Computer Records Stolen in 2011 Topped 368 Million

February 22, 2012 | Author: admin

RICHMOND, Va., Feb. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – The global economy may have remained weak in 2011, but criminal efforts to compromise personal information remained strong, according to Risk Based Security, Inc. (RBS). The total number of records exposed in 2011 topped 368 million and represents the highest annual lost records total ever recorded. The previous high mark was in 2009 with over 191 million records. Even more alarming is that 33 percent of the data breach incidents reported the number of records exposed is unknown and thus do not appear in the records total.

Risk Based Security’s 2011 year-end “Data Breach Intelligence” report shows that four incidents in 2011 have been added to the Top 10 all time ‘records lost’ list. When it comes to lost records, threats external to the organization dominate by accounting for 86.69% of all records lost in 2011.  The RBS Data Breach Intelligence report also revealed that computer-based intrusion (i.e., hacking) was responsible for 33 percent of the 2011 breaches, totaling 305,809,012 records. This represents 83 percent of the total number of exposed records in 2011. “Stolen Laptop”, the number one breach type all time through 2010, has now been replaced at the top spot by hacking.

This latest information and research conducted by Risk Based Security suggests that organizations in all industries need to take note that they face a very real threat from security breaches. Whether it is the constantly increasing security threats, ever-evolving IT technologies, or limited security resources, data breaches and the costs related to response and mitigation are escalating quickly.

 

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Netflix a Big Loser in Customer Satisfaction

February 22, 2012 | Author: admin

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Netflix suffers one of the largest drops in ACSI history as e-commerce inches up and competition stiffens, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s annual E-Commerce Report, produced in partnership with ForeSee. Customer satisfaction with e-commerce websites is up 1% to 80.1 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale, while Netflix plummets 14% to 74, the lowest score of any e-commerce website in the Index.

“E-commerce continues to shine in satisfaction, seemingly regardless of economic conditions. It is no wonder the sector continues to grow when you consider that satisfied consumers are more likely to increase spending as their means allow,” said Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI. “Satisfaction with brick and mortar retail is also improving, but we may never see it match the scores held by retail websites.”

A full analysis of the scores released today is available on ForeSee’s website

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AT&T Customers to Trial Enhanced Push To Talk Services

February 22, 2012 | Author: admin

DALLAS, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – In today’s fast-paced business world, every second counts. Communication must happen in a flash to keep an organization moving. And to help meet this need for speed, AT&T* is launching a charter program to trial a suite of enhanced push to talk (PTT) services that will take workgroup communications to the next level.

The enhanced PTT solution trial, powered by Kodiak Networks Inc. InstaPoC™ technology, will harness AT&T’s mobile broadband speeds, expansive wireless network coverage, broad portfolio of devices and the power of IP-based technology. That means faster and richer collaboration, lower cost of ownership and great potential for integration with mobile applications.

In addition, AT&T is working to integrate traditional private mobile radio (PMR) systems with this enhanced PTT service trial, and will demonstrate the functionality with Raytheon JPS at the 2012 International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE). AT&T and Raytheon expect that push to talk interoperability across different networks will extend coverage of existing PMR systems and facilitate better communications for field dispatch and operations, when many people from many different organizations need to reach each other quickly.

Charter Program Details

  • Selected business customers in a range of industries – transportation, utilities, manufacturing and more – will get a first look at potential PTT services through AT&T’s charter program.
  • Participants will use powerful, state of the art smartphones to test the technology.
  • The charter program will provide AT&T and customers with a better understanding of the potential that the enhanced PTT service can offer.
  • AT&T will work closely with customers participating in the program to measure results, and participants will have the opportunity to give feedback on their experiences.

For more information on the AT&T enhanced PTT charter program, visit http://www.corp.att.com/forms/ptts/.

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Apache HTTP Server Release v2.4

February 22, 2012 | Author: admin

OREST HILL, Md., Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of nearly 150 Open Source projects and initiatives, today announced version 2.4 of the award-winning Apache HTTP Server.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101020/DC84911LOGO)

Celebrating its 17th anniversary with an all-time record of nearly 400 million Websites powered worldwide(1), the Apache HTTP Server has been the most popular Web server on the Internet since April 1996.

“It is with great pleasure that we announce the availability of Apache HTTP Server 2.4,” said Eric Covener, Vice President of the Apache HTTP Server Project. “This release delivers a host of evolutionary enhancements throughout the server that our users, administrators, and developers will welcome. We’ve added many new modules in this release, as well as broadened the capability and flexibility of existing features.”

Numerous enhancements make Apache HTTP Server v2.4 ideally suited for Cloud environments. They include:

  • Improved performance (lower resource utilization and better concurrency)
  • Reduced memory usage
  • Asyncronous I/O support
  • Dynamic reverse proxy configuration
  • Performance on par, or better, than pure event-driven Web servers
  • More granular timeout and rate/resource limiting capability
  • More finely-tuned caching support, tailored for high traffic servers and proxies.

Additional features include easier problem analysis, improved configuration flexibility, more powerful authentication and authorization, and documentation overhaul. For the complete feature list, please see http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/new_features_2_4.html.

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Microsoft’s Local Language Program

February 21, 2012 | Author: admin

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 21, 2012 — In recognition of International Mother Language Day, Microsoft Corp., a strong supporter of language preservation, today highlighted the company’s Local Language Program (LLP), which enables the development of custom language translation. LLP enables 1.7 billion people worldwide to access technology in their own language, while striving to preserve those local languages and cultural identities.

Microsoft’s services and products focusing on the importance of language and culture through the LLP include the following:

• Localized versions of Windows and Microsoft Office are available in 37 languages.
• Nearly 100 languages are supported by Language Interface Packs through free downloads for Windows, Office and Visual Studio.
• The Microsoft Terminology Collection provides uniformity of meaning to IT terms translated to the local language.
• Microsoft Translator allows users to translate text and Web pages in 37 languages.
• Microsoft Tellme, a speech recognition platform, works across multiple platforms simplifying everyday tasks.
• The Microsoft Language Development Center works on many services, such as speech synthesis technology for under-resourced languages. In addition, through extensive research and development, it creates language opportunities for people worldwide with disabilities.

More information on LLP is available at http://www.microsoft.com/LLP.
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NVIDIA Tegra-Powered Smartphone Announced

February 21, 2012 | Author: admin

SANTA CLARA, CA — (Marketwire) — 02/20/2012 — NVIDIA and ZTE today announced the ZTE Mimosa X, the first smartphone to be powered both by the NVIDIA ®Tegra ® application processor and its Icera® modem, which came to NVIDIA through its Icera acquisition in mid-2011.

“The ZTE Mimosa X is exciting for a few reasons,” said Michael Rayfield, General Manager of the Mobile business at NVIDIA. “The Mimosa X marks the first time NVIDIA technology powers all the major processors in a single smartphone, and also the first time a premium mobile computing experience is coming to the mainstream smartphone market.”

The Mimosa X is powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor, featuring a dual-core CPU and GeForce® GPU, and the NVIDIA Icera 450 HSPA+ modem, comprising baseband and RF processors, featuring excellent throughput and low power. It will run Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0), feature a 4.3-inch qHD (960 x 540) screen, rear 5 MP and front cameras, and 4 GB of storage expandable to 32 GB.

The Mimosa X will be launched around Q2 2012. Positioned squarely for the mainstream market, it brings new levels of performance and connectivity to this large segment of users.

Consumers will now be able to use a mainstream smartphone to experience the same speedy web browsing, smooth multitasking, and HD video, as well as console-quality gaming with TegraZone, that was previously available only in high-end phones. TegraZone™ is NVIDIA’s free Android Market app that showcases the best games optimized for the Tegra processor.

For more information, see www.nvidia.com.

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Akamai Introduces Kona Site Defender to Protect Enterprises

February 21, 2012 | Author: admin

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Akamai® Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading cloud platform for delivering secure, high-performing user experiences to any device, anywhere, today introduced Akamai Kona Site Defender. The service is designed to protect the brand value of companies by shielding their web sites, applications and associated data in the face of increasing and more complex attacks.  These attacks can cost companies millions in lost transactions and business productivity each year, and even higher losses in their brand value and reputation.  With the introduction of Kona Site Defender, real-time web security monitoring, adaptive rate controls and other powerful features are bundled into a single, always on, cloud-based solution that can protect an enterprise’s most critical online business functions.

Akamai currently provides web security solutions to more than 300 enterprises – including financial institutions, retailers, government agencies, and media and entertainment companies organizing today’s most high-profile events – and has seen a more than 140 percent increase in customers taking advantage of Akamai security solutions from 2010 to 2011. And while many organizations still wish to pair acceleration with web security in order to give users of primary sites and web applications an optimal experience, an increasing number find that the requirement for protection from DDoS and application layer attacks applies to a much broader number of their web properties. The availability of Kona Site Defender makes it possible for these organizations to more easily protect web sites from attack without requiring the purchase of acceleration and optimization services.

“Attackers don’t stay on one layer anymore; they tend to include both network and application-based techniques, which makes defending against them more complicated,” said Wendy Nather, research director of 451 Research’s Enterprise Security Practice.  ”Enterprises are looking for resilient defense that takes advantage of the provider’s experience with large volumes of these kinds of attacks.”

To learn more visit www.akamai.com .

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Trend Micro Releases HijackThis as Open Source Code

February 20, 2012 | Author: admin

CUPERTINO, Calif., Feb. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cloud security leader, today announced the release of HijackThis as an open source application.

HijackThis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijackthis – scans your computer to find settings changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis also generates an in-depth report to enable expert users to analyze and fix an infected computer. Several security communities use HijackThis log files to help users evaluate and eradicate infections. A common practice for novice users is to generate a HijackThis log file and submit it to one of the many forums devoted to HijackThis on the web. Experts at these forums provide information on which items are causing your problems and how to remove them safely from your computer.

The code, originally written in Visual Basic, is now officially available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/.

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Truli.net Christian Media and Social Interaction Site

February 20, 2012 | Author: admin

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Truli will soon open the door to a wide variety of Christian spiritual and educational insights with entertainment elements – including sermons, music, concerts, movies, comedy and internet/TV programs – all within a trusted, secure and interactive online community brought together by a shared belief. Truli is a social network and content distribution platform for people to experience and interact with Christian multimedia in a way unlike anything offered for the Christian community today.

Leading up to the launch this summer, Truli is inviting ministries, musicians and film distributors to become part of the Truli experience now. In addition, Truli is inviting users to be a part of the pre-release testing in order to provide feedback prior to the public launch.

Truli will provide ministries, musicians and other content providers with a free distribution and content management platform. Upon signing with Truli, musicians, artists, teachers, ministries and film distributors will be able to start uploading their content into a pre-release version of the website. This content will then be accessible for early subscribers. The early content providers and subscribers will be able to give direct feedback and help shape the final user interface and experience.

For more information, please visit www.truli.net.

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SGI® ICE™ Supercomputer Hits Benchmark Speed Record

February 20, 2012 | Author: admin

Fremont, Calif. —2/15/2012

SGI (NASDAQ: SGI), the trusted leader in technical computing, announced today that its SGI® ICE™ 8400 high performance compute (HPC) system with AMD Opteron™ 6200 processors achieved the top performance number for 64-, 32-, 16-, 8-, and 4-socket configurations for the SPECMPIL2007 benchmark. The SPECMPIL benchmark is SPEC’s “benchmark suite for evaluating MPI-parallel, floating point, compute intensive performance across a wide range of cluster and SMP hardware,” according to the SPEC web site, http://www.spec.org/mpi2007.

The SGI ICE 8400 platform with AMD processors is a completely open platform optimized for HPC workloads and runs an off-the-shelf Linux® operating system for application compatibility. Although the ICE platform is able to comfortably support multi-petaflop sized installations, design considerations allow cost effective solutions down to a half rack. Single- or dual-plane integrated InfiniBand® can be cabled into four different topologies, including hypercube, enhanced hypercube, all to all, and fat-tree, allowing flexible network customization for a variety of workloads.

“The SGI ICE HPC platform is the speed and scale leader in the industry for scale-out workloads,” said Bill Mannel, vice president of product marketing at SGI. “Whether configured with a half rack or hundreds of racks, the platform is built on standard RedHat or SuSE Linux and managed by SGI Management Center, which provides full system management capabilities, along with SGI Performance Suite, with run-time optimizations.”

“SGI ICE platforms exemplify price-performance and manageability – key values for the customer,” said Patrick Patla, vice-president, server and commercial business, AMD. “Customers will be amazed at the speed at which this new SGI offering will allow them to run their code.”

Availability

SGI recently upgraded its SGI ICE 8400 to Opteron 6200 processors, and has been shipping configurations starting at $150,000 since November 2011. The company has a 2048-core ICE 8400 system with AMD 6282SE processors available for quantifying the performance of key applications. Potential customers are welcome to learn more about running their own performance benchmarks. Connect with SGI on Twitter (@sgi_corp), YouTube (youtube.com/sgicorp), and LinkedIn.

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