Author Archives: Jason
iPad 3 Release and the Growing Mobility Trend
How can IT managers take advantage of the chaos which has become prevalent through the emergence of tablets and smart phones. At the ‘Consumerization of IT’ conference Dion Hinchcliffe, Executive Vice President of strategy at Dachis Group stated, “we’re only 20% away from most IT being outside the control of the IT department.” This is a daunting statistic indeed for any IT department. However as Hinchcliffe later pointed out if …
The Cloud As An Evolving Model
Laurianne McLaughlin, editor in chief of US publication Information Week, highlighted this month the issue of journalists writing headlines about moving to the cloud. McLaughlin insisted that you do not move to the cloud because the cloud is not a place in computing terms, ‘it is an operational model (with many variations) that you adopt—and then continue to adapt.’ Her point of view is exactly right and McLaughlin supported this …
DARPA Increase Budget to Improve Internet Security
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was heavily involved in creating the internet and now they are stepping up their efforts to help improve internet security. At its Colloquium on Future Directions in Cyber Security, Dugan declared that the agency has steadily increased its cyber research and that the agency is set to increase its funding once again in 2012. Its budget submission for 2012 will increase cyber research …
Free Wi-Fi Service Now Available In Central London
Nokia have switched on a trial of a free wi-fi service which will cover key shopping areas in central London. The trial is set the last until the end of this year and will then go under review to deem whether it has been a success or not. Nokia has set up 26 hot spot areas around central London which will support the wi-fi service. The areas that are being …
Japanese Defence Contractor Reveals Possible Data Loss
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the largest defence supplier of jet and nuclear power plant information has now backtracked on previous statements and revealed that there is a possibility that that some data may have been stolen. A company spokesman revealed that there is a “Possibility of some data leakage.” The initial breach occurred in August when hackers infiltrated the company’s network and planted malware. When the company publicised information about the …
Facebook’s Bug Bounty
A new reward scheme issued by Facebook had only been running three weeks yet has already shelled out $40,000 worth of gratitude to researchers which have established bugs within their code. Work is carried out alongside Facebook’s in-house team which work full time to identify flaws in their code. The minimum a person can be rewarded is $500 however their has been reports of people receiving up to $5,000 for …
Germany Grumbles at Facebook’s Facial Recognition
Concerns have been expressed in Germany that Facebook are in violation of European privacy laws by implementing their facial recognition feature. Hamburg’s data protection official Johannes Casper has written to Facebook to demand it stops running facial recognition software on German users and deletes any related data. Facebook came under heavy criticism in June when they introduced the feature to over 500 million users bringing them to apologise for the …
Portable devices pose biggest risk to data security in 2011
A UK think tank has concluded that the prevalence of portable storage devices and mobile phones will be the biggest headache for those who want to protect data and ensure total system security over the coming 12 months. The Digital Systems Knowledge Transfer Network has made this announcement, with director, Tony Dyhouse, saying that devices capable of storing data in a portable form factor, will allow cybercriminals the opportunity to …
Portable storage and mobile device management lacking in UK businesses
Figures show that UK firms are less well equipped to protect the data stored on mobile devices and portable storage solutions than their European counterparts. A study carried out by Absolute Software found that 65 per cent of IT managers working in the UK do not have any way of identifying where the mobile devices owned and operated by their business are located at a given point in time. This …
McDonalds customers exposed after security breach at mail provider
Data relating to customers of the McDonald’s fast food franchise has been leaked, after a failure of the security at the company which provides the email service to the firm. The data in question was gathered by McDonald’s from its website and was subsequently accessed illicitly by a third party, according to a statement from the company. The data included the names, addresses, contact numbers, genders and D.O.Bs of many …
