Enterprise, Workstation, Data Center, Cloud, Networking, Software News And Reviews
In-depth product reviews and news of enterprise, workstation, networking, cloud, SMB, data center and software products and services.
Our innocence lost, we now know that the National Security Agency (NSA) effectively strong arms technology companies far and wide into dishing out our personal information. It's a bum rap, and it may make you think twice about firing off that email to a friend or family member criticizing one of the government's...
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As soon as Google announced its Glass digital eyewear, the world went nuts with speculation; pros and cons simply flooded the Web. Since then, a lot of people have been left without a solid conclusion, no doubt thanks to the number of walls Glass has hit. We've learned of bars that have banned the device from being...
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For all the ire the NSA’s spying practices have fomented among users and Internet companies alike, the revelations are prompting some positive changes. For Gmail users, those changes are coming in the form of better encryption on Google’s part. Although it’s been the default option since 2010, Google...
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Google's known for a lot of things, but where privacy's concerned, those things are not too kosher for a lot of people. In fact, Google mines so much data on us - sometimes even if we're nameless - that some would rather avoid anything that has to do with the company. Of course, pulling that off is easier said than...
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Here's something you're probably aware of: privacy is a major issue, and it's becoming bigger by the day. Just this week, Kickstarter's servers were infiltrated, just months after Target suffered one of the world's most serious data exploits. Companies are flowing out of the blue with a myriad methods to solve all of...
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Google’s quest to purchase Nest, maker of smart, connected thermostats and smoke detectors, is complete. The search giant’s $3.2 acquisition has been approved, per a Google regulatory filing. The move brings Nest and all of its human resources, most notably former Apple senior VP Tony Fadell, under the...
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Last summer, and not too long after Edward Snowden exposed the extent of NSA's spying tactics, The Guardian newspaper in the UK was forced to destroy all of the data that had been provided to it. At the time, I don't remember this news gaining much traction, but it's an important blip on the timeline to note. No...
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Google is putting up a ton of cash for the taking as part of this year's Pwnium hacking competition at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver in March. More than $2.7 million is up for grabs, which will be doled out in chunks to hackers who discover security vulnerabilities in Google's Chrome operating...
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When the NSA forced several major tech companies including Facebook, Google, and Yahoo to cough up data on their users, one got the sense that it was a situation of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. The first round of that battle went to the NSA because it had (some shadily-acquired) court documents...
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You can make a fair bit of coin diving into code and rooting out vulnerabilities. In some instances, Microsoft will pay up to $100,000 for a single bug report, and Google's Vulnerability Reward Program routinely pays out thousands of dollars. It's a win-win situation, except when dealing with services that have only a...
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Solutions that enable access to remote devices for security purposes are far from uncommon, but what is uncommon is having the functionality built right into the device, and especially with a solution that's simple to take advantage of. With a recent update to its Android Device Manager, Google has added the ability to remote lock, and remote...
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If you’ve been avoiding signing up for Google’s two-token authentication system because you thought the inconvenience outweighed the extra security for your Google account, you’re probably feeling pretty smug about now. An update today for the Google Authenticator iPhone app wiped out user data for...
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Cyber criminals are always on the hunt for ways to disrupt your digital life, and with mobile devices playing an increasingly important role in our day-to-day operations, you can bet they'll be paying attention to your tablet and smartphone. Speaking to the latter, a German security guru discovered a frightening flaw...
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In a perfect online world, we'd all sing, "A surfing we will go, a surfing we will go, heigh-ho the derry-o, a surfing we will go," and off we'd go without fear of malware or malicious links or any of the other cruft that litters the web. Unfortunately, reality is far removed from most nursery rhymes, and the web is a...
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In an effort to offer Internet users some transparency and to deflect negative attention from recent revelations that big companies have been sharing user data with the government via the National Security Agency's (NSA) PRISM program, Google is seeking permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to...
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In the wake of the Washington Post leaks, there's been a great deal of discussion over how, exactly, companies like Google share data with the government. The original report implied that the NSA has direct datacenter access and either grabs the information directly from Google or was copying and analyzing...
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Google security researchers learn about exploits and zero-day vulnerabilities in third-party software all the time, and for years the company has immediately notified the affected vendors about the issues, worked with them closely to fix the problems, and both notified the public within 60 days of discovering the vulnerabilities and also encouraged...
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We don’t talk much about drones around here, but it’s certainly worth mentioning when Google chairman Eric Schmidt takes on the topic. In an interview with the Guardian (which was picked up by the BBC), Schmidt spoke about the need for regulation regarding civilian drone technology. "How would you feel if...
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It's clear that where security's concerned, Google is on top of things. The company has no desire to be compromised, or have its users compromised, and so it's doing a variety of things to make sure incidents are kept to a minimum. Last fall, we learned of Google's app scanner utility - included in Android 4.2+ -...
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Privacy advocates aren't going to like this revelation one bit, but it's come to light that Google Play isn't keeping your personally identifiable information as sacred as you might think. Every time you download an app, your private information is sent to the app's developer, including your full name, email address...
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Google’s Eric Schmidt has written a book in collaboration with fellow Googler Jared Cohen called The New Digital Age, and the Wall Street Journal has been reviewing it and pulled out some interesting bits to share. One of the prevailing themes of the work is that Schmidt sees China as an increasingly major...
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On Wednesday, GitHub expanded and improved its search feature to make it easier to locate code stashed on the site by live-indexing newly uploaded code. In theory, it sounds like a nice improvement on the site’s ability to deliver results to those looking for certain code or developers, but it appears that the...
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