3 Big Data Vendors To Watch In 2013(click image for larger view and for slideshow)Many people seem to want to stick a sexier name on business intelligence, whether that's "business analytics" or "big data." To me, it's still business intelligence, a top-priority technology that can help companiesboost revenues, improve customer service or control costs by making better, faster decisions.Whatever you want to call this still-vital category, here are my predictions for the top BI trends of 2013, along with a few looks back athighlights of 2012.
1. Dashboards Evolve, ExpandYou would think that there's not much room for dashboard innovation now that they're the bread-and-butter BI interface, already in use among most large and midsized companies. And yet dashboards were ratedthetop priority for expansion and innovation in the BI Scorecard2012Successful BI Survey. The dashboard's rise to prominence is aconfluence of next-generation technology along with a recognition that BI must be aligned to business goals to be successful.[ Want more on trends in the year ahead? Read5 Cloud App Trends To Expect In 2013. ]Access to data alone doesn't help a company improve. Next-generationdashboards keep workers focused on the right metrics and inform in away that lets employees take preemptive action. Key features enabling such dashboards include in-memory processing, the ability for users to mash data together andto assemble their own dashboards, KPIs, faceted (filter-by-category) search, mobile, and the ability to link insight to action.With big BI platform vendors IBM, Microsoft, and SAP generally lagging the dashboard capabilities provided by specialty vendors, customers will continue to mix and match systems from different providers in 2013. Differentiated leaders include QlikTech, which supports rapid deployment and intuitive "associative" analysis, JackBe, which has strong operational dashboards, and Metric Insight, which offers top-notch KPIs.Look for all vendors in this space tocontinue to improve their capabilities in 2013. SAP, for example, recently released its next-generation dashboard tool, Design Studio, though data-source support is initially limited to SAP BW and the Hana in-memory database. Look for SAP to improve related mobile and data-visualization capabilities. SAP will also eventually integrate and merge its once-leading Xcelsius dashboarding product, now rebranded "Dashboards," into Design Studio. QlikTech also is expected to release a next-generation dashboarding product this year.Looking back, one important dashboard release in 2012 was Oracle Endeca Information Discovery, acquired by Oracle at the end of 2011 and adapted to runon its Exalytics appliance. Oracle classifies this product as a discoverytool, but in my view it's best positioned as a dashboard application uniquely positioned to explore unstructured data using faceted search.2. Self-Service BI Gets RealSelf-service BI continues to be a vision for many companies in whichusers are empowered to explore new data sets without much IT support. Visual-data-discovery toolshave become synonymous with self-service BI and are growing at three times the pace of the overall BI market. Unfortunately, some vendors are too quick to attach the visual discovery moniker to their products. As I wrote in the latestBI Scorecard Strategic and Product Summary report, there's a continuum of self-service BI capabilities that ranges from interactive reporting to business query to visual data discovery, and yes, even to tools such as spreadsheets.My hope in 2013 is that practitioners recognize this range of self-service, and that vendors help educate rather than just jumping on whatever bandwagon has the most hype. Leading companies will make the shift to self-service BI, both to empower workers and to ensure the smartestallocation of constrained IT resources. In our Successful BI Survey, 44% of respondents say BI teams do not have adequate time, funding or resources to keep up with BI demand. With the fight for BI talent, simply hiring more people is not the solution. Instead, business users have to embrace responsibility for routine BI tasks. At the same time, IT has to let go of some of the mundane enhancement requests and focus on complex data challenges and leveraging innovations.In 2013 Tableau will release version 8 of its software, which will include browser and iPad-based authoring, a relative rarity in the visual data discovery category. Also look for improvements in other first-generation visual discovery products:-- SAS Visual Analytics Explorer, first released in February 2012, is due out with a new version that willsupport calculated columns, forecasting, decision trees, and maps.-- Microsoft's Power View via SharePoint (released in Q1 2012) will reemerge as an Excel add-in.-- AP Visual Intelligence, first released for Hana in March 2012, isnow on a six-week release cycle, gaining support for more data sources and capabilities.3. Mobile BI Boosts BI AdoptionJust when you thought the dust had settled on the question of tablet leadership (the iPad), Microsoft released the Windows Surface and Apple missed Wall Street earnings estimates. Prime-time ads for the Surface abound! And oh, how I would love to more easily synch myOutlook calendar!Gone are the days when corporate IT can set mobile device standards. Instead, users are increasingly bringing their own devices, forcing IT (and BI vendors) to support a broad swath of smartphones and tablets. The most promising way to support diversity is to support HTML5, but the best user experience continues to be throughdevice-native apps. Just what those apps need to support is a moving target, as user requirements evolve. For example, availability of offline data-interaction capabilities -- rare in 2011, but supported by specialty vendor RoamBI -- increased in 2012 with MicroStrategy, SAP Mobile and Oracle Mobile HD adding such capabilities.Will we see native support for Microsoft Surface in 2013, or will vendors use the HTML5 approach for this device? It's too early to tell,but I don't anticipate any broad shift. The debate about which capabilities to provide on smartphones versus tablets will continue. Mobile Device Management will remain a separatemarket segment, but savvy mobile BI providers and customers will integrate with these solutions so that when a device is lost or stolen, there is additional security beyond just a user name and password so that offline data can be wiped.Mobile will also continue to drive BI adoption in 2013, re-igniting executive interest and making BI more relevant to field and front-line workers. In last year's Successful BI Survey, only 11% of respondents said their firms had successfully deployed mobile BI. BIadoption at those firms stood at 39% of employees, far ahead of theindustry average of 24% of employees.
Monday 28 January 2013
7 Top Business Intelligence Trends For 2013
13 Secret Tech Stars Of Silicon Valley
Bangalore: More than often it is the people with ranks—founders, co-founders, CEOs and others whograb the limelight for things big or small. But there are people, like undercurrents, dynamic but not visible, play a crucial role, andare least likely to grab the credit they deserve. However Business Insider initiated the novel campaign to unearth these tech stars and bring them to lime light.Here are the 13 secret tech stars ofSilicon Valley.#13 Shiva Rajaraman, for making YouTube ubiquitousShiva Rajaraman is Director, Product Management at Google. He helms the consumer product team focused on discovery, consumption, and devices, helpingto grow views to over 3 billion views a day. Prior to his current role, he launched several of YouTube's first advertising products and initial TV and film launches.Though there is huge buzz about Google+ being the Altair of searchgiant, it is YouTube which deserves the crown. Rajaraman's big push this year has been to rollout a new, consistent look wherever videos play, available invariety of platforms—iOS, Android, Xbox, Wii game consoles and many more, excluding its already huge web presence, making YouTube ubiquitous.
#12 Sara Sperling, for making Facebook a great place to work foreveryoneSara Sperling is head of community engagement at Facebook and leads the company’sdiversity and inclusion efforts. She is the person behind installingZuckerbergs ideal about how Facebook enables people to have an authentic identity at the company. It is her efforts that 450Facebook employees took part in this year's San Francisco Gay PrideParade, up by 50 percent than theprevious year. Thanks to her thatFacebookcampus now includes unisex bathrooms to help transgender employees to feel comfortable.In May this year, GLAAD, the nation’s lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy and anti-defamation organization, felicitated Facebook with Special Recognition Award at the 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards.#11 Matt Fischer, for running Apple's home for killer appsMatt Fischer is the Director, App Store and Mac App Store at Apple.As one of the Start-up CEO says about Matt, he is secretly one of the most important people at Apple. App Store is the key feature which hooks on the Apple users and developers to the brandand attracts many others to be a Apple customer, the credit solely goes to Apple’s Director of App Store Matt Fischer.
12 Best Online Shopping Sites In India
Bangalore:Indianshave finally taken toshop online. Initiatives likeGoogle’s online shopping festival was a blockbuster in the country, waned the remaining whatever apprehensions people had, to shop online.At the time you are about to call it a year, here are the top 12onlineshopping sites in India, compiled according toAlexa rankings, that delighted the shopaholics on the go, at office, at home or simply whenever the urge to shop surfaced.#12 Naaptol.comNaaptol was founded by Manu Agarwal in 2008 in Mumbai. The website was essentially a price comparison engine, but later evolved into an online market place. The company focuses on Tier 2 and Tier 3 retail markets, and also comes up with lowest possible prices on products. It’s the platform where merchants from different city can post their products and buyers can buy them.According to Alexa, the site is particularly popular in Mumbai and Delhi. The fraction of visits to this site referred by search engines is approximately 15%. Alexa global rank of Naaptol is 1,809, its ranking in India is 136 and has 3,557 sites linking in.
#11 Infibeam.comInfibeam.com was founded by Vishal Mehta in 2007. It is an e-commerce company headquartered in Ahmedabad andis an online retailer for books, electronics, and automobiles in the country. The company has offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.According to Alexa,Search enginesrefer approximately 9 percent of visits to this site; about36 percent of visits to Infibeam.comare bounces (one pageview only). Its Alexa global ranking is 1,966, India ranking is 135 and has 5,465 sites linking in.#10 Shopclues.comSandeep Aggarwal and Sanjay Sethi co-founded ShopClues.comin July 2011 in Silicon Valley. It is a fully managed marketplace that connects buyers and sellers onlineand offers a trusted and safe online shopping experience.According to Alexa, the site's visitors view 7.0 unique pages each day on average. The site has a bounce rate of about 32 percent(one pageview only). Shopclues.comis particularly highly ranked in the city of Gurgaon. The Alexa global rankingis 2,050, Indian ranking is 129 andit has 775 site linking in.
#9 Tradus.comSanjay Suri, former architect at Amazon founded Tradus.com. Tradus.comoffers online shoppingfor mobiles, cameras, laptops, clothes, jewellery, home appliances and many more at bestprices, and also offers pay cash ondelivery (COD) option. Tradus Coupon Codes is usually mailed toall their subscribers for current offers, so you should register your email to get the latest news and alerts from them.The site is particularly highly ranked in the city of Gurgaon. Thesite's visitors view 8.9 unique pages each day on average. Sites Alexa global ranking is 1,330, Indian ranking is 92 and has 542 site linking in.#8 Yebhi.comYebhi.com is a life style online shopping portal, and it is a franchisee of Bigshoebazaar, founded in the year 2009. It is a one-stop-shop for all lifestyle products and offers the latest and quality product to its customers dealing in Shoes, apparels, Bags, Mobiles, Cameras, Sunglasses, Watches accessories and many more. The site has Alexa global ranking of 1,277, Indian ranking of 89 andhas 1,825 sites linking in.
Sunday 27 January 2013
Is Lenovo considering BlackBerry-maker RIM for takeover?
senior Lenovo executive said on Thursday that the Chinese computer maker may consider Research in Motion as a takeover target, sending the Blackberry maker's shares up 2 percent.
Toronto: A senior Lenovo executive said on Thursday that the Chinese computer maker may consider Research in Motion as a takeover target, sending the Blackberry maker's shares up 2 percent just a week before it launches a make-or-break line of redesigned smartphones. But Levovo, whichvaulted into the personal computer market with its 2005 purchase of IBM's PC division, would face formidable hurdles ifit tried to buy a company that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper once described as a national "crown jewel." The Chinese company would also encounter tough regulatory scrutiny in Washington, cybersecurity experts say. Lenovo, on track to become the world's largest PC maker, has held talks with RIM and its bankers about various combinations or strategic ventures, its chief financial officer, Wong Wai Ming, said on Thursday
Apple chart: Why iPhones, iPads are key to future results
Apple's biggest selling products are the iPhone and iPad. For most analysts, these are products that will define the company's future.
Apple Inc on Wednesday announced its results for Q1 2013 and the company posted a quarterly revenueof $54.5 billion and a quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion. While these numbers are a record by themselvesfor Apple, for Wall Street these numbers were just not good enough as Apple missed forecasts for the third time.In q1 2013 Apple sold 47.8 million iPhones, up 29 percent from the year-ago period where it sold 37 million iPhones. This was however below the 50 million number that was forecast.In the tablet category, Apple sold 22.9 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 15.4 million inthe year-ago quarter. The company did not reveal numbers for iPad mini separately though so it's not clear how well the iPad mini did.As far as Macs were concerned the sales declined and Apple sold only 4.1 million Macs, compared to 5.2 million in the year-ago quarter. iPods too saw a decline with company selling only 12.7 million compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago quarter.Clearly as the chart above shows, Apple's biggest selling products are the iPhone and iPad. Here's a quick look at some expectations from both.iPhone:There's no doubt that the iPhone has been the jewel in Apple'skitty, and the one device that revolutionised the smartphone industry. But with the rise of Android and Samsung, the iPhone is often seen as too expensive and lacking some features. Rivals have created smartphones with bigger screens; the Galaxy S III has a 4.8-inch screen while Apple has onlyincreased the size of the iPhone's screen with the latest model. iPhone5 has a four inch screen and some feel Apple needs to change this.Then of course there is the high-price of the iPhone which makes it a very expensive smartphone to buy, especially in developing countries.
Want to remove embarrassing photos from FB? Try Facewash app
The "Facewash" app developed by researchers from Kent State University will search through a user's Facebook activity and content for items that the user may want to hide or delete.
Researchers have developed a new app that can help Facebook users clean up vulgar or embarrassing pages from their profile. The "Facewash" app developed by researchers from Kent State University will search through a user's Facebook activity and content for items that the user may want to hide or delete. That could include status updates, photo captions, and comments users left or received as well as pages and links that were liked, Los Angeles Timesreported. "We realised that there's a lot of content that perhaps someone might not want a future employer to see," researcher Daniel Gur. Gur created the Facewash over the weekend along his two friends and fellow computer science majors Camden Fullmer, and David Steinberg. The trio built the app in less than two days while at a hackathon at the University of Pennsylvania. To use Facewash, users first need to go to its website, Facewa.sh, click on get started and then log into their Facebook account.They will be prompted to click "Go to App" and then give they have to give the app permission to access their content. caption id="attachment_602316" align="alignleft" width="380"] A screengrab of the Facewash App.
Infidelity in the age of tech: Beware Mobile phones, Facebook!
In the age of modern technology, snooping on a partner's mobile phone is the most common way to catch if they are cheating, followed by going through their Facebook activities, according to a new UK poll.'Going through mobile phone' has been cited as the top reason why illicit affairs have been exposed, the poll found.Nearly 2,400 UK adults, all of whom had either been caught cheating while in a relationship or who had found a partner was being unfaithfulto them in the past, were quizzed bya mobile phone insurance website on the circumstances in which the infidelity was discovered.Almost half of those questioned - 41per cent - said checking for evidenceon their partner's mobile phone wasthe reason why an affair came to light, the 'Daily Mail' reported.The second most common way to catch a cheater was via social network websites like Facebook (23 per cent) and by going through their files on their personal computer or tablet (13 per cent).A minority of 11 per cent were unable to cover their tracks so they were caught face-to-face while 5 percent had to be told their partner wasup to no good by a friend or family member.Just two per cent admitted having a guilty conscience led them to making a full confession.Mobile phone insurance website www.mobileinsurance.co.ukconducted the research after noting a rise in the number of claims for breakages that occurred to handsets during relationship splits or arguments.Almost a tenth of the respondents taking part said that a mobile phone had become broken as a direct result of an argument within a relationship, such as by being thrown or dropped."You'd be surprised how often relationship arguments and cheatinggets cited in mobile phone insuranceclaims, even though we often dont ask for that depth of detail," John Lamerton, managing director of MobileInsurance.co.uk, said."Evidently, those being unfaithful in relationships need to keep better tabs on who is looking at their mobile....
Award Winning Interactive Agency Database Launched by Web Marketing Association
Finding an "award winning" interactive agency has justgotten easier. The Web Marketing Association has just launched a new website that brings together advertising agencies and interactiveagencies who have won recognition in major award programs. 燭his new searchable database of award winning interactive agencies is found atwww.AwardWinningInteractiveAgencies.com.(Logo:http://photos.prnewswire.com
"Each year, we are contacted by individuals looking for a reputable interactive agency to help with website development, online advertising or other forms of internet marketing. Now they havea single source to find the right interactive agency for them," saidWilliam Rice, President of the Web Marketing Association. "One of the major reasons advertising agencies enter award programs is to standout from the rest of the field and receive third party endorsement for their work. Entering takes time and money, butthe rewards when they win are worth the effort. The Web Marketing Association has created the AWAdb as a service to the online marketing community and tohelp bring together brand marketers and qualified interactive agencies."The Award Winning Agency Database, or AWAdb, allows users to search thousands of full service advertising agencies and interactiveagencies that been recognized by major award programs for their outstanding interactive work. The AWAdb can be searched by several fields that are cumulative in helping to narrow your search quickly. Visitors can search by:牋牋燗gency Name– Enter the agency name to find that agency牋牋燣ocation– Search by country and/or state to find agencies close to you.牋牋燣anguages– Need a specific language skills? Narrow your searchto 10 different牋牋爈anguages including English, Spanish, Turkish, German and Chinese.牋牋燬pecialty– Finding the right agency also means finding someonewho is an expert牋牋爄n your specific need. 53 specialties can be selected in areas include web development,牋牋爋nline marketing, mobile, social media and public relations.The site also offers anInteractive Agency Mapthat allows the user to click on the geographic area they are interested in and drill down to see the exact locations of various award winning agencies.To have great award winning interactive agencies, you need to have great interactive award programs for them to enter and win. AWAdb draws upon some of the major award programs that the online marketing community recognizes as significant awards for interactive marketers. They include: Web Marketing Association WebAwards, Internet Advertising Competition and MobileWebAwards, Clio Awards, Cannes Cyber Lions, Ad Club of NewYork Andy Awards, Effie Awards, American Advertising Federation Addy Awards, The One Show Interactive, D&AD Pencil Awards, DMA Echo Awards, SXSW InteractiveAwards IAB Mixx Awards, PRSA Silver Anvils, BIMA Awards, Webby Awards, and the Stevie Awards to name a few.Rice added, "These are not all of the award programs out there, onlysome of the best. Many of these are awards are categories of long-standing advertising award programs. Others have been started specifically to recognize outstanding interactive advertising and great websites."Participation in the Award Winning Agency Database is free to all agencies who have won recognition in a recognized interactive award program. If your agency is not already listed and you've won awards, pleaseadd your agency to the AWAdb.About the Web Marketing AssociationTheWeb Marketing Associationis working to create a high standard ofexcellence for Web site development and marketing on theInternet. Staffed by volunteers, it ismade up of Internet marketing, advertising, PR and design professionals who share an interestin improving the quality of Website development and marketing on theInternet. Since 1997, the Web Marketing Association's annualWebAward,Internet Advertising CompetitionandMobileWebAwardaward programs have been helpinginteractive professionals promote themselves, their companies, and their best work to the outside world. Now in its 17th year, the WebAward Competition has become the premier award event for Web developers and marketers worldwide.
7 Top Business Intelligence Trends For 2013
3 Big Data Vendors To Watch In 2013(click image for larger view and for slideshow)Many people seem to want to stick a sexier name on business intelligence, whether that's "business analytics" or "big data." To me, it's still business intelligence, a top-priority technology that can help companiesboost revenues, improve customer service or control costs by making better, faster decisions.Whatever you want to call this still-vital category, here are my predictions for the top BI trends of 2013, along with a few looks back athighlights of 2012.
1. Dashboards Evolve, ExpandYou would think that there's not much room for dashboard innovation now that they're the bread-and-butter BI interface, already in use among most large and midsized companies. And yet dashboards were ratedthetop priority for expansion and innovation in the BI Scorecard2012Successful BI Survey. The dashboard's rise to prominence is aconfluence of next-generation technology along with a recognition that BI must be aligned to business goals to be successful.[ Want more on trends in the year ahead? Read5 Cloud App Trends To Expect In 2013. ]Access to data alone doesn't help a company improve. Next-generationdashboards keep workers focused on the right metrics and inform in away that lets employees take preemptive action. Key features enabling such dashboards include in-memory processing, the ability for users to mash data together andto assemble their own dashboards, KPIs, faceted (filter-by-category) search, mobile, and the ability to link insight to action.With big BI platform vendors IBM, Microsoft, and SAP generally lagging the dashboard capabilities provided by specialty vendors, customers will continue to mix and match systems from different providers in 2013. Differentiated leaders include QlikTech, which supports rapid deployment and intuitive "associative" analysis, JackBe, which has strong operational dashboards, and Metric Insight, which offers top-notch KPIs.Look for all vendors in this space tocontinue to improve their capabilities in 2013. SAP, for example, recently released its next-generation dashboard tool, Design Studio, though data-source support is initially limited to SAP BW and the Hana in-memory database. Look for SAP to improve related mobile and data-visualization capabilities. SAP will also eventually integrate and merge its once-leading Xcelsius dashboarding product, now rebranded "Dashboards," into Design Studio. QlikTech also is expected to release a next-generation dashboarding product this year.Looking back, one important dashboard release in 2012 was Oracle Endeca Information Discovery, acquired by Oracle at the end of 2011 and adapted to runon its Exalytics appliance. Oracle classifies this product as a discoverytool, but in my view it's best positioned as a dashboard application uniquely positioned to explore unstructured data using faceted search.2. Self-Service BI Gets RealSelf-service BI continues to be a vision for many companies in whichusers are empowered to explore new data sets without much IT support. Visual-data-discovery toolshave become synonymous with self-service BI and are growing at three times the pace of the overall BI market. Unfortunately, some vendors are too quick to attach the visual discovery moniker to their products. As I wrote in the latestBI Scorecard Strategic and Product Summary report, there's a continuum of self-service BI capabilities that ranges from interactive reporting to business query to visual data discovery, and yes, even to tools such as spreadsheets.My hope in 2013 is that practitioners recognize this range of self-service, and that vendors help educate rather than just jumping on whatever bandwagon has the most hype. Leading companies will make the shift to self-service BI, both to empower workers and to ensure the smartestallocation of constrained IT resources. In our Successful BI Survey, 44% of respondents say BI teams do not have adequate time, funding or resources to keep up with BI demand. With the fight for BI talent, simply hiring more people is not the solution. Instead, business users have to embrace responsibility for routine BI tasks. At the same time, IT has to let go of some of the mundane enhancement requests and focus on complex data challenges and leveraging innovations.In 2013 Tableau will release version 8 of its software, which will include browser and iPad-based authoring, a relative rarity in the visual data discovery category. Also look for improvements in other first-generation visual discovery products:-- SAS Visual Analytics Explorer, first released in February 2012, is due out with a new version that willsupport calculated columns, forecasting, decision trees, and maps.-- Microsoft's Power View via SharePoint (released in Q1 2012) will reemerge as an Excel add-in.-- AP Visual Intelligence, first released for Hana in March 2012, isnow on a six-week release cycle, gaining support for more data sources and capabilities.3. Mobile BI Boosts BI AdoptionJust when you thought the dust had settled on the question of tablet leadership (the iPad), Microsoft released the Windows Surface and Apple missed Wall Street earnings estimates. Prime-time ads for the Surface abound! And oh, how I would love to more easily synch myOutlook calendar!Gone are the days when corporate IT can set mobile device standards. Instead, users are increasingly bringing their own devices, forcing IT (and BI vendors) to support a broad swath of smartphones and tablets. The most promising way to support diversity is to support HTML5, but the best user experience continues to be throughdevice-native apps. Just what those apps need to support is a moving target, as user requirements evolve. For example, availability of offline data-interaction capabilities -- rare in 2011, but supported by specialty vendor RoamBI -- increased in 2012 with MicroStrategy, SAP Mobile and Oracle Mobile HD adding such capabilities.Will we see native support for Microsoft Surface in 2013, or will vendors use the HTML5 approach for this device? It's too early to tell,but I don't anticipate any broad shift. The debate about which capabilities to provide on smartphones versus tablets will continue. Mobile Device Management will remain a separatemarket segment, but savvy mobile BI providers and customers will integrate with these solutions so that when a device is lost or stolen, there is additional security beyond just a user name and password so that offline data can be wiped.Mobile will also continue to drive BI adoption in 2013, re-igniting executive interest and making BI more relevant to field and front-line workers. In last year's Successful BI Survey, only 11% of respondents said their firms had successfully deployed mobile BI. BIadoption at those firms stood at 39% of employees, far ahead of theindustry average of 24% of employees.
Java security news is not getting any better.
The Data Protection Act offerseightcentral principlesthat any organization working in the U.K. and holding personal data must comply with. These require that such personal information must be:fairly and lawfully processed; obtained for limited purposes; adequate, relevant and not excessive; accurate and kept up to date; never kept for longer than necessary; processed in line with personal legal rights; not transferred to other countries without adequate protection; and, most relevant to this case, always kept securely.The organization's deputy commissioner and director of data protection, David Smith, said in theInformation Commissioner's findingthat, "If you are responsiblefor so many payment card details and log-in details then keeping that personal data secure has to be yourpriority. In this case that just didn't happen, and when the database wastargeted -- albeit in a determined criminal attack -- the security measures in place were simply not good enough ... There's no disguising that this is a business that should have known better. It isa company that trades on its technical expertise, and there's no doubt in my mind that they had access to both the technical knowledge and the resources to keep this information safe."The body also points to the impact the scandal has had on U.K. consumers' willingness to share their personal information online, which could of course impactU.K. e-commercemore widely. It quotesdata based on market research conducted shortly after the incidentthat said 77% of consumers had been left "more cautious" about giving their personal details to websites.The Information Commissioner's action is part of a stream of high-profile actions on organizations it deems have been too lax in protecting customer information.What's unusual here is both the sizeof the financial swipe it's made on the global brand of Sony -- more commonly, it fines public-sector bodies in the U.K., with a particular focus on cases where hospital workers lose USBs with sensitive patient data -- and also how clearly it says the company's bad security practices are to blame."The penalty we've issued today is clearly substantial, but we make no apologies for that," says Smith."The case is one of the most serious ever reported to us. It directly affected a huge number of consumers, and at the very least put them at risk of identity theft."Sony has yet to publicly react to thenews.Recent breaches have tarnished digital certificates, the Web securitytechnology.
Sony Slapped With $390,000 U.K. Data Breach Fine
Sony's European arm has been dealt a harsh punishment by the U.K.'s data privacy czar for poor protection of its customer's privacy:a punishing $390,000 (£250,000) fine.In 2011, due to ahack of its PlayStation Networkonline gaming community's database, 77 million customers' personal details were exposed. The cyber housebreakers were able to get away with customers' payment card details, names, postal and email addresses,dates of birth, and account passwords. In the U.K., about three million bank customers had to change their account details and obtain new credit cards, it has beenreported.
Two years later, the U.K. Information Commissioner -- the official watchdog for privacy and data security -- has decided the breach was due to poor IT security by Sony and has decided to teach it a lesson.It busted the company under the U.K.'s 1998 Data Protection Act, after its investigators decided the attack could have been prevented ifnetwork software had been up to date. It also believes the way Sony Entertainment Europe had set up user passwords was not sufficiently secure.
4 Steps For Proactive Cybersecurity
If not all, nongovernmental entities it's too soon to go down thepath of all-out, offensive security counterattacks. Many other securityprofessionals agree, and you can get a good summary of the academic and government researchon cyber espionage, cyber deterrence and cyber offense by reading a recent post by Dave Dittrich, a member of the HoneyNet Project:"No, Executing Offensive Actions Against Our Adversaries Really Does Have High Risk (Deal With It)."But you can do a lot more than read and hope. Here are some ways to take action now that will at least let your team start taking a more offensive security mindset.
Step 1: Do active risk analysis to know what attackers may strike at, and how.Intelligence gathering is an arduoustask for even well-funded government agencies, so it is highlyunlikely that your company can achieve the level of detail required for true cyber intelligence about attackers. Further complicating intelligence gathering is that private-sector chief information security officers don't share details of successful breaches, even thoughsuch collaboration would be critical to understanding and linking methods and attackers. But that's another article.For now, focus your effort on the intelligence gathering you do control: knowledge of your own systems, networks and business.
The iPad and the rise of the Planet of the Apes
Apple CEO Tim Cook made no mention of it in this week'searnings call, but there's a burgeoning demand for iPads among the country's zoo-boundprimates, thanks to theApps for Apesinitiative. However, not all apes are created equal: Orangutans introduced to Apple's tablet have loved the device, butgorillas haven't taken to the iPadwith the sameenthusiasm -- a development Corning obviously didn't consider when naming itsGorilla Glass.According to Orangutan Outreach, sponsor of the Apps for Apes initiative:Orangutans are highly intelligent creatures that require mental stimulation to keep from growing bored and depressed. Every orangutan is a unique individual with his or her own particular likes and dislikes, and freedom of choice is critical to their well-being. They like to choose everything from their afternoon snack to their daytime companions and sleeping area.Don't we all?Among the dozen-plus zoos participating in the Orangutan Outreach initiative are the Atlanta Zoo and the National Zoo in Washington. Participantsare in touch with each other to compare and recommend appsthat the apes seem to prefer. The orangutans' tastes, it seems, are not so different from a human child's, with special favorites being musical instruments, video watching -- particularly of themselves and other orangutans -- finger painting, and interactive books.The Milwaukee County Zoo, which nearly two years ago pioneered the use of iPads to stimulate and enrich the lives its orangutans, took the effort to a new level when it outfittedits primate buildings with Wi-Fito arrange"play dates" with orangutansat other zoos and wildlife preserves. Can the offer of a reality TV show be far behind?Check out this video of orangutans at the Milwaukee County Zoo interacting with theiPad. Sadly,Mahal-- one of the orangutans featured in the video -- died last month from pneumonia.Orangutans are among the most intelligent primates. A 2008 study of two orangutans at the Leipzig Zoo in Germany showed they couldweigh the costs and benefits of gift exchangesand keep track of them over time -- the first nonhuman species documented to do so.The Apps for Apes program goals include:*.Provide stimulating enrichment and immediate gratification for orangutans*.Make zoo visitors aware of the critical need to protect orangutans in the wild*.Promote the conservation efforts of Orangutan OutreachIf you have a gently used iPad that you'd like to donate to an orangutan, you're invited tocontact Orangutan Outreach.
Fujitsu developing HTML5 app platform for enterprise security
Engineers at Fujitsu Laboratories are developing anHTML5-based platform for smartphones that designed to keep corporate data secure when accessed from employee-owned handsets.The system, which Fujitsu plansto launch later this year, is one of a number that addresses this increasingly common problem: how to allow workersaccess to corporate IT systems while avoiding deliberate or inadvertent leaks of data from devices that are not totally under the company's control.[ Find out how to block the viruses, worms, and other malware that threaten your business, with hands-on advice from InfoWorld's expert contributors in InfoWorld's "Malware Deep Dive" PDF guide. | Don't look now, butyour antivirus may be killing your virtualization infrastructure. InfoWorld's Matt Prigge shows you how to detect the warning signs. ]Fujitsu's system matches an app on the phone with a cloud-based server that delivers corporate apps such as email, sales databases and customer contacts, as HTML5 applications.The phone app senses whether it's in the workplace or not and therefore whether it has accessto corporate data. The cloud apps are delivered over an encrypted connection to the handset, which runs them inside a secure application environment on the phone.As soon as the employee leaves the workplace, the cloudconnection is severed and the corporate apps are no longer accessible. And because they ran in the application environment, the phone doesn't contain any remnants of their use, such as cookies or temporary data files, said Kazuaki Nimura, a research manager at the smart platformlaboratory of Fujitsu Laboratories.At an event in Silicon Valley on Thursday, Nimura demonstrated the system running on both an iPhone and Android handset. Each mobile OS requires a native app to runthe execution environment, but the HTML5 cloud apps will run across all platforms.In the demonstration, access tothe corporate apps was enabled in the iPhone when it came within reach of a simulated company Wi-Fi signal, while the Android phone had the option of being switched on by either Wi-Fi detection or through a tap on an NFC (near field communication) card.As soon as the phones detectedthe network or NFC card, they switched to work mode, which brought up a new home screenwith different set of apps. While in work mode, access to personal apps could be determined by a company security policy, said Nimura.In the demonstration, work mode also disabled the phone'scamera.When the phone lost the network connection or tapped on the NFC card, it was returned to its conventional home screen and stricter corporate security policies were removed.The same system could also be used to deliver corporate apps to workers outside of the office, maintaining the securitypolicies in place for access and use of the data.Fujitsu hopes to release the technology as its Mobile Enterprise Application Platformlater this year.
AT&T to buy Verizon spectrum for $1.9 billion
The new spectrum will help thecompany deploy 4G LTE services and meet mobile broadband demand from smartphones and tablets IDG News ServiceAT&T will buy mobile spectrumin the 700MHz band from Verizon Communications for US$1.9 billion, AT&T said Friday.AT&T will pay cash and trade AWS (advanced wireless services) spectrum for the B block of the 700MHz spectrum,the company said. Verizon will gain AWS spectrum licenses in several markets, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Portland, Oregon, AT&T said in a press release.[ Understand how to both manage and benefit from the consumerization of IT trend with InfoWorld's"Consumerization Digital Spotlight" PDF special report. |Subscribe to InfoWorld'sConsumerization of IT newslettertoday, then join our#CoIT discussion group at LinkedIn. ]In April,Verizon pledged to sellofftwo 12MHz blocks of mobilespectrum in the 700MHz band, including the B block, if U.S. regulators approved its purchase of spectrum from a group of cable providers.The U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved Verizon's purchase ofthe cable spectrum in August.Verizon purchased the 700MHzspectrum in a 2008 FCC auction. AT&T was also a major purchaser of B block licenses. The 700 MHz licenses to be acquired by AT&T cover 42 million people in 18 states, including California, Florida, New York and Virginia.The deal complements AT&T's existing holdings in the B block,the company said in a press release. The new spectrum willhelp the company deploy 4G LTE services and meet mobile broadband demand from smartphones and tablets, it added.In conjunction with the transaction, AT&T will sell a single AWS license to Grain Management, a wireless private equity firm, and will lease 700 MHz spectrum from Grain Management in three markets.The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. AT&T said it anticipates closing the transaction in the second half of 2013.
Windows earnings report a work of smoke and mirrors
Microsoft says the Windows division generated the most revenue last quarter, but in theend the report tell us absolutely nothing about Windows 8 sales
Last November I talked about the wayMicrosoft stacks the deck in its financial reports-- all perfectly legal, of course -- to obfuscate sales of its new Windows systems. We saw it happen with Vista and Windows7, and we're seeing it again with Windows 8. As I said back then: "We're likely to know lessabout Windows 8 sales in January than we do now."That's exactly what's happened.Microsoft released its fiscal Q2 resultslast night, and the sales part of the equation -- $21.5 billion for the whole company, up 3 percent year-over-year -- was exactly what everyone wanted to see: slow, steady growth. Profits weren't quite asreassuring, with operating income down 3 percent from last year, but it's hard to argue with a $7.8 billion profit.Once again, we saw deft application of the deferred revenue technique. Microsoft can book income from a sale now or later, depending on its estimates of how many customers have upgraded, or will upgrade, to Windows 8. Theearnings reportgives both numbers, with and without deferrals.If you ignore the revenue deferrals, the Windows divisionhad just under $5.9 billion in income. Include the deferrals and the adjusted figure is just under $5.3 billion, which is$518 million -- or 11 percent --higher than a year ago. That's quite an accomplishment, given the fact that PC sales in the fourth quarter of 2012 weredown 6.4 percent, year over year, according to IDC.The one hard and fast accounting rule is that Microsoft has to unwind all of its Windows 8 revenue deferrals by the end of February, when itsupgrade offers expire. There's an extra$1.1 billion in deferred incomefloating around that will show up in the Windows division's fiscal Q3 report, unless it comes up with a different accounting technique.So look for a similarly obfuscating but apparently positive report on Windows division sales next quarter.The best analysis of the numbers I've seen comes fromMatt Rosoff at CITEworld. Rosoff estimates that at least$300 million of that $518 million difference came from sales of Surface RT. Microsoft claims its volume license sales were up more than 10 percent from last year. It also says that OEM revenue "outperformed the overall x86 PC market." Considering the overall PC market was down 6.4 percent, I'd call that damning with extremely faint praise.I guess we could try to read something into the fact that Microsoft repeated its statement from three weeks ago that it's sold60 million copies of Windows 8. But the original statement was so squishy it wasn't even credible.If Windows 8 were tracking at 18 to 20 million copies per month, as Windows 7 did for most of its later lifetime, I'm sure we would've heard something about 70 million or 75 million in Win8 sales to date. But we haven't. We also haven't heard diddly about Windows RT sales.In the end, what does Microsoft's quarterly report tell us about Windows 8?Absolutely nothing -- which, I suspect, is exactly what the brass at Microsoft want.
Twitter updated embedded tweets with new features
Twitter has added some new functionalities to embedded tweets such as now tweets have more space for your content and context, embed tweet to your website etc
Tweets bring you closer to what’s happening around the world, from breaking news to global conversations. With embedded Tweets, you can see and interact with Tweets across the web. We often embed Tweets here on our blog to highlight great Tweets, photos and other content shared on Twitter; you can embed any Tweet on your website too.
Embedded Tweets display photos, videos, article summaries and other content shared in a Tweet, just like you see on twitter.com. You can also view retweet and favorite counts to better understand engagement, and we’ve made some tweaks to the design so that embedded Tweets are easier to read.
You’ll see Embedded Tweets show up faster on the sites you visit.

With updated embedded features, you can easily embed any Tweet on your own website. Just click the “More” button in any Tweet on twitter.com, and then select “Embed this Tweet” to enrich your blog posts or pages.
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How to Reset Windows 8 Password in Minutes
According to Microsoft, Windows 8 is most secure operating system ever and Microsoft also claims, it is pretty difficult to crack Windows 8, but Microsoft has forgot to fix its password reset hack that also works on earlier windows version including windows 7, windows vista, and Windows Server 2008.
To change Windows 8 user’s password, all you have to need is Windows 8 System Recovery disc or USB flash drive. This hack work with built-in troubleshooting tools, So no third-party software is required.
reboot.pro user Jamal H. Naji has discovered this windows 8 password hack,
It has been less than 2 months since the launch of Windows 8 and I recieved tons of emails from Boot-Landers /members and guests also friends and collegues asking me if there’s a way to reset a forgotten Windows 8 password the easiest way ? The answer was yes and as usual without the need for any third party software to unlock or remove or reset the user or admin account password. Here I will try to make an easy to follow tutorial that will be useful for novice users as well as professionals when they get stuck behind the logon screen of a Windows 8 because they lost or forgotten their password.
Check at below how to reset windows 8 account password:-
1- You need a Windows 8 PC to make a System Recovery Disk .
2- You need a CD Burner + Blanck CD.
3- If you have a tablet or a netbook and you don’t have a CD burner then You need a 512 MB USB thumb drive to make a System Recovery USB instead.
4- To make a system recovery CD, Go to control panel and navigate to Windows 7 File Recovery, click on that icon, and
from the next screen choose from the top left ( Create a System Recovery Disk ) and follow the on-screen instructions to make
that CD.
5- To make a System Recovery USB thumb drive go to control panel and navigate to ( Recovery ), click on that icon and from
the next screen choose ( Create a recovery drive ) and follow the instructions to make a bootable System Recovery USB.
6- When you are ready, boot the locked PC that needs to be unlocked with that CD or USB you just made, and follow the
pictures below :



7- The command prompt screen will open, type : diskpart and hit Enter key

8- Type : list vol and hit Enter key (watch for spaces)

9- locate your Windows partition letter ( in our case here the letter will be C drive)
10- Type : Exit and hit Enter key.

11- Type: c: and hit Enter key (your Windows drive maybe different so change it accordingly to the drive letter you have)

12- Type: cd windows (watch for spaces ) and hit Enter key

13- Type: cd system32 (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key

14- Type: copy cmd.exe cmd.exe.original (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key.

15- Type: copy Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.original (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key.

16- Type: del Utilman.exe (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key.

17- Type: ren cmd.exe Utilman.exe (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key.

18- Type: Shutdown -r -t 00 (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key, the PC will restart.

19 – When you reach the Logon screen click on the Ease of Access Center icon on the left bottom side of the screen.

20 – The command prompt window will open

21- Type: net user (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key.

22- Type: net user Reboot.Pro * ( replace Reboot.Pro with the name you find in your pc) and hit Enter key

23- now type the new password you want and hit Enter key( when you type the cursor will not move and you will not see what you
type, so be careful what you type, because you are typing blindly the new password)

24- confirm the new password when prompted and hit Enter key when done:

25- Type exit and hit the Enter key to close the command window.
26- Logon now to the locked account with the new password you just created.
27- After successfully unlocking your account and resetting the account password now you need to roll back the changes you
made to Utilman.exe and cmd.exe, so go ahead and boot your pc with the System Recovery CD or USB you made earlier in this
tutorial and repeat steps in # 6 so you open the command prompt window :
28- Type: c: and hit Enter key(your Windows drive maybe different so change it accordingly to the drive letter you have) [see picture below]
29- Type: cd windows (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key [see picture below]
30- Type: cd system32 (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key [see picture below]
31- Type: del Utilman.exe (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key [see picture below]
32- Type: ren Utilman.exe.original Utilman.exe (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key [see picture below]
33- Type: ren cmd.exe.original cmd.exe (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key [see picture below]
34- Type: shutdown -r -t 00 (watch for spaces) and hit Enter key to reboot your pc [see picture below]

35- Now when the pc reboots and reaches the logon screen, check to see if the Utilman is fixed and returned back to place by
clicking on its icon on the bottom left side of the screen, if the Ease of Access list pops up then you succeeded in your work.
See picture below.

PS: some of you might have a Windows 8 Installation DVD, he can use it also in this process, boot with this Windows DVD and
when you reach the first screen where you have to click next – stop there and hit SHIFT key + F 10 , the command prompt window
will pop up and you can use it as we did in steps 7 onward to the end. see picture below

[Source: Reboot.pro]
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Exciting Features of Windows 8 as Infographic
The infographic gives users a glance at the various stages of development, editions and the usage of Windows 8 on various devices. Data, statistics and details of the salient features of the OS are presented with clarity along with striking illustrations. The listing of pros and cons lets users to know what they can expect from the OS.

Infographic is designed by Dot Com Infoway – Infographic Design Services
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Your facebook account has been blocked due to suspicious activity
A bogus email claims facebook users that, “Your account has been blocked due to suspicious activity”, and tricks with them to click on malicious link to verify their facebook account.
Subject:- Account suspicious activity
Email Body:-
Hi {victims-name},
Your account has been blocked due to suspicious activity.
To verify account, please follow this link:
http://www.facebook.com/confirmemail.php?e={victims-email}&c=6655953
You may be asked to enter this confirmation code: 6655953
The Facebook Team
The above email is personalized email, that can targets to any specific persons.

Don’t be surprised to see the facebook link, Cybercriminals hide their actual malicious URL under facebook fake URL, This is very simple way to trick with peoples, lets see how it works.
Clicking on this link www.yahoo.com redirects to my home page, www.yahoo.com, You can see actual URL by hovering your mouse pointer on the link.
So when any one clicks on the link, it redirects to fake facebook login page or facebook phishing page, and asks you to your login information.
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How to turn on SSL for your Yahoo Mail
Yahoo mail has added SSL to more secure your email account, Previously Yahoo mail only supports https for login page after login, https convert to http, But from Now Yahoo mail provides Https for entire account.
If you sign in to Yahoo! Mail via a non-secure Internet connection such as a wireless network, your Yahoo! account is more vulnerable to hijacking. Non-secure networks make it easier for someone to impersonate you and gain full access to your Yahoo! account, including any sensitive data you may be storing. Enhance the security of your entire Yahoo! Mail session with HTTPS data encryption (via security socket layer, or SSL) and protect your account from hijackers and fraud.
By default yahoo did not turn on SSL, you have to enable it manually, check it below how to turn SSL for your yahoo mail account:-
Step 1:- First of all, login to your yahoo mail account.
Step 2:- Now click on the settings icon at the top right corner of the screen and select Mail options.
Step 3:- After default page open(General menu), move to to Advanced Settings and check the turn on SSL box.

Step 4:- Now in pop up menu click on the Ok, and save it.
After saving settings, your page refreshes, and it turns on SSL for your yahoo mail account. If your want to turn off SSL then follow all above steps again.
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Anonymous Group threatens UK Government
The hacking group, Anonymous threatens UK government to changed current systems. They warned government to assist their requests another they have declared war.
Greetings citizens of the world, we are anonymous.
Government of the United Kingdom, It has come to our attention, that despite our continued warnings, you have decided to disregard our requests to assist the people of this country, and have persisted in running a system which only benefits yourselves and the giant corporate bodies operating here.
We have asked politely on many occasions that you change your attitude towards leadership, that you serve the country rather than control it, that you maintain the rights and freedoms of citizens. Instead, you have decided to impose worsening austerity measures upon the people of the UK, increasing taxes for citizens and small businesses, making cuts to our National Health Service, education system, pensions and police force.
You have told the people that the only option out of the financial crisis is to make cuts and have made this humours joke of “we are all in this together”, while simultaneously giving tax breaks to the wealthy corporations, enormous bonuses to the bankers who are responsible for the financial crisis in our country, and increasing your own wages.
You have created to system which ensures the poor remain poor, and the wealthy remain wealthy. You continue to infringe on the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people, attempting to gain access to our private and confidential information. It is now very clear to us that you have no intention of running the country for our people, but you will continue to run it to benefit yourselves.
This system has failed us. We now have homeless people dying on the streets this winter, people unable to support their families. People can no longer afford their education; you keep the elderly in work for much longer, keeping jobs and opportunities for younger people out of reach. The number of unemployed has skyrocketed. In response, you force those on benefits into unpaid labour, doing more hours unpaid than those who are properly employed. You add insult to injury, we say enough is enough.
To the UK government, you have made an enemy of Anonymous, you have angered us considerably and we pose a significant threat to you. You disregard the requests of the people and continue to operate for your own selfish gain. Anonymous is not a small group of powerless people to ignore, we are an organised , globally active, collective of like-minded individuals and our message is clear, we declare war on this current system you have imposed on us. Your worst enemy is now your own people. The revolution has begun.
We are anonymous,
We are legion,
We do not forgive,
Check Out Anonymous Youtube Video:
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Microsoft repairs flaws in Forefront UAG, critical Office flaw
sandbox
Gary McGraw on mobile security: It’s all about mobile software security
ABOUT THE [IN]SECURITY COLUMN
Thirteen principles to ensure enterprise system security
Don’t try to go it alone if you can’t. And don’t feel bad about asking for help; this stuff is tricky.
MORE BY GARY MCGRAW
Gary McGraw is the CTO of Cigital, Inc., a software security consulting firm with headquarters in the Washington, D.C. area and offices throughout the world. He is a globally recognized authority on software security and the author of eight best selling books on this topic. His titles include Software Security, Exploiting Software, Building Secure Software, Java Security, Exploiting Online Games, and 6 other books; and he is editor of the Addison-Wesley Software Security series. Dr. McGraw has also written over 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, authors a monthly security column for SearchSecurity and Information Security magazine, and is frequently quoted in the press. Besides serving as a strategic counselor for top business and IT executives, Gary is on the Advisory Boards of Dasient (acquired by Twitter), Fortify Software (acquired by HP), Wall + Main, Inc., and Raven White. His dual PhD is in cognitive science and computer science from Indiana University where he serves on the Dean's Advisory Council for the School of Informatics. Gary served on the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors and produces the monthly Silver Bullet Security Podcast for IEEE Security & Privacy magazine (syndicated by SearchSecurity).