Gmail Privacy and Security Get Ruggedized

Print Email

By Peter Suciu
Apr 26, 2018 5:00 AM PT

Sell more with the hosting platform built for WooCommerce
Boost your store's speed, get actionable buyer insights, and capture more revenue from visitors with Managed WooCommerce Hosting by Liquid Web.

Google on Wednesday rolled out a number of new features designed to make its G Suite collaboration and productivity apps more efficient and safer to use.

G Suite currently has more than 4 million paying business customers, according to Google.
The updates include a new design, enhanced security and artificial intelligence components, and better integration of G Suite apps -- including Gmail, which is getting a brand new look.
The overhaul already has been rolled out to some businesses via the G Suite Early Adopter Program. Personal Gmail users can opt in by selecting "try the new Gmail" under Settings.

The changes follow the introduction last month of anti-phishing protections in response to business email compromise (BEC) threats -- for example, someone impersonating an executive in order to acquire sensitive information.
Those efforts -- which include warning users or automatically moving suspected phishing emails to spam -- already have succeeded in blocking 99.9 percent of BEC attempts, Google noted.
Google will not scan Gmail in any way for the purpose of targeting ads, and no ads will be shown in Gmail for G Suite customers, Google said.

Email Confidential

Google has taken privacy protection up a notch with the introduction of Gmail confidential mode -- a way to protect sensitive content. Options include adding an expiration date feature and allowing users to revoke previously sent messages. Emails also can require additional authentication via a text message before recipients can view them, which could add protection against account hacking.
Confidential mode includes built-in information rights management controls that allow senders to bar recipients from forwarding, copying, downloading or even printing messages. This functionality is meant to reduce the risk of accidentally sharing confidential information with the wrong people.
The confidentially mode will be rolled out in the coming weeks.

New Warnings and Tasks

G Suite's Gmail security warnings have gotten a makeover, which should reduce instances of users ignoring them. The new warnings are bigger and bolder.
Gmail also has received an artificial intelligence upgrade, including new functionality such as Nudging, Smart Reply and high-priority notifications to help with user productivity.
Nudging, for example, proactively reminds users to respond to messages. Smart Reply, which was introduced last year for mobile devices, has been rolled out to the Web version of Gmail.
The new high-priority notifications are designed to ensure that users are notified only of important messages, so that interruptions can be kept to a minimum.
The in-box has been updated with new tools that allow users to do such things as RSVP to a meeting invitation, archive an email threat, or even snooze an email to postpone handling to a later time.
Gmail has been integrated with other G Suite applications to make it easier to create and edit Calendar invitations and manage Tasks.
Google enhanced the Gmail Adds-ons for better integration with third-party business apps.

How Suite It Is

None of the new features will change fundamentally the way Gmail generally is used, but they should make users feel more secure about sending confidential information via email.
"Most people will welcome these updates and improvements, though they won't all be equally used," said Greg Sterling, vice president of strategy and insight at the Local Search Association.
"Confidential mode will be widely adopted by enterprise users, and the enhanced security and warnings features are also needed and useful," he told TechNewsWorld.
"The biggest takeaway from the changes to G Suite is Google's focus on providing users more finely grained security and privacy features," noted Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.
"Some of the functions -- the ability to auto-delete messages, revoke previously sent messages, and add 'smart' auto replies -- may look fairly pedestrian," he told TechNewsWorld, "but they're handy features that many business people will appreciate."
More broadly, these features come at a time when many users have been scrutinizing and reconsidering large-scale IT companies' privacy practices, King observed.
"In other words, Google's transparency and its willingness to help users better secure their emails and other work functions couldn't come at a better time," he suggested.
"Overall, these are positive changes," noted LSA's Sterling. "Power users will get the most from them, while ordinary users will probably not take full advantage and will continue to rely on basic email functionality."

---

Peter Suciu has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2012. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile phones, displays, streaming media, pay TV and autonomous vehicles. He has written and edited for numerous publications and websites, including Newsweek, Wired and FoxNews.com. Email Peter.

Shuttleworth on Ubuntu 18.04: Multicloud Is the New Normal

Print Email

By Jack M. Germain • LinuxInsider • ECT News Network
Apr 29, 2018 5:00 AM PT

Sell more with the hosting platform built for WooCommerce
Boost your store's speed, get actionable buyer insights, and capture more revenue from visitors with Managed WooCommerce Hosting by Liquid Web.

Canonical last week released the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS platform for desktop, server, cloud and Internet of Things use. Its debut followed a two-year development phase that led to innovations in cloud solutions for enterprises, as well as smoother integrations with private and public cloud services, and new tools for container and virtual machine operations.

The latest release drives new efficiencies in computing and focuses on the big surge in artificial intelligence and machine learning, said Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth in a global conference call.
Ubuntu has been a platform for innovation over the last decade, he noted. The latest release reflects that innovation and comes on the heels of extraordinary enterprise adoption on the public cloud.
The IT industry has undergone some fundamental shifts since the last Ubuntu upgrade, with digital disruption and containerization changing the way organizations think about next-generation infrastructures. Canonical is at the forefront of this transformation, providing the platform for enabling change across the public and private cloud ecosystem, desktop and containers, Shuttleworth said.
"Multicloud operations are the new normal," he remarked. "Boot time and performance-optimized images of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on every major public cloud make it the fastest and most-efficient OS for cloud computing, especially for storage and compute-intensive tasks like machine learning," he added.
Ubuntu 18.04 comes as a unified computing platform. Having an identical platform from workstation to edge and cloud accelerates global deployments and operations. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS features a default GNOME desktop. Other desktop environments are KDE, MATE and Budgie.

Diversified Features

The latest technologies under the Ubuntu 18.04 hood are focused on real-time optimizations and an expanded Snapcraft ecosystem to replace traditional software delivery via package management tools.
For instance, the biggest innovations in Ubuntu 18.04 are related to enhancements to cloud computing, Kubernetes integration, and Ubuntu as an IoT control platform. Features that make the new Ubuntu a platform for artificial intelligence and machine learning also are prominent.
The Canonical distribution of Kubernetes (CDK) runs on public clouds, VMware, OpenStack and bare metal. It delivers the latest upstream version, currently Kubernetes 1.10. It also supports upgrades to future versions of Kubernetes, expansion of the Kubernetes cluster on demand, and integration with optional components for storage, networking and monitoring.
As a platform for AI and ML, CDK supports GPU acceleration of workloads using the Nvidia DevicePlugin. Further, complex GPGPU workloads like Kubeflow work on CDK. That performance reflects joint efforts with Google to accelerate ML in the enterprise, providing a portable way to develop and deploy ML applications at scale. Applications built and tested with Kubeflow and CDK are perfectly transportable to Google Cloud, according to Shuttleworth.
Developers can use the new Ubuntu to create applications on their workstations, test them on private bare-metal Kubernetes with CDK, and run them across vast data sets on Google's GKE, said Stephan Fabel, director of product management at Canonical. The resulting models and inference engines can be delivered to Ubuntu devices at the edge of the network, creating an ideal pipeline for machine learning from the workstation to rack, to cloud and device.

Snappy Improvements

The latest Ubuntu release allows desktop users to receive rapid delivery of the latest applications updates. Besides having access to typical desktop applications, software devs and enterprise IT teams can benefit from the acceleration of snaps, deployed across the desktop to the cloud.
Snaps have become a popular way to get apps on Linux. More than 3,000 snaps have been published, and millions have been installed, including official releases from Spotify, Skype, Slack and Firefox,
Snaps are fully integrated into Ubuntu GNOME 18.04 LTS and KDE Neon. Publishers deliver updates directly, and security is maintained with enhanced kernel isolation and system service mediation.
Snaps work on desktops, devices and cloud virtual machines, as well as bare-metal servers, allowing a consistent delivery mechanism for applications and frameworks.

Workstations, Cloud and IoT

Nvidia GPGPU hardware acceleration is integrated in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS cloud images and Canonical's OpenStack and Kubernetes distributions for on-premises bare metal operations. Ubuntu 18.04 supports Kubeflow and other ML and AI workflows.
Kubeflow, the Google approach to TensorFlow on Kubernetes, is integrated into Canonical Kubernetes along with a range of CI/CD tools, and aligned with Google GKE for on-premises and on-cloud AI development.
"Having an OS that is tuned for advanced workloads such as AI and ML is critical to a high-velocity team," said David Aronchick, product manager for Cloud AI at Google. "With the release of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Canonical's collaborations to the Kubeflow project, Canonical has provided both a familiar and highly performant operating system that works everywhere."
Software engineers and data scientists can use tools they already know, such as Ubuntu, Kubernetes and Kubeflow, and greatly accelerate their ability to deliver value for their customers, whether on-premises or in the cloud, he added.

Multiple Cloud Focus

Canonical has seen a significant adoption of Ubuntu in the cloud, apparently because it offers an alternative, said Canonical's Fabel.
Typically, customers ask Canonical to deploy Open Stack and Kubernetes together. That is a pattern emerging as a common operational framework, he said. "Our focus is delivering Kubernetes across multiple clouds. We do that in alignment with Microsoft Azure service."

Better Economics

Economically, Canonical sees Kubernetes as a commodity, so the company built it into Ubuntu's support package for the enterprise. It is not an extra, according to Fabel.
"That lines up perfectly with the business model we see the public clouds adopting, where Kubernetes is a free service on top of the VM that you are paying for," he said.
The plan is not to offer overly complex models based on old-school economic models, Fabel added, as that is not what developers really want.
"Our focus is on the most effective delivery of the new commodity infrastructure," he noted.

Private Cloud Alternative to VMware

Canonical OpenStack delivers private cloud with significant savings over VMware and provides a modern, developer-friendly API, according to Canonical. It also has built-in support for NFV and GPGPUs. The Canonical OpenStack offering has become a reference cloud for digital transformation workloads.
Today, Ubuntu is at the heart of the world's largest OpenStack clouds, both public and private, in key sectors such as finance, media, retail and telecommunications, Shuttleworth noted.

Other Highlights

Among Ubuntu 18.04's benefits:

• Containers for legacy workloads with LXD 3.0 -- LXD 3.0 enables "lift-and-shift" of legacy workloads into containers for performance and density, an essential part of the enterprise container strategy. LXD provides "machine containers" that behave like virtual machines in that they contain a full and mutable Linux guest operating system, in this case, Ubuntu. Customers using unsupported or end-of-life Linux environments that have not received fixes for critical issues like Meltdown and Spectre can lift and shift those workloads into LXD on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS with all the latest kernel security fixes.
• Ultrafast Ubuntu on a Windows desktop -- New Hyper-V optimized images developed in collaboration with Microsoft enhance the virtual machine experience of Ubuntu in Windows.
• Minimal desktop install -- The new minimal desktop install provides only the core desktop and browser for those looking to save disk space and customize machines with their specific apps or requirements. In corporate environments, the minimal desktop serves as a base for custom desktop images, reducing the security cross-section of the platform.

---

Jack M. Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open source technologies. He has written numerous reviews of Linux distros and other open source software. Email Jack.

Fitbit's Health Alliance With Google Could Be a Risky Experiment

Print Email

By Richard Adhikari
May 2, 2018 10:32 AM PT

Sell more with the hosting platform built for WooCommerce
Boost your store's speed, get actionable buyer insights, and capture more revenue from visitors with Managed WooCommerce Hosting by Liquid Web.

Fitbit and Google on Monday announced a new partnership on healthcare. Fitbit will develop consumer and enterprise health solutions that will use Google's new Cloud Healthcare application programming interface.

Fitbit also will move to the Google Cloud Platform to innovate and advance its products and services.
Most Google Cloud products support HIPAA compliance; the move will allow Fitbit to leverage Google Cloud's infrastructure and security features, as well as Google's artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, and its new predictive analytic algorithms.
One possible use is connecting user data with electronic medical records, or EMRs, to provide both patients and healthcare professionals with a more comprehensive view of a patient's profile, which would facilitate more personalized care.
Another possible use is helping better manage chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension by using services such as Fitbit's Twine Health -- the health coaching platform developed by Twine, which was acquired by Fitbit in February. Twine will let healthcare professionals and patients more easily collaborate using Google's Cloud Healthcare API.
Fitbit pledged to maintain its commitment to protecting consumer data.

Google Cloud and Healthcare

The Google Cloud Healthcare API uses standard schema to simplify taking in and storing healthcare data, said Joe Corkery, Google Cloud's head of product healthcare and life sciences.
It then provides connectors to Google Cloud's analytics, such as BigQuery, and machine learning, such as Cloud ML Engine, he told TechNewsWorld.
There are a few components essential to making healthcare a successful offering, according to Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research.
One of those components is massive capture of consumer data, which "is where Fitbit comes in," he told TechNewsWorld.
Another is massive cloud operations to crunch artificial intelligence, Wang said, noting that "this is where Google's compute power and AI skills and team come into play."
Integration to EMRs also is an essential component, he said, as it "helps with bringing the devices -- IoT data -- and patient records into one place and makes it easy to monetize with insurance in the future."
In a nutshell, the current state of EMRs is "sh*tty," Wang said.
The Fitbit-Google Cloud partnership "is mostly upside," because "players like Epic have destroyed the market with a monopoly on legacy tech," he continued.
"It costs (US)$250,000 for a hospital to add a button on Epic; they've destroyed innovation in the market and enslaved the physicians," Wang observed.
Still, EMR adoption has been on the rise, as both health insurance providers and the United States government have been insisting on them, remarked Michael Jude, research manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

Partnership Pros and Cons

"There are two drawbacks to this deal," suggested Ian Campbell, CEO of Nucleus Research.
"One, Fitbit customers will have privacy concerns, and partnering with Google increases the anxiety around that," he told TechNewsWorld.
"Two, Google's history with wearables isn't exactly positive. For example, Google Glass is now the poster child for creative ideas that never translated into a good, or even viable, product," Campbell said.
"Fitbit's challenge is to overcome today's cloud privacy concerns beyond HIPAA, especially after the recent uproar around Facebook," he pointed out. "A lot of very private information goes into the cloud, and it isn't always clear how anonymously this data is preserved."
However, Google Cloud does not have access to user data collected by Fitbit or stored in the Cloud Healthcare API, Google's Corkery said. "Data brought to Google Cloud by its customers and partners is controlled by [them] and is not used for any other purposes. Security, privacy and compliance are of the highest priority to Google Cloud."
Healthcare "is a touchy subject and the opposite of health is, potentially, death," Frost's Jude told TechNewsWorld. "Once you realize that, you'll realize that personal portable telemetry is a really bad idea. That's why the Apple Watch abandoned its health monitoring apps prior to its release."
What if the telemetry isn't perfect? Jude asked. "If a sensor fails to register a life threatening condition and someone dies who's responsible? This is a morass... Fitbit and Google may live to regret this partnership."

---

Richard Adhikari has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile technologies, CRM, databases, software development, mainframe and mid-range computing, and application development. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including Information Week and Computerworld. He is the author of two books on client/server technology. Email Richard.

Google Assistant Gains Momentum in Smart Home Race

Print Email

By Peter Suciu
May 5, 2018 5:00 AM PT

Sell more with the hosting platform built for WooCommerce
Boost your store's speed, get actionable buyer insights, and capture more revenue from visitors with Managed WooCommerce Hosting by Liquid Web.

Google Assistant, the artificial intelligence software built into Android handsets and the Google Home smart speaker system, now can control more than 5,000 smart devices, Google announced Thursday. That's up from just 1,500 products in January -- and the list of supported products includes everything from cameras and security systems to doorbells, locks and lights, to dryers, dishwashers and refrigerators.

Google's smart home platform has grown exponentially since its released in the fall of 2016. It can turn an ordinary living room into an entertainment center, with the handset designated as the main control panel for gizmos and gadgets throughout the house.
Google now supports devices from every major electronics product brand, and the list continues to grow. Google recently announced that it would offer support for IKEA lights and Deutsche Telekom's Magenta hub of products.
Plans for this month include Google Assistant integration with DISH's Hopper family of set-top boxes; security alarm devices from ADT, First Alert and Vivint Smart Home; smart door locks from August and Schlage; and home security cameras from Panasonic.
Many other products will add Google Assistant compatibility in the coming months, including Hunter Douglas window treatments, Hisense's line of H9E Plus TVs, and LG appliances.

Catching Amazon

Google and Amazon appear to have a solid lead in the smart home space. Amazon earlier this year boasted Alexa voice assistant integration with around 4,000 devices. That number hasn't been updated since then, but it is clear that the two companies are well ahead of rival systems such as Apple's HomeKit and Samsung's SmartThings.
Those platforms each list support for around 200 devices. Given that manufacturers may be inclined to pick just one "team" to support, closing the gap could be very difficult.
"This race is a sprint from the beginning," said Josh Crandall, principal analyst at Netpop Research.
"It looks like Google and Amazon are breaking away from Siri -- HomeKit -- in the first lap," he told TechNewsWorld. "There's no doubt that Google considers this race incredibly important and recognizes it is playing catch-up to Amazon's Alexa product."

Ecosystem of Developers

Google has been able to leverage its vast ecosystem of developers to bring all of its own technology to bear in this race with Amazon.
"By making the announcement, Google is letting the industry know that it's serious about unlocking the potential of Google Home," said Crandall.
"Developers and [Internet of Things] companies will take heed that 5,000 devices are interwoven into the fabric of Google Home, and start developing for the platform if they haven't already begun to do so," he predicted.
"In other words, Google is saying 'Look at all of the third-party development happening on our platform. If you don't support Google Home, watch out, because we're here to stay,'" Crandall said.

More Than Support

The number of supported devices may be meaningless to most consumers -- especially as most consumers aren't about to go out and replace all their products and devices just to add smart home functionality, regardless of which company provides the support.
"The total number of supported devices [won't] have much to do with success or market staying power of these branded AI-based services," explained Paul Teich, principal analyst at Tirias Research.
"This is really about adding value to consumers' lives," he told TechNewsWorld, "but the only standards that matters here are 'does the system give me a useful answer to my question?' and 'did it do exactly what I asked it to do?'"
Thus the number of supported devices may not matter much at this point.
"APIs are easy to adjust for, or even to use multiple services," Teich pointed out.

Two-Company Race?

Consumers ultimately will decide which platform or platforms will be winners in the smart home market.
"Amazon has an upper hand here. It is already directly connected to more consumers in a more intimate fashion than Google, and Amazon is more connected to Apple customers," suggested Teich.
However, "t doesn't really matter how many consumers are actually integrating these products into the platform yet," noted Netpop's Crandall.
"All they need to know is that when they are ready to integrate smart home appliances into their smart speakers, the speaker they have selected will have sufficient support," he added.
In the end, the competition could come down to two platforms that both give consumers some choice while declining to support a plethora of incompatible devices.
"Similar to the need to support Android and iOS, developers and IoT companies may have to support a couple of platforms for voice interfaces," said Crandall.
"In a similar vein, you'll notice that there are only two major smartphone operating systems," he added. "Developers can't support three, and as a result Windows Phone has disappeared. It's clear that the momentum in this space belongs to Amazon and Google. If something doesn't change soon, Siri and HomeKit will be sitting the rest of this race out."

---

Peter Suciu has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2012. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile phones, displays, streaming media, pay TV and autonomous vehicles. He has written and edited for numerous publications and websites, including Newsweek, Wired and FoxNews.com. Email Peter.

Echo for Kids, Retro Voice Assistants, and a Second Snap

Print Email

By Kris Holt
May 8, 2018 5:00 AM PT

Sell more with the hosting platform built for WooCommerce
Boost your store's speed, get actionable buyer insights, and capture more revenue from visitors with Managed WooCommerce Hosting by Liquid Web.

Welcome to Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, the column that tries to shake off the ghastly prospect of dating on Facebook to focus on something far more interesting: gadget announcements!

This time we'll take a look at an Amazon Echo for kids, an updated Oculus, a retro-styled smart speaker, and Snapchat's latest spectacles.
As ever, these are not reviews, and you should not invest too much in the ratings: They serve only to let you know how much I would be interested in trying each item.

Tiny Echo

Amazon is trying to rope in younger members of the family to use its Alexa voice assistant with the release of a smart speaker for kids.
The Echo Dot Kids Edition (pictured above) has a rubber case protecting a standard Echo Dot and a two-year, no-questions-asked replacement policy. It includes a one-year membership for FreeTime Unlimited, Amazon's subscription service for kids' books, videos, games, education apps and Alexa skills.
FreeTime Unlimited has parental controls and optimizes the Alexa experience with kids in mind. It nixes functions not suited for kids, like e-commerce and news, while allowing parents to set time limits and block explicit songs from playing on Amazon Music. Moms and dads also can use Alexa to send positive feedback when a child says "please" to ask for something.
What sells this for me (well, it would if I had a kid in an appropriate age range to use this, at least) is that this FreeTime version of Alexa has been tuned to recognize the higher pitch of kids' voices. It recognizes mispronunciations too, including "Awexa." That's beyond adorable.
On the downside, it might end up training your offspring to learn how to take command of your own Echo, letting them interrupt what you're viewing or listening to, or cause havoc with your connected lighting system. There may be trouble ahead.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Awexas

Tomorrow's Radio Alarm Clock

Staying with voice assistants for a moment, the Como Audio Amico speaker system offers a touch of '80s design. I enjoy its aesthetic, and it includes plenty of modern features like Bluetooth, music streaming, and with the latest version, Google Assistant.

The SpeakEasy packs in a tweeter and 3-inch woofer. A rear port helps increase the bass by letting sound filter out. It comes in wood, black and white finishes. There's an optional battery to turn the SpeakEasy into a portable speaker.
It's kinda quaint, as it seems a little anachronistic to pack a voice assistant into a speaker that would have fit in Thomas Magnum's home 30 years ago. I enjoy the aesthetic, though, and the walnut finish would work nicely with my new furniture.
Rating: 4 out of 5 LED Clockfaces in 2018

Optical Acuity

Just after releasing a standalone virtual reality headset, Facebook has presented a look into the future, showcasing an Oculus prototype that offers a wider field of view.
Codenamed "Half Dome," it includes a new feature for a VR headset: lenses that move closer to and further from the wearer's face. This varifocal feature is designed to provide better focus on objects held close to your eyes while in a VR experience. So, if you pick up an in-world book, you might be able to read the text more clearly.

It's not clear if Half Dome uses eye-tracking tech or can figure out the relative location of an in-game item to make the lenses move, but that feature should help eliminate some of the vision blips that distort a virtual experience and pull one out of the, um, reality. I'm just hoping that when I hold a phone inches from my face in VR, my eyes adjust as quickly as they do in real life.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Is This Reals?

Snap This Off

Snap, the company behind Snapchat, for some reason still thinks people want to walk around with cameras on their faces.
The Spectacles 2 have a slimmer frame and more lens color options than the first model. The camera is not as pronounced, and it is water-resistant, handy for those quick in-the-pool videos. Those who need actual medically necessary spectacles can add prescription lenses to the frames as well.

I'm still stumped as to why anyone would be racing out to wear sunglasses with cameras in them, but the prescription lenses and water-resistant features are handy. Adding a second microphone to more clearly record people other than the wearer is smart too.
I think it's fairly clear that I have little interest in trying these, but I at least have to commend Snap for continually trying to diversify its sources of revenue. It might have to, now that Instagram has eaten its lunch.
Rating: 1 out of 5 It's Time to Stops

---

Kris Holt has been an ECT News Network writer since 2013, with a focus on gadgets and home technology. He has written for The Daily Dot, The Daily Beast, and PolicyMic, among others. He's Scottish, so would prefer if no one used the word "soccer" in his company. Email Kris.

Circadence VP Keenan Skelly: Changing the Cybersecurity Paradigm

Sell more with the hosting platform built for WooCommerce
Boost your store's speed, get actionable buyer insights, and capture more revenue from visitors with Managed WooCommerce Hosting by Liquid Web.

Keenan Skelly is vice president of global partnerships and security evangelist for Circadence.

In this exclusive interview, Skelly shares her insights on the state of cybersecurity, the importance of establishing global norms, and the abundance of opportunities in the field.

Circadence VP Keenan Skelly

TechNewsWorld: Could you describe the trajectory of your career? How has it evolved over time?
Keenan Skelly: I started out in the Army as an explosive ordnance disposal technician, and I had an interesting career. I was last stationed at Andrews Air Force Base, where we focused on chemical and nuclear weapons. It wasn't very cyber-related.
While I was doing that job, I happened to be at the White House on 9/11, and in that capacity I got to see the national response plan acted out. It brought me back to my past before the military, working for the Red Cross and responding to large-scale crisis incidents.
I was interested in transitioning the skills I got from the military, so I went to work for the infrastructure protection division of the Department of Homeland Security, where I ran vulnerability assessments across the country -- nuclear, chemical, water -- looking at these from a personnel and a physical security standpoint, as well as an information security standpoint.

We saw then that information security was the single point of failure across all these sectors. Despite that, we weren't really providing a lot of assets for the critical infrastructure community.
Here we are, 15 years later, and a lot of the same issues are still being played out, but on a larger scale. That pushed me in the direction of learning more about information and cybersecurity.
I went back to school and got a bachelor's degree in information technology and came back to the field to promote some of these things at the critical infrastructure level. Since then, I've been working with smaller companies on ideas about how to address the cybersecurity issue.
TNW: Why do you have a passion for cybersecurity?
Skelly: One part is that it's only a few times in the history of the U.S. and in specific domains do you have the opportunity to make decisions and have a lasting effect on that domain. If you talk about the nuclear domain and chemical domain, the opportunity to impact those domains does not happen regularly.
In terms of information cybersecurity, we're right in the middle of it right now. We're just figuring out what global norms should be. The things that we put in place -- whether they're policies or advanced technologies, are going to shape this domain for many years to come. That's really exciting to me, being able to be part of that change and influence this domain.
The other part is that it impacts every bit of our lives, more and more every day. Just in the last 10 years, my personal reliance on technology and the Web has grown exponentially, and our reliance on cyber is a double-edged sword.
We're able to communicate much more efficiently with people all over the world, but we're more vulnerable to attacks. We need to figure out what the best way is to move forward, and what things we need to scale back on.
TNW: In what ways is working in the business world different from military and government work?
Skelly: I enjoyed working for the government and military for the sense of purpose, and because I was able to make changes that were seen across the environment.
As I've gotten older, I've realized that rapid change and innovation typically come from smaller, more agile organizations. I've embraced that, and I enjoy working with smaller companies that have new ways of thinking about complex ideas like artificial intelligence and machine learning. That really inspires me.
In terms of predictability, when you're working for the government or military, there's a cadence to processes, and that's part of why it doesn't lend itself to being agile. That's what I like about the business world -- the ability to innovate new ideas and technologies and get them out to people more quickly.
Skelly: One of the big challenges we have in cybersecurity is norms in cyberspace. People like to refer to cyber as the wild, wild west. There are all these things going on, and people are testing the water. But this is not the first domain where that's happened. We saw similar things with nuclear weapons and chemical weapons, and now we're seeing that in cybersecruity.
As a community we need to draw that line in the sand about what's appropriate in cyberspace and what's not appropriate. We need to determine what that line is. Cyberspace can be weaponized.
I often use the IED threat that we faced in the Middle East as a similar construct. The threat was changing so rapidly that it was difficult to get the message out to the troops about how to stay safe. We had to change our way of thinking about the problem, and that's kind of where we're at with cyber.
Today, the biggest problem that people are working on is phishing or ransomware, but there will be new threats. We have to change our paradigm about how we think about the cybersecurity problem.
TNW: You do volunteer work for Team Rubicon and Red Cross Disaster Services. Why do you see this volunteer work as important?
Skelly: Team Rubicon is for wounded warriors who have specific skills in crisis management, and when something happens in the country -- a flood or hurricane or train wreck -- you can be picked to respond to it. It depends on your individual skills.
When I was younger, I started volunteering for the Red Cross Disaster Services in my hometown. Within a couple months of doing that, I was a part of two separate train crashes, and those really influenced the person I am today. They taught me how to react and how we can, as a society, better respond to these incidents. It's helped me to be a more responsible human being, both in life-and-death situations and in business situations.
TNW: What advice would you give to girls and women who are interested in getting into the security field?
Skelly: One of the big things I stress is that security is not just about the person sitting behind a laptop with a hoodie. That's a very dated version. Because cyber is so pervasive, you can have a job in cybersecurity in just about any job. There is no one-size-fits-all for your aspirations in cybersecurity.
You may have hundreds of different options. I do recommend that you be hungry for knowledge. There are so many tools and techniques and ever-changing threats, and you have to be interested in all of it. If you are, you're going to be way ahead of the game.

---

Vivian Wagner has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. Her main areas of focus are technology, business, CRM, e-commerce, privacy, security, arts, culture and diversity. She has extensive experience reporting on business and technology for a variety of outlets, including The Atlantic, The Establishment and O, The Oprah Magazine. She holds a PhD in English with a specialty in modern American literature and culture. She received a first-place feature reporting award from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists. Email Vivian.

---

TechNewsWorld > Computing > Operating Systems | Next Article in Operating Systems

Android P Tackles Phone Addiction, Distraction

Print Email

By John P. Mello Jr.
May 10, 2018 5:00 AM PT

Sell more with the hosting platform built for WooCommerce
Boost your store's speed, get actionable buyer insights, and capture more revenue from visitors with Managed WooCommerce Hosting by Liquid Web.

Google on Tuesday revealed some major new features in the next version of its Android operating system for mobile devices.

Now in public beta, the OS known as "Android P" includes features designed to address growing concerns about phone addiction and distraction.
For example, a dashboard will show users how often, when and for how long they use each application on their phone. What's more, they can set time limits on usage.
With the help of artificial intelligence, Android P also will watch how a user handles notifications. If notifications from an app constantly are swiped away, Android P will recommend notifications be turned off for that program.
"Do Not Disturb" mode has been beefed up in Android P. Users will be able to set the mode so there are no visual cues at all on a display of notifications, not even in the notification drawer.
The mode can be activated simply by placing the phone face down on a flat surface. If a phone is set up to separate work from personal apps, it can be configured to mute all apps at once with a single toggle.
Moreover, there's a "wind down" feature that will take the phone into Do Not Disturb mode at a bedtime set by the user.

Fighting Addiction

The new application dashboard and notification muting features target a growing social concern about smartphones.
"Google is making the product far more user-friendly and directly addressing at least some of the problems associated with smartphone addiction," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
That strikes a contrast with Android's chief competitor, iOS.
"Apple is more focused on ensuring privacy and doesn't seem to be as aggressively addressing the addiction problem," Enderle told TechNewsWorld.
It remains to be seen whether users will take advantage of the tools.
"Folks should care more about this -- but, like any addiction, they likely feel they can deal with this one without help," Enderle remarked.
The success of the features will depend on Google, noted Gerrit Schneemann, senior analyst at IHS Markit Technology.
"I firmly believe that many smartphone users do not use all the features of their phone to their full potential," he told TechNewsWorld. "It seems like that could be the case here."
"If Google focuses on things like 'wind down' to expose users to the capabilities, I think there could be traction," Schneemann said. "However, depending on users to discover the dashboard alone will be problematic on a broad scale."

More Than Well Being

In addition to the new "digital well-being" features, Android P will provide a new way to navigate phones.
There's the familiar home button, but with modified behavior. With new gestures, a user swipes up to get an overview of open apps, and swipes up further to go to the app tray.
The back button is still there, but it only appears inside apps.
Google has added screenshot editing to Android P, allowing users to mark up screenshots without having to use another app.
Google also has injected smarts into app searching in Android P. When a search is performed, things that can be done with an app appear along with its icon. So if you search for a ride-sharing app, for example, the results might include a button to hail a ride.
The Android P team partnered with DeepMind on a new Adaptive Battery feature that optimizes app usage, noted Dave Burke, VP of engineering for Android.
"Adaptive Battery uses machine learning to prioritize access to system resources for the apps the user cares about most," he wrote in an online post. "It puts running apps into groups with different restrictions using four new 'App Standby buckets' ranging from 'active' to 'rare.' Apps will change buckets over time, and apps not in the 'active' bucket will have restrictions in: jobs, alarms, network and high-priority Firebase Cloud Messages."

Personal Touch

Android P shows Google wants to make the OS more personal and relevant for individuals, noted Brian Blau, a research director at Gartner.
"There's a lot of new features in Android, but they all center on how can Google users have a more holistic and personal interaction with technology," he told TechNewsWorld.
With Android P, Google is making a pitch to use less technology, Blau maintained.
"They're saying you don't need technology at every last pinpoint in every day of your life," he continued. "Maybe you need more effective technology with fewer interactions. With Android P, Google is taking away the rough edges. That, over time, means what you will see is an Android that caters much more to the individual."
From a feature and user interface perspective, Android P is one of the more significant rollouts for the OS in a while, noted Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research.
"They're also letting the beta run on more third-party phones," he told TechNewsWorld. "In the past, betas only ran on a Nexus or Pixel device."
Those third-party phones include the Essential Phone, Sony's Xperia XZ2, Xiaomi's Mi Mix 2S, Nokia's 7 Plus, Vivo's X21, Oppo's R15 Pro and the soon-to-be-released OnePlus 6.

---

John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.

TechNewsWorld > Internet > Online Entertainment | Next Article in Online Entertainment

Spotify's New Anti-Hate Policy Muzzles R. Kelly

Print Email

By Richard Adhikari
May 12, 2018 5:00 AM PT

Sell more with the hosting platform built for WooCommerce
Boost your store's speed, get actionable buyer insights, and capture more revenue from visitors with Managed WooCommerce Hosting by Liquid Web.

Spotify on Thursday announced a new policy governing hate content and hateful conduct.

The service identified as hate content anything that expressly and principally promotes, advocates or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual, based on characteristics including race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status or disability.
It may remove that content, in consultation with rights holders, or refrain from promoting or including it on its playlists.
Further, Spotify may amend the ways it works with or supports artists or creators who do something that is especially harmful or hateful, such as harm children or commit acts of sexual violence.
The service has built an internal content monitoring tool, Spotify AudioWatch, to identify content on its platform that has been flagged as hate content on specific international registers.
Users can notify Spotify if they think something is hate content, and it will review that content in light of its policy.
The service will look at the entire context, because cultural standards and sensitivities vary widely.
Spotify's goal is to match its editorial decisions -- what it chooses to program -- to its values, the company said.

Keeping Its Promise

"It's a 'God and country' issue," remarked Russ Crupnick, managing partner at Musicwatch.
"Half the people will yell about freedom of speech and the other half will applaud Spotify for setting boundaries," he told TechNewsWorld. "It's a tough call."
Spotify's new policy follows its removal last summer of white supremacist acts the Southern Poverty Law Center had flagged as racist hate bands.
At the time, Spotify said it had undertaken a review of the possibility of blocking hateful content from future music recommendations.
Spotify has partnered with SPLC and other rights advocacy groups to help identify hate content. Others include the Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, Showing Up for racial Justice, GLAAD, and Muslim Advocates.
Spotify "is more aggressively deciding what to promote, and have clearly decided they will not promote artists they believe behave badly," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

Crackdown on R. Kelly

The first artist impacted by Spotify's new policy is R. Kelly, whose music has been removed from the streaming service's algorithmic playlists, according to Billboard. Spotify no longer will promote Kelly's music.
The singer has over the years been accused by multiple women of sexual violence, coercion, and running a sex cult. Accusers most recently told their stories involving Kelly to Buzzfeed last week.
Women of color who support the #Time's Up movement have boycotted R. Kelly, using the tag #MuteRKelly.
The #MuteRKelly campaign has been "having a significant impact on firms like Spotify," Enderle told TechNewsWorld, "not the least of which is, were a Spotify employee to sue for abuse, their backing of R. Kelly could make it look like they institutionally approve of abuse. That would likely end really badly for the firm."
As a public firm, Spotify is open to more intense scrutiny than a private company and "it's better to be ahead of the game instead of being in a quarterly earnings call and get questioned over carrying hate content," Musicwatch's Crupnick noted.
However, "This is a very tricky path to navigate," observed Michael Jude, research manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.
"What if R. Kelly claims discrimination and files a lawsuit?" he asked. "Is refusing to promote him a form of discrimination under the law? Does the denial of promotion constitute a refusal to offer service?"
The test will be whether Spotify continues this policy, Jude told TechNewsWorld. "Consider rap music and how graphic that can be. Will Spotify impose restrictions on that when it has a huge following?"

---

Richard Adhikari has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile technologies, CRM, databases, software development, mainframe and mid-range computing, and application development. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including Information Week and Computerworld. He is the author of two books on client/server technology. Email Richard.

---