UK kids spend over £10 per week on tech
British children are more likely to be spending their money on technology than on comics and chocolate according to new research by the Halifax bank.
Three-quarters of 8 to 15 year olds have a mobile phone, 65 percent own an MP3 player and 87 percent a games console. Hardly surprising then that they say they spend most of their cash on games and downloads.
IT pacesetters turn to citizen developers to fill skills gaps
The pace of development in IT often means that demand for certain skills outstrips supply. A new study by the IBM Center for Applied Insights shows that enterprises are increasingly turning to "citizen developers" -- industry professionals operating outside enterprise IT -- to fill the gaps and drive innovation.
The survey finds that 40 percent of organizations still report moderate to major skills gaps in areas like cloud, mobile, social and analytics technologies.
Prelert adds Elasticsearch connector to open up big data
Big data analysis can open up valuable insights that are locked up in databases, but releasing that information without access to a team of data scientists isn't easy.
Analytics company Prelert is aiming to make big data accessible and valuable for all businesses with its anomaly detection engine, built using unsupervised machine learning technology. No human intervention is required to set parameters or tell it what to look for, once it's pointed in the right direction it will go to work on massive volumes of streaming data.
CloudPhysics uses big data to help VMware users benchmark their systems
One of the difficulties with using virtual systems is that it's harder to measure performance. Now though data insights specialist CloudPhysics is launching a new Global Insights tool to allow VMware users to continuously benchmark their virtual infrastructure against global metrics.
This is part of enhancements to its SaaS solution which include interactive Daily Insights, that dynamically aggregate and expose operational hazards across the datacenter. The addition of Global Insights analysis across a massive range of data samples enables CloudPhysics users to instantly identify areas for improvement in their own environments, as well as specific actions for achieving better datacenter health, performance and efficiency.
Which is the safest home for your data, LAN or cloud? [Q&A]
Following on from Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA's activity there have been increasing concerns about just how secure our data is, particularly if it's stored in the cloud. Indeed it's reckoned that the cloud industry faces losing billions of dollars in revenue to privacy concerns.
Yet some experts believe that storing data in the cloud is still safer than keeping it in-house. We spoke to Orlando Scott-Cowley, evangelist, strategist and technologist of email management specialist Mimecast to find out why.
SSL vulnerabilities leave Android apps open to attack
If you're an Android user you may already have been tempted to don your tin hat and descend to your bunker following today's earlier story about app hacking. Prepare to settle in for a long seige then as new research reveals that many of the most popular Android apps have SSL vulnerabilities that leave them open to man in the middle (MITM) attacks aimed at stealing personal information.
According to threat protection specialist FireEye a significant proportion of apps allow an attacker to intercept data exchanged between the Android device and a remote server.
Information security spending to grow 8 percent in 2014
Worldwide spending on information security is set to top $71.1 billion this year, up almost 8 percent over 2013, according to forecasts by Gartner. It's also forecast to grow by a similar percentage next year to reach $76.9 billion.
Gartner says increased use of mobile, cloud and social services will drive new security technology through 2016. There's been a democratization of security threats too, driven by the easy availability of malware and infrastructure, via the underground economy, that can be used to launch targeted attacks.
Gmail app hacked with 92 percent success rate
Researchers from the University of California Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering have identified a weakness in Android which allows personal data to be obtained from apps.
Tested against seven popular apps the method was between 82 and 92 percent successful on six of them, only Amazon with a 48 percent success rate proved more difficult to crack. Most vulnerable were Gmail and H&R Block at 92 percent, followed by Newegg (86 percent), WebMD (85 percent), CHASE Bank (83 percent) and Hotels.com (83 percent).
How security breaches have changed the cyber landscape
There's no doubt that security breaches are becoming more common. According to the US Government Accountability Office cyber incidents increased by 782 percent between 2006 and 2012.
But how does this impact the world at large? Security management company SRC Cyber has put together an infographic looking at some of the most infamous occurrences over the last decade and how they've affected the global cyber landscape.
Universities fail to get to grips with cyber security
As thousands of students prepare to return to university over the next few weeks, new research by security ratings company BitSight shows that this is a busy time for hackers too.
The researchers found that Ivy League schools, for example, see a 48 percent increase in the number of malware infections during the academic year from September to May.
Business feud DDoS attack lasts for 38 days
Back in May we reported on Incapsula's packet filtering solution for combating DDoS attacks. Today the company reveals details of how its ‘Behemoth’ system has mitigated a massive multi-vector DDoS attack.
The attack lasted 38 days, during which Incapsula's scrubbing servers filtered out 50+ petabits (51,000+ terabits) of malicious traffic. While the attackers did switch between several targets, they consistently targeted the websites of one Incapsula client -- a video game company.
Smartsheet improves access for mobile users
The spreadsheet carved out its place as an essential business tool right from the earliest days of personal computing. It's often cited as the application which made businesses adopt the PC in the first place. Most businesses are still heavily reliant on them but in an increasingly mobile world a spreadsheet isn’t the easiest thing to access on the move.
With the release of its latest software project management specialist Smartsheet offers iOS users the ability to easily view and update projects with massive grids of data from their iOS devices. It's also updated Smartsheet for Android, which now features an interactive Gantt chart and the ability to attach files from Google Drive or Dropbox from any Android device, including the new Amazon Fire Phone.
Microsoft detects fall in fake antivirus traffic
Rogue security programs that try to trick the user into paying to remove a false virus detection have been around for a while, the earliest dating back to 2007. The software is clever, using different names and brands to cover its tracks, and clearly their perpetrators make money.
Now though researchers at Microsoft's Malware Protection Center are reporting a downward trend in the traffic generated by some of the most popular rogues over the past 12 months.
FileCruiser delivers private cloud storage for business
The move towards BYOD in business is bringing a number of new challenges. Not least of these is how to safely and easily share data across a number of devices.
Public clouds provide a tempting option but there are risks in terms of security and control. Now storage company PROMISE Technology is addressing these concerns with a new product called FileCruiser which allows enterprises to build an on-premise cloud. This means admins can manage the entire system, including hardware and software configuration, eliminating the security concerns of storing confidential data on public services.
Symantec sets out plans to simplify its Norton range
We all know it's important to keep our PCs safe from online threats, but the range of options available to do that -- even from just one developer -- can be bewildering.
Symantec has recognized this problem and has announced that from this fall it will streamline its nine existing security offerings into just one flagship Norton Security product.
Ian's Bio
Ian spent almost 20 years working with computers before he discovered that writing about them was easier than fixing them. Since then he's written for a number of computer magazines and is a former editor of PC Utilities. Follow him on Mastodon
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