You've seen the inflammatory NSA slides, and now you can attach a name to the paperwork: His name is Edward Snowden, he has a 10-year history in government defense and intelligence gathering, and now, he , he's leaked classified government documents because he thinks current NSA surveillance techniques pose "an existential threat to democracy." "My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them," he told Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald in an interview conducted in Hong Kong. Snowden is a former CIA technical assistant, and a current employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. For the last four years, Snowden has done contract work for the NSA as an employee of various outside firms. In 2003, Snowden enlisted in the U.S. Army to join the Special Forces, but both broke his legs during a training mission, and was discharged. From there, the Guardian reports, Snowden took a job as a security guard for the NSA, and then later joined the CIA to work in IT security before returning to the NSA as a contractor.
A vulnerability in versions 6 through 10 of Internet Explorer could be exploited to take control of affected machines through malware delivered from tainted Web pages, according to the upcoming Patch Tuesday security bulletins from Microsoft. "This one would make it easy to remotely gain access to someone's machine via a malicious webpage," says Ken Pickering, development manager for security intelligence at CORE Security. "Bulletin One is downright scary." The single bulletin actually accounts for 19 of the 23 individual common vulnerability exposures (CVE) dealt with this month. It is the only one of the that is ranked critical, but since four of them require restarts after applying Microsoft recommended patches, it could make for IT headaches. "No one likes to force a reboot after an update, especially in an enterprise shop," he says.
Google is the undisputed king of search in most Western countries but, in Russia, home-grown Yandex still claims a 60 percent market share. In an attempt to maintain its advantage, Yandex has announced significant changes to its search engine results pages with the launch of interactive snippets, known as 'Islands', which aim to speed up the user's engagement with websites and services. Islands build on the concept of 'rich snippets' - the extra information that appears under search results. Google and Yandex both use rich snippets to give users a sense for what is on the page and why it is relevant to their query, but Ilya Segalovich, CTO at Yandex, describes them as "mere decoration". "When people search on the rich web these days, they are often looking to carry out an action," said Segalovich.
Bitcoin's trajectory over the past few years is nothing short of impressive. A peer-to-peer alternative currency whose creator remains anonymous five years later, Bitcoin sounds like something out of a science fiction novel. However, Bitcoin has paid off for many of its early adopters, and is moving too quickly to be ignored. , no interested party should dive into a Bitcoin engagement without knowing the facts.
Analyst concerns that Galaxy S4 smartphone sales are lagging have put pressure on Samsung shares. as another reason to downgrade the stock. "The mobile phone market is indeed a very volatile one," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi via email. "I was not expecting the GS4 to have the same impact as the GS3, so in that sense, Samsung faces the same issues that Apple does." There was disagreement over the impact of the Apple trade-in program on Samsung, and some cited it as a concern.
A cheery new YouTube video called "Facebook - The Musical" is on its way to going viral at more than 500,000 views during its first few days on the Web, thanks to a campy crew of crooners singing the praises of the social network. While I'd love to see "Annie," "Bye Bye Birdie" and the rest of those overplayed musicals go the way of MySpace (oh, it's still around?), it looks like tech-themed musicals might be here to stay. At least on YouTube. , and in conjunction with the Vlogbrothers, Tumblr (in which a Disney-ish Ariel and geeky friends sing about the joys of viewing Tumblrs instead of actually reading).
, and now the Obama administration's national security boss is making an effort to cram it back in. on PRISM, noting it's not "an undisclosed collection or data mining program" that targets American citizens but rather a perfectly legal "internal government computer system" used for the authorized collection of foreign intelligence under court supervision. "In a rush to publish, media outlets have not given the full context—including the extent to which these programs are overseen by all three branches of government—to these effective tools," wrote Clapper in the statement. He goes on to write that "significant misimpressions" have resulted from PRISM media coverage, but that he can't correct inaccuracies without revealing classified information. From there, he explains his declassified explainer should "help dispel some of the myths and add necessary context to what has been published." In the declassified material, Clapper explains that PRISM is authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and that the government doesn't "unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers." All information is collected with FISA court approval, he writes, and with the knowledge of service providers following a written directive from the Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence (a post, lest we forget, that's currently held by Clapper himself).
While data breaches born of malicious attacks grab headlines, more data thefts are caused by employee negligence and computer glitches, according to a report this week by Symantec and the Ponemon Institute. Almost two-thirds of data breaches in 2012 could be attributed to negligence or human error (35 percent) and system glitches (29 percent), reported the eighth annual Ponemon Global Cost of a Data Breach study. However, malicious attacks remain the single highest cause of breaches, with 37 percent of the intrusion pie. Those figures vary by nation, the report showed. For example, Germany had an almost even split between malicious attacks (48 percent) and negligence/glitches (52 percent). By comparison, more than three-quarters of the breaches (77 percent) in Brazil were blamed on human error-system failures.
Advocates for both industry and consumers voiced their support for a bill that would restore the right to unlock cellphones in the U.S. at a hearing in front of a congressional subcommittee. A 2012 decision by the Librarian of Congress not to renew a long-standing exception to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act -- which allowed cellphone owners to unlock their devices for use on multiple networks -- drew heavy public criticism after a petition. The House Judiciary Committe's Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet heard testimony this week from representatives of CTIA, Consumers Union, a broad-based group of digital copyright advocates and the Competitive Carriers' Association (formerly known as the Rural Carriers' Association).
Zscaler has added mobile security to its arsenal of cloud-based security services which the firm is pitching as a flexible way to fix the risk of employee-owned devices bypassing conventional filtering layers. , now extended in the form of the new Mobile Security Solution. This protects the devices and the networks they connect to from botnets, phishing and cross-site scripting attacks, as well as integrating this protection with an organisation's existing security policies. "Security appliances have become irrelevant in securing mobile users since mobile traffic and cloud applications often bypass appliances completely," said Zscaler founder and CEO, Jay Chaudhry.
is a profitable, successful company that makes some great products. But it's held back in consumer electronics by its reputation as a stodgy, boring company. , for example. phones that Windows Phone-based Nokias are always a second or third choice. That's not a great position to be in when people buy only their first choice. show what could be the greatest mobile phone ever: It's a smartphone that's also a prosumer-quality digital camera. It appears to be a cross between a Lumia 920 and Pureview 808 -- basically a high-end smartphone with a 41-megapixel camera and professional-quality optics.
At an art fair recently, my friend Rose fell in love with a robot. The installation in question was a tall, dark mash of technological parts. It bore a loudspeaker for a head, its eyes formed out of the speaker cones. It beckoned us with arms built from skinny windshield wipers. The abdomen was a slim podium that had a CD player attached to form the robot’s chest. Rose has since christened the creation “Schubert,” finding herself endeared to it by the way it appeared to interact with her, and how it seemed to fix her in its wide-eyed gaze. Her attraction to that robot—however superfluous—taps into an age-long relationship between humans and automatons. For centuries, we’ve been shaping technology into something that makes us feel something, infusing our creations with aesthetic qualities that build up their “personality.” The purpose and impact of this endeavor? That’s something that has tickled psychologists for years.
In my travels, I’ve reviewed for those who want to sketch, write, or paint on their devices. But I’ve never really played around with styluses on the Windows and Android side of the aisle—unless you count a very brief stint with a Wacom-enabled tablet when I was in high school. So I was naturally curious when the N-Trig DuoSense Pen 2 came across my desk. The company advertises the pen as a pressure-sensitive drawing tool, packaged with certain laptop and tablet systems running Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Android (Ice Cream Sandwich). It offers 256 levels of pressure sensitivity in compatible applications, a hover mode, and programmable buttons. In form factor, the pen reminds me very much of a Wacom stylus: slim, black, and tipped with a small plastic nib. In addition, it’s run on an AAAA battery. N-Trig paired my review unit with a 7-inch HTC Evo running Ice Cream Sandwich. So, how does it compare to Wacom styluses and iPad offerings? Read on to find out.
So far, Intel's Clover Trail+ Atom processor has only found a design win or two within Asian smartphones. But if ABI Research's report is accurate, smartphone makers and consumers alike should start clamoring for it. In tests comparing almost all of the latest smartphone application processors, Intel's Atom Z2580 chip based on the Clover Trail+ architecture delivered comparable performance to the Samsung Exynos Octa and the Qualcomm APQ8064T. But Intel's chip also consumed 60 percent of the current of the Exynos Octa, and less than half (47 percent) of the current of the Qualcomm chip. (The Octa chip is found within European versions of the Samsung Galaxy S4, while the Qualcomm chip is used in the U.S. version.) ABI Research's report measured the current draw, where current times voltage equals power. But the assumption is that the operating voltages are comparable. In short, Intel's Atom offers the same performance but with a much lower power draw than competing chips, ensuring longer battery life and significantly undercutting the ARM proposition its chips offer much longer battery life than traditional X86 chips. If the ABI report is true, then Intel stands a good chance of cutting into the traditional smartphone market. In fact, James Mielke, vice president of engineering at ABI, told PCWorld that his firms' tests show that as the ARM providers increased the performance of their chips, the current drain scaled up as well, reducing battery life. This would imply as ARM's licensees scale up the clock speeds of their chips to meet the increasing demands of apps and other phone software, the battery life of those phones could dip as well.
Microsoft’s TechEd North America conference, which was held this week in New Orleans, provided a first glimpse of the architecture that Microsoft shops should use to manage employee personal devices for work duties, an emerging IT trend called bring your own device (BYOD). “We’ve built a solution to manage your devices where they live,” said Brad Anderson, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Windows Server and System Center, during the keynote at TechEd. System administrators will “get a consistent experience to manage PCs and devices in one console, one set of capabilities, and not separate infrastructures.” By the end of this year, organizations will be able to use a set of Microsoft products to permit their workers to use their personal devices—including non-Windows mobile devices such as Apple iOS-based iPhone and iPads and Android devices—to access company applications, data and other resources. Company administrators can apply full management policies to these devices, at least in how these devices interact with the organization’s resources. “If you have a Windows PC, you can join it to the domain and control it in a pretty deep way,” said Andrew Conway, a Microsoft director of product marketing, in a follow-up interview. “But as we move to this new paradigm of people using different mobile devices, we’re bringing a lot of new capabilities not only against Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows Phone 8, but also against iOS and Android.”
Recently I spent a full week in a hotel, where I grudgingly paid for Wi-Fi so I could get some work done. Unfortunately, it was a per-device purchase: Only my laptop could get online. If I wanted Internet access on my phone (which had a weak indoor signal) and tablet (Wi-Fi only), I'd have to pay again. And again. Hey, wait a minute, doesn't Windows let you set up a Wi-Fi hotspot to share its connection with other devices? It did, in Windows 7; it doesn't in Windows 8. Actually, the capability is still there, but enabling it requires some serious command-line tinkering. , a free utility that adds Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities to Windows 8. It works, but with a few important caveats. First, be really careful during setup. The price of "free" here is that the installer comes packed with junkware. It's easy enough to bypass if you pay attention, but potentially troublesome if you don't.
Recent numbers by a market research firm appear to show that Android users than iOS users spend. That discrepancy largely has to do with how the two ecosystems have developed, noted Mary Ellen Gordon, director of industry insights and analysis for the research firm, Flurry. Flurry analyzed four years worth of its own data to understand who is ahead in which contests, discuss the apparent strengths and weaknesses of the competitors, and consider the implications for the overall mobile ecosystem, according to the company’s blog. Up to the introduction of the newer Samsung Galaxy S models, Android buyers were purchasing their phones for different reasons than iPhone users, she explained.
Thursday afternoon, a bombshell dropped: Two leading reports claimed that the on emails, searches, Skype calls, and other electronic communications used by Americans for the last several years, via a program known as PRISM. According to the reports, the Web’s largest names—AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Skype, PalTalk, Yahoo, and YouTube—participated, perhaps unwittingly. (Dropbox will reportedly be added as well.) The report claims that the National Security Agency had “direct access” to servers owned by those companies. Most, if not all, of those companies have denied participating in PRISM, although it’s unclear whether they were unaware of the NSA’s spying, or simply turned a blind eye. According to the data covered included: “email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, voice-over-IP chats, file transfers, social networking details, and more.” If nothing else, however, the PRISM disclosure is worrying and deeply shocking. If the report is accurate, the government may simply listen in on virtually any electronic communication you’ve made, in the interests of national security. Is this something that should be encouraged to fight domestic terrorism, or is this sort of government intrusion something that should be deeply distrusted? For the purposes of this story, we’re going to err on the side of the latter; whether you take advantage of our advice is up to you.
Just think for a moment how many devices and operating systems you use in a day. Now you may jump from a Windows PC to a Mac (or vice versa). Or use an iPhone or Blackberry? Or maybe you use an Android or Kindle Fire? The fact is that with so many systems, being able to do quick efficient no-fuss file conversions to suit the platform you are on has become an absolute-must. This is why Adapter should be on your shortlist of apps to install on your system. , and it comes in PC and Mac editions. The interface of the PC version I tested is straightforward and intuitive, and adding files is as simple as drag-and-drop with your mouse. There are no long complicated user manuals to memorize, no complicated audio codecs to install, no screen resolutions to remember in advance. Adapter is a good example of software that allows you to just add the source file and click the button to go. The software has numerous different functions. It can handle video (including DVD files and Flash), images (including animated GIFs) and audio (including iPhone ringtones). It can even convert files for games consoles such as the Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Wii. To begin, just choose your format at the top (video, audio, image) then either press the "add" button or drag the file into the main area with your mouse, and drop. Then in the top toolbar, choose the file format you want to convert to, check that the other options are as you want them. You can more or less keep them as they are, with the possible exception of the output directory. I wouldn't recommend fiddling with the default settings unless you know what you are doing. Then press the "start" button and wait for the file to be converted. On the whole, Adapter converts files really fast, unless of course you are converting a huge video file which will take slightly longer. But if you are converting say an MP3 file or a YouTube video, then it doesn't take very long at all.
Buffeted by concerns about the economy and IT spending, tech stocks have gone on a roller coaster ride lately, but on the whole they’ve managed to hang on to gains they made earlier in the quarter. The Nasdaq Computer Index, which tracks more than 390 tech-related stocks on the exchange, was up about 1 percent in midday trading Friday, on a generally up day for markets. That brought it up to its level of a month earlier, after 30 days of ups and downs. The Nasdaq Computer Index is on track to close Friday up about 7 percent for the year. In midday trading, major indexes looked good Friday on news from the U.S. Department of Labor that the U.S. added 175,000 jobs in May. Although the unemployment rate increased slightly to 7.6 percent, market observers looked at the news was looked with favor. The general consensus seems to be that the numbers were good enough to show that businesses are hiring, but not so good that it would cause the U.S. Federal Reserve bank to stop its “quantitative easing” program of buying up securities in order to prop up markets.
A conservative activist has filed a lawsuit against U.S. President Barack Obama, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. National Security Agency after news reports that the NSA has been collecting the phone records of a large number of Verizon Communications customers. A British newspaper ,the Guardian, reported Wednesday that the NSA, with authorization from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, of a large number of Verizon customers. and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation also have access to servers at Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other major providers of Internet services, collecting audio, video, email and other content for surveillance. Some of the companies denied that the NSA and FBI have access to their servers. .
LinkedIn has been busy lately, issuing a number of updates and new features to its platform. Last month, the social network announced the "Professional Portfolio," which lets you like you can on Facebook and Twitter. In the last few weeks, LinkedIn has released more new features: ) Here's what you need to know to take advantage of the new features. "Most Internet accounts that become compromised are illegitimately accessed from a new or unknown computer or device," says Vincente Silveira, director at LinkedIn. "Two-step verification helps address this problem by requiring you to type a numeric code when logging in from an unrecognized device for the first time."
A newly discovered Trojan program exploits previously unknown flaws in Android and borrows techniques from Windows malware in order to evade detection and achieve persistence on infected devices. Security researchers from antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab named the new malicious application Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a and labeled it the most sophisticated Android Trojan program to date. The malware is designed to send SMS messages to premium-rate numbers and allows attackers to execute rogue commands on infected devices by opening a remote shell. Attackers can use the malware to steal any kind of data stored on compromised devices or to download additional malicious applications that can be installed locally or distributed to other devices over Bluetooth. .
Privacy groups and some lawmakers are in an uproar after news reports this week that the U.S. National Security Agency is conducting broad surveillance of the nation’s residents. British newspaper the Guardian reported Thursday that the NSA, with authorization from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, of a large number of Verizon customers. Later that day, the Guardian and the Washington Post and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation also have access to servers at Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other major providers of Internet services, collecting audio, video, email and other content for surveillance. Some of the companies denied that the NSA and FBI have access to their servers. Meanwhile, the that the NSA is also collecting customer records from AT&T, Sprint Nextel and credit-card companies.
"Oh, come on!" my wife cried in exasperation. "Can't these people drive?!" She was sitting at the helm of an 18-wheeler DAF truck carrying a load of construction gear from Zurich to Munich, trying to find the right moment to drive into busy intersection while morning commuters kept driving in, not slowing down to let her enter.I was in my usual spot, the passenger seat, taking notes and occasionally honking the truck's massive air horn to no noticeable effect. Finally, my wife decided to take matters into her own hands, simply driving into the intersection and giving a few commuters a good scare. Nobody was hurt, because this all happened in a computer game. That's the power of a good simulator: the responsibility you're given feels real, but not too scary. And just like real life, simulators are very diverse: Whether you enjoy being a mayor, a space combat pilot, a truck driver, or a civilian pilot, you can find at least one simulator in which to live out your fantasy.
The U.S. government said late Thursday that it is authorized to collect intelligence information of non-U.S. persons located outside the country, in the wake of news reports on the government’s surveillance programs. The two newspaper reports refer to the collection of communications under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is designed “to facilitate the acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning non-U.S. persons located outside the United States,” said James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, in a . The section cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S. person, or anyone located within the country, he added. There are court approved procedures to minimize the acquisition, retention and dissemination of incidentally acquired information about U.S. persons, Clapper said. The U.S. National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation have real-time access to servers of Internet services companies like Google and Facebook to collect content for surveillance, the Washington Post and the Guardian .
Showing off its optical networking prowess, ZTE has completed a test that managed speeds at 400Gbps over a distance of more than 5,000 kilometers, or about 3,100 miles. The growth of data volumes and speeds in both fixed and wireless networks have consequences for all parts of operator networks, including long distance links that are used to connect cities, countries and continents. For users to get the most out their mobile or fiber broadband subscriptions, networks have to keep up. While a growing number of operators are upgrading to 100Gbps-links, vendors such as ZTE are preparing for the next step. The company’s 400Gbps test was conducted on a WDM (Wavelength-Division Multiplexing) system using single-mode fiber, which is what is currently used for data transmissions over long distances, said Magnus Isaksson, ZTE CTO in the Nordic countries. Today, fiber networks use either single-mode or multi-mode cables. The latter allows vendors to build cheaper equipment, but isn’t very good at transporting data over long distances, according to Isaksson.
Die Quelle hinter den jüngsten Enthüllungen über die Internet-Überwachung durch den US-Geheimdienst hat die Anonymität aufgegeben. Die britische Zeitung „Guardian“ gab heute Abend bekannt, dass dahinter der 29-Jährige Techniker Edward Snowden steckt. Er sei die vergangenen vier Jahre als Mitarbeiter anderer Unternehmen in dem US-Geheimdienst NSA tätig gewesen.
Anlässlich der eidgenössischen Volksabstimmung vom 9. Juni 2013 haben zwölf Kantone Versuche mit der elektronischen Stimmabgabe durchgeführt. Diese haben einem Communiqué der Bundeskanzlei zufolge die Anforderungen des Bundes erfüllt und seien erfolgreich verlaufen.
Die USA helfen ihren Verbündeten im Nahen Osten beim Aufbau einer Abwehr gegen die wachsende Zahl iranischer Cyberattacken. Für Asien soll es laut der "New York Times" ähnliche Pläne geben, um nordkoreanische Angreifer in Schach zu halten.
Der Abhörskandal der letzten Tage bringt US-Präsident Barack Obama immer mehr unter Druck. Nicht nur im eigenen Land mehren sich die Stimmen, die eine lückenlose Aufklärung und die von Obama versprochene Transparenz der US-Regierung einfordern. Auch von ausländischen Politikern gibt es immer mehr Kritik.
Mehrere Vertreter iranischer Medien haben gegen die verschärfte Überwachung des Internets vor der Präsidentenwahl am 14. Juni protestiert. „Die Internetüberwachung ist zu einem der grössten Probleme der Medien im Iran geworden“, heisst es in einer Erklärung der Nachrichtenagentur Mehr vom Samstag.
Apple hat die letzte grosse Hürde für sein geplantes Internet-Radio genommen. Als letzter der drei grossen Musikkonzerne ist nun auch Sony mit an Bord.
Der Online-Bezahldienst Paypal hat Kunden irrtümlich per Mails zu einem Gewinn von 500 Euro bei einem Gewinnspiel gratuliert. Die Mitteilung war an viele Tausende Kunden rausgegangen.
Vor der Branchenmesse E3 in der kommenden Woche hat Microsoft nun Details zur Online-Pflicht bei der kommenden Xbox One verraten. Die Konsole braucht alle 24 Stunden Internet-Zugang, damit wirklich ein Spielen möglich ist - sonst ist sie nur noch DVD-Spieler.
Viele Unternehmen landen mit ihren Patenstreitigkeiten vor Gericht. Dass es auch anders gehen kann, zeigen Motorola Mobility und Tivo. Googles Motorola Mobility gab kürzlich bekannt, dass man sich aussergerichtlich mit Tivo, einem US-Hersteller von Set-Top-Boxen, einigen konnte.
Internet-Daten ausspioniert, Telefonate registriert. US-Präsident Barack Obama ist nach Berichten über die massenhafte Datensammlung seiner Regierung massiv in die Kritik geraten. Von völligem Glaubwürdigkeitsverlust ist die Rede.