sind wieder zurück: Microsoft hat dieser Tage die neuen Cloud-bezogenen Zertifizierungen kommuniziert. Digicomp bietet dafür bereits die entsprechenden Schulungen an.
Ramón Amat, ehemaliger CEO von Cyberlink, hat mit der TV Factory ein Spin-Off von Cyberlink aus der Taufe gehoben, das über die eigene Plattform digitale Fernsehlösungen für Schweizers ISPs, Glasfasernetzanbieter und Kabelnetzbetreiber bereit stellt.
Der schwedische Telekomausrüster Ericsson hat im ersten Quartal einen Umsatzrückgang verzeichnet. Wegen konjunktureller Unsicherheiten und des Einbruchs des Geschäfts mit dem Mobilfunkstandard CDMA sei der Umsatz im Vergleich zum Vorjahresquartal von 53 Mrd. auf 51 Mrd. schwedische Kronen (38,8 Mrd. Euro) gesunken, teilte Ericsson am Mittwoch mit.
Die Angebotsfrist für den bankrotten Chiphersteller Elpida ist einer japanischen Zeitung zufolge um eine Woche verlängert worden. Der Informationsaustausch mit den Interessenten dauere länger als geplant, berichtete "Nikkei" am Mittwoch.
Die Deutsche Telekom hat den Beschäftigten einer wichtigen Konzernsparte 3,5 Prozent mehr Lohn und Gehalt angeboten. Die Einkommen der rund 50.000 Beschäftigten bei der Telekom Deutschland sollten zum 1. Juli dieses Jahres zunächst um 2,1 Prozent steigen, teilte der Konzern am Dienstag in Bonn mit.
Mit Marcus Bott hat T-Systems Schweiz einen langgedienten IBM-Manager zum neuen Head of Consulting & Solutions Sales bestellt. In dieser Funktion soll Bott künftig ein Team aus Beratungs- und Vertriebsspezialisten führen, das strategische Beratungsleistungen für das Segment Grosskunden und für diese Kundengruppe massgeschneiderte ICT-Lösungen auf Basis des T-Systems-Offerings erarbeitet.
Barence writes "Microsoft challenged the editor of PC Pro to return to Hotmail after six years of using Gmail, to prove that its webmail service had vastly improved — but the challenge backfired when he had his Hotmail account hacked. PC Pro's editor say he was quietly impressed with a number of new Hotmail features, including SkyDrive integration and mailbox clean-up features. He'd even imported his Gmail and contacts into Microsoft's service. But the two-week experiment came to an abrupt end when Hotmail sent a message containing a malicious link to all of his contacts. 'What's even more worrying is that it's not only my webmail that's been compromised, but my Xbox login (which holds my credit card details) and now my PC login too. Because Windows 8 practically forces you to login with your Windows Live/Hotmail details to access features such as the Metro Store, synchronization and SkyDrive,' he writes."
First time accepted submitter casac8 writes "As Friday's House vote on CISPA nears, it appears Congress members are getting nervous. Literally millions of people around the world have signed petitions voicing their opposition, and it appears Congress has heard their concerns, as House members are considering a number of amendments aimed at limiting the negative impacts the legislation would have on Internet privacy. For instance, one amendment likely to pass would tighten the bill's language to ensure its provisions are only applied in the pursuit of legit crimes and other rare instances, rather than whenever the NSA wants to target Joe Web-user. And another would increase possible liability on the parts of companies who hand personal information over to the government."
benfrog writes "Researchers at the University of California-Berkeley say they have come up with a counter-intuitive way of making solar cells more efficient--making them emit light. In a press release the scientists claim to be the first to demonstrate that the better solar cells are at emitting photons (the more LED-like they are), the more efficient they are at generating electricity. However, 'unlike an LED, the electrons in a solar cell are absorbing photons from an exterior source as well as emitting their own.'"
An anonymous reader writes in with a link about the progress of one of the coolest astronomy projects around. "A 3.2 billion-pixel digital camera designed by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is now one step closer to reality. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope camera, which will capture the widest, fastest and deepest view of the night sky ever observed, has received 'Critical Decision 1' approval by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to move into the next stage of the project. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will survey the entire visible sky every week, creating an unprecedented public archive of data – about 6 million gigabytes per year, the equivalent of shooting roughly 800,000 images with a regular eight-megapixel digital camera every night, but of much higher quality and scientific value. Its deep and frequent cosmic vistas will help answer critical questions about the nature of dark energy and dark matter and aid studies of near-Earth asteroids, Kuiper belt objects, the structure of our galaxy and many other areas of astronomy and fundamental physics."
coondoggie writes "If businesses and consumers stuck to security basics, they could have avoided all cases of Conficker worm infection detected on 1.7 million systems by Microsoft researchers in the last half of 2011. According to the latest Microsoft Security Intelligence report, all cases of Conficker infection stemmed from just two attack methods: weak or stolen passwords and exploiting software vulnerabilities for which updates existed."
An anonymous reader writes "Apple's current legal battles with Samsung encapsulate a large number of patents, innumerable suits and counter-suits, and have resulted in legal motions in 11 jurisdictions across the globe. As you may remember, Steve Jobs in his biography was quite vocal about his intent to go thermonuclear on Android, vowing to spend every last dime in Apple's coffers to destroy Google's mobile OS. But Tim Cook is a bit more level headed about things, expressing during Apple's earnings conference call yesterday that he has has always hated litigation and would much rather settle than to battle in court. The caveat, of course, is that Cook doesn't want Apple to 'become the developer for the world.'" It may not be what Jobs would do, but as zacharye notes, it doesn't seem to be hurting earnings. "Despite early-morning jitters on Wall Street, Apple on Tuesday reported yet another blow-out quarter. The Cupertino, California-based company managed the second most profitable quarter in its history, posting a net profit of $11.6 billion on $39.2 billion in sales. Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones into channels last quarter, along with 11.8 million iPads, 7.7 million iPods and 4 million Mac computers. While the firm continues to dominate the technology industry — Apple is currently the most valuable company in the world — several analysts think Apple is just getting started."
MikeatWired writes "Google will tightly integrate its new Google Drive online storage service with an upcoming version of its Chrome OS operating system, says Sundar Pichai, who oversees development of the company's Chrome products as well as its Google Apps online services. Chrome OS is Google's effort to move all applications and data onto the web (and its Chrome browser), but the OS still hasn't mastered the art of moving files from place to place. By integrating Chrome OS with Google Drive — the online storage service Google introduced on Tuesday — the company seeks to correct this problem. 'With Chromebooks, [Google Drive] is even more powerful,' Pichai says, 'because it just starts working naturally. Your local drive is also Google Drive. This makes it really powerful because you just don't think about it.' Basically, Google Drive — a service that operates on the web — will perform as if it was the local file system. If you open the 'save file' dialog box on Chrome OS, for instance, the system will take you straight to Google Drive. 'We'll effectively integrate [Google] Drive into the native file system of Chrome OS,' says Scott Johnson, Google's Google Drive product manager. 'All the core OS functionality will use [Google] Drive as a place to store data — if that's what you opt in to.'"
An anonymous reader writes "Valve's Steam and Source Engine-based games are coming to Linux. Michael from well known site Phoronix.com has been invited to Valve's office and was able to spend a day with the developers and Gabe Newell himself. He is confirming the rumors about Linux ports from Valve, and has been able to play the games and work the developers himself. Attached in the article are pictures from Valve's offices with games running on Linux."
Zothecula writes, quoting Gizmodo "While the Moon may or may not contain life forms, precious metals or even green cheese, recent satellite missions have indicated that it does nonetheless contain something that could prove quite valuable — water ice. NASA has estimated that at least 650 million tons (600 million tonnes) of the stuff could be deposited in craters near the Moon's north pole alone. If mined, it could conceivably serve as a source of life support for future lunar bases, or it could be used to produce fuel for spacecraft stopping at a "lunar gas station." Before any mining can happen, however, we need to learn more about the ice. That's why NASA has contracted Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology to determine if its Polaris rover robot could be used for ice prospecting."
mikejuk writes with this excerpt from I Programmer: "A movie that features science and technology is always welcome, but is it not often we have one that focuses on computer science. Travelling Salesman is just such a rare movie. As you can guess from its name, it is about the Travelling Salesman problem, more precisely about the P=NP question. Written and directed by Timothy Lanzone, and produced by Fretboard Pictures, it should premiere on June 16. As the blurb to the movie trailer says: 'Travelling Salesman is an intellectual thriller about four of the world's smartest mathematicians hired by the U.S. government to solve the most elusive problem in computer science history — P vs. NP. The four have jointly created a "system" which could be the next major advancement for humanity or the downfall of society.'"
Sabbetus writes "Seattle based Bitcoin startup CoinLab secured a $500,000 investment from various investors such as Silicon Valley firm Draper Associates and angel investor Geoff Entress. CoinLab is an emerging umbrella group for cultivating and launching innovative Bitcoin projects. CEO Vessenes said 'if there is a currency that can trade around the world, it's semi-anonymous, it's instant, it's not controlled by government or bank, what's the total value of that currency? The answer to that is, if it works, it's gotta be in the billions. It just has to be for all the reasons you might want to send money around the world.' This type of talk is common from Bitcoin enthusiasts but apparently seasoned investors are starting to agree. Forbes explains the details of their business plan but in short it has to do with tapping the GPU mining potential of gamers, more specifically gamers of free-to-play games. This would add a new revenue stream for online game companies that are trying to provide free games profitably."
betterunixthanunix writes "Another remailer has been compromised by the FBI, who made a forensic image of the hard disk of a remailer located in Austria. The remailer operator has reissued the remailer keys, but warns that messages previously sent through the remailer could be decrypted. The operator also warns that law enforcement agents had an opportunity to install a back door, and that a complete rebuild of the system will take some time."
Google85 writes "Beginning April 23rd, Intel, through Lava International, began selling the Xolo X900 smartphone in India for $420, Anandtech has just published a review of the smartphone which runs Android on x86 and uses binary translation as the mitigation for both libraries and NDK applications that haven't yet been ported to x86"