More homeowners now choose to buy solar panel systems rather than lease them, according to a new report. Solar leases, which typically last up to 20 years and keep the ownership of solar rooftop panels in third-party supplier hands, peaked in 2014, with 74% of solar-panel home customers choosing that option. In the fourth quarter…
Confide, a messaging app reportedly used by U.S. White House staff, apparently had several security holes that made it easier to hack. Security consultancy IOActive found the vulnerabilities in Confide, which promotes itself as an app that offers “military-grade” end-to-end encryption. But despite its marketing, the app contained glaring problems with securing user account information,…
Purported CIA documents leaked Tuesday appear to confirm that the U.S. National Security Agency and one of CIA’s own divisions were responsible for the malware tools and operations attributed to a group that security researchers have dubbed the Equation. The Equation’s cyberespionage activities were documented in February 2015 by researchers from antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab.…
Enterprises: Google wants you. That’s the message coming out of the first keynote address at the company’s Google Cloud Next conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. The tech titan’s cloud team really wants enterprises to know that it’s serious about serving their needs. Diane Greene, the senior vice president of Google Cloud, showcased a suite…
The tech world can be a haven for people who enjoy solitary, focused work, and it often attracts people who gravitate toward the quiet end of the introvert-extrovert spectrum. For managers, the challenge is how to make the most of introverts’ and extroverts’ strengths. Team diversity can be a tremendous asset if companies are prepared…
Intel’s TV marketing campaign says the company is driving 98 percent of the cloud. That statistic will come under attack with some chip and OS announcements on Wednesday. The most significant announcement: Microsoft’s Windows Server OS now running on ARM chips. The OS was exclusive to x86 chips, but now customers can consider ARM chips…
While many IT departments grapple with big data, IBM says it has the smallest data in the world: one bit on one atom. Researchers at IBM’s Almaden lab in San Jose, California, have written and read a bit of data on a single atom using magnetism, a feat they say is a world first. It…
France has followed the Netherlands in placing its faith in paper-based voting systems ahead of key elections later this year, following allegations that Russian hackers influenced last year’s U.S. presidential election. The French government will not allow internet voting in legislative elections to be held in June because of the “extremely elevated threat of cyberattacks.”…
WikiLeaks is back at it again, this time with more than 8,700 leaked documents apparently from inside the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence. According to those documents, the CIA had knowledge of zero-day exploits it could use to hack iPhones. But Apple said many of those bugs have already been patched with the latest version…
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission should reverse course and keep the net neutrality rules it passed just two years ago, several Democratic senators said Wednesday. The FCC has not yet moved to repeal the regulations prohibiting broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing web traffic, but the agency’s new chairman, Republican Ajit Pai, has called…