The purchase order looks legitimate, yet does it have all the proper approvals? Many lawyers reviewed this draft contract so is this the latest version? Can we prove that this essential document hasn’t been tampered with, before I sign it? Can we prove that these two versions of a document are absolutely identical? Blockchain might […]
Asking “which is the best programming language” is like asking about the most important cooking tool in your kitchen. Mixer? Spatula? Microwave? Cooktop? Measuring cup? Egg timer? Lemon zester? All are critical, depending on what you’re making, and how you like to cook. The same is true with programming languages. Some are best at coding […]
Mr. Christopher A. Wray is confused. Otherwise, why else would he use an email address that says Eric Wilson? Why else would he say he’s head of the FBI, but uses an email domain at a supply-chain management company in Pennsylvania? Why would his return-to be to a gmail.com account? Needless to say, this email […]
Albert Einstein famously said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Agile development guru Venkat Subramaniam has a knack for taking that insight and illustrating just how desperately the software development process needs the lessons of Professor Einstein. As the keynote speaker at the Oracle Code event in Los Angeles—the first […]
As the saying goes, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. In a data-driven organization, the best tools for measuring the performance are business intelligence (BI) and analytics engines, which require data. And that explains why data warehouses continue to play such a crucial role in business. Data warehouses often provide the source of that […]
“We estimate that malicious cyber activity cost the U.S. economy between $57 billion and $109 billion in 2016.” That’s from a February 2018 report, “The Cost of Malicious Cyber Activity to the U.S. Economy,” by the Council of Economic Advisors – part of the Office of the President. It’s a big deal. The White House […]
The “throw it over the wall” problem is familiar to anyone who’s seen designers and builders create something that can’t actually be deployed or maintained out in the real world. In the tech world, avoiding this problem is a big part of what gave rise to DevOps. DevOps, combines “development” and “IT operations.” It refers […]
Simplified Java coding. Less garbage. Faster programs. Those are among the key features in the newly released Java 10, which arrived in developers’ hands only six months after the debut of Java 9 in September. This pace is a significant change from Java’s previous cycle of one large release every two to three years. With […]
“What type of dog are you?” “I scored 9 out of 10 on this vocabulary test! Can you beat me? Take the quiz!” “Are you a true New Yorker?” If you use Facebook (or other social media sites) you undoubtedly see quizzes like this nearly every day. Sometimes the quizzes appear in Facebook advertisements. Sometimes […]
Oh, no! The scammer’s letter was returned undelivered! Well, this is a nice scam, isn’t it, including using an address at lawyer.com as the faked sender. (According to my quick detective work, the email originated from a commercial Internet service in Guatemala.) How about the reference to the Helicopter Society? That presumably means AHS International, […]
Has Russia hacked the U.S. energy grid? This could be bigger than Stuxnet, the cyberattack that damaged uranium-enriching centrifuges in Iran back in 2010 – and demonstrated, to the public at least, that cyberattacks could do more than erase hard drives and steal peoples’ banking passwords. For the first time, the United States has officially accused […]
I had to clean up the formatting on this email to make it somewhat more readable. I hope you enjoy the stilted language and attempts to assure the recipient that this isn’t actually a scam. These messages are always scams. Delete them, don’t ever reply. From: AHMADU SAMBO email hidden; JavaScript is required Subject: HELLO […]
Go ahead, blame the user. You can’t expect end users to protect their Internet of Things devices from hacks or breaches. They can’t. They won’t. Security must be baked in. Security must be totally automatic. And security shouldn’t allow end users to mess anything up, especially if the device has some sort of Web browser. […]
Could anyone fall for this spam message that claims to be from American Express? Sure, it has pretty graphics, but come on. Look at all those typos. Look at sentences that don’t make any sense. And really, we’re going to open that file? Amex would never ask you to download or click on a file. This […]
This message came to one of my spam trap email addresses. So, this private jet company thinks that hovering addresses from websites is the best way to find customers. Maybe they’re right. In any case, it’s spam. Amusing spam, but spam nonetheless. (Plus, it is always suspect when the “from” email address is not the […]
Blockchain is a distributed digital ledger technology in which blocks of transaction records can be added and viewed—but can’t be deleted or changed without detection. Here’s where the name comes from: a blockchain is an ever-growing sequential chain of transaction records, clumped together into blocks. There’s no central repository of the chain, which is replicated in […]
Far too many companies fail to learn anything from security breaches. According to CyberArk, cyber-security inertia is putting organizations at risk. Nearly half — 46% — of enterprises say their security strategy rarely changes substantially, even after a cyberattack. That data comes from the organization’s new Global Advanced Threat Landscape Report 2018. The researchers surveyed 1,300 IT […]
Don’t be misled by the name: Serverless cloud computing contains servers. Lots of servers. What makes serverless “serverless” is that developers, IT administrators and business leaders don’t have to think about those servers. Ever. In the serverless model, online computing power gets tapped automatically only at the moment it’s needed. This can save organizations money […]
DevOps is a technology discipline well-suited to cloud-native application development. When it only takes a few mouse clicks to create or manage cloud resources, why wouldn’t developers and IT operation teams work in sync to get new apps out the door and in front of user faster? The DevOps culture and tactics have done much […]
Such an obvious scam, but for some reason, I find it amusing. Is it that they don’t know how to spell out $2.6 million? Is it that they keep repeating the amount over and over again? Is it the implied legitimacy because of the FedEx link? Is it that they’re using a fake Israeli domain […]
New phones are arriving nearly every day. Samsung unveiled its latest Galaxy S9 flagship. Google is selling lots of its Pixel 2 handset. Apple continues to push its iPhone X. The Vivo Apex concept phone, out of China, has a pop-up selfie camera. And Nokia has reintroduced its famous 8110 model – the slide-down keyboard […]
Spectre and Meltdown are two separate computer security problems. They are often lumped together because they were revealed around the same time – and both exploit vulnerabilities in many modern microprocessors. The website MeltdownAttack, from the Graz University of Technology, explains both Spectre and Meltdown very succinctly – and also links to official security advisories […]
The VPN model of extending security through enterprise firewalls is dead, and the future now belongs to the Software Defined Perimeter (SDP). Firewalls imply that there’s an inside to the enterprise, a place where devices can communicate in a trusted manner. This being so, there must also be an outside where communications aren’t trusted. Residing […]
Companies can’t afford downtime. Employees need access to their applications and data 24/7, and so do other business applications, manufacturing and logistics management systems, and security monitoring centers. Anyone who thinks that the brute force effort of their hard-working IT administrators is enough to prevent system downtime just isn’t facing reality. Traditional systems administrators and […]
He died in 1898, but that doesn’t stop Baron Otto von Bismark from wanting to scam you from beyond the grave. Sure, he’s calling himself Diplomat Otto Bismark, but that can’t fool me: We know he’s the First Chancellor of the German Empire, seeking his revenge. Amusing though this email is, it is a scam. […]
On February 7, 2018, the carrier Swisscom admitted that a security lapse revealed sensitive information about 800,000 customers was exposed. The security failure was at one of Swisscom’s sales partners. This is what can happen when a business gives its partners access to critical data. The security chain is only as good as the weakest link – […]
Here’s a scam attempt noteworthy only for its inadvertent humor. Needless to say, any email like this is trying to defraud you. Don’t respond to such messages; simply delete them without asking why an allegedly South African email is coming from a Russian address. Or anything like that. From: “FROM THE DESK OF MR. AKIN […]
Savvy businesses have policies that prevent on-site viewing of pornography, in part to avoid creating a hostile work environment — and to avoid sexual harassment lawsuits. For security professionals, porn sites are also a dangerous source of malware. That’s why human-resources policies should be backed up with technological measures. Those include blocking porn sites at […]
You are not the user. If you are the CEO, CTO, chief network architect, software developer – you aren’t the user of the software or systems that you are building, or at least, you aren’t the primary user. What you are looking for isn’t what your customer or employee is looking for. And the vocabulary you […]