Tag: trends

Is Silicon Valley Underestimating IoT? | Venture Beat

In-brief: Tech visionary Tim O’Reilly says that Silicon Valley’s focused on connected gadgets may be underestimating the real, transformative potential of the Internet of Things. 

Bitcoin Blockchain: A New Foundation for Online Trust?| NYTimes

The New York Times has a really interesting story on the rise of Bitcoin’s “blockchain” technology as the foundation of a whole new wave of start-ups and applications – some of which could have big implications for Internet of Things. From the article: “As Bitcoin’s price has declined over the last year, critics have been quick to declare the virtual currency dead. Bitcoin’s true value, though, might be not in the currency itself but in the engine that makes it possible. Underlying Bitcoin — created as a way to make payments directly, anonymously and outside government control — is the block chain, a decentralized database that is driven by cryptography.” While the future of Bitcoin as a form of digital “cash” is uncertain, block chain is turning out to be a very useful technology for a variety of purposes – from streamlining financial transactions online to vouching for the authenticity of […]

SMEs Face Advanced Threat Sophistication Gap

In-brief: Cisco Vice President Scott Harrell says that small and mid-sized organizations are in the crosshairs of sophisticated cyber criminals. Unfortunately, such firms often lack the tools and skills to identify and contain such threats.

EFF: SSL Records Show Superfish Attacks in the Wild

  In-brief: The Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that it has evidence of man-in-the-middle attacks that take advantage of the same encryption-busting technology that Lenovo and Superfish implanted on consumer laptops.

Doctorow: Fearing an Internet of Things That Do As They’re Told

In-brief: In an essay for O’Reilly Radar, Cory Doctorow argues that remote management features that allow carriers to disable mobile phones are a mistake – taking technology owners’ autonomy and control over their data away in the name of preventing muggings and other crimes.