10Apr 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

McAfee finds that gamers can work cyber security jobs

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McAfee finds that gamers can work cyber security jobs The Santa Clara, California-based cyber security company said it did a survey of 300 senior security managers and 650 security professionals at major corporations. And 78 percent of respondents said that the current generation entering the work force — those that grew up playing video games — are stronger candidates for cyber security roles. The report suggests that gamers, those engaged and immersed in online competitions, may be the logical next step to plugging the skills gap. 92 percent of respondents believe that gaming affords players experience and skills critical to cyber security threat hunting: logic, perseverance, an understanding of how to approach adversaries and a fresh outlook compared to traditional cyber security hires. Information technology (IT) security staff say they need to increase their…
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08Apr 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Microsoft will bring 64-bit app support to ARM-based PCs in May

Microsoft Development
Microsoft will bring 64-bit app support to ARM-based PCs in May One of the biggest limitations of the Windows on Snapdragon platform is its inability to run 64-bit apps. Microsoft has said on multiple occasions that it intends to eventually offer that support, but we've not heard about a firm timeline until now. The company's general manager for Windows Erin Chappie told Engadget today that an SDK for ARM64 apps will be announced at the upcoming Build developer's conference. With the new SDK, developers would be able to natively recompile their apps to run in 64-bit on ARM-based PCs like the ASUS NovaGo. This opens up app support for the platform, which previously only supported 32-bit apps. The potentially greater app compatibility is welcome, since this was one of the biggest drawbacks of Windows…
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08Apr 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Avast claims its secure browser is 30 percent faster than yours

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Avast claims its secure browser is 30 percent faster than yours Avast has updated its browser to give users greater control over their online privacy. According to the company, its renamed Avast Secure Browser (formerly SafeZone) is designed to plug the security gaps that result from users' misplaced protection expectations. Features such as Stealth Mode, HTTPS Encryption, anti-tracking and anti-fingerprinting have been designed to account for the 69 percent of UK consumers who believe standard private-browsing modes will anonymize their identity, and the 81 percent who believe their browser would alert them to web-based threats, such as malicious cryptomining and extensions. Based on the Chromium open source platform, the browser also includes Bank Mode, an extension guard, anti-phishing features, a password manager and Flash Protect, designed to free-up computer resources and preserve battery…
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05Apr 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Microsoft launches AI and entry-level software courses

Microsoft Development
Microsoft launches AI and entry-level software courses Microsoft  today launched two new courses in its online education program for developers: an entry-level software development class and an AI course for more advanced developers who want to expand their knowledge of machine learning. It’s no secret that there aren’t enough data scientists and machine learning developers available to fulfill the current demand. It’s no surprise, then, that a number of large companies have started to teach the fundamentals of these disciplines to their existing employees; starting today, anybody can take the AI courses that Microsoft first developed for its own employees. The Microsoft Professional Program for Artificial Intelligence is available for free on edX.org, though you can also opt to pay for a certificate. Each course runs three months and starts at the beginning of the quarter. Unsurprisingly, there’s…
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04Apr 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Drupal under attack for one million sites

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Drupal under attack for one million sites The team behind the popular open-source CMS Drupal is urging admins to update their sites to ward off a nasty bug that could leave their sites “highly compromised” to attackers, according to the organization. The effected versions (Drupal  6, 7 and 8) of the CMS power over one million websites on the internet. Drupal has marked the security risk as “highly critical” and warns that any visitor to the site could theoretically hack it through remote code execution due to a missing input validation. “This potentially allows attackers to exploit multiple attack vectors on a Drupal site, which could result in the site being completely compromised,” the group noted in a blog post. Drupal sent out an alert last week, telling users that they’d be dropping a “highly critical…
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