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Microsoft Says Yes to ARM-Based Chips for its Cloud Servers – Yahoo Finance

March 14, 2017 | Author: admin

Reportedly, Microsoft Corporation MSFT in collaboration with Qualcomm QCOM and Cavium. CAVM has developed a Windows-based operating system for its cloud-based servers that will run on ARM-based processors instead of Intels.

Although currently none of the Azure cloud clients use the ARM-based processors in their servers, adoption of the same is expected to pick up going ahead.

Also, Microsofts new server design will be an open source one, available for customizations. It is also free to use and could pave the way for greater adoption.

Why this Move?

The most important reason why Microsoft is making the switch from Intel-based processors to ARM-based processors for its cloud based servers is to cut down on costs and become more flexible.

The company will also gain a competitive edge in the cloud server market dominated by Amazon AMZN and Alphabets Google.

What it Means for Intel?

The server semiconductor market is currently dominated by Intel, which holds over 98% market share. We note that during fourth-quarter 2016, Intels Data Center Group (which includes revenues from server chips)accounted for 28.5% of total revenueof $16.37 billion. Given the declining PC demand worldwide, demand for PC chips is also on a decline.

Server chips were a significant contributor to the companys top line. However, with Microsoft showing preference for ARM-chips, Intels dominance in the server chips market is under threat.

What it Means for Microsoft?

As per an IDC report, worldwide spending on public cloud services is estimated to reach a whopping $203.4 billion in 2020 that is currently growing at a CAGR of 21.5%. Not surprisingly then, competition in the sector is intensifying with the presence of major players such as Amazons AWS, Alphabets Google Cloud Platform.

However, Microsofts decision to switch to ARM-based processors is a strategic one that is expected to help the company remain competitive and relevant.

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Microsoft Cloud Tests ARM Processors for its Servers – Read IT Quik

March 14, 2017 | Author: admin

Microsoft is eyeing ARM for its low-power chips, testing it for its Azure servers. This is seen as a step toward being price-competitive, since ARM chips are known to be highly energy-efficient. ARM chips are not being tested for customer-facing cloud services, but for internal purposes such as initiatives around machine learning, big data analytics and general storage. This move is sure to open up new challenges for current chip leader, Intel.

According to Jason Zander, vice president of Microsoft's Azure cloud division, a significant commitment to ARM as a partner in chip making will follow through. In fact, Microsoft has worked with Qualcomm and Cavium to develop a new version of its Windows operating system, specifically designed for servers with ARM processors.

The IT giant is also expected to develop a new cloud server design customized to ARM, and is roping in new partners and capabilities for the same. This speaks volumes about the kind of commitment one can expect from Microsoft towards ARM. At present the testing is in the preliminary stage and Microsoft is not looking at deploying it in customer-facing networks at the moment, but is focussing on allied areas such as storage, search, machine learning and big data analytics. Microsoft may soon announce details at the Open Compute Project Summit.

Intel has long been the dominant player in the server chip market, and continues to do so to even today. However, this may soon be a thing of the past. ARM plays on the price point; its server chips are known to be extremely power-efficient. They also offer more choice in terms of vendors. Traditionally known mainly for its mobile processors, ARM soon encroached upon Intels battlefield of supercomputing. In fact, ARM had developed a new chip architecture specifically for supercomputing applications.

Fujitsu was one of its first ARM customers and they planned on using these new ARM chips to make a new supercomputer called Project K. ARMs shift from mobile to mainstream was soon emboldened with ARM being acquired by SoftBank last year and investments in new processor genres turned more aggressive. Going by the flow, ARM will soon deal a hefty blow to Intel and we may soon see a takeover of Intels leadership position in the market.

Intel has been trying to stay ahead by bringing on innovative research in the fields of quantum technologies and optical computing hardware. The wait to see who wins this round between the Intel-ARM face-off will be interesting.

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OVH and Accelize Partner to Deliver FPGA Acceleration-as-a-Service through OVH RunAbove Lab – Yahoo Finance

March 14, 2017 | Author: admin

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

OVH and Accelize today announced that they have entered into a partnership to better enable OVHs cloud customers to leverage the processing capabilities of FPGAs in the form of FPGA Acceleration-as-a-Service.

OVH first launched its FPGA server offering in summer 2016 as part of the RunAbove Lab, enabling users to evaluate FPGA capabilities by renting a dedicated FPGA Server where they can program and test their own FPGA designs. The partnership with Accelize now enables OVH users to operate pre-built FPGA accelerators on the RunAbove FPGA servers. These users can also customize these accelerators or create new ones, using the QuickPlay/QuickStore solution from Accelize, regardless of their FPGA expertise.

We see 2017 as the year of the FPGA in data centers, and we know that many of our customers are interested in these devices and the acceleration capability they bring, said Germain Masse, technical director for OVH. However, we also know from experience that developing FPGA accelerators is a challenging task for many who would like to use them. Accelizes offering addresses this perfectly with a complete, high-level tool flow for development plus an ecosystem of experienced developers who can offer pre-built accelerators to our customers.

Accelize provides the pre-built accelerators for the RunAbove cloud server in cooperation with its QuickAlliance ecosystem partners. The current partnersCAST Inc., Barco Silex, and Logic Fruitprovide the hardware libraries (IP blocks) needed to create these ready-to-use accelerators that are ideal for data centers, including GZIP Compression, GUNZIP decompression, and AES Encryption. RunAbove users can easily launch these FPGA accelerators to immediately evaluate the benefits of FPGA Acceleration. Additional accelerators developed by new QuickAlliance partners will be available shortly.

Developers who have the application knowledge but not necessarily the FPGA expertise can now create efficient and tailored FPGA Accelerators by seamlessly combining proven design library functions (IP blocks) from a growing catalog of third party providers with their own specific logic functions defined using C/C++ code. They can in turn offer their newly developed accelerators for sale on the QuickStore marketplace with a business model that matches the Cloud computing as-a-Service model.

This exciting joint offering goes beyond FPGA evaluation to actually put custom FPGA development within reach of many more OVH customers, said Jean-Yves Brena, COO at Accelize. It also paves the way for how FPGAs will be used effectively in the Cloud, with a pool of FPGA accelerator developers creating and maintaining a large selection of ready-to-use accelerators that Cloud Service providers such as OVH can sell as a service.

Cloud users seeking to evaluate FPGA acceleration can rent a so-equipped FPGA Server from OVH RunAbove and immediately evaluate the pre-built accelerators loaded on that server. They can then implement and test their own FPGA accelerator ideas by getting a QuickPlay subscription and using its complete, end-to-end, software defined tool flow to target the FPGA server, all without having any prior FPGA design expertise.

IP providers and accelerator developers looking to make their products available in a Cloud computing environment should contact Accelize and join the QuickAlliance program.

For more information about the joint OVH-Accelize offering please go to: https://www.accelize.com/ovh-runabove

For more information about the FPGA Server accessible through RunAbove go to: https://www.runabove.com/labs/FPGAAccelize

About OVH

Founded in 1999, the OVH group innovates at the heart of the Internet, data centers (260,000 physical servers) and network (more than 10 Gbps bandwith capacity). As a result, today it is a major player in the European cloud market. Through its brands, OVH.com, So you start, RunAbove, and hubiC, the OVH group offers tools and solutions that are simple yet powerful, revolutionizing the way its 1,000,0000 worldwide customers work. Its credo is technology must serve business. Respect for the individual, freedom, and equal opportunity to access new technologies have always been and will be strong commitments of the company.

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About Accelize

Spinoff of 20-year-old PLDA Group, Accelize aims to accelerate the adoption of FPGA-based reconfigurable hardware in IT infrastructures by streamlining the development and sale of FPGA accelerators with a unique, intuitive FPGA development flow and a business model that aligns with Could / data center needs. Its primary offerings, QuickPlay and QuickStore, are the result of years of research in the field of High-Level Design (HLD) and High-Level Synthesis (HLS) combined with the strong expertise in FPGA hardware and IP design. See http://www.accelize.com and follow @accelize on Twitter for more information.

Accelize, QuickPlay, and QuickStore are trademarks of PLDA Group.

RunAbove is a trademark of OVH.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170314006040/en/

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OVH and Accelize Partner to Deliver FPGA Acceleration-as-a-Service through OVH RunAbove Lab - Yahoo Finance

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VPS vs. Cloud Hosting – rackspace.com

March 14, 2017 | Author: admin

VPS vs. Cloud

When it comes to choosing between cloud servers and virtual private servers (VPS), which is best? In short, the main difference between virtual private servers and cloud servers is scale.

VPS has long been recognized as one of the ways in which businesses can reduce IT costs and increase operational efficiency. By isolating applications and programs within one virtual server thats set aside solely for you, VPS provides high levels of privacy, security and control. But while VPS delivers cost savings on hardware and offers the flexibility to run multiple operating systems or sets of programs on individual servers at the same time, it doesn't scale well.

In contrast, buying a cloud server is like buying a much larger ecosystem that allows for scaling up and out. A cloud environment allows you to more easily add more resources to your server, such as RAM, processors or even cloned copies of your server for data back-up.

VPS vs. Cloud does not have to be an either/or option. You can host your VPS in a virtualized environment. This allows you to convert one physical server into multiple virtual machines, each of which acts like a unique physical device for running both IT resources and web applications in a flexible, instantly scalable and cost efficient manner.

Powered by OpenStack, Rackspace open cloud hosting is fast, flexible and reliable. You get the ultimate in power, control and performance with the ability to dynamically scale up at a moments notice to meet demand while paying only for what you use. Take advantage of a wide portfolio of compute, storage and networking products to keep you in total control of your hosting infrastructure. Or select a managed service and let our team of experts work with you to build a unique solution that incorporates exactly the right service level and architecture design to meet your specific business needs.

A managed virtualized cloud solution from Rackspace, powered by VMware, is the ideal option for businesses experiencing rapid growth or fluctuating needs such as seasonal or marketing-driven peaks in demand that require a single tenant solution dedicated to their individual needs. It is the cost-efficient way to scale your resources and consolidate your physical hardware footprint. Rackspace gives you the ability to rapidly scale up to meet your performance and capacity needs while only paying for what you actually use. You also get the security of dedicated servers along with automatic backups, recovery and snapshots. Plus, you get the support of our virtualization team, including VMware specialists who manage your physical server, virtualization layer and virtual machines so you can get the most out of your solution.

Rackspace Private Cloud is the best option for businesses requiring control and high levels of security due to strict compliance or regulatory requirements. Its also ideal for organizations that require a dedicated VPS solution, but want to maintain the flexibility of open standards and avoid vendor lock-in. Built using OpenStack technology to give you the same freedom, flexibility and scalability as the public cloud, we will design, build, install, host and support your single-tenant server environment. We also offer a wide range of storage and network products, plus the benefit of 24x7x365 Fanatical Support.

For customers hosting their VPS in our open cloud who also need to address PCI compliance, we offer RackConnect. This unique, hybrid solution bridges your entire hosting infrastructure including dedicated servers, virtual servers and public cloud to deliver the best of both worlds. With RackConnect, you have the ability to store customer data and payment information and conduct transactions on a dedicated server while still harnessing the cloud for scaling when demand is high.

Getting the right Virtual Private Server option for your business could not be simpler.

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Silicon Valley Leaders Join OVH US Executive Team to Challenge … – Yahoo Finance

March 14, 2017 | Author: admin

RESTON, VA--(Marketwired - Mar 14, 2017) - OVH, a global hyper-scale cloud provider, today announced the addition of seasoned executives to lead OVH US with a mission to bring best-in-class products and support services to the largest cloud computing market in the world. OVH US is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the France-based OVH Group, the largest European cloud hosting provider since 2011. Russell P. Reeder, veteran chief executive in the cloud services and hosting industry, takes the helm as president and CEO of the new organization.

In late 2016, KKR and TowerBrook invested $250 million to support OVH's global expansion, including the US market. To date, OVH owns 26 data centers across four continents, thousands of miles of dark fiber, which deliver a capacity of 10+ Tbps, and 32 points of presence worldwide.

"Today, companies see no borders and must deliver great performance globally," said Reeder, president and CEO of OVH US. "The US cloud market is ripe for disruption -- companies deserve better service at an affordable price. We will bring the same innovation to the US market that led OVH to its position as one of the top five hosting companies in the world, while also delivering best-in-class services and support for small, medium, and large enterprises. With our experienced and respected executive team, which helped to grow many cloud and technology companies to record revenues, including Media Temple and GoDaddy, I have no doubt we will duplicate our past success and exceed customer and shareholder expectations while disrupting the cloud hosting market."

Known for its vertical integration of data center infrastructure, OVH owns its data centers and uses proprietary water-cooling technology that more efficiently cools servers and optimizes energy usage while simultaneously increasing performance. In February, OVH announced the acquisition of its second US data center, located in Hillsboro, Ore. A facility in Vint Hill, Va., is currently under construction. Initial offers for businesses interested in expanding to the US data centers are targeted to be available in summer from the Vint Hill location.

"OVH has long been a leader in cloud and hosting services across Europe, known for unique energy efficiency in its data center operations and competitive pricing," said Liam Eagle, Research Manager, Hosting and Cloud, at 451 Research. "The US market for cloud infrastructure is dominated by a handful of large players. However, there is an opportunity to win market share and impact the existing cloud space through a combination of proven leadership and true technology differentiation."

The new US team will establish offices in Reston, Va., dubbed the Silicon Valley of the East, Vint Hill, Va., and Hillsboro, Ore. OVH US is a separate legal entity and wholly owned subsidiary of OVH, and will have a independent board.

The OVH US executive team includes:

Russell P. Reeder - President, CEO, and Member of US Board A veteran technologist and chief executive to software and cloud businesses with more than 25 years of experience, Russell P. Reeder joins OVH US from icitizen, where, as president, CEO and co-founder, he led the creation of a software platform to increase civic engagement. He has a history of building businesses that achieve successful exits, including acquisitions with LibreDigital to RR Donnelly and Media Temple to GoDaddy. Reeder specializes in leading high-growth, disruptive businesses that marry a customer-centric vision and strong technology innovation -- ranging from his enterprise software experience at Oracle to ebooks, IPTV, and web hosting. His breadth of experience, including sales, branding, and programming, enables Reeder to build teams that execute market-impacting business plans, consistently generating value for customers and shareholders.

Dean Gels - Chief Financial Officer and Member of US Board Dean Gels brings more than 15 years of financial experience in technology M&A, equity and debt financing. As an investment banker for RBC Capital Markets, Gels completed more than 40 deals, amounting to $17 billion in transaction value. He was instrumental in the sale of Media Temple to GoDaddy in 2013 and in RBC's role as joint bookrunner and lead arranger for GoDaddy's $2.25 billion recapitalization in 2011. Most recently, Gels served as the VP of corporate development at Borderfree, managing the sale of the business to Pitney Bowes for $489 million in 2015.

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Brian Kuhn - Chief Digital Officer Brian Kuhn is a product and marketing executive with almost 25 years of experience focused on creating right-fit solutions to customer problems. His tenure with industry giants including YP, AT&T, ebay, Palm and HP led him to building brand experiences for millions of users and managing critical Fortune 100 customer relationships, including a strategic relationship with J.P. Morgan Chase. As VP of product and user experience at Media Temple, Kuhn built product and marketing organizations that scaled quickly to put customer needs at the forefront of the business. He created a managed service offering around AWS that quickly generated a multi-million dollar business.

Robert Gregory - Chief Customer Officer Robert Gregory joins OVH from GoDaddy, where he served as senior director of hosting support. A global customer sales and support executive with 13 years of experience, Gregory has devoted his career to fostering employee growth, optimizing customer satisfaction, and increasing profitability. Over the last 10 years, he grew Media Temple and GoDaddy's hosting and sales support teams from 100 to 600 employees, and drove revenues from $3 million to $100 million annually. As VP of customer support at Media Temple, Gregory developed managed service programs, growing revenues from $3 million at Media Temple to $20 million annually at GoDaddy.

Scott Brown - Senior Vice President Engineering & Operations With more than a decade of experience launching innovative products and services in the hosting industry, Scott Brown has a proven track record of product innovation and revenue growth. As VP of engineering at Media Temple, Brown oversaw software engineering, architecture, quality assurance and operational support of cloud services, shared hosting, dedicated hosting and more. He led development of new PaaS offerings that resulted in $725,000 in new bookings in a single year. At GoDaddy, Brown led a team of more than 150 to expand web hosting offerings from 500,000 hosted sites to more than 5.5 million sites.

"When I started OVH 18 years ago, my focus was to create a way for customers to take advantage of then-nascent cloud computing technology," said Octave Klaba, CEO and Chairman of the Board of OVH Group. "Today, customers face a different challenge -- buying cloud services from any one of a number of identical companies. OVH US will challenge what businesses believe to be the industry norm for cloud services, and exceed their expectations for value. Russell and the OVH US team have the industry pedigree and market expertise to start a ripple that becomes a tsunami as we take the US IaaS market by storm and set a new industry standard."

Join OVH US OVH US is hiring for multiple roles based in the US. To learn more, visit: https://www.ovh.com/us/careers/available-positions/?country=we

About OVH US OVH US is a global, hyper-scale cloud provider that offers businesses industry-leading performance and value. Vertically integrated to own its network, server technology and green data centers, OVH US operates more cost effectively and passes these benefits back to customers. Controlling each step in the global solution allows OVH US to provide the best performance, price, security, and customer service in the industry. OVH US is a subsidiary of OVH Group, the largest European hosting provider, with more than one million customers across 138 countries and four continents. Thus, OVH US customers join a global network with 26 data centers, 32 points of presence, and thousands of miles of dark fiber.Learn more about OVH US.

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FastComet Announces Launch Of New Cloud Hosting Packages – HostReview.com (press release)

March 14, 2017 | Author: admin

FastComet Announces Launch Of New Cloud Hosting Packages

San Francisco, CA, March 14, 2017 --(PR.com)-- FastComet, a San Francisco-based company that provides premium web and cloud hosting solutions hosting for small business owners, entrepreneurs and developers, has today announced a dramatic overhaul of its shared hosting platform. The company stated a significant change to its plan structure by upgrading its shared hosting plans to offer clearer limits and plenty of room for growth.

The new hosting plans affect new shared hosting customers. Current cloud customers of FastComet will still enjoy their current shared hosting plans, as all existing plans and hosting subscriptions are automatically grandfathered to their current pricing, features and infrastructure.

"FastComet's offerings are now suited to all phases of a business's web hosting cycle. Our new services fulfill the needs of those businesses just beginning to build a web presence as well as the needs of growing businesses demanding more out of their hosting plans. As our customers web hosting needs grow, we grow with them," said Elena Tileva, Director of Marketing.

The new plans are designed so that even new website owners will have a stress free and easy experience. FastComet's entry-level shared hosting plan, the StartSmart, allows customers to host one domain name with their account, while the mid-level plan, now called the ScaleRight plan, allows customers to host unlimited domain names within the same account. The newly launched SpeedUp plan, offers enhanced platform, increased reliability and extra speed.

SpeedUp will exceed what was offered before in the other plans, providing even more server resources and less limitations for the clients. Faster than its two fellow plans, the new SpeedUp shared hosting solution boasts Solid State Drive (SSD) for storage and databases and set up in a redundant RAID 10 configuration for optimal speed and data security. With this setup you will never have to worry about failed hard drives and data loss.

It also leverages 5-layers custom caching configuration including Varnish, APC, OPCode and Memcached, CDN (Content Delivery Network), a global CDN powered by industry leader in website security, 3 x more CPU and RAM, 3 times less populated servers, that increases website speed up to 300%. "In addition, it runs on the blazingly fast LiteSpeed LSAPI PHP for optimal TTFB that Google will fall in love with."

What is impressive is the list of amazing features and included extras that come at no additional cost: SpamExperts Mail Protection, Patchman, Free GlobalSign Private SSL for life and many more.

Weve always wanted to be the final hosting decision someone had to make, said Daniel Lee, Director of Product at FastComet. We understand the trouble it takes to research, plan for and study a web hosting provider. Our goal was always that once you choose us, theres never a need to go through that process again. Our new cloud hosting plans help us get closer to that goal.

Coming from a different host? Help is available at no cost FastComet will make the transition from another host hassle free with free website transfer service offered on all shared hosting plans.

About FastComet

FastComet Inc. is a full service web hosting provider located in San Francisco, California focusing on server stability, excellent customer service and ease in web hosting. They continue to impress current and potential clients with speedy replies and exceptional support.

FastComet Team has been in the web hosting business for more than 7 years. While providing professional services in the field of System Administration to private and business clients, the team grasped the opportunity to launch our public cloud hosting service in late 2013. By doing so FastComet preserved their core values and built on our previous experience to deliver a finely crafted PaaS (Platform as a Service). Learn more at http://www.fastcomet.com

Contact Find us anytime at http://www.fastcomet.com, on Twitter @FastCometCloud or on Facebook.

Contact Information

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FastComet Inc Elena Tileva 855-818-9717 Contact https://www.fastcomet.com

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SAP is now hosting VMs in its cloud. Just don’t call it HANA – The Register

March 14, 2017 | Author: admin

SAP probably isn't high on the list of companies you'd contemplate as a host of a virtual machine in the cloud, but the company's just doubled down on a service that offers just that.

The company's not trying to be a general-purpose cloud platform. Instead, the offering is part of the recently-re-named SAP Cloud Platform. Previously known as SAP HANA Cloud Platform, the company changed the name because the product has nothing to do with HANA: there's nothing in-memory about the offering. Indeed, the company has figured out that it slapped the HANA name on too many things, deterring those who worried they weren't ready for in-memory computing.

The Cloud Platform is a platform-as-a-service into which SAP has just tossed things like a new SDK for developing iOS applications, an Internet of Things service it says can hoover in data generated by things using 40 different protocols and a Hadoop-powered big data service.

Cloud Platform's overarching purpose is to let SAP users build apps that connect to either legacy software, third party software both on-premises and SaaSy, and to SAP itself. For the latter, SAP is banking on the fact it knows exactly what's going on inside its own applications and is therefore in prime position to pump out information so it can be put to work. Hence the imminent ServiceNow-like Cloud Platform Workflow service that will debut on March 30th and make it easy to create new composite workflows for business processes.

And then there's that virtual machine hosting service. SAP's not bidding for your critical cloud workloads. Instead, it figures that if you've built something to work alongside SAP, that workload may well do better in the cloud than it would if it had to traverse the internet to get anything done. The service runs on SUSE and OpenStack and creating it is one of the reasons the two companies are so tight and so invested into the open source cloud stack. The VM-hosting service is also expanding about to expand: it kicked off in Europe late in 2016 and has now reached North America.

We can expect more services to appear in SAP Cloud Platform before long: the company's representatives today told The Register its SAPPPHIRE conference in May will see it announce more to go beyond the current total of 45.

Just don't call any of this HANA: that name's now reserved for SAP S for Hana, the current version of the company's application stack. If you run that in the cloud, it's SAP S for Hana Cloud.

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SAP is now hosting VMs in its cloud. Just don't call it HANA - The Register

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A lesson from the CIA WikiLeaks dump: Encryption works – The Seattle Times

March 13, 2017 | Author: admin

Documents purportedly outlining a massive CIA surveillance program suggest that CIA agents must go to great lengths to circumvent encryption they cant break.

NEW YORK If the tech industry is drawing one lesson from the latest WikiLeaks disclosures, its that data-scrambling encryption works, and the industry should use more of it.

Documents purportedly outlining a massive CIA surveillance program suggest that CIA agents must go to great lengths to circumvent encryption they cant break. In many cases, physical presence is required to carry off these targeted attacks.

We are in a world where if the U.S. government wants to get your data, they cant hope to break the encryption, said Nicholas Weaver, who teaches networking and security at the University of California, Berkeley. They have to resort to targeted attacks, and that is costly, risky and the kind of thing you do only on targets you care about. Seeing the CIA have to do stuff like this should reassure civil libertarians that the situation is better now than it was four years ago.

Four years ago is when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed details of huge and secret U.S. eavesdropping programs. To help thwart spies and snoops, the tech industry began to protectively encrypt email and messaging apps, a process that turns their contents into indecipherable gibberish without the coded keys that can unscramble them.

The NSA revelations shattered earlier assumptions that internet data was nearly impossible to intercept for meaningful surveillance, said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at the Washington, D.C.-based civil-liberties group Center for Democracy & Technology. That was because any given internet message gets split into a multitude of tiny packets, each of which traces its own unpredictable route across the network to its destination.

The realization that spy agencies had figured out that problem spurred efforts to better shield data as it transits the internet.

A few services such as Facebooks WhatsApp followed the earlier example of Apples iMessage and took the extra step of encrypting data in ways even the companies couldnt unscramble, a method called end-to-end encryption.

In the past, spy agencies like the CIA could have hacked servers at WhatsApp or similar services to see what people were saying. End-to-end encryption, though, makes that prohibitively difficult. So the CIA has to resort to tapping individual phones and intercepting data before it is encrypted or after its decoded.

Its much like the old days when they would have broken into a house to plant a microphone, said Steven Bellovin, a Columbia University professor who has long studied cybersecurity issues.

Cindy Cohn, executive director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group focused on online privacy, likened the CIAs approach to fishing with a line and pole rather than fishing with a driftnet.

Encryption has grown so strong that even the FBI had to seek Apples help last year in cracking the locked iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers.

Apple resisted what it considered an intrusive request, and the FBI ultimately broke into the phone by turning to an unidentified party for a hacking tool presumably one similar to those the CIA allegedly had at its disposal.

Last week, FBI Director James Comey acknowledged the challenges posed by encryption. He said there should be a balance between privacy and the FBIs ability to lawfully access information. He also said the FBI needs to recruit talented computer personnel who might otherwise go to work for Apple or Google.

Government officials have long wanted to force tech companies to build back doors into encrypted devices, so that the companies can help law enforcement descramble messages with a warrant. But security experts warn that doing so would undermine security and privacy for everyone. As Apple CEO Tim Cook pointed out last year, a back door for good guys can also be a back door for bad guys. So far, efforts to pass such a mandate have stalled.

At the moment, though, end-to-end encrypted services such as iMessage and WhatsApp are still the exception. While encryption is far more widely used than it was in 2013, many messaging companies encode user data in ways that let them read or scan it. Authorities can force these companies to divulge message contents with warrants or other legal orders. With end-to-end encryption, the companies wouldnt even have the keys to do so.

Further expanding the use of end-to-end encryption presents some challenges. Thats partly because encryption will make it more difficult to perform popular tasks such as searching years of emails for mentions of a specific keyword. Google announced in mid-2014 that it was working on end-to-end encryption for email, but the tools have yet to materialize beyond research environments.

Instead, Googles Gmail encrypts messages in transit. But even that isnt possible unless its adopted by the recipients mail system as well.

And encryption isnt a panacea, as the WikiLeaks disclosures suggest.

According to the purported CIA documents, spies have found ways to exploit holes in phone and computer software to grab messages when they havent been encrypted yet. Although Apple, Google and Microsoft say they have fixed many of the vulnerabilities alluded to in the CIA documents, its not known how many holes remain open.

There are different levels where attacks take place, said Daniel Castro, vice president with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. We may have secured one level (with encryption), but there are other weaknesses out there we should be focused on as well.

Cohn said people should still use encryption, even with these bypass techniques.

Its better than nothing, she said. The answer to the fact that your front door might be cracked open isnt to open all your windows and walk around naked, too.

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Zix wins 5-vendor email encryption shootout – Network World

March 13, 2017 | Author: admin

Clear Choice Tests

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Email encryption products have made major strides since we last looked at them nearly two years ago. They have gotten easier to use and deploy, thanks to a combination of user interface and encryption key management improvements, and are at the point where encryption can almost be called effortless on the part of the end user.

Our biggest criticism in 2015 was that the products couldnt cover multiple use cases, such as when a user switches from reading emails on their smartphone to moving to a webmailer to composing messages on their Outlook desktop client. Fortunately, the products are all doing a better job handling multi-modal email.

In this review, we looked at five email encryption products, four of which employ encryption gateways and one thats end-to-end. The gateways usually rely on plug-ins to Outlook and browsers so you can continue using your existing email clients. The end-to-end product requires new clients for all encrypted message traffic.

The five vendors include two that we reviewed in 2015: HPE/Voltage Secure Email and Virtru Pro. The other three are Inky (the end-to-end product), Zix Gateway, and Symantec Email Security.cloud.

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Zix wins 5-vendor email encryption shootout - Network World

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Viber launches secret chats to go beyond encryption – SlashGear

March 13, 2017 | Author: admin

Weve seen a lot of chat services rolling out end-to-end encryption lately (or, in Facebook Messengers backwards world, optional end-to-end encryption), but now Viber wants to take that one step further. Viber already launched end-to-end encryption for all conversations held over its service a few months back, but starting today, you can host secret chats for a little extra security.

With secret chats, you can set the conversation to self-destruct and automatically delete after a certain amount of time. While regular chats in Viber have this self-destruct option, it only applies to video and picture messages in secret chats, on the other hand, the self-destruct feature applies to all messages.

Secret chats offer two more features that regular Viber chats do not. Messages in secret chats cant be forwarded, and secret chats also offer some kind of protection from screenshots. According to Viber, screenshots are completely disabled on Android. Screenshots can be taken on iOS, but the sender will received an notification alerting them to the fact that the recipient of their message is snapping pictures.

While you can turn existing chats into secret chats, you also have the options of keeping separate regular and secret chats with your Viber contacts. You can also use secret chats to hold one-on-one conversations or group conversations with up to 199 contacts. If youre hosting a secret chat with 200 people, though, we wonder how secret the chat really is.

So, all in all, this sounds like a nice companion feature to end-to-end encryption, and it should do something to pull in users who are concerned about security more than anything else. Secret chats are available in the latest version of Viber, which is already appearing on the Google Play Store. What do you think of this new feature? Head down to the comments section and let us know!

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Viber launches secret chats to go beyond encryption - SlashGear

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