88645705
submission
JG0LD writes:
Microsoft announced today that it has added support for the Intel-backed Clear Linux distribution in instances for its Azure public cloud platform. It’s the latest in a lengthy string of Linux distributions to become available on the company’s Azure cloud.
88621035
submission
alphadogg writes:
The Free Software Foundation Tuesday announced a major rethinking of the software projects that it supports, putting top priority on a free mobile operating system, accessibility, and driver development, among other areas. The foundation has maintained the High Priority Projects list since 2005, when it contained just four free software projects. Today’s version https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fsf.org%2Fcampaigns%2F... mostly identifies priority areas, along with a few specific projects in key areas
85973983
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alphadogg writes:
Having seen all sorts of makeshift fixes – from post-it notes to bandages to condom wrappers – used to block wireless access point LEDs from beaming and sometimes blinking, some IT shops have begun turning off the lights altogether even though it can make their jobs a little tougher.
85835091
submission
alphadogg writes:
It’s become increasingly common over the past decade or so to see laws being passed to either mandate the use of open-source software or, at the very least, encourage people in government who make procurement decisions to do so. Here’s a map of the status of open-source laws around the world.
84684313
submission
alphadogg writes:
The new documentary about Stuxnet, ‘Zero Days’, says the U.S. had a far larger cyber operation against Iran called Nitro Zeus that has compromised the country’s infrastructure and could be used as a weapon in any future war. Quoting unnamed sources from inside the NSA and CIA, the movie says the Nitro Zeus program has infiltrated the systems controlling communications, power grids, transportation and financial systems, and is still ready to “disrupt, degrade and destroy” that infrastructure if a war should break out with Iran. The movie, by academy award winning director Alex Gibney, opened in U.S. theaters this weekend.
84644661
submission
alphadogg writes:
Researchers are adding bugs to experimental software code in order to ultimately wind up with programs that have fewer vulnerabilities. The idea is to insert a known quantity of vulnerabilities into code, then see how many of them are discovered by bug-finding tools. By analyzing the reasons bugs escape detection, developers can create more effective bug-finders, according to researchers at New York University in collaboration with others from MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and Northeastern University. http://www.ieee-security.org/T... They created large-scale automated vulnerability addition (LAVA), which is a low-cost technique that adds the vulnerabilities.
83042461
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alphadogg writes:
Open source’s march toward preeminence in business software continued over the past year, according to a survey https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackducksoftware.... released by open source management provider Black Duck Software and venture capital firm North Bridge. Roughly two-thirds of respondents to the survey – which was administered online and drew 1,300 respondents – said that their companies encouraged developers to contribute to open-source projects, and a similar proportion said that they were actively engaged in doing so already. That’s a 5% increase from the previous year’s survey.
82896203
submission
alphadogg writes:
Reflecting on the popular musician's uneasy relationship with the Internet and social media upon the 57-year-old surprising death.
82701665
submission
alphadogg writes:
After more than a year of rancor over whether it would hurt Wi-Fi, a technology that lets LTE networks use unlicensed spectrum may have already missed its window of opportunity. LTE-Unlicensed is designed to improve cellular service by tapping into some of the frequencies used by Wi-Fi and other unlicensed technologies. But almost as soon as LTE-U was proposed in late 2014, Wi-Fi supporters pounced. They charged that it would drown out Wi-Fi signals because LTE didn’t know how to make room for other users. Now carriers may be getting ready to bypass LTE-U altogether in favor of another system, called LAA (Licensed Assisted Access), that does the same thing but with additional protections for Wi-Fi. The LAA standard is complete, and products are expected to start shipping later this year.
82532775
submission
alphadogg writes:
Browsing through the latest news releases from ITT Technical Institute you'd never think the for-profit school would be capable of the things that Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey says the state is suing it for. http://www.mass.gov/ago/news-a... The school, which boasts of over 130 locations in 38 states, touts its efforts for women in STEM, its donation of laptops to public schools in Indiana and its record giving for United Way. But AG Healey is suing ITT Tech "for engaging in unfair and harassing sales tactics and misleading students about the quality of its Computer Network Systems program, and the success of the program’s graduates in finding jobs." ITT Educational Services, however, rejected the AG office's claims and lashed out at the office for the manner in which it has brought the suit. ITT's statement reads in part: "The litigation follows the Office's wide-ranging fishing expedition that lasted for more than three years..." If the state wins, the school could be forced to reimburse students for tuition and fees, though ITT says it will defend itself against the charges.
82420987
submission
alphadogg writes:
MIT Media Lab, that 30-year-old tech innovation factory that has had a huge hand in churning out everything from LEGO MindStorms to the Guitar Hero video game, has now wowed the open source and free software crowd. Lab Director Joi Ito over the weekend revealed https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2Fmit-media-l... that MIT Media Lab has changed its approach to software releases to FLOSS (free/libre/open-source software) by default.
82108155
submission
alphadogg writes:
HTTPS is widely considered one of the keys to a safer Internet, but only if it's broadly implemented. Aiming to shed some light on how much progress has been made so far, Google on Tuesday launched a new section of its transparency report dedicated to encryption. Included in the new section is data highlighting the progress of encryption efforts both at Google and on popular third-party sites. "Our aim with this project is to hold ourselves accountable and encourage others to encrypt so we can make the Web even safer for everyone," wrote HTTPS evangelists Rutledge Chin Feman and Tim Willis on the Google Security Blog. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsecurity.googleblog.co...
81885043
submission
alphadogg writes:
A day after announcing it would be bringing SQL Server to Linux, Microsoft has announced that it is joining the Eclipse Foundation, an open source community for developers launched more than 10 years ago. Microsoft, which notes that it has worked with the Eclipse Foundation for years "to improve the Java experience across our portfolio of application platform and development services," https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblogs.msdn.microsoft.c... attending the EclipseCon gathering in Reston, Va., this week.
81694969
submission
alphadogg writes:
Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman, whose names have been linked since their seminal paper introduced the concepts of public key encryption and digital signatures some 40 years ago, have been named winners of the $1M A.M. Turing Award for 2015 (a.k.a., the "Nobel Prize of Computing"). The work of Diffie, formerly chief security officer of Sun Microsystems, and Hellman, professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Stanford University, has had a huge impact on the secure exchange of information across the Internet, the cloud and email.
81554887
submission
alphadogg writes:
Apple’s refusal to help the FBI unlock an iPhone 5c used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino, California attack on Dec. 2 has prompted the Maricopa County attorney’s office in Arizona to ban providing new iPhones to its staff. “Apple’s refusal to cooperate with a legitimate law enforcement investigation to unlock a phone used by terrorists puts Apple on the side of terrorists instead of on the side of public safety,” Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said in a statement Montgomery described as a corporate public relations stunt Apple’s positioning of its refusal to cooperate on privacy grounds. .
