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BetaNews.Com (12 non lus)

Will your NCAA basketball team reach March Madness? Ask Microsoft's Bing Predicts

Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 8:10pm CET par Brian Fagioli

Whether or not you attended or graduated from college, if you are a fan of basketball, you can totally enjoy March Madness. If you aren't familiar, this is a nickname for the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. Sixty eight teams will participate, but only one will be left standing at the end. Not only is it fun from a sports perspective, but for bracket competition and gambling purposes too.

While 68 teams sounds like a lot, there are far more colleges that won't even qualify for the tournament. My alma mater, Stony Brook University, has never qualified, but came close last year. Today, Microsoft announces a new website powered by Bing Predicts, which can predict the likelihood of a team participating in March Madness. Will your team make it?

"But why wait until Selection Sunday if you can find out today? I am excited to tell you about what Bing is working on to bring college basketball fans a one-of-a-kind predictive NCAAB experience. Arewein.net provides daily analysis from Bing Predicts on whether or not your team makes the tournament. Bing also predicts where your team will finish in the conference standings and if your team is in the tournament, what seed they will be in the Big Dance", says ESPN College Basketball Analyst, Jay Williams.

Williams further says, "The Bing Predicts team takes a look at historical statistics to see which factors contribute to strong teams who make the tournament either automatically or as an at-large bid. The Bing team then built their own power index model, updated daily, which takes in factors ranging from each team’s strength of schedule, opponents’ win/lose record, and even detailed statistical analysis regarding their on-court tendencies such as ball control, rebounding and field-goal percentage. Then, Bing Predicts adds web activity and social sentiment to tune the strengths, capturing real-time information like injuries and line-up changes".

As you can see in the above video, this is not simply guessing, but informed predictions based on solid data. Predictions are subject to change too -- things like injuries and ongoing performance can change over time.

Will my beloved Stony Brook Seawolves make the cut? According to Microsoft's official website, www.arewein.net, the answer -- today at least -- is that there is a 24 percent chance. Heck, I'll take it. Fingers crossed that the Seawolves qualify.

Who is your favorite NCAA Basketball team? Does Bing predict that they will reach March Madness? Tell me in the comments.

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Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 11099 arrives on the Fast ring

Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 7:35pm CET par Wayne Williams
It’s been a while since we’ve had any new Windows 10 preview builds, thanks to the holiday season, but Microsoft has at last pushed out a new build to the Fast ring. The software giant plans to make the Fast ring live up to its name this year with an accelerated release schedule.

In the future Microsoft’s criteria for releasing builds to the Fast ring will be much closer to its criteria for releasing them to its internal rings, which means new builds are likely to be buggier and suffer other issues. Build 11099, which is available for Insiders to download now, should be relatively stable however, as Microsoft has had a while to iron out any big problems.

The new build doesn’t contain any exciting new features. In fact it mostly makes structural improvements to OneCore, the core that Windows 10 shares across devices. This will, however, pave the way to greater changes down the line.

Explaining the improvements, Microsoft’s Gabe Aul says:

The code refactoring and other engineering work we’ve been doing to optimize OneCore is nearing the point where we will be ready for teams to begin checking in new features and improvements. It will still be a few builds before any really noticeable changes show up, depending on when teams begin lighting up new features in their areas. We’re excited for Insiders to use this build to validate the work we’ve been doing to OneCore, so give this build a try and let us know of any issues you run into via the Windows Feedback app.

This new build fixes a known issue from the last one with the progress dialog when copying or deleting files via File Explorer now showing up as expected.

As always, with Fast ring builds, there are other known issues to be aware of, and the details for those now appear in the Insider Hub. These are as follows:
- Log on for devices using Citrix XenDesktop may be broken. It is recommended that Insiders that use XenDesktop skip this flight by moving to the Slow ring.
- Applications that depend on Adobe Flash may crash upon launch. This will affect some version of Skype, QQ, WeChat, etc. This does not affect Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer.
- With this build, defaults for some applications will be reset. Music & Video will default to Windows Media Player. This can be reconfigured opening Cortana or Search and searching for "Choose default apps by file type" to open the correct settings page.
Photo credit: charnsitr / Shutterstock
Employees don't want a paperless office

Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 7:30pm CET par Sead Fadilpašić

The paperless office isn’t happening, people. We can blame lousy tablets or whatever we want, but research is clear: people still believe they’re more productive with the old fashioned pen and paper.

Epson Europe has conducted a research and surveyed more than 3,600 European employees, and here’s what they say: 64 percent said they’d rather read reports and brochures on a hard copy, as it’s easier to share (53 percent), easier to read (44 percent) and easier to edit (41 percent).

A majority (63 percent) also said errors are less likely on paper than in the digital form. In total, 83 percent believe ‘paperless office is unrealistic’.

With that in mind 86 percent of UK workers said banning paper would limit their productivity. Rob Clark, senior vice president of Epson Europe, states "it is clear from our research that -- despite digital advances -- people still like to work with paper, preferring print rather than working on-screen for certain tasks".

Clark continues: "The reality is organizations need printing, not only to help employees work more effectively but reap wider productivity. People collaborate effectively for many tasks digitally; for many others, a printed page is key, or an interactive whiteboard, an augmented reality headset or an in-person huddle. Businesses need to provide their employees with the options to use the best technology and processes for each task in each circumstance, from the humble printed page to the more sophisticated digital collaboration tools".

Even though digital documents might limit productivity, paper has its downsides too. Apparently, the average distance to a printer in the UK is 13 meters, marching 110 kilometers every year, and spending 19 hours a year walking to and from a printer.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

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Sharing ransomware code for educational purposes is asking for trouble

Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 6:21pm CET par Mark Wilson

Trend Micro may still be smarting from the revelation that there was a serious vulnerability in its Password Manager tool, but today the security company warns of the dangers of sharing ransomware source code.

The company says that those who discover vulnerabilities need to think carefully about sharing details of their findings with the wider public as there is great potential for this information to be misused, even if it is released for educational purposes. It says that "even with the best intentions, improper disclosure of sensitive information can lead to complicated, and sometimes even troublesome scenarios".

The warning may seem like an exercise in stating the bleeding obvious, but it does serve as an important reminder of how the vulnerability disclosure process should work. When it comes to security holes in software, there is usually a 90 day disclosure period during which the discoverer will warn the company responsible for it, before then going public.

But the same cannot be said of malware such as ransomware. Unlike software vulnerabilities -- which can usually be fairly easily patched -- publicizing the inner workings of malware can have far-reaching consequences. While antivirus vendors can push out updates to offer protection against known variants, sharing the source code for ransomware greatly increases the chances that more examples of the malware will be created, making it harder to fight.

Writing on the TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog, Trend Micro says that providing source code replete with warnings about how it should or should not be used is simply not good enough:

Unfortunately, anyone on the internet can disregard this warning. This became evident when Trend Micro discovered a hacked website in Paraguay that distributed ransomware. Our analysis showed that the website was compromised by a Brazilian hacker who used a modified Hidden Tear code.

The website has been compromised since Sept. 15 to Dec. 17 at the latest. It was compromised once again on December 18. The website redirects users to a fake Adobe Flash download website where they are prompted to download a new Flash player. Once the download is complete, the file will automatically run.

In this instance, the Hidden Tear ransomware in question had been shared on Github. Trend Micro recognizes the value in sharing information about how ransomware works with a view to building up protection, but says that this also opens up the possibility of exploitation by bad actors. Martin Roesler, Trend Micro Senior Director for Threat Research says:

We need to share knowledge that creates understanding about potential damage, but not the ability to create it. We need to share knowledge about 'who exploits work', but not 'how to make use of them'. We need to share knowledge 'how malware works', but sharing 'sample code' is not needed for that.

The advice is to share detailed information through secure channels, and only go public with vaguer information.

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Windows 10 adoption is strong among home users, lags behind in the enterprise

Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 4:41pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

Windows 10 seems to be building a core user base very nicely, just as Microsoft said when it revealed last week that it now runs on 200 million devices.

However, a study in the US suggests that most of those devices are in homes, not offices.
The study is based on US government data expressed as each Windows version’s percentage share of the total of Windows traffic reaching federal web sites.

What the study revealed was that Monday to Friday traffic was dominated by Windows 7 machines, circa 70 percent of all traffic visiting US federal sites, with the remaining 30 percent consisting of Windows XP, Windows 8 and Windows 10. However what is of interest is at weekends the proportions changed with Windows 7 traffic dropping considerably whilst windows XP, Windows 8 and Windows 10 rose sharply. This trend was most noticeable during the festive holidays when most businesses were closed.

Microsoft won’t be too upset by these revelations, as it knows that businesses are expected to take longer to migrate to a new operating system than consumers, what with all the complications that accompany a large-scale move. After all it took years to persuade businesses to upgrade from the flagship product Windows XP -- indeed most had to be forced to by Microsoft stopping support for its beloved product.

Microsoft is, however, doing its best to move things along by adopting tactics such as stopping pre-loaded versions of Windows 7 and discontinuing support for Internet Explorer.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

Photo credit: tanuha2001 / Shutterstock
Google Nexus 5X gets $30 price cut

Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 3:53pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

Last year, for the first time, Google introduced two new Nexus smartphones, giving its fans the option to choose between a smaller LG-built Nexus 5X, which is the much-awaited follow up to Nexus 5, and a premium Huawei-made Nexus 6P phablet, which replaces Nexus 6 in its lineup.

The former is definitely the more appealing of the two for price-conscious shoppers. The base Nexus 5X arrived with a $379 price tag, while the more expensive Nexus 6P launched at $499. Now Google has made Nexus 5X even more attractive, thanks to a permanent $30 price cut.

There are two Nexus 5X models and Google sells both on its site. The 16 GB base model can now be had for just $349, while the version with 32 GB of internal storage has dropped in price to $399 from $429.

The latter is the better buy, given the lack of expandable storage and the increasing storage demands that come with newer apps and games. However, potential buyers should also consider OnePlus 2, which is an excellent smartphone that offers even beefier hardware and more storage at a similar price point -- the version with 64 GB of internal storage and 4 GB of RAM can now be had for $379.

If you are interested in buying a Nexus 5X, make sure to read Joe Wilcox's first impressions piece and Ian Barker's review first.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox
Almost a quarter of companies are willing to pay $1m ransom to hackers

Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 3:06pm CET par Ian Barker

We all know that cyber attacks can be enormously disruptive, but how far would companies go to prevent an attack?

A new survey by the Cloud Security Alliance and Skyhigh Networks reveals that 24.6 percent of companies would be willing to pay a ransom to hackers to prevent a cyber attack and 14 percent would pay more than $1 million.

The report also shows a high level of confidence in the cloud which is seen as being more secure than on-site systems. That said, a lack of skilled security professionals is seen as being a barrier to companies seeking to prevent cloud data loss.

"It's shocking that so many companies are willing to pay even a penny’s ransom, and would trust hackers not to follow through with an attack. The idea that some would pay more than $1m is downright staggering. There are no guarantees at any price, and there is no way back once the payment is made," says Nigel Hawthorn, Skyhigh Networks' Chief European spokesperson. "Examples of companies refusing to pay up, such as Meetup.com, are few and far between. As such, hackers are increasingly confident they can hold businesses over a barrel, that they can execute crippling cyberattacks and that most businesses would rather pay up than put up. There will be several high profile examples of ransomware in 2016, and countless unreported incidents on top of that".

The European Cloud Adoption and Risk report also reveals that by the end of 2015, for the first time ever, the average European enterprise now uses more than 1,000 cloud applications -- with some companies using as many as 6,000. It shows a rise in EU-based cloud services too, which nearly doubled over a six month period (from 14.3 percent to 27 percent of services). Worryingly though only 8.1 percent of the 16,000 services analysed met enterprise requirements for data and privacy.

More information is available in the full report which can be downloaded from the Skyhigh website.

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DevOps adoption is limited among UK businesses

Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 3:04pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

According to a new study sponsored by CA Technologies and conducted in partnership with Freeform Dynamics, more than two-thirds of UK organizations claim they have broadly implemented DevOps or have done so in selected areas of the business.

However, only 11 percent of UK organizations have implemented DevOps across at least six different business areas.

The study highlights the essential attributes for DevOps success, grouped in three main areas: a business-led approach, skilled and collaborative IT resources and the adoption of key controls. UK organizations are currently falling short in all these areas.

The survey reveals that with regards these three essential attributes, 84 percent of UK organizations agree it is important to have IT and business alignment in relation to current or potential DevOps related activities, but only 36 percent have this in place. Furthermore, some 87 percent agree it is important to have the relevant IT skills in place, but only 24 percent currently do so.

Also in terms of having the right controls in place, 85 percent agree it is important to deal with the security and compliance challenges surrounding the DevOps methodology, but only 20 percent have already achieved this.

However, there is no question about the demand for the DevOps methodology among UK organizations. More than two-thirds (67 percent) have broadly implemented DevOps.

"This study reveals that UK organizations are missing out on the opportunities heralded by the application economy, because they are failing to adopt a fluid and experimental approach to product and service development", says Ritu Mahandru, VP Solution Sales, CA Technologies. "Digital interaction with customers, partners and suppliers increasingly takes place through applications, apps and online services".

"To innovate new customer experiences, be more agile and grow revenues, UK organizations require a much more rapid and continuous delivery of value to create competitive advantage, while simultaneously allowing IT to become more responsive and efficient".

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

Image Credit: Stock Rocket / Shutterstock
Browse, play and organize your movie files with Saleen Video Manager

Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 1:52pm CET par Mike Williams

We’re usually skeptical of media managers. They always promise big benefits, but often require a lot of setup time before they deliver, if you ever see them at all.

Saleen Video Manager is a little different. Yes, you can spend an age entering library data, if you like -- but it also gives you plenty of movie manager tools you can use right away.

Setup begins much like similar tools: point the program at folders containing your movie files, and it imports them into a common library.

This brings immediate benefits as you can search it, sort the files by name, length and more, or use simple sliders to filter them by date, making it easier to find the videos you need.

But the big plus here is that the program also extracts video thumbnails as it imports each movie. This might take a while -- especially if you’re accessing terabytes of data on a network share over a Wi-Fi connection -- but the process is automatic, so you can just leave it to work.

Once that’s done, clicking any video in the library displays those frames on a timeline. Not only does that make it easier to find a particular movie, but double-clicking any of those frames starts playing the file at that point -- a real time-saver.

Organizing your collection is simple. Multiselect some files (or search by file name and press Ctrl+A to select all), and right-clicking gives you options to send them to a new collection (a separate set of videos) or a new playlist. Even as a new user you’ll have it figured out in seconds.

Right-clicking gets you a few file management tools, as well -- Rename, Delete, "Open in Explorer". Strictly basics-only, but enough to get by.

And if you want to spend time building up your library, you can do that, too. Each file can be rated, tagged, given a title, description, actor details, URLs and more, and you can then search on the tags as well as the file name.

There are some issues. You may have to install extra components before the player and video extractor will work (VLC, or K-Lite Codec Pack), and the interface needs a little work.

Still, Saleen Video Manager’s thumbnail-based browser is handy, and -- assuming you’ve nothing similar already -- probably justifies the download all on its own. Take a look.

Saleen Video Manager is a free-for-non-commercial-use application for Windows 7 and later.
PC market sees biggest-ever drop in shipments, but don't blame Windows 10

Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 1:50pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

Things are not looking good for the PC market. The fourth quarter of 2015 registered the biggest-ever year-over-year drop in shipments, as IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker revealed a 10.6 percent fall compared to the same period in 2014. For the whole of 2015, shipments are said to have dropped by 10.4 percent compared to the year prior.

Lenovo was the vendor with most PCs shipped in 2015, followed by HP and Dell. However, with the exception of Apple, all other vendors in IDC's top five have seen their shipments dropping last year. Mac shipments rose by 6.2 percent, according to the report.

Shipments for the whole of 2015 were 276.21 million units, while a year prior vendors moved 308.36 million units. In the fourth quarter of 2015 there were 71.88 million PCs shipped, while a year before vendors shipped 80.43 million units.

While it may be easy to see the continued decline in PC shipments as Windows 10's inability to attract consumers, IDC points out that the latest numbers have been influenced by a multitude of factors. The company says that the longer PC lifecycles, competition from mobile devices, economic issues, social disruptions, changes in the Windows market, and the availability of the free upgrade to Windows 10 offer that Microsoft has extended to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users, all played a role in how the PC market was affected in 2015.

IDC is hoping that the PC market will recover this year, as consumers will be looking to replace existing devices with new ones. "Commercial adoption of Windows 10 is expected to accelerate, and consumer buying should also stabilize by the second half of the year", adds IDC vice president of Worldwide PC Tracker Loren Loverde. "Most PC users have delayed an upgrade, but can only maintain this for so long before facing security and performance issues. We continue to believe that a majority of these users will purchase another PC, motivated by new products and attractive pricing".

IDC points out that, if it were to count detachable tablets as PCs, the year-over-year decline in the fourth quarter of 2015 as well as in 2015 as a whole would be roughly five percent and 7.5 percent, respectively. What's more, they would turn change forecasts for 2015 from a 3.1 percent decline to a growth of between one and two percent. This category is said to be "growing quickly but from a small base".

Speaking of the US market, IDC's Linn Huang says that it "fell minus 4.3 percent year over year to 17.4 million units. Although the US dollar has been strengthening in lieu of currency crises in other regions, consumers here are not immune to economic concerns that have persisted globally".

"The free upgrade path to Windows 10 allowed some consumers who might otherwise have shopped for new PCs during the holiday season to obtain a 'new' PC experience. Additionally, the launch of the iPad Pro may have siphoned off some consumer interest in traditional PCs. Consequently, the holiday season produced soft results for the US PC market", adds Huang.

Analyst firm Gartner is more optimistic with regards to shipments in 2015, claiming that there was only an 8.3 percent decline in the last quarter and an eight percent decline in the last year. Garner paints a similar picture in its top vendors chart, revealing year-over-year drops in shipments for all the major players with the exception of Apple, which registered a 5.8 percent increase.

"The fourth quarter of 2015 marked the fifth consecutive quarter of worldwide PC shipment decline", says Gartner principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa. "Holiday sales did not boost the overall PC shipments, hinting at changes to consumers’ PC purchase behavior. On the business side, Windows 10 generally received positive reviews, but as expected, Windows 10 migration was minor in the fourth quarter as many organizations were just starting their testing period".

Gartner expects PC shipments to decline by one percent in 2016, compared to 2015. However, Kitagawa says that the PC market will see its installed base being reduced in the coming years.

Worth noting is Asymco's Horace Dediu's claim that iOS devices trumped Windows PCs in shipments last year.

iOS overtook Windows last year, as expected. pic.twitter.com/5LgnZsxWaL

— Horace Dediu (@asymco) January 12, 2016

Photo Credit: Mopic/Shutterstock
Prediction #7: Internet of Things becomes a security nightmare

Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 1:44pm CET par Robert X. Cringely

This one is simple -- a confluence of anti-hacking paranoia combined with the Internet of Things (IoT), which will lead to any number of really, really bad events in 2016.

Remember how the CIA or the NSA or whatever agency it was hacked a few years ago the Iranian nuclear centrifuges making enriched uranium? The centrifuges updated their software over the Internet, loading doctored code that eventually caused the machines to overspeed and shake themselves to pieces, putting the Iranian nuclear program months or years behind.

Now imagine much the same thing happening to your Internet-connected thermostat, baby monitor, or car. We’ve already seen hacking demonstrations kill cars as they drive down the street. Well there will be lots more where that came from.

I’m sure we’ll see one or more really serious IoT data security breaches with profound negative effects in 2016, destroying property and possibly costing lives. This is unlikely to be the work of script kiddies and more likely to be state-sponsored.

The cyber war has already begun.

This is not to say we should abandon the IoT or the Internet (it’s already too late for either) but that hardening and making more resilient this new networking segment is vitally important, as is finding ways to monitor the IoT and quickly recover from attacks.

One thing is for sure: IoT data security is going to become a huge business over the coming years -- probably bigger than the IoT, itself.
Updated Android.Bankosy malware steals passwords sent through voice calls

Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 1:26pm CET par Mark Wilson

Around a year and a half ago, Symantec warned about the personal data stealing malware Android.Bankosy. Now the Trojan has been updated so it can steal passwords delivered via voice call-based two-factor authorization systems.

Such 2FA systems are often used by banks to communicate one-time passcodes to people. While these have usually been delivered via SMS, voice call delivery is becoming increasingly common. Malware makers are keen not to miss out on data stealing opportunities, and the Android.Bankosy introduces a call-forwarding feature that sends 2FA calls to a C&C server so the code can be intercepted and exploited.

The malware enables call-forwarding on an infected phone, and is also able to enable silent mode to avoid alerting a victim about incoming calls. A successful attack is dependent on a victim's basic login credentials having already been stolen, but the malware represents a worrying new development in breaking through banking security.

Detailing how Android.Bankosy works, Symantec's Dinesh Venkatesan says:

Once the malware is installed on the victim's device, it opens a back door, collects a list of system-specific information, and sends it to the command and control (C&C) server to register the device and then get a unique identifier for the infected device. If the registration is successful, it uses the received unique identifier to further communicate with the C&C server and receive commands.

Most of the commands supported by the malware are common and trivial for typical back door or financial Trojans, such as intercepting incoming SMS, deleting SMS messages, wiping the data, etc. Out of these multiple commands, the most relevant for Android.Bankosy is call_forwarding; when this command is received by the malware from the C&C server, it executes a payload to enable call forwarding.

Full details of the malware is available from Symantec.

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