Fireside Chat with Gibson Energy: Talking Data Center Consolidation, IoT and Cloud Security

Gibson Energy, a 60-year-old Canadian company, specializes in the transportation, storage, blending, processing, and distribution of crude oil and other refined products. The company, headquartered in Calgary, also offers oilfield waste and water management services.

https://blog.fortinet.com/2017/11/16/fireside-chat-with-gibson-energy-talking-data-center-consolidation-iot-and-cloud-security

Improve business productivity with IBM Cloud

Think you deleted that embarrassing WhatsApp message you sent? Think again

At the end of last month, to the undoubted delight of many users, WhatsApp began rolling out a long craved-for feature: the ability to “unsend” those messages that you almost instantly regret as soon as you hit the Send button.

The feature, which was rolled out on the latest versions of WhatsApp for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and desktop, simply requires the regretful messenger to tap and hold on the offending message, choose “Delete” and then select “Delete for everyone”.

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/11/16/whatsapp-deleted-messages/

BMC Mainframe Solutions Accelerate Secure Digital Experiences with IBM® z14™

BMC solutions protect customers' critical data and provide highest level of security and compliance

http://newsroom.bmc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=253321&p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=2317315

BMC SURVEY: New Management Approaches, Intelligent Capabilities are Required for Multi-Cloud Environments

40 percent of IT decision makers do not know how much they are spending on cloud services

BMC recommends that organizations re-think their current multi-cloud management approaches to address new complexities

78 percent of global respondents are looking at applying artificial intelligence to manage multi-cloud environments

http://newsroom.bmc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=253321&p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=2316699

Executive Insights: Stopping Threats Starts with Getting Back to the Basics

Over the past year there have been a large number of high profile security breaches. Millions of organizations have been impacted. Tens of millions of names along with personally identifiable information has been stolen. Billions of dollars in damages have resulted. It’s almost like we haven’t been investing more time and money into cybersecurity than ever.

https://blog.fortinet.com/2017/11/15/stopping-threats-starts-with-getting-back-to-the-basics

Spotlight: Fattmerchant Offers Subscription-based Payment Processing for Business

Subscription businesses have made an impact on nearly every industry, from music to beauty supplies. And now, the idea is coming to payment processing, thanks to Fattmerchant.

You can read more about the business and its unique way of serving merchants in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.

https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/11/flat-rate-credit-card-processing-fattmerchant.html

US rules on reporting cybersecurity flaws set to change according to source

UPDATE: Just after 9AM Washington, D.C. time the US government published three documents that describe its Vulnerabilities Equities Policy (VEP) and the process by which decisions about vulnerability disclosure are made. Here are the documents:

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/11/15/us-rules-reporting-cybersecurity-flaws-change-according-source/

Squarespace Launches New Mobile App for Tracking Customer Analytics

The redesigned mobile analytics platform from Squarespace gives you valuable insights into your website so you can make informed decisions about your small business.

The new Squarespace Analytics app delivers a range of metrics about your website on your iOS and Android mobile device. You can access the information any time no matter where you are by using the desktop analytic capabilities.

https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/11/squarespace-analytics-app.html

Crush Your Competition with these Website Building Basics

Let’s start this off on the right foot — your website is really important.

Once a customer chooses you over your competition in search, it’s extremely important that your website provide all the information and deep facts about your business in a way that’s easy to navigate. No argument.

https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/11/website-building-basics.html

US Vulnerability Equities Policy: transparency welcome, but serious questions remain

Here is a good essay question for students of cybersecurity and public policy: “Does the government jeopardize internet security by stockpiling the cybervulnerabilities it detects in order to preserve its ability to launch its own attacks on computer systems?”

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/11/15/us-vulnerability-equities-policy-questions-remain/

Azure IoT Edge brings AI and advanced analytics capabilities to the edge

Remote locations. Rugged job sites. Spotty connectivity. In many industries, such conditions are a reality, making Internet of Things scenarios such as cloud analytics and real-time response more costly and unpredictable. Today Microsoft announced the public preview of Azure IoT Edge, a new service that deploys cloud intelligence to local IoT devices via containers.

https://blogs.microsoft.com/iot/?p=24934

Creating A Better Cloud

Creating A Better Cloud: There’s a great deal of chatter out there about the cloud computing models, differing views and speculation about winning technologies and drivers of cloud adoption, as well as the direction of the industry.

Getting Ready for the Holidays: Your Safe Online Shopping Guide

https://blog.fortinet.com/2017/11/13/getting-ready-for-the-holidays-your-safe-online-shopping-guide

InfiniBand Accelerates 77 Percent of New High-Performance Computing Systems on TOP500 Supercomputer List

InfiniBand Connects 2 of the Top 5 Supercomputers, Including World's Fastest Supercomputer;

InfiniBand Connects 6 times more new HPC systems versus Proprietary Interconnects (June'17 - Nov'17); Mellanox Connects all 25 Gigabit and above Ethernet Systems

http://ir.mellanox.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1048461

New FortiGate 300E and 500E, the Next Era of NGFW Has Arrived

The sheer amount of data being communicated and processed around the world continues to grow at a staggering rate. The Internet stands as the primary driver of the global data explosion. But newer technologies that ride on the Internet, such as cloud computing, X-as-a-Service offerings, and Internet of Things (IoT), means that more sensitive and business critical information than ever is in motion within and beyond the traditional boundaries of individual enterprise IT infrastructures.

https://blog.fortinet.com/2017/11/13/new-fortigate-300e-and-500e-the-next-era-of-ngfw-has-arrived

Mellanox InfiniBand Solutions to Accelerate the World's Next Fastest Supercomputers

Mellanox InfiniBand Technology Delivers Breakthrough Performance and Advanced Accelerations to Accommodate the Department of Energy Computing Goals

http://ir.mellanox.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1048438

Deployment Collaboration With Lenovo Will Power Canada's Largest Supercomputer Centre With Leading Performance, Scalability for High Performance Computing Applications

http://ir.mellanox.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1048437

Mellanox InfiniBand to Accelerate Japan's Fastest Supercomputer for Artificial Intelligence Applications

Fujitsu Selects InfiniBand Smart Interconnect Solution due to its Superior Performance and Scalability

http://ir.mellanox.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1048436

Transparency of machine-learning algorithms is a double-edged sword

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will come into force on May 25, 2018, redefines how organizations are required to handle the collection and use of EU citizens’ personal data.

Debates around the GDPR focus mostly on the global reach of this legislation, the draconian fines it introduces, or its stricter rules for “informed consent” as a condition for processing personal data.

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/11/13/transparency-machine-learning-algorithms/

Tax Refund Phishing In Malaysia – How They Bypass The Two Factor Authentication Security System

https://blog.fortinet.com/2017/11/12/tax-refund-phishing-in-malaysia-how-they-bypass-the-two-factor-authentication-security-system

Multi-stage malware sneaks into Google Play

Another set of malicious apps has made it into the official Android app store. Detected by ESET security systems as Android/TrojanDropper.Agent.BKY, these apps form a new family of multi-stage Android malware, legitimate-looking and with delayed onset of malicious activity.

We have discovered eight apps of this malware family on Google Play and notified Google’s security team about the issue. Google has removed all eight apps from its store; users with Google Play Protect enabled are protected via this mechanism.

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/11/15/multi-stage-malware-sneaks-google-play/

The OnePlus 5T leaks before its Nov. 21st release date (Googlicious)

#Google

Did iPhone X's Face ID already get tricked? (The 3:59, Ep. 316)

Developing virtual reality video games with Watson

#VR

Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner at LinkedIn, Oct. 2017

IBM Watson Classroom - Creating amazing learning experiences

IBM X-Force Red: Defending Against Cyber Attacks

Consider These 3 Benefits of Using AI in Ecommerce

Ecommerce continues its meteoric growth. As of 2016, online sales accounted for 8.3 percent of all sales in the United States.

Research firm, Forrester, predicts that online sales will skyrocket to $459 billion in 2017, totaling 12.9 percent of retail sales.

https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/11/ecommerce-ai.html

Twitter Promote Mode Automatically Boosts Small Business Tweets for $99 a Month

If you’re struggling with setting up a social media ad campaign, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) has just introduced a solution right up your alley.

The new Twitter Promote Mode is an “always-on, amplification engine” which automatically boosts tweets and profiles.

https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/11/twitter-promote-mode.html

How to Learn from Dark Data Lurking in Your Small Business

It’s time to bring the data in your company out of the dark.

Yep — out of the dark.  At this very moment, most of your data is languishing in various systems.  It’s in your accounting system, your CRM system, your ERP system, it’s in your social media accounts, and it’s even in spreadsheets and other documents.

https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/11/dark-data-small-business.html

New Facebook Feature Allows Small Businesses to Integrate Messenger on Their Websites

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) just introduced a new feature for its Facebook Messenger platform that will allow businesses to integrate Messenger into their own websites.

https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/11/facebook-messenger-customer-chat-small-business.html

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Western District of Pennsylvania

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, October 30, 2017

California Man Sentenced for Developing Malware and Infecting Computers

PITTSBURGH - A resident of Santa Clara, California, has been sentenced in federal court to 24 months’ probation on his conviction of accessing a protected computer without authorization and initiating spam messages, Acting United States Attorney Soo C. Song announced today.

United States District Judge Arthur J. Schwab imposed the sentence on Sean Tiernan, age 29, of Santa Clara California.

According to information presented to the court, Tiernan, from his computer located in California, was involved in the development of malware, or a malicious computer program, which was programmed to infect computers at a rapid rate by spreading through the computer users’ use of social networking websites. Once a computer was infected with the malware, the malware was programmed by Tiernan to automatically communicate and receive direction from servers over the Internet which were controlled by Tiernan, without knowledge of the infected computers’ owners. The servers which the infected computers called back to were, in and of themselves, previously ‘hacked’, and were also being used without the knowledge of their legitimate owners. The combination of these hacked servers and malware-infected computers formed what is known as a "botnet”. This botnet was controlled by Tiernan and was used to transform the infected victims’ computers into proxy computers from which a high volume of spam (commercial electronic mail) messages could be sent over the Internet to other computers. Since on or about at least August 1, 2011, Tiernan would sell access to his botnet to those who sought to send out these commercial electronic email messages for their own personal commercial gain. At the time of the search of Tiernan's residence and computer via a search warrant on or about October 1, 2012, over 77,000 bots, or infected computers, were active in Tiernan's botnet. Each of these computers, along with the hacked servers used to control them, necessarily were “protected” computers because they were accessed over the Internet in order to be compromised without the owners’ consent. Several of these infected computers in Tiernan's botnet were located in the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Assistant United States Attorney James T. Kitchen prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

Acting United States Attorney Song commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Tiernan.