IBM issues apology after cyber-attack shuts down Australian national census

International Business Machines Corp apologized to Australia on Tuesday for what the government has described as a “malicious” cyber-attack that shut down a national census, but blamed two domestic internet providers for the security lapse. IBM was the lead contractor for the five-yearly August 9 household survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) which went offline that day after four distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, caused by the website being flooded with clicks.

The breach embarrassed a government that has sought to impress voters with its cybersecurity credentials. At a Senate inquiry into the matter, IBM Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Kerry Purcell said he apologized “unreservedly” for the inconvenience and added that he is negotiating a settlement with the government for failing to fulfill the A$10 million ($7.6 million) contract.

Purcell also said IBM was helping a police investigation, and declined to say who he suspected was behind the attack. But he went on say that attacks were launched through a router in Singapore, and blamed Australian ISP Vocus Communications Ltd, a subcontractor of NextGen Networks Pty Ltd, for failing to shut it down.

“We had repeated assurances from the ISP that the appropriate protocol was in place,” Purcell told the inquiry. “The primary root cause was through a router that was outside Australia.” In a written submission to the inquiry, IBM said its preferred anti-DDoS measure, which it calls “Island Australia”, involves “geoblocking” or getting the company’s ISPs to shut down offshore traffic coming into the country.

In a written submission to the inquiry, Nextgen said IBM told it about “Island Australia” six days before the census website went live in July, and that IBM declared a test of the strategy four days before the census a success. It said Nextgen followed IBM’s instructions, but noted that IBM rejected Nextgen’s offer of additional anti-DDoS detection measures.

Vocus said in a submission that it told Nextgen the week before the census that it “did not provide geoblocking” and that “Vocus was in fact requested to disable its DDoS protection product covering the e-Census IP space”. It did not specify who gave that instruction.

Broadcom will buy Brocade Communications Systems for $5.5 billion in cash

Chipmaker Broadcom Ltd said on Wednesday it would buy network gear maker Brocade Communications Systems Inc for $5.5 billion in cash, to expand its fiber channel and data storage businesses.The $12.75 per share offer represents a premium of 46.7 percent to Brocade’s close on Friday.

Bloomberg reported on Monday that Brocade was in talks to sell itself.

Brocade shares were up 7.2 percent at $12.05 in premarket trading on Wednesday. Broadcom shares were untraded.Singapore-based Broadcom, formerly called Avago, is known for its connectivity chips, while California-based Brocade makes networking hardware, software and storage products.

“This strategic acquisition enhances Broadcom’s position as one of the leading providers of enterprise storage connectivity solutions to OEM customers,” Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan said in a statement.

Customers use Brocade’s fiber channel protocol-based networking products to build storage area networks within their data centers.Broadcom said it planned to divest Brocade’s IP networking business, consisting of wireless and campus networking, data center switching and routing, and software networking solutions.A big part of Brocade’s IP networking business that Broadcom plans to divest was acquired as part of Brocade’s $1.5 billion acquisition of Ruckus Wireless earlier this year. This unit generated $209 million in product revenue in the third quarter.“We will work with Broadcom as it seeks to find a buyer for our IP Networking business,” Brocade Chief Executive Lloyd Carney said in a statement.Reuters reported on Tuesday that a Broadcom-Brocade deal was imminent.

Broadcom said it would take on about $400 million of Brocade’s debt and fund the deal with available cash and debt.

Intel Security outlines strategy for protecting new digital economy

Intel Security has announced a new strategy by means of an enhanced unified defense architecture, which has been designed from the ground up, to give more power to organisations. It has done this to increase the effective protection of today’s new digital economy which consists of three main factors: trust; time and money.

Intel says that world’s economy is no longer a physical one and that the growing number of interconnected networks and systems puts everyone (including organisations) at the risk of cybercriminals forcing the users and businesses to go on a defensive.“Cybercriminals are forcing cybersecurity companies to re-draft the rules of engagement for defending the civilised world; to effectively counteract them, we have to abandon old security playbooks to become more unpredictable and collaborative and make cyber defense a priority,” said Chris Young, senior vice president and general manager of Intel Security Group. “Our strategic charter is simple, yet disruptive: integrate, automate and orchestrate the threat defense lifecycle to drive better security outcomes – ultimately reducing more risk, faster and with fewer resources.”

Intel Security’s new unified architecture is basically enabled by four key integrated systems: Dynamic Endpoint, Pervasive Data Protection, Data Center and Cloud Defense, and Intelligent Security Operations. All of these systems work together in a deeply integrated manner to multiply the effectiveness of the system as whole.

Along with the above, Intel Security also announced its intent to open the McAfee Data Exchange Layer (DXL) to enable the industry with a concrete solution to disrupt the cyberattacker’s advantage.

Samsung will block Galaxy Note7s from connecting to cellular networks

It's time to really surrender your Samsung Galaxy Note7 if you haven't already done so.Starting on Nov. 18, Note7 phones won't connect to cellular networks...in New Zealand, according to a notice posted on Samsung New Zealand's website.Devices will not be able to "make calls, use data or send SMS messages." Samsung says it'll be contacting customers from now until Nov. 18 with info on the service disconnection to allow proper time for them to return and replace their defective phones.

Blocking access to cellular networks is the latest move by the Korean electronics giant to force customers — some of whom are defiantly unafraid of their devices blowing up — into complying with its global recall of the Note7 after launch devices and replacements startedcatching on fire.

New Zealand customers who absolutely refuse to give up their Note7s, obviously, run the risk of the phones inexplicably combusting.

But they won't be total bricks. Though they won't be able to connect to cellular networks in New Zealand, they should still be able to work with networks in other countries (not that you'd be able to legally transport them by air since they're banned from all major airlines) and connect to Wi-Fi networks. And, of course, the phones will still work as cameras and music players. 

At this point, though, the only reason anyone should keep the Note7 is as collectible. And even then, you'll probably want to keep it in a fireproof box just to be on the safe side.

Maybe this keychain will stop me from losing my iPhone 7 headphone adapter?

It’s been almost two months since Apple courageously lead us into its brave, new,headphone-jack-less future with the iPhone 7. And although it included a helpful dongle for connecting the now-defunct adapter, it’s really easy to lose. Trust me. I’ve almost lost mine roughly a dozen times so far.

The fittingly named Uncourage is a keychain with a male headphone plug on it so you can attach your headphone adapter into it when you’re not using it with your phone. So, if you’ve unplugged your headphones to use them with your computer or any other device beside an iPhone 7 — which believe it or not is something people do pretty frequently — you can keep the adapter on your keys when not in use. As someone who encounters this problem almost every day when I get to work, the Uncourage seems to better solution than my current method of just annoyingly leaving it hanging from the end of my phone while I’m at my desk.

Look, it’s time to accept that the headphone jack is gone. Should Apple have killed it? Maybe. Maybe not. But this is the world we live in now, and I’m sick of tearing through my bag, pockets, desk, and general nightstand area to find the adapter every time I want to listen to music on my phone. Should you also share those feelings, the Uncourage is $6, with an extra $2 for shipping if you don’t live in Canada

TCL put Alexa in a tablet designed for your kitchen

Amazon’s Alexa can be integrated into most anything now. Alexa is in adorable gadgets for refrigerators, smartwatches, remotes, and robots. Now, it’s showing up in a tablet specifically designed to help in the kitchen. We covered the Xess back in April, but to remind you, it has a 17.3-inch Full HD display and comes with a built-in handle, so it can be carried around the house. The $499 tablet also includes an IP camera so people can put it around the house to monitor different rooms. What really makes the Xess a kitchen tablet is that it’s loaded with software called Kitchen Stories that provides recipes users can access through voice commands.

TCL figured most people want Alexa in the kitchen, so the Xess makes sense. The TCL Xess is available now through Amazon

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Microsoft was working on its own MacBook Touch Bar

Apple unveiled its new MacBook Touch Bar last week, and many were quick to compare it to Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon adaptive keys from 2014. While Lenovo scrapped its touch keys after feedback due to the poor implementation, Microsoft has been investigating the use of adaptive keyboards for more than 15 years.A concept for adaptive hardware began back in 1999, with an idea that PCs could display action keys and hide other parts of the keyboard based on context. Steven Bathiche, director of research in Microsoft's applied sciences group, spent years investigating keyboards that changed their function keys and actions based on applications on the screen. While most of the work was primitive compared to today's touchscreen interfaces, a lot of the concepts behind Apple's MacBook Touch Bar were investigated by Microsoft's research teams.

After a number of prototypes involving projectors, touchscreens, and basic keyboard buttons, Microsoft finalized its research in 2009 with what it describes as an "Adaptive Keyboard." Microsoft's Adaptive Keyboard includes a tactile keyboard with a display underneath it, and programmable display key tops, with a large touch display area above the keys.

It's obviously a step further on from Apple's own Touch Bar, but Microsoft experimented with apps and user experiences that extended most of the interactions to the keyboard where hands typically rest. The idea was to see whether touch and dynamic context-based controls on a keyboard could increase productivity and highlight more advanced controls to a regular keyboard user who doesn't rely on 100s of shortcuts. Microsoft even admits part of the research was to "perhaps delight a little bit."

All of the examples in Microsoft's research were purely concept, and a 10-minute video demonstrates a number of ideas around the interaction and inputs. One example extends the operating system to the keyboard touch area, allowing you to browse through and select documents or recent apps. Another shows how the entire keyboard could adapt for when you don't require QWERTY input on certain actions in apps. Microsoft even investigated enabling notifications to display on the touchscreen area, allowing users to take Skype calls through "quick reach actions" without having to interact with them using a mouse.

MICROSOFT WENT WITH TOUCHSCREENS INSTEAD OF TOUCH KEYBOARDS

Ultimately, Microsoft decided not to progress with its research into a product. That's not unusual for the software maker, but I asked Bathiche why Microsoft never turned this idea into reality. "We did not build computers back then," explained Bathiche, who co-created the Microsoft Surface, in a Twitter reply. "When we did start, we made computers with touch screens." That obvious and honest answer highlights the real difference between Microsoft and Apple's attitudes to touch on desktop PCs. The new Mac vs. PC war is all about touch, and we might have to wait for years to find out which approach is the winner