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Nutanix Unveils Hybrid Cloud Computing Platform – IT Business Edge – IT Business Edge (blog)

June 29, 2017 | Author: admin

At a .NEXT 2017 conference today, Nutanix unveiled a cloud operating system based on its hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) software capable of unifying public and private clouds under a common hybrid cloud computing architecture.

Sunil Potti, vice president of engineering for Nutanix, says Nutanix Calm, due out by the end of the year, extends the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS multi-cloud strategy by making it possible to deploy applications at a higher level of abstraction employing a common stack of software that can be deployed at the edge of the network, in a local data center, in a hosting service, or on a public cloud. To underscore that latter point, Nutanix today also announced a partnership with Google tomake Nutanix Calmavailable on the Google Cloud Platform.

That capability is being complemented by Nutanix Xi Cloud Services, which is a turnkey cloud service due to be available under an early access program in the first quarter of 2018. It can be employed to both provision Nutanix infrastructure as well as provide additional capabilities such as disaster recovery services.

Based on the stack of software that Nutanix developed as an alternative to the implementation of VMware that Nutanix also supports, Nutanix Calm is an ambitious effort to make hybrid cloud computing an everyday enterprise norm.

Potti says, ultimately, Nutanix expects to automate almost every aspect of a hybrid cloud computing.

If we cant do that, it will be a missed opportunity, says Potti.

In the meantime, Potti says, Nutanix is committed to making the process of lifting and shifting of workloads between clouds invisible. Of course, Nutanix isnt the only IT vendor with similar ambitions. But its arguably the only one with an existing footprint in both the public cloud as well as its own and other third-party platforms from Dell EMC, Lenovo and others. The challenge and opportunity now is to turn that reach into a federated environment that effectively erases the lines between one cloud platform and another.

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Harnessing the Cloud for CAD: The Case for Virtual Workstations – Cadalyst Magazine

June 29, 2017 | Author: admin

28 Jun, 2017 By: Alex Herrera Herrera on Hardware: The demands of CAD-heavy workflows in manufacturing, design, architecture, and construction are growing. Some companies are looking beyond their local machines, and implementing virtual computing options to augment or replace traditional deskside and laptop workstations.

Workstations, virtualization, and the cloud this trio of technology tools is joining forces, ready to transform the way design teams deploy and use workstation-caliber systems to tackle the increasingly challenging issues facing cutting-edge CAD workflows.

The first component of that trio is the tried-and-true foundation that CAD users and IT administrators have long relied on to power visually intensive workflows quickly and reliably. The second is a more recent computing tool that enables users to run their familiar client desktops on shared datacenter resources. And the third represents today's hottest markets and technologies, upon which IT vendors and users alike are looking to resolve the future's thorniest computing problems. Today, the confluence of the three is creating a valuable new weapon for the CAD IT arsenal: Cloud-hosted virtual workstations are here.

Weve seen this potential and evolution of cloud-hosted virtual workstations coming for a while; I discussed some of the evolving supporting products and technologies over the past couple of years in "New Computing Solutions for CAD Take Fuller Advantage of the Cloud" and "Is Cloud-Based CAD Ready for Prime Time?" This month, I kick off a series on what this cloud-based technology is all about: Why its appealing, whether you should consider its adoption, and key considerations to take in deployment. This first installment explains what virtual workstations are and how they work, and also explores whether your business and workflow might benefit from adopting them in place of traditional, physical workstations.

Why a Virtual Workstation?

Traditional deskside and laptop workstations power the vast majority of CAD environments today. They have done so for years, reliably and effectively. But some businesses particularly those running CAD-heavy workflows in manufacturing, design, architecture, and construction are finding it increasingly difficult to satisfy the demands imposed by a host of growing challenges. Skyrocketing dataset sizes, dynamic workflows, a globally distributed workforce that needs immediate access to complex visual data, heightened concerns of security, and the constant incursion of personal digital devices into the workplace: all are conspiring to push traditional, distributed client environments to the brink.

Huge files no longer take seconds to transfer from client to client, or site to site instead it might be minutes or even hours. Security risks spread, while the burden of protecting priceless IP has never been heavier. And complex projects are more often requiring teams assembled not just from employees, but also contractors and consultants who might be in the field or in an office halfway around the world. Yet, all need access to the same datasets, on demand, from wherever they are at the moment and that data must be up to date.

In urgent need of solutions to these growing problems, businesses that rely on high-performance visual computing for CAD are beginning to look elsewhere, and one solution shining particularly brightly is the virtual workstation.

What Is a Virtual Workstation?

With the traditional, distributed client-side model that now dominates professional computing, all user processing and rendering is performed locally by the client computer. But with a virtual workstation approach, a remote server hosts a virtual representation of that machine, somewhere in the cloud or possibly in a corporate-owned datacenter. That virtual workstation performs everything that the physical machine at the desk would: running the operating system (OS) and applications, and processing graphics. Only the final displayed image the pixel stream traverses the network, to a simple client that need only display those pixels and handle any user input (e.g., commands from the keyboard and mouse).

In the traditional, tried-and-true environment of distributed workstation clients, the client handles at least part of the computing.

In the server-centric, cloud-capable virtual workstation environment, the entire compute burden is lifted off clients.

How Virtual Workstations Can Address CAD Needs

The ability of a virtualized workstation environment to store one golden set of data safely in one place looks particularly attractive when considering the explosion in the size of todays ambitious and complex project datasets. With a virtualized, centralized IT environment, it makes no difference if staff is located all in the same building or scattered across the globe. With potentially massive, global teams comprising employees, contractors, and partners, success hinges on ITs ability to efficiently connect people to the data, without costly, time-consuming copies and downloads.

When machines are no longer physically moved around just virtually and dynamically allocated IT administration becomes faster, simpler, and less error-prone. De-provisioning one user while provisioning another is fast, making rapid expansion and contraction over a project's life far less problematic. And centralized control and management consoles can simplify and streamline administration overhead, particularly for geographically dispersed enterprises.

By design, the use of virtual workstations hardens corporate security. Critical IP never strays beyond company grounds on laptops and flash drives. Only pixels cross corporate firewalls, and those pixel streams can be (and typically are) encrypted. Better still, virtually any device can suffice, regardless of OS or underlying hardware, making personal smartphones, tablets, or Macs capable and safe for CAD-related work.

The advantages of such a virtual workstation environment appeal as much in CAD as in any other application and arguably more. In the CAD world, huge, visually complex datasets abound, numerous scattered staff and third parties must contribute and collaborate, and security is paramount. So its no surprise that some of the earliest adopters are coming from the automotive, aerospace, and architecture spaces. Consider Honda Automotive, which having completed several successful proof-of-concept trials, is green-lighting the deployment of around 10,000 virtual workstations to replace physical deskside machines. Or CannonDesign, a Top 50 architecture firm that is moving to a virtual workstation environment to ease the growing problem of managing huge Revit designs spread across as many as 16 corporate sites.

Virtual or Physical: Which Is Right for Your Business?

The benefits are compelling, and everyone who relies heavily on CAD run on conventional deskside workstations should explore this new potential of virtual workstations. But its important to know that there is neither a mandate nor a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to deploying them. Virtual workstations might represent a replacement to deskside machines, an add-on to a traditional client-side environment, or neither. Which situations call for virtual solutions, and which are probably best left (at least for now) to physical ones? Ultimately, answers to these questions depend largely on who you are, what you do, and how you work.

For example, the locations where your staff works and lives and the ways in which they need to collaborate matter. How unwieldy your datasets are today, and how you see them growing down the road, will have a big impact on the choice.

Security is important to all, but a virtual approach will appeal especially to more vulnerable companies, or those for whom a breach would be catastrophic. Similarly, while no business wants outages and long recovery times due to natural disaster, for some the probability might be substantially higher and the penalties far more severe.

A move to a virtual workstation environment comes with mandatory infrastructure requirements, including access to a capable network with high, reliable bandwidth and consistently low round-trip latencies. Businesses that have that access or have the means to acquire it particularly for the wide-area network (WAN) can consider going virtual. (More to come on this topic in a future installment).

Since most virtual workstations run the identical client operating system users run on traditional workstations, such as Windows, they are inherently compatible with applications that run on those operating systems. However, you will want to make sure any virtual workstation solution youre considering is certified for use with your mission-critical application, just as you would with a traditional deskside workstation.

Virtual platforms do not typically support every possible peripheral a user may demand, and high-demand input and output (I/O) can impact visual performance. Tasks and workflows with more pedestrian peripheral requirements (e.g., mouse and keyboard) are a better fit for virtual workstations, though specific I/O support will vary by solution.

Some key decision criteria to consider in the decision to go virtual or not.

Consider how your specific business and workflow measure up on these key criteria. Dont find many that are calling out for a virtual approach? Then you may be better off sticking with traditional physical workstations, at least for now. But if you find youre checking off most of these items, and more than a few represent hot-button issues for your business, then it's probably time to consider taking the plunge into the world of virtual workstations.

For more on hosting virtual workstations in the cloud, keep an eye out for more Herrera on Hardware columns focusing on these topics, coming soon. Over the next few months, Ill explore the following considerations:

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Immigration Department lax on cyber security and vulnerable to attacks, experts say – ABC Online

June 28, 2017 | Author: admin

Posted June 28, 2017 13:47:37

Cyber security experts fear the Immigration Department is dragging its feet on internet security in the wake of global ransomware attacks and may be vulnerable.

The department has failed to comply with the Australian Signals Directorate's (ASD) top four security measures including patching for years, despite repeatedly promising to do so.

A damning audit earlier this year found the department was vulnerable to external attacks that could compromise sensitive information, including national security data.

But the department's chief information officer, Randal Brugeaud, will not give a deadline for compliance with the intelligence agency's recommendations.

"The failure of key government departments to be compliant with ASD's top four mitigation strategies is alarming," Greg Austin from the Australian Centre for Cyber Security said.

"These are only the most basic measures designed to begin to get organisations on the difficult path of transforming cyber security culture."

Computer security expert Richard Buckland said he was "surprised" by the department's approach.

"They have so much data and they are in such a critical position in our overall strategy that really we would all expect them to get this right," Dr Buckland said.

"They are very good at expecting compliance from everyone else, so I am surprised that compliance mentality does not apply to their internal systems."

A department spokesman told the ABC it was taking the challenge seriously and its information communications technology (ICT) systems had not been breached.

Earlier this month, Mr Brugeaud revealed the department may not be compliant with patching processes recommended by the Prime Minister's cyber security adviser, Alistair MacGibbon.

Patching is a term used to describe updating operating systems and applications to ensure they are protected from malware or ransomware.

Mr Brugeaud told a Senate inquiry that a monthly patching cycle would not be rolled out until next financial year.

"On application patching, which is quite a challenge for all organisations over the next two to three years we will get to a point where we are able to be fully compliant in applications," Mr Brugeaud said.

The department spokesman told the ABC it was now in the second year of a five-year ICT plan that would ensure compliance with the ASD recommendations.

But Dr Buckland said the five-year time frame was "astonishing".

"A five-year plan to deal with this is just the wrong time scale it makes me concerned about how seriously they are treating this," he said.

"In five years everything will have changes. It raises the question, how seriously are they taking cyber security?"

The department's cyber security processes are now the subject of a senate inquiry led by Liberal senator Dean Smith.

Mr MacGibbon told the inquiry compliance with the ASD's recommendations were only one approach to security.

"I have found that there is a prevailing "tick box" compliance culture which is in some respects, perversely driven by a fear of audit failure," Mr MacGibbon said.

"By looking only to these snapshots, we may create a culture of fear and thereby harm our security."

In its submission, Immigration pointed out a merger with the former customs agency in 2015 presented "an enormous challenge" for its ICT department.

"Combined, the two agencies have over 900 applications, of which 569 are unique," the submission said.

"Of the 279 business critical applications, approximately 70 per cent are bespoke."

Topics: hacking, science-and-technology, internet-technology, computers-and-technology, defence-and-national-security, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia

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Australia’s encryption thwart thought is fraught – ZDNet

June 28, 2017 | Author: admin

Australia's favourite Attorney-General, Senator George Brandis QC, has been in Ottawa discussing how we and our Five Eyes intelligence partners can 'thwart' terrorists' encrypted communications. What has he achieved?

Brandis told ABC Radio on Wednesday morning that defeating encryption was a "very important part of the proceedings" at the meetings between the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, because encryption is "impeding lawful access to the content of communications".

"So what we decided to do in particular was to engage with ISPs and device makers to secure from them the greatest possible level of cooperation. I also discussed with my American counterpart, Attorney-General Sessions, the development of cross-border access without having to go through the rather prolonged procedure of mutual legal assistance," Brandis said.

Leaving aside the question of whether lawful access rules should be re-examined, improving the pace at which law enforcement agencies can respond is a sensible goal. But what of the technical aspects?

As ABC Radio asked: "What are you actually asking them to do? Because tech companies say you can only break into these messages if you've planted a flaw or a bug into the software before it's sold. Is that what you want the device makers to do?"

Not specifically, said Brandis, and it's not as simple as that. And indeed, he's previously said he's not interested in backdoors.

"What we need is to develop, and what we'll be asking the device makers and the ISPs to agree to, is a series of protocols as to the circumstances in which they will be able to provide voluntary assistance to law enforcement," Brandis said.

"There is also of course the capacity which exists now in the UK and in New Zealand, under their legislation, for coercive powers, but we don't want to resort to that," he added. Brandis wants a set of "voluntary solutions".

When pressured about what that might mean, Brandis said that is a discussion that is yet to happen, and he didn't want to get ahead of himself, or narrow or confine its scope.

"First of all, I've made it clear that we're not going to ask the tech companies to backdoor their systems. Secondly [for example] section 253 of the British Investigative Powers Act does impose an obligation, subject to reasonableness and proportionality, upon providers to do whatever they reasonably can be expected to do to enable law enforcement to inspect messages that are the subject of encryption, or inspect devices," Brandis said.

And as for the idea of banning end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp entirely, Brandis said "it was not discussed, and wasn't thought of, and it would be infeasible."

So here's where we're up to.

Brandis says end-to-end encryption is a problem for law enforcement, which it is. He's not going for a backdoor, and says that's not feasible, which it isn't. So has he started a war on mathematics? Has he foolishly tried to tackle maths with the law?

After all, Brandis isn't known for his technical acumen, particularly after that Walkley Award-winning interview where he struggled to explain metadata.

No. Forget the maths. Join some different dots.

First, Brandis plans to talk to device manufacturers. Even now, telco switches must have a lawful interception (LI) capability, so that conversations can be intercepted -- or wiretapped, as Americans say. I'm guessing he simply means extending that requirement to endpoint devices, where messages could be intercepted before they're encrypted.

Second, Brandis wants to talk to ISPs. That's probably not to decrypt messages as they pass through, because that's kinda hard. It's probably to help the telcos identify the device in use, so that its lawful interception capability can be turned on.

That's all technically possible, achievable with legal pressure, and fits nicely within the national and international legal frameworks already in place.

But it's not a win, at least not for us citizens.

Current LI capabilities work through telco switches, so in theory they can only be turned on from within the telcos themselves. Yeah, shoosh you.

But mobile devices can be anywhere on the planet. The Brandis Plan, if it's what I think it is, would mean devices could potentially have their LI capability turned on from any telco on the planet and routed ... somewhere.

Why?

Because research as recently as late 2016 has shown that international mobile data networks are a security nightmare.

The only protections from LI capabilities going rogue would be mobile network switching security, and the processes within device makers' supply chains, and telcos, to prevent information leaking to bad people. There's no attack surface in there at all, right?

Sigh.

The Brandis Plan may well be able to achieve his goals, but at what cost?

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Encrypted chat app Telegram warned by Russian regulator: ‘comply or goodbye’ – The Register

June 28, 2017 | Author: admin

Russia's communications regulator is threatening to lower the boom on popular encrypted messaging application Telegram.

It might look like yet another government attack on user-accessible encryption, but in this letter, the head of regulator Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov says the messaging app is violating Russian legislation by not providing information about the company that controls it.

Zharov wrote on Friday that Telegram only has to fill in a questionnaire about the company that manages Telegram, so the company can be included in the country's register of service providers.

In the case of an actual refusal to perform the duties of the organiser of the dissemination of information, Telegram in Russia should be blocked, the letter states, adding that Telegram's time is running out.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov told newswire Reuters a ban would mean Russian government officials will be entrusting their communications to messenger apps written in other countries.

In playing the nationalism card, Durov cited WhatsApp, Viber, Apple and Google as companies who might carry messages from Russian officials and their friends.

He is skeptical that the regulator is mostly cranky about corporate structure.

In a VK.com post, he said Telegram was blamed for a terrorist plot three months ago, but that banning such tools is unsafe for everyone: Encryption of these services or equally protects all users Refusal of terminal encryption in a single country will make tens of millions of people vulnerable to attack by hackers and blackmail [by] the corrupt officials.

In an earlier post, he said Roskomnadzor had demanded Telegram give keys to decrypt to special services.

This requirement is not only contrary to Article 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation on the right to privacy of correspondence, but also demonstrates the lack of knowledge of how the encrypted communication [works] in 2017.

Moreover, endpoint encryption exists separately to any specific platform, he noted.

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Epyc win for AMD in the server security battle – Network World

June 28, 2017 | Author: admin

Andy Patrizio is a freelance technology writer based in Orange County, California. He's written for a variety of publications, ranging from Tom's Guide to Wired to Dr. Dobbs Journal.

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While everyone is talking about the impressive performance potential and scale of AMDs new Epyc server chips, overlooked in all the hoopla are the security features of the chip that may prove just as appealing.

To start off, there is the tag team of Secure Memory Encryption (SME) and Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV). Secure Memory Encryption allows for full encryption of data stored in DRAM, and SEV allows individual virtual machines to be assigned a unique cryptographic key, thus isolating them from each other as well as the OS hypervisor and administrator layer. These functions are based on a hardware security processor attached to the memory controller with a 128-bit AES encryption engine.

That means you can have full memory encryption on virtualized machines, something that will be greatly appreciated by cloud services providers. It will let them assure customers that the memory and the virtual machines that live on their clouds are completely secured in a multi-tenant environment.

Where SME is designed for memory, SEV is specifically aimed at VMs and is designed to keep them from cross-contamination, since each VM has its own encryption key. It also allows unencrypted VMs to run alongside encrypted ones, which is a new option. Up to now, its been either/or, all-or-nothing. The keys are transparent to the VMs and managed by the protected hypervisor.

SVE doesnt just work for static VMs; it also supports migrating VMs from one server to another while maintaining encryption throughout the process.

Then there is the Platform Security Processor (PSP), an ARM Cortex-A5 core on the Epyc die that controls the boot process and system security, and basically operates similar to Intels Management Engine in the Xeon. It provides secure boot and has full TPM functionality.

The one question unanswered is how much of a performance hit this will incur. Encryption is never a fast process regardless of processor, and now you are talking about encrypting the contents of memory, which are going to be constantly changing. AMD does give the option of turning SEV and SME on or off, and you can do it while the server is running without a restart.

Of course, this hardware isnt terribly useful until Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, Red Hat and other Linux distros support it. Once the software enters the market, then that encryption will be truly useful. For now, though, AMD has a security story that Intel cant quite match.

Andy Patrizio is a freelance journalist based in southern California who has covered the computer industry for 20 years and has built every x86 PC hes ever owned, laptops not included.

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Powell: Buying bitcoin to fund retirement? Make sure it fits plans – USA TODAY

June 28, 2017 | Author: admin

Robert Powell, Special for USA TODAY Published 7:00 a.m. ET June 28, 2017 | Updated 2 hours ago

A big British bank is considering bringing Bitcoin 'into play.' Barclays CEO Ashok Vaswani has spoken to regulators about engaging with the cryptocurrency, although he did not elaborate on what that would involve. Newslook

To be clear, there is no physical manifestation of a bitcoin that looks like this; it is a digital currency.(Photo: Pixabay)

Average investors are often accused of buying high and selling low.

And that may very well be the case for investors who are jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon. Bitcoin, a digital currency, has doubled and then some since the start of 2017 (its risen from $1,016.30 on Jan. 2 to $2,469.38 as of June 16) and many investors are taking note that a $1,000 investment in bitcoin in 2010 would now be worth $35 million.

To be sure, many experts, including Goldman Sachs, are turning bearish on the digital currency at its current price. But that hasnt stopped investors from asking the question: What about the long-term? Should I invest in bitcoin in my accounts earmarked for retirement, which could be decades away and then last for decades?

In the main, as with any investment, experts say investors should evaluate the pros and cons. Whats more, investors should take the very same approach to investing in bitcoin as they would any other investment: Evaluate whether it meets the criteria established in your investment policy statement, which outlines your time horizon, risk tolerance and investment objective.

Assuming youve done all that, Jack Tatar, co-author of Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investors Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond, says there several ways to invest in bitcoin and other digital currencies in a retirement account.

Jack Tatar is co-author of "Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investors Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond.(Photo: Jack Tatar)

Bitcoin Investment Trust:The easiest way, he says, is to invest in the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), the first publicly quoted securities solely invested in and deriving value from the price of bitcoin. According to the investment firm that manages the fund, the trust enables investors to gain exposure to the price movement of bitcoin through a traditional investment vehicle, without the challenges of buying, storingand safekeeping bitcoins.

The Bitcoin Investment Trust has an underlying value of 1/10 the price of bitcoin but it has been trading at a substantial premium, which indicates that theres a real appetite for placement of bitcoin into investment accounts, says Tatar. In terms of advice, I would say that the Bitcoin Investment Trust is too pricey and should be avoided.

ARK Innovation: Another publicly traded option, says Tatar, is the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), which invests in disruptive/innovative technologies, as well as the Bitcoin Investment Trust.

Self-directed IRAs:Most brokerage firms dont allow investors to invest directly in bitcoin, or at least not yet. But investors can establish something called a self-directed IRA at firms such as Pensco, The Entrust Group, or the Millennium Trust Company and invest in bitcoins directly through those accounts. To do so, investors typically have to establish a legal entity that would allow them to invest in bitcoin. Qualified accredited investors also invest in the Ethereum Classic Investment Trust on those platforms as well. To be sure, self-directed IRAs can be more costly than traditional brokerage IRAs, but investors do get the chance to invest directly in bitcoin.

Another option, according to Tatar, is the Bitcoin IRA, which is a financial conduit pioneering the use of bitcoin as a retirement tool. The Bitcoin IRA is simply a self-directed IRA which is a neat idea but requires a separate account away from typical retirement accounts held at wealth management firms, says Tatar. It also has an additional fee for their custody, and the like.

The Bitcoin IRA also lets savers invest directly in ethereum, which according to Tatar, is another digital currency that has been on a major run this year.

Taxable accounts:Another option is to buy bitcoin or ethereum separately and directly in a taxable account versus an IRA, Roth IRA or similar retirement account. Just follow proper asset allocation rules, says Tatar. And dont invest no more than 10% of your overall portfolio. Even if its in a taxable account, view it as something to complement your retirement savings.

Robert Powell is editor of Retirement Weekly, contributes regularly to USA TODAY, The Wall Street Journal, TheStreet and MarketWatch. Got questions about money? Email Bob at rpowell@allthingsretirement.com.

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TenX raises roughly $80 million for cryptocurrency payment system for everyday life – CryptoNinjas

June 28, 2017 | Author: admin

Singaporean based startup TenX Technologies, founded in June 2015 with its co-founders wanting to solve the problem of cryptocurrencies not really being able to be used in everydaylife out on the street. Most people trying to spend Bitcoin, Ethereum or many others realize quite fast that it is hard to connect this revolutionary but novel system with real world transactions.

Following a 1 million USD seed round at the beginning of 2017 with famous lead investor Fenbushi, TenX offered a token swap over this past weekend from June 24, 2017, 1 pm UTC.Itexchanged an equivalent of 245,832 Ether (valued at roughly 80 million USD at the time of the token swap), to the companys PAY tokens at a rate of 350 PAY tokens per 1 Ether (with a 20% bonus during the first 24 hours). The PAY tokens provide access to part of TenXs revenue of their already live payment service and also serves as a loyalty program to its own users.

Contributors only had 7 minutes to submit their contributions to TenXs receiving address before TenX stopped accepting further offers at 1:07 p.m. UTC. Roughly 4,000 people managed to participate directly while an additional several thousand people joined through pools to make it in time. Roughly 40,000 people did not manage to swap their tokens and will have to wait until July when the PAY tokens will be tradeable on cryptocurrency exchanges all over the world.

During the token swap, TenX accepted one of the most diverse ranges of tokens any company has ever provided. In addition to Ethereum, also ERC20 tokens, Bitcoin, Dash, and Litecoin were accepted. TenX made sure the transaction burden on the Ethereum network was kept to a minimum. By keeping contribution addresses unpublished until 15 minutes prior to the swap, TenX reduced unnecessary spamming of transactions leading up to the event. Transaction limits were also not suggested since such limits favor those who know how to bypass them. This technical finesse combined with authentic outreach such as their regular vlogmade the company ICO a success.

Instead of refunding this excess, TenX has agreed to honor all contributions stating: We will not withdraw the extra 45,000 ETH but rather leave them for additional liquidity in the crypto ecosystem to support a decentralized TenX as outlined in our white paper. This is actually a WIN-WIN for token holders AND the company.

This decision was made after estimations showed that in order to refund the excess Ether, close to 75% or 3,000 people would see their tokens canceled a move TenX did not want for its community. TenX offered to anyone unhappy with this arrangement to reach out prior to Tuesday, June 27, 2017, 11:59 pm EST, to receive a full refund, and has also confirmed once again that no new PAY tokens after the token swap will ever be created.

TenX will use these funds to develop their payment system even further from where it already is today: This includes apps for The Web, Android, and iPhone; debit cards and other further payment services; a decentralized system to connect any blockchain and thereby add any new cryptocurrency to the already existing multi-asset platform.

A detailed funding breakdown and the next steps for TenX are laid out clearly in its white paper.

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BlockPay, the Universal Merchant Payments Solution for Fiat and Cryptocurrency Transactions – newsBTC

June 28, 2017 | Author: admin

BlockPay is a blockchain based FinTech company from Munich that helps businesses with fast and straightforward payment processing services.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are gradually gaining increased adoption among people across nations. The rate of cryptocurrency adoption is further driven by the recent legalization of Bitcoin by the Japanese government, which is expected to be followed by other countries soon.

In spite of these developments, cryptocurrency trading activities make up for a majority of the transactions across various blockchains. The use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as an exchange of value, for everyday transactions are yet to pick up, which is mainly due to the lack of widespread cryptocurrency acceptance among businesses. While some business owners still have apprehensions about accepting cryptocurrencies due to its volatile nature, there are others unable to do so due to lack of proper tools. BlockPay intends to change this by offering a simple, easy to use, and free platform that enables merchants and businesses to accept cryptocurrency payments.

The Munich, Germany-based payment solutions platform provides a way for merchants to accept a variety of digital currencies including Bitcoin, Steem, Ethereum, Dash and other Smartcoins. Apart from the standard cryptocurrencies it also allows businesses to manage Loyalty Points, eReceipts, etc. The BlockPay platform itself is built using IPFS powercore, which enables it to be blockchain agnostic. The very thing also makes connecting almost any cryptocurrency wallet to the platform easier.

BlockPay can easily integrate with existing Point of Sale systems, work with online platforms and even as a standalone application. In addition, the platform will also ensure security by preventing fraud, ID theft, chargebacks, etc., something made easier by blockchain assets. And, the zero fees charged by BlockPay makes it even more attractive.

BlockPay recently conducted an ICO to make the platform a reality. The crowdsale carried out in association with CCEDKs OpenLedger offered an opportunity for the investors to become part of the project by purchasing Blockpay tokens.

Some of the BlockPays features include Automated Bookkeeping, Loyalty and Reward Programs, Customer Analytics, QR Code and NFC support and more. It also seamlessly supports traditional payment options like cash, credit and debit cards as well.

BlockPay boasts of helping over 60.000 Odoo businesses across the world, and the adoption is expected to increase even further with time.

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Data forensics for cloud storage applications – The Stack

June 28, 2017 | Author: admin

Researchers from the University of Salford, in the UK, have created a taxonomy to assist forensic research of data stored in cloud apps on Android-based mobile devices.

The importance of data retrieval from phones and tablets is of increasing relevance to law enforcement officials, who must follow proscribed evidentiary procedures to ensure that relevant data is retrieved properly. The taxonomy created by the researchers reflects residual data found in 31 separate cloud applications, to aid officials in correlating evidence of user activities with the data retrieved from the device.

The team examined a data set comprised of pictures, documents, audio, video, and web files which were downloaded to an Asus Nexus 7 Google tablet, using one of 31 cloud storage applications available for free on the Google Play Store.

They found that even when the data had been deleted and the tablet memory wiped, they were still able to retrieve different types of data from the device, and that the types and amount of data that could be retrieved varied depending on the cloud application used.

The cloud storage applications were examined using MicroSystemation XRY, a popular forensics tool, on a Windows 10 OS. The applications were all used to store data on the cloud so that it could be retrieved from the device itself or through a website, although some used a third-party cloud service.

The team uploaded the dataset on a closed network, from an alternate device to prevent polluting the data with remnants from the devices internal storage.

Results showed that data that had been uploaded using the XXL Box Secure app could be retrieved in all formats documents, audio and video files, spreadsheets, PDF and HTML files were all accessible using the XRY tool. Similar results were found with the FileManager and MyCloud WD applications.

8 of 9 types of data were recoverable from the FolderSync Lite application, where the team could retrieve all types of files studied excepting MBOX.

Using certain cloud storage applications, however, did not allow any of the data to be recovered using the XRY forensics tool. These applications include Google Drive, DropBox, Box, and the Adobe Creative Cloud.

In the future, the team plans to expand the study of cloud storage application forensics to other types of operating systems and different mobile devices.

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Data forensics for cloud storage applications - The Stack

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