Two teams of researchers managed to win the biggest bounties at this year’s Pwn2Own hacking contest by escaping from the VMware Workstation virtual machine and executing code on the host operating system. Virtual machines are in used in many scenarios to create throw-away environments that pose no threat to the main operating system in case…
Swift, Apple’s successor language to Objective-C, has made great strides in the latest biannual RedMonk Programming Language Rankings, moving up to a tie for 11th spot, after placing 17th in the mid-year 2016 rankings. Released last Friday, the rankings also show Microsoft’s TypeScript, Google’s Go, and Mozilla Rust making progress. The rankings are based on…
There was a time when routers were boring gray boxes that delivered the Internet. These days, the more expensive ones look like spaceships bristling for war with an impressive feature set to boot. That’s exactly the look of the Netgear Nighthawk X10, a cutting-edge 802.11ad router on sale at Amazon today for $350. Originally priced…
At its InterConnect conference in Las Vegas this week, IBM is announcing new features for its open source cloud-hosted blockchain service in an attempt to bring this distributed database technology from its initial use of powering Bitcoin to a broader market, including the financial services industry. Blockchain is a distributed database that maintains a continually…
A vulnerability in Cisco’s widely deployed IOS software that was disclosed in the recent WikiLeaks dump of CIA exploits has triggered the company to release a critical warning for its Catalyst networking customers. +More on Cisco Security on Network World: Cisco security advisory dump finds 20 warnings, 2 critical+ The vulnerability — which could let…
There’s a new virtual assistant on the block. Ahead of next week’s announcement of the Galaxy S8, Samsung has introduced the world to Bixby, its own entry into the increasingly crowded AI landscape. Samsung is a bit late to the AI race led by Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant, but it has a bit of…
The FBI is actively investigating Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible cooperation from President Donald Trump’s campaign, agency director James Comey confirmed. The existence of an investigation isn’t a surprise, but Comey’s announcement Monday is the first time the FBI has acknowledged an active case. The FBI typically does not…
A German auction house that hopes to rap the gavel on an antique Apple-1 personal computer in May has pegged its likely sales price at between $190,000 and $320,000. The Apple-1, one of a handful verified to work, will be put on the block May 20 by Auction Team Breker of Cologne, Germany. The first…
While we haven’t seen too much in the way of must-have Android Wear 2.0 wearables from traditional tech companies like LG or Google, fashion watch makers are fully embracing Google’s new mobile OS. In the past week, Tag Heuer and Montblanc have both announced Android Wear 2.0-powered smartwatches, and now Guess is looking to get…
The biggest tech story heading into South by Southwest was Uber—and not just the company’s desperate need for a COO or its issues addressing sexual harassment claims. Last year, the city of Austin started requiring ride-hailing companies to fingerprint the drivers to ensure passenger safety. Uber and chief rival Lyft decided to leave the city…