Friday, April 26, 2013

BYOD could prompt employee lawsuits, cautions AirWatch chief


End-user agreements, MDM tools offer solutions to head of legal troubles

BYOD could lead to lawsuits from employees over privacy and overtime pay, warned John Marshall, chief executive officer of mobile device management firm AirWatch.

Marshall told Network World that he is concerned that there could soon be a BYOD class action lawsuit related to employees required to work overtime hours without compensation or privacy issues.


More:
http://www.fiercemobileit.com/story/byod-could-prompt-employee-lawsuits-cautions-airwatch-chief/2013-04-26

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Windows: It's over



Most people in our recent debate over the future of Windows 8 thought that the operating system could be saved. I'm sure many people in 1491 thought that the Earth was flat, too.

Win8-220
If Windows 8 continues the way it has been, it will be the end of Windows.

The very day the debate came to an end, this headline appeared: IDC: Global PC shipments plunge in worst drop in a generation. Sure, a lot of that was due to the growth of tablets and smartphones and the rise of the cloud, but Windows 8 gets to take a lot of the blame too. After all, the debate wasn't whether or not Windows 8 was any good. It's not. The debate was over whether it could be saved. 

Indeed even Microsoft defenders are no longer talking about Windows 8 in terms of a stand-alone project but instead they're spinning it asWindows 8 being "more like a living organism, made partly from familiar bits that have evolved over the last two decades, with several new strands of DNA tossed in. It's due to be updated for more often, and it's part of a much larger hardware-apps-services ecosystem that is also changing quickly."

Please. Changing too fast for the user-base was what turned many former Windows fans into Windows 8 haters. Some people think I've put too much emphasis on Windows 8's dismal Metro interface for why Windows 8 has failed. I don't think so. This isn't a matter of judging a book by its cover; the user interface (UI) is everything for computer users. If the UI alienates users, you lose them. It's as simple as that.


More:

http://www.zdnet.com/windows-its-over-7000013964/

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Um... Yeah. Let's see how this goes...


US and China form working groups to collaborate on cybersecurity, climate change
http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/13/4220874/united-states-china-form-working-groups-cybersecurity-climate-change


Infosecurity - Mobile malware gets serious – RATs can bypass sandboxes and encryption



Lacoon Mobile Security has announced details of its latest research undertaken in partnership with global mobile network providers. It sampled 2 million subscribers and found that 1 in 1000 users have been infected with a mobile RAT. Detailed figures have not been released, but 52% of the infections involve Apple's iOS devices, while 35% involve Android handsets.

"Infection of smartphones with mRAT requires the spyware to install a backdoor through the rooting of Android or the jailbreaking of Apple devices," says the announcement. The implication from this – which cannot be verified from the details so far released since it isn't clear whether the sampled devices were randomly selected or focused on rooted devices – is that there are huge numbers of jailbroken Apple devices; and around 1 in every 2000 iOS devices has a RAT installed. Jailbreaking almost always requires owner participation.

Once installed, the latest mRATs can bypass mobile device management (MDM) defenses. "MDM solutions create secure containers that separate business and personal data on the mobile. The concept is to prevent business critical data from leaking out to unauthorized individuals," explained Ohad Bobrov, CTO and co-founder of Lacoon Mobile Security. "However, our research team demonstrated that mRATs do not need to directly attack the encryption mechanism of the secure container, but can grab it at the point where the user pulls up the data to read it." That is, the RAT is able to access data either before it is encrypted or after it has been decrypted.

More:

http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/31801/mobile-malware-gets-serious-rats-can-bypass-sandboxes-and-encryption/

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Uh Oh... More People Are Returning BlackBerry Z10



In many cases, ITG says more people are returning the Z10 than keeping it and overall demand for the phone in the US is very weak.

The Z10 launched in late March on VerizonT-Mobile, and AT&T, but early reports say those carriers haven't done a great job at promoting the phone. AT&T was the first carrier to sell the phone and many stores didn't even have demo units on display on launch day.

BlackBerry's stock is down 5.4% as of this writing, trading at $13.89 per share.

UPDATE: BlackBerry disagrees. It sent out a statement to all press today saying Z10 returns are normal compared to other smartphones. BlackBerry closed down about 7.7% today.

Here's the statement:

BlackBerry wishes to respond to media coverage today regarding speculation that there have been abnormally high levels of returns of BlackBerry Z10 devices. This is absolutely false. Our data shows that return rates for BlackBerry Z10 devices both in the U.S. and on a global basis are in line with or better than our expectations and are consistent with return rates for other premium smartphones in the market today


Friday, April 5, 2013

LinkedIn Marketing Infographic: Creating A Kick-Ass LinkedIn Profile


The graphic was created from my personal profile and leaves no stone unturned for getting the perfect LinkedIn profile when it comes to:
  • Getting found by potential clients in LinkedIn & Google searches
  • Impressing prospects when they find you
  • Writing copy that creates action and has them reach out to you

Feel free to share this infographic anywhere on the web as long as you reference the source and hyperlink it back to this blog post.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Obama, Hagel take voluntary pay cuts - The Maddow Blog



Yesterday, with sequestration cuts taking their toll on several hundred thousand Defense Department employees, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced he would return a share of his salary for the same number of days that employees are docked because of furloughs. The Pentagon's deputy secretary, Ashton Carter, said he would do the same.

Today, in another instance of administration solidarity, President Obama took the same voluntary step.

Jon Stewart Weighs in on Defense-VA E-Health Record Standoff


It always scares me when Jon Stewart makes a statement that every member of congress should already know...

Army has lost control of its mobile devices, says DOD IG



The inspector general of the Defense Department reports that the Army’s Chief Information Office/G-6 has, in essence, lost control over commercial mobile devices (CMD) within the Army, and that more than 14,000 smartphones and tablets are untracked. The upshot is that the Army CIO office does not have an effective cybersecurity program that identifies and mitigates risks surrounding CMDs and removable media, according to the DOD IG.

“The Army did not implement an effective cybersecurity program for commercial mobile devices,” wrote Alice Carey, assistant DOD inspector general for readiness, operations and support, in a memorandum dated March 26. “If the devices remain unsecure, malicious activities could disrupt Army networks and compromise sensitive DOD information.”

More:

http://defensesystems.com/articles/2013/04/02/army-devices.aspx