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Post by Admin on May 7, 2014 8:07:41 GMT -9
AND ONLY BECAUSE MALWAREBYTES IS WINNING:
Strategy Symantec Exec Declares Antivirus Software 'Dead' By Brian T. Horowitz | May 7, 2014 | 0 Comments
Symantec Symantec introduced new managed security services as it looks beyond antivirus software.
The Consumer IT Revolution
Known for its antivirus software, Symantec suggests its focus will have to be on other types of security technologies, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Antivirus software "is dead," Brian Dye, Symantec's senior vice president for information security, told the newspaper. "We don't think of antivirus as a moneymaker in any way."
Instead, Dye is leading an effort to reinvent Symantec, he said. the company is building response teams to help companies that have been hacked, the Journal reported. These services will include intelligence briefings on threats that clients face. The company will also develop technology to fight malicious software affecting networks.
Security companies face new kinds of threats these days, including Heartbleed, a bug in the open-source OpenSSL cryptography library that created panic across the Internet.
A major data breach at retailer Target also caused a stir when the names, addressed and phone numbers of about 70 million people, including 40 million credit and debit card numbers were compromised. The incident led to the exit of the company’s CEO, Gregg Steinhafel, and CIO, Beth Jacob.
On May 5 Symantec introduced its Managed Security and Advanced Threat services as part of its new strategy toward security products.
Rather than just local software, IT managers need to target multiple control points “from the gateway to email to the endpoint,” Steinhafel said in a statement.
“Organizations need security across these control points working together, with incident response capabilities and global information intelligence, to beat the bad guys,” he said. “Symantec is bringing that powerful arsenal to market.”
Available in June, Managed Security Services — Advanced Threat Protection (MSS-ATP) lets companies integrate endpoint security and third-party network security applications. By providing this integration, enterprises can reduce the amount of time required to detect, prioritize and respond to security crises, Symantec reported.
Symantec also plans to introduce a new incident response service within the next six months.
The company’s new Advanced Threat Protection platform is in beta tests and will be available within a year. It increases threat detection across endpoints, email and gateway to let users detect and response to threats.
Symantec will post its earnings on Thursday, May 8 and forecasts revenue of $1.62 billion to $1.66 billion for the quarter ending March 2014, a drop of more than 5 percent from the year-ago quarter, the Journal reported.
On March 20 Symantec dismissed its CEO, Steve Bennett, and replaced him with board member Michael Brown.
“This considered decision was the result of an ongoing deliberative process, and not precipitated by any event or impropriety,” Daniel Schulman, Symantec's board chairman, said in a statement.
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Post by Admin on May 12, 2014 6:54:50 GMT -9
Tick, tock: Windows 8.1 users face patch ban as Microsoft sets next week's updates Microsoft plans to deliver eight security updates on May 13 for IE, Windows, Office and SharePoint; four are slated for Windows 8.1
By Gregg Keizer May 8, 2014 04:22 PM ET 36 CommentsinShare27 Computerworld - Microsoft today said it will issue eight security updates to customers next week that will include fixes for flaws in Internet Explorer (IE), Windows, Office and SharePoint.
Four of the bulletins, including the one targeting IE, affect Windows 8.1, the fall 2013 refresh of Windows 8. However, to receive those four updates, users of Windows 8.1 must have upgraded to Windows 8.1 Update, which Microsoft released just last month.
Of the eight updates, two were tagged "critical," Microsoft's most serious threat rating, and the remaining six were marked "important," the next step down in the firm's four-part scoring system.
May's collection of updates is the largest so far this year: Microsoft issued four updates each in January and April, five each in February and March.
"It's in the range," said Andrew Storms, director of DevOps at CloudPassage, today. "It's not like this is a giant update."
Storms recommended that users apply the IE update as soon as possible. Marked critical, the update will patch one or more vulnerabilities in all still-supported versions of the browser, including IE6, IE7, IE8, IE9, IE10 and IE11, according to Thursday's advance notification of next week's slate.
Although IE6 was retired last month for users of Windows XP, it still receives patches when deployed on Windows Server 2003. The latter does not exit support until July 2015.
No patches will be offered to Windows XP PCs next week, in fitting with Microsoft's standard support lifecycle policy. XP was retired last month, although Microsoft made an exception May 1 when it pushed a single IE patch to the 13-year-old OS, a move that caught most by surprise. At the time, it explained that it gave the IE fix to XP customers because the latter had been retired so recently.
Apparently, a week is the difference between patching and not patching XP.
"Microsoft will include the 'out-of-band' from last week in this month's IE update," said Storms, using the term for the emergency patch Microsoft shipped May 1. "But it wouldn't hurt to double-check."
The other critical update, named "Bulletin 2" in the advanced notice, will apply to SharePoint Server 2007, 2010 and 2013. SharePoint Server has been patched twice already this year -- in both January and April -- as well as in December 2013.
"SharePoint is one of those critical back-end office servers, in the same bucket as Exchange and SQL Server," said Storms. "So it will be important to move gingerly and important to test properly before deploying it."
Storms also remarked on the frequency that SharePoint has been patched. "They've been patching it more than other servers," he said. In 2013, Microsoft issued eight updates for SharePoint Server; in comparison, Exchange Server, Microsoft's email server software, received four updates during the year.
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Post by Admin on May 16, 2014 7:32:29 GMT -9
Adobe Creative Cloud Crashes, Is Restored Adobe says day-long log-in snafu blocked access to cloud-based home for Flash, Illustrator, Photoshop, and other creative tools. If you can't log onto a cloud-based application, is it still really there?
That's the conundrum many of the 1.84 million paid Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers faced on Wednesday night into Thursday as they found they could not log into the cloud-based home for Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, Muse, Photoshop, and other Adobe creative tools.
Adobe reported via Twitter last night at around 6:00 p.m. Pacific time that access to its Creative Cloud, which was inaccessible for more than 24 hours, had been restored. In a blog posted Thursday night, Adobe's Customer Care Team described the cause of the log-in problem and apologized for the lapse in service.
"The failure happened during database maintenance activity and affected services that require users to log in with an Adobe ID," stated the blog. "We want to apologize for this outage because we know how critical our services are to you and how disruptive it's been to those of you who felt the impact."
Adobe has been trying to shift customers from desktop-installed software to Creative Cloud services since 2012. Subscription prices vary from $30 to $75 per month, with discounts for a full-year commitment.
The Creative Cloud is one of two big cloud initiatives for the company, the other being the Adobe Marketing Cloud. This week the company highlighted the synergies between the two clouds as it announced Marketing Cloud upgrades at Adobe Summit EMEA 2014 in London.
Noting the "thousands if not millions" of creative marketing assets that enterprises deliver through marketing and advertising campaigns, not to mention websites, packaging, and more, Suresh Vittal, VP of marketing strategy for Adobe's Digital Marketing Business, told InformationWeek in a phone interview that ties between Adobe's Creative and Marketing clouds "ensure consistency in marketing and for the brand in general."
In contrast to the Creative Cloud, which is a collection of applications with desktop roots, the Digital Marketing Cloud has been built up over the last five years around Omniture, the web analytics business Adobe acquired for $1.8 billion in 2009.
Whether you call it a cloud outage or log-in issue, the bottom line of this week's incident is that more than 1 million illustrators, photographers, designers, developers, and other creative types were potentially unable to do their jobs.
"We know we let you down," Tweeted the customer care team. "We apologize and are working to ensure it doesn't happen again."
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Post by Admin on May 19, 2014 8:27:47 GMT -9
U.S. Malware Probe Yields Dozens of Arrests Worldwide (2) By Bob Van Voris and Patricia Hurtado May 19, 2014 Law enforcement officials in more than a dozen countries arrested scores of individuals as part of a U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation crackdown on the makers and purveyors of malicious computer software called the Blackshades Remote Access tool.
The government today unsealed charges against five people, including Alex Yucel, alleged to be the owner and operator of the Blackshades website and co-creator of the malware, which allowed users to secretly gain access to victims’ computers. The remote access tool, or RAT, gives users access to computer files and allows them to steal passwords and even activate victims’ web cameras to spy on them, according to the charges.
“Deciding between a RAT, a host booter, or controlling a botnet has never been easier,” one online ad for the Blackshades RAT cited by the FBI said, discussing several types of malware. “With Blackshades … you get the best of all three - - all in one with an easy to use, nice looking interface.”
STORY: Fighting Cyberthreats With FireEye The Blackshades RAT, which cost $40, was purchased by thousands of users in more than 100 countries, according to a criminal complaint. The RAT was used to infect more than 500,000 computers worldwide, the government said.
German officials raided 111 sites in the Blackshades investigation, the Frankfurt general prosecutors’ office said in a statement today. There were 67 raids in France, 38 in Belgium, 34 in the Netherlands, 27 in Finland, 14 in Canada, 10 in both Denmark and the U.S., and six in the U.K., according to the statement.
‘Operation Cardshop’
An undercover FBI agent got a copy of the RAT from its co-creator, who was arrested in 2012 in Arizona in a probe called “Operation Cardshop.” The co-creator, William Hogue, pleaded guilty to two counts of computer hacking, the U.S. said. He’s cooperating with the government investigation in hopes of leniency when he’s sentenced, an FBI agent said in court papers.
STORY: Hackers Devise Wireless Methods for Stealing ATM Users' PINs The FBI investigation also included physical search warrants, more than 100 e-mail search warrants, the search of a computer server controlled by Blackshades and the seizure of more than 1,900 Internet domain names used by buyers of the RAT to control victims’ computers.
“The charges unsealed today showcase the top to bottom approach the FBI takes to its cases,” George Venizelos, FBI assistant director, said in an e-mail. “We tackled this malware starting with those that put it in the hands of the users -- the creators -- and those who helped make it readily available -- the administrators.”
Yucel is charged with five crimes, including conspiracy, distribution of malicious software, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was arrested in Moldova in November, according to Jerika Richardson, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan. He remains in custody there awaiting extradition.
Bharara has scheduled a press conference for later today.
The Yucel case is U.S. v. Yucel, 13-cr-00834, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporters on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at
pathurtado@bloomberg.net; Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net
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Post by Admin on May 21, 2014 8:03:47 GMT -9
Troy Wolverton: Samsung sees tablets' future in business BY TROY WOLVERTON San Jose Mercury NewsMay 21, 2014 Updated 25 minutes ag0 Count Samsung among the manufacturers pushing tablets in that direction. It recently released the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2, which includes a suite of features designed to appeal to businesses and office workers. The innovations are intriguing, but too often they come across as incomplete or half-baked. The "12.2" in the Note Pro's name stands for the size, in inches, of its screen, which is also the first thing you notice about it. The display is about the same size you'd find on an average notebook computer and is nearly 50% larger than that of Apple's iPad Air. There are obvious trade-offs that come with the larger screen. Samsung's gadget is about 50% heavier than the Air. It doesn't fit easily inside the average purse, and it's awkward to hold with one hand. But there are definite benefits, too. The larger screen makes it easier to view documents as you write or edit them, and gives you a more immersive experience when watching videos. A larger device also provides room for longer-lasting battery. Samsung says the Galaxy Note Pro should last up to about 13 hours on a charge with active use, compared to about 10 hours for the iPad Air. One way Samsung has tried to take advantage of the large screen is by allowing users to display multiple applications at the same time. In fact, it provides users two methods to do this. Users can divide the screen into as many as four areas with a single app visible in each one. This method resembles the Snap feature in Windows 8. The other method looks a lot like what you can do on a typical PC -- apps run in resizable windows that you can stack on top of one another or move around. The ability to view multiple apps at the same time goes a long way toward making a tablet a more capable office device. You can switch from one application to another without having to go back to a home screen or to a "open applications" area. And you can simply drag and drop text, picture or graphics from one application to another, something you can't do on an iPad. But the multitasking features on the Galaxy Note Pro feel a bit rough. They only work with a handful of applications that have been customized to run in windows. For example, you can split your screen between the Facebook and Twitter apps, but LinkedIn and Google Plus can only run full-screen. And the two different multitasking methods feel disconnected. There's no direct way, for example, to turn a windowed application into a split-screen one or vice versa. Once an app is running full screen, there's no way to shrink into a windowed application. And you can't close a minimized application without opening it back up again. Another business feature Samsung has included with the Galaxy Note Pro is a productivity suite from a company called Hancom. It includes a word processor, a spreadsheet program and a presentation application, all of which work like, and are largely compatible with, Microsoft's Office. Indeed, the only Office document the Hancom apps had trouble displaying in my tests was a Word file with an extraordinarily complicated layout. The Hancom programs work mostly well. You can attach a wireless keyboard and mouse to the Galaxy Note Pro and use the suite much as you would Office on a notebook or desktop computer. The suite did have a few bugs and shortcomings, though. The word processing app crashed on me a couple of times and wouldn't allow me, when I had it in split-screen mode, to drag a picture into it from the tablet's gallery app. Also, there's no way to open files from cloud storage services such as Dropbox from within the Hancom apps. Instead, you have to open the files from the cloud storage apps. Samsung has included a few other business-type applications on the Galaxy Note Pro, most notably one called e-Meeting. The app allows users in the same conference room to view, annotate and edit the same electronic document. It's a way of guaranteeing that everyone in a meeting is on the same page, literally. Unfortunately, the app only works on certain Samsung tablets; you can't view the same document if you've got an iPad, a Windows machine, another Android tablet or even a Samsung Galaxy phone. And you have to be on the same Wi-Fi network to share the app; if you happen to be a remote worker, you'll be left out. The Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 offers a glimpse at how tablets are evolving into business machines. Unfortunately, it also shows how that transformation is still a work in progress. Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 • Likes: Large, super high-resolution screen; Office-compatible productivity suite; ability to display multiple apps at once; long battery life; fast processor. • Dislikes: Relatively heavy and bulky; productivity suite isn't well integrated with cloud storage services; multitasking features only work with a handful of apps; e-Meeting feature only works with certain Samsung tablets. • Specs: 8-core processor; 12.2-inch, 2560 x 1600 pixel screen; 2-megapixel front and 8-megapixel rear cameras. • Price: For Wi-Fi only models, $650 for 32-gigabyte and $750 for 64-gigabyte versions. For 32-gigabyte Verizon LTE version, $750 with two-year contract. Read more here: www.fresnobee.com/2014/05/21/3936743/troy-wolverton-samsung-sees-tablets.html?sp=/99/170/#storylink=cpy
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Post by Admin on May 27, 2014 7:57:08 GMT -9
Iran court summons Facebook's Zuckerberg over privacy May 27, 2014 07:43 PM Agence France Presse TEHRAN: An Iranian judge has summoned Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to answer allegations that his company's apps have breached people's privacy, it was reported Tuesday.
In a case that underscores the gulf between Iranian moderates, who seek fewer Internet restrictions, and conservatives who want more, the Silicon Valley leader has been dubbed the "Zionist manager" of Facebook, on account of his Jewish heritage.
The court in Fars province ordered that Zuckerberg address unspecified "violation of privacy" claims made by Iranians over the reach of Facebook-owned apps, ISNA news agency reported.
Access to social networks, including Twitter and Facebook, are routinely blocked by Iranian authorities, as are other websites considered un-Islamic or detrimental to the regime.
"Based on the judge's verdict, the Zionist manager of Facebook... should report to the prosecutor's office to defend himself and make compensation for damages," Rouhollah Momen-Nasab, a senior Iranian Internet security official, told ISNA.
"Following a complaint lodged by some of our fellow countrymen over the violation of their privacy and problems ensuing from WhatsApp and Instagram, the judiciary official has ordered a ban on these two software devices," he said.
Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp.
The report did not say what violations of privacy are alleged to have occurred.
President Hassan Rouhani, a self-declared moderate, has promised greater tolerance on social, cultural and media issues -- a vow that helped him defeat conservatives in last year's election.
But his fledgling push has been opposed by traditionalists and ultra-conservatives that hold sway in the establishment and key institutions.
Officials have voiced support for lifting the wider ban on social media, with some of them having Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Rouhani earlier this month vetoed a plan to ban WhatsApp, preventing implementation of curbs sought by Iran's Committee for Determining Criminal Web Content.
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Post by Admin on May 28, 2014 6:44:40 GMT -9
Apple's Find My iPhone Used to Hold Devices Hostage By Marshall Honorof MAY 27, 2014 9:40 AM - Source: Tom's Guide US
Find My iPhone is a potentially very helpful iOS feature that does exactly what it sounds like, but in the wrong hands, it can do more harm than good. A slew of unlucky iPhone and iPad owners, mainly in Australia but including a few in North America and Europe, have found their devices remotely locked and held for ransom by at least one unsavory scammer.
The information comes by way of the official Apple Support Communities forums, where a number of users described the same phenomenon. Upon attempting to use their iPhones, they discovered that the devices were locked. Even a locked device can receive certain messages, though, and this message demands a $100 payment via PayPal to a Hotmail address in order to unlock the phone again.
MORE: 13 Security and Privacy Tips for the Truly Paranoid
While Find My iPhone/Find My iPad is a useful system, it's still ripe for exploitation. When a user loses his or her Apple phone or tablet, he or she can then go online and activate the Find My iPhone protocol. By entering an iCloud username and password, a user can then track an iPhone's location, lock its screen or send a message to whomever may have found it.
This feature is useful if you've left your iPhone at a bar and want to display a message for other patrons to call your landline. It can be devastating if someone gets his or her hands on your login information and decides to hold your phone for ransom.
One user, "veritylikestea" from Melbourne, Australia, described her experience as follows: A user named "Oleg Pliss" locked her iPad remotely (the scam works on any modern iDevice), and told her that he would restore functionality for $100 USD or €100 ($136.46). Interestingly, Oleg Pliss is the name of an actual software engineer in California, but it's inconceivable that the real person would ransom iPhones or use shady Hotmail addresses to do so.
If this happens to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, it means someone has gotten his or her hands on your Apple username and password and logged into your iCloud account. You need to change your Apple password as soon as possible, and also change it on any other online account on which you registered with the same email address and password.
After that, you'll need to get control over your iPhone back (don't even think about paying the ransom; there's no reason to believe that a scammer would honor the agreement). You could try bypassing the lock screen, as described on the Apple support website. If that doesn't work, you'll have to factory-reset the device.
Instead of attempting to factory-reset the device via iTunes (since a scammer who has your Apple username and password could interrupt this process), perform a hard reset. Shut down the phone, then hold the Home and power button simultaneously until the Apple logo appears. From there, access Settings, General and Reset. Choose Erase All Content and Settings. Now restart the phone, sign in with your revised iTunes login information, and you're good to go.
In order to ensure that this doesn't happen again, be sure to pre-emptively lock your iPhone with either a PIN or a password. Doing so ensures that only the most dedicated hackers can get into your system. You can also activate two-step verification to further secure your device — although a dedicated hacker could also use this functionality against you in much the same way as Find My iPhone.
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Post by Admin on Jun 11, 2014 8:08:36 GMT -9
OK, we've moved our shop, but we are back to work now!!! Here's the first installment of Tech News for you!!
The latest update for SwiftKey has arrived in the Play Store. And while SwiftKey seems to get updates on a fairly regular basis -- this is one that will likely attract a bit more attention than usual. Simply put, SwiftKey is now available for free.
The folks at SwiftKey have dropped the price, but they are also not forgetting those who had been a paid user. Details from the SwiftKey blog mention how they wanted to thank the paid users and for that, they are offering a "Premier Pack" of themes. This pack includes 10 new themes, and will otherwise be selling for $4.99.
This brings the next major feature with this update -- the SwiftKey Store. Users will be able to purchase keyboard customizations from the store. At present the store is said to have more than 30 new themes -- some of which are free and some of which are paid (premium). There was also a promise of how the store will be regularly refreshed.
Keeping with the topic of themes and we come to the next change. SwiftKey has a new default theme. This one is called Nickel, and is based on the original Cobalt theme. Of course, you can easilychange the theme should Nickel be something you don't want to look at.
Otherwise, this update has emoji (more than 800 available) as well as emoji prediction, an optional number row, improved prediction engine, new languages and improved flow trails.
SwiftKey is available for download from the Google Play Store.
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Post by Admin on Jun 16, 2014 8:13:07 GMT -9
Windows 7 Users Get Their Own Windows Update Snub Jun 16, 2014 Rod Trent
Just coming to light after last week's Patch Tuesday is an issue that you will find very familiar, and somewhat frustrating.
In April of this year, Microsoft made it very clear that Windows 8.1 users that could not apply Update 1 (KB2919355) in a specified time frame would be disallowed from receiving any future security updates. They pushed the deadline by a couple months due to several issues created by the Update, but then held firm for June. The real result is that Windows 8.x's entire versioning structure has been revealed as one of the most confusing versioning attempts in Microsoft's history of operating systems. The bottom line, though, is that customers must be running either Windows 8 (original release) or Windows 8.1 with Update 1 to receive any further security updates.
Forward to June. On June 10 (Patch Tuesday) Microsoft included a statement in a KB article (KB2957689) that could be missed just by blinking at the wrong moment while scrolling the page. The statement reiterates Microsoft's stance on future updates for Windows 8.x, but also now includes a similar decision on those using Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7.
It reads:
Important note for Internet Explorer 11 systems: This update applies only to computers that are running Internet Explorer 11 and that do have update 2919355 (for Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2) or update 2929437 (for Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1) installed. All future security and nonsecurity updates for Internet Explorer 11 require you to have update 2919355 or update 2929437 installed in order to receive updates. We recommend that you install update 2919355 or update 2929437 in order to continue to receive updates.
Update 2929437 is specific to Windows 7 users running Internet Explorer 11 and was released on April 8, 2014, the same day as the update for Windows 8.1. Why did it take so long for Microsoft to make this decision known?
Just like the Windows 8.1 Update 1 scenario, this issue, of course, only affects those using Windows Update for patching, or those generally considered consumers. Companies and others that use WSUS, Windows Intune, or System Center Configuration Manager to provide centralized patching have a reprieve from the issue until August.
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Post by Admin on Jun 17, 2014 8:11:20 GMT -9
Dems' plan would force FCC to ban Internet fast lanes The ban would only affect bandwidth between ISPs and consumers
By Lucas Mearian June 17, 2014 11:34 AM ET
Computerworld - Democrats in Congress today unveiled a proposal that would force the Federal Communications Commission to create rules banning Internet service providers from offering more bandwidth to content providers that pay more.
The proposed bill -- the Online Competition and Consumer Choice Act -- was put forth by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.). The legislation would prohibit so-called "fast lanes," which have been a point of contention since the FCC announced it was considering rules that would allow tiered levels of Internet bandwidth for media providers such as Netflix.
Under the guidance of Chairman Tom Wheeler, the FCC voted last month to establish new net neutrality rules allowing paid prioritization of Internet traffic. At the same time, the FCC opened up a public comment period during which the opposition was widespread.
"Americans are speaking loud and clear," Leahy told the Washington Post. "They want an Internet that is a platform for free expression and innovation, where the best ideas and services can reach consumers based on merit rather than based on a financial relationship with a broadband provider."
Dems' plan would force FCC to ban Internet fast lanes
In a statement, Matsui added: "A free and open Internet is essential for consumers, and to encourage innovation and competition in the Internet ecosystem. Our country cannot afford 'pay-for-play' schemes that divide our Internet into tiers based on who has the deepest pockets. The Online Competition and Consumer Choice Act will ban paid prioritization and ensure fair competition and consumer choices online. This is essential to the growth of our economy, and the health of our democracy."
The ban on fast lanes would affect only the connections between ISPs and consumers, and not ISPs and media providers, but it would effectively eliminate the ability to throttle Internet bandwidth.
Wheeler has said the new rules would preserve net neutrality and wouldn't harm consumers because the FCC wouldn't allow ISPs to slow user connections.
Matt Davis, an IDC broadband analyst, said the FCC's proposed rules allowing bandwidth throttling doesn't affect net neutrality.
"Net neutrality was really focused on the last mile," Davis said, referring to the connection between ISPs and consumers. "Where congestion is happening in the network for Comcast or Verizon is really a peering relationship deeper in the network that doesn't involved the last mile.
"It's like saying your wireless LAN has congestion and then blaming it on broadband providers. It's a different part of the network," he added.
Davis said ISPs aren't necessarily deserving of the bad rap they've been getting in the press and blogosphere, when what they're attempting to do is offer more bandwidth as streaming video traffic has increased dramatically over the past two years.
According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, which analyzes the growth and use of IP networks worldwide, online video is the fastest growing residential service, with a 9.7% annual growth rate expected through 2018.
Video on demand will be the fastest-growing digital television service, with the number of subscribers increasing from 306 million today to 451 million by 2018, according to Cisco.
"ISPs are saying [to content providers], if you want us to increase bandwidth, at what point do we get paid to increase it?" Davis said.
Next month, Leahy plans to hold a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on net neutrality to examine the impact of open Internet rules on competition and consumers.
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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2014 7:37:20 GMT -9
What Amazon’s ‘Fire Phone’ means — and why it could be a real contender What Amazon’s ‘Fire Phone’ means — and why it could be a real contender Above: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is looking at something pretty amazing. Image Credit: James Duncan Davidson/Flickr June 18, 2014 6:37 AM Dylan Tweney
Amazon will most likely unveil its long-awaited smartphone at 10:30 Pacific time this morning.
Let’s call it the Fire Phone for now. We’ll know soon enough.
We’ll also know plenty about its actual features, and whether that 3D interface that everyone is talking about is really “all that.” So I’m not going to delve into that too much — my colleague Mark Sullivan has a good roundup of what to expect from Amazon’s smartphone.
What I want to talk about is Amazon itself. Why does a company that started as a bookseller, evolved into an e-commerce giant, and has seen some success selling Android tablets think that it can take on the ruthless market of smartphones?
I explain my take on the Amazon phone in this quick appearance on Fox Business’s Opening Bell, with Maria Bartiromo.
Isn’t it a big leap from e-books and tablets to smartphones?
Well, yes. But for a lot of reasons, Amazon is in a good position to capitalize on this market.
It might not present an immediate threat to the #1 and #2 sellers of smartphones, Samsung and Apple. But the entrance of Amazon into the phone market should be a very serious concern for any company below that level. Sony, HTC, LG, Microsoft, and let’s not forget BlackBerry: All of these companies have a lot to lose from an aggressive and well-positioned competitor with Amazon’s depth.
Let’s count the ways that Amazon is prepared for the smartphone market.
Amazon is built on a philosophy of low-margin market capture. Where competitors try to increase margins, Amazon is content to live on a few points — for years if need be — until it starves out all competition. In the mobile world, manufacturers are used to marking up phones by several hundred dollars over their costs, then burying the prices in long-term monthly contracts that let consumers pretend they really aren’t spending $600 and up for a phone and committing to $2,000 or more in carrier fees. Yet, when forced to face their phones’ actual costs, consumers balk at prices over a few hundred dollars. A low-margin competitor could be a huge threat to other phone manufacturers. Amazon has an entire stack of technologies that complement its device business: cloud services, a customized version of the Android operating system, an apps marketplace, an e-commerce platform with hundreds of millions of registered users, and a library of content — books, music, videos — that’s rivaled by no other company. That stack has already propelled the Kindle Fire to a solid #2 position in Android tablets. Imagine what it could do for a phone. Experience first with e-book readers and then with its Kindle Fire tablet have given it a wealth of relevant consumer electronics experience, from dealing with contract manufacturers to distribution to support. Its wealth of knowledge about retail means that it has deep insight into what kinds of phones sell, and to whom. It already sells nearly every phone available on the market, including Samsung’s and Apple’s, on its web site. That means it has a tremendous amount of data about the features people want, the carriers they prefer, how often they want to upgrade, and maybe even how likely they are to switch carriers. A phone presents tremendous opportunities for advertising and cross-selling other products. If Amazon can make this, through apps or hardware, into a phone that you might actually use for shopping online, that’s a major win, obviously. But even if you don’t use it for shopping, it will still enable Amazon to collect location data and other information that will help it target your Amazon account elsewhere (when you’re shopping at your desk, for example). Amazon is in this for the long-term. The company has a history of eschewing short-terms wins in favor of long-term gains. It likes to remind shareholders, year after year, that it favors long-term thinking over short-term profit maximization. It has the patience and the focus to stick with a new product category for years, iterating it and improving it, until it is excellent. Now let’s talk about what the phone might actually do. With multiple front-facing cameras and a kind of 3D display, it might provide an unusually vivid, immersive interface. Those cameras might be useful for taking pictures that help the Fire phone better analyze products in the real world.
They might also help you visualize what a product will look like in the real world. Want to know what that chair will look like in your living room? With the front facing sensors plus the rear facing camera, the phone could superimpose the chair on the image of your room in a very realistic way.
With deep integration into Amazon’s online retail store, it will be a potent weapon for comparison shoppers. It may even have indoor GPS, giving Amazon the ability to triangulate exactly where you are inside a mall or big-box retailer. That will probably terrify brick-and-mortar retailers, who will see it — rightly — as a way for Amazon to poach customers right from under their noses.
But Amazon will probably also use it to forge partnerships with some of those retailers, giving them detailed data on what their customers are actually doing (and the ability to target offers to them while they’re right in the store) in exchange for the right to sell Amazon products for same-day delivery or pickup right from their locations.
In short, Amazon is better positioned than almost any other company to take on the big, vertically-integrated technology stack companies, Google and Apple, which currently dominate the consumer tech industry. In some ways, it’s even better positioned, thanks to its dominance in cloud services and in e-commerce.
The smartphone is merely the top of that stack. What really gives Amazon leverage is everything underneath, and it has spent a decade and a half building that up.
Other smartphone makers better pay attention.
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Post by Admin on Jun 19, 2014 10:38:47 GMT -9
Hacking fears as facebook crashes Friday, 20 June, 2014, 2:43am News›Hong Kong INTERNET Christy Choi and Adam Martin Worldwide blackout of social media giant prompts concern in city of further cyberattacks as Occupy Central launches 'referendum' vote Facebook users in Hong Kong feared a 30-minute blackout yesterday was part of cyberattacks that have been linked to the Occupy Central movement.
The social media giant went down across the world at about 3.50pm Hong Kong time, setting off a flurry of panicked messages on other social media.
Users who tried to log into Facebook received an error page that simply said: "Sorry, something went wrong. We're working on getting this fixed as soon as we can."
Hong Kong users speculated on Twitter that there had been a distributed-denial-of-service attack, similar to recent attacks on the website of newspaper Apple Daily - known for its pro-democracy stance - which resulted in only limited access to its online editions on Wednesday.
The popvote.hk [1] website, built by the University of Hong Kong and Polytechnic University, has sustained similar attacks ahead of Occupy Central's "referendum" on electoral reform, which begins today and will finish on June 29.
"#Facebookdown is big deal in jittery #HK," wrote former journalist Yuen Chan, on Twitter.
Others were not so concerned, and made jokes about the blackout.
"Don't be afraid, those strange noises you are experiencing are other people talking to you. #facebookdown," tweeted Markus Beyer.
In a statement the California-based company said: "Earlier this morning, we experienced an issue that prevented people from posting to Facebook for a brief period of time. We resolved the issue quickly, and we are now back to 100 per cent. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused."
The company did not explain the reason for the lost service.
Facebook's last substantial blackout came in 2010, when it went down for more than two hours due to a server error that could only be fixed by turning off its site to reduce traffic loads.
Facebook, which had more than two billion active users in March, is one of the world's most-accessed internet services.
News of the blackout spurred the hashtag Facebookdown to be referenced on Twitter more than 49,000 times within an hour, according to Topsy, a US social media analytics company.
Meanwhile, users of the popular mobile messaging app Line have been told to change their passwords after 303 cases of unauthorised access in Japan were confirmed between late May and June 14, including three that involved cash trades resulting in financial losses. Line said the problem was not with its security but with users failing to take care of their passwords.
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