Archive for April 2017

Encryption and Securing Our Digital Economy

http://www.circleid.com/posts/20170407_encryption_and_securing_our_digital_economy/ Currently, there are 360 million people that take part in cross-border e-commerce. 28% of output in mature economies is digital. The Internet is set to contribute $6.6 trillion a year, or 7.1% of the total GDP in the G20 countries.  And, by 2020, it’s estimated that more than 1 billion users will be added and there will be 30-50

Waiting for the new new thing

https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/09/waiting-for-the-new-new-thing/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&sr_share=facebook The smartphone wars are over, and everybody won. Life without our phones is almost unthinkable.  But now that the gold rush is over, and we’ve entered the mopping-up phase – what next? What is, as Michael Lewis once put it, the new new thing? Conventional wisdom gives us five major contenders: AI, AR/VR, biotech,

Top Linux distros for computer repair | Opensource.com

https://opensource.com/life/15/2/five-specialized-linux-distributions-computer-repair?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY This article takes a look at five different Linux distributions designed to make your life easier when computers start giving you a headache. Give them a try, and make sure you keep CDs or USB drives with your favorites handy for when something does go wrong. 

Can you trust Linux-based Tizen OS?

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3187840/linux/can-you-trust-linux-based-tizen-os.html Yesterday there was a story about millions of Samsung IoT that are vulnerable to attacks due to zero-day security holes. “I have been extremely critical of IoT vendors ignoring the importance of updates and security, putting millions of users at risk. In the case of Samsung, what bothered me the most was that these devices

A quick look at the Ikea Trådfri lighting platform

https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/47803.html Ikea recently launched their Trådfri smart lighting platform in the US. The idea of Ikea plus internet security together at last seems like a pretty terrible one, but having taken a look it’s surprisingly competent.   It’s running the Express Logic ThreadX RTOS, has no running services on any TCP ports and appears to listen on two

Scientists have pinpointed the annoying genetic mutation that turns us into night owls – ScienceAlert

http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-say-they-ve-finally-pinpointed-the-cruel-genetic-mutation-that-turns-us-into-night-owls#.WOg6RaJF0a4.facebook “Carriers of the mutation have longer days than the planet gives them, so they are essentially playing catch-up for their entire lives,” says lead researcher Alina Patke from The Rockefeller University in New York. Night owls who struggle to get enough sleep are often diagnosed at sleep clinics with delayed sleep phase disorder (DSPD), and researchers estimate that

Tracking the explosive growth of open-source software | TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/07/tracking-the-explosive-growth-of-open-source-software/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&sr_share=facebook Many of today’s hottest new enterprise technologies are centered around free, “open-source” technology. As a result, many big companies — from financial giants to retailers to services firms — are building their businesses around new, community-based technology that represents a sea change from the IT practices of the past. But how can corporate customers

Realizing the IoT’s security imperative | EDN

http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4458251/Realizing-the-IoT-s-security-imperative?_mc=sm_edn&hootPostID=cb43e5eb7c5182a4a36fafd4f0ad4a3d It’s true that in the animal kingdom there is safety in numbers. But in the Internet of Things (IoT), where billions of devices are expected to be connected within the next decade, the sheer volume of devices isn’t expected to mitigate the security risk. In fact, given that many devices may share the same