Articles by John P. Mello Jr.

Results 1121-1140 of 2133 for John P. Mello Jr.
SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

No Wrongdoing at NCIS, Says Defense Watchdog

The U.S. Department of Defense's Inspector General has rejected allegations that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service engaged in questionable domestic intelligence activity The finding concluded a DoD IG probe spurred by a March 2014 Washington Examiner report that alleged NCIS was facilitating information sharing among federal, state and local...

Phone Companion App Lets Cortana Get Around

Microsoft advanced its "if you can't beat'em, join'em" mobile strategy with Tuesday's announcement of Phone Companion, an app built into Windows 10 that's designed to synchronize information across multiple platforms, including Android and iOS "In a multi-device world where you move between your phone, tablet and PC multiple times a day -- you expe...

Is Home Where HomeKit's Heart Is?

Apple is preparing to launch an app called "Home" to act as an interface for setting up and managing smart devices that plug into its HomeKit framework, 9 to 5 Mac reported last week The Home app is expected to manage thermostats, smoke alarms, garage door openers, door locks, and other automated home tech....

Apple Fiddles With MacBook Pro, iMac Features and Pricing

Apple on Tuesday announced performance enhancements for the MacBook Pro and a new configuration and price changes for the iMac The new 15-inch MacBook Pro with its Force Touch trackpad and improved flash storage, battery and graphics performance is available immediately online, starting at US$1,999....

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Venom Less Toxic Than Heartbleed

It was a little over a year ago that the Heartbleed bug shocked the Internet with its potential for mischief. Now another flaw in open source code has sent network administrators into damage control mode The bug, called "Venom" for "Virtualized Environment Neglected Operations Manipulation," allows an intruder to jump out of a virtual machine and e...

Researcher's Airplane-Hacking Claims May Not Fly

A security researcher who made headlines last month for bragging he'd hacked into a passenger jet's internal computer systems while in flight appears to have performed the act more than a dozen times over a three-year period, based on a search warrant application published last week. The FBI filed the application in April Chris Roberts, founder and...

FireEye, Microsoft Outsmart Clever Chinese Malware

FireEye and Microsoft have scotched a scheme by a group of cybercriminals based in China to use an IT pro forum to hide malicious activity, according to a report released Thursday The Chinese gang known as "APT17" devised the scheme, which uses forum pages and profiles on Microsoft's TechNet, to cover traffic from machines infected with the group's...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Big Data Analytics Fights Insider Threats

Cyberdefenders for years have adopted Fort Apache strategies to protect their networks. Strong perimeters could prevent attackers from reaching precious data, they reasoned As technology marched on, however, the idea of an impermeable wall became as quaint as the Maginot Line on the eve of World War II. Firewalls alone no longer were strong enough ...

Swiftkey's Clarity Keyboard Puts Auto-Correction in Context

Most auto-correction programs correct mistakes as you make them. They even predict words for you as you type. Swiftkey's recent release for Android,Clarity Keyboard Beta, corrects mistakes -- up to several at a time -- after you've typed them "SwiftKey, for a long time, has had context awareness, but it's applied it looking forward," explained Swit...

Watch Band Guidelines Good News for Apple Accessory Makers

Apple on Tuesday released some guidelines that may deliver a charge to the accessory market for its Apple Watch The guidelines make recommendations for accessory makers interested in making bands for the new smartwatch....

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Report: Top Endpoint Security Packages Perfectly Foil Drive-By Attacks

Drive-by attacks on the Internet are a particularly pernicious form of online threat, especially for individual Web surfers. On the corporate level, though, a company with good endpoint protection software can foil the malicious practice A drive-by occurs when an infected website automatically downloads malware onto a Net traveler's computer. Sever...

Adobe Adds Dazzle to Lightroom

Adobe's recently launched new version of Lightroom for its Creative Cloud Photography platform improves performance of the photo manager and adds new HDR, panorama and facial recognition features Lightroom's mobile support also is bolstered in the latest version of the program. Further, it has new capabilities for creating slideshows from stills an...

Faulty Taptic Engine Could Make Apple Watch Rollout Sputter

A production snag in making the component that provides tactile feedback in the Apple Watch could impact its availability in coming weeks Apple was having problems obtaining sufficient vibration motors for the component, called the "taptic engine," AppleInsider reported two weeks ago....

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Apple Watch Could Be a Password Alternative

With password tolerance levels at an all time low, alternatives to the pesky and insecure authenticators are beginning to abound. One of those alternatives could be the Apple Watch Even before Apple's latest gadget began shipping last week, MicroStrategy announced it was extending its Usher enterprise security solution to the Apple Watch....

Other Shoe Drops in White House Security Breach

Last year's breach of unclassified White House computer systems was far more intrusive than initially thought and included the theft of some presidential correspondence, The New York Times reported Friday No classified systems were compromised in the attack, including the servers that control the message traffic from President Obama's BlackBerry mo...

House Passes Cybersecurity Bills Despite Privacy Fears

Two cybersecurity bills approved this week by the U.S. House of Representatives pose a threat to citizens' privacy, according to opponents of the measures Both bills, H.R. 1560 and H.R. 1731, aim to improve sharing of cybersecurity information between businesses and government agencies.

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Breach Outbreaks Fuel Encryption Adoption

As data breaches make headlines around the world, more companies are turning to encryption to protect their information jewels. That is one of the findings in a study released Monday, conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Thales E-Security "Mega breaches and cyber attacks have increased companies' urgency to improve their security pos...

Google Dresses Up Android Wear

Google on Monday released an update to Android Wear -- just the second significant feature refresh for its wearable device software since its introduction more than a year ago "This update is overdue," said Ian Fogg, senior director and head of the mobile and telecoms team at IHS Technology....

Mayer Wins Concessions in Rejiggered Microsoft-Yahoo Deal

Microsoft and Yahoo on Thursday announced they were altering a search partnership that has been in place since 2009 Under the amended agreement, Yahoo no longer will exclusively serve Bing ads and search results for its desktop traffic. That means Yahoo can sell some of that desktop traffic to another party....

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Opening Windows Source Code Could Improve Security

Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich raised a few eyebrows at ChefCon earlier this month, when he aired the possibility of Windows becoming an open source program Sure, Microsoft's attitude toward the open source movement has mellowed over the years, but the prospect of the company rubbing elbows with the likes of Linux overloads the imagina...

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