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Information technology security is an unending challenge for both the private and public sectors. Private sector firms have their own security protocols and commercial motivations to ensure security -- as well as the obligation to meet appropriate government regulations Federal agencies not only have to worry about operational difficulties that st...

It's good to be busy, but I remember when August was a slow month, sort of like January, and for the same reasons. The holidays are out of the way, there's less to do -- other than eat the Christmas chocolates or the summer squash and tomatoes, and think about spring or going back to school. The August doldrums were a time of clambakes and vacations. Now? Clambake, si! Vacation, no mucho!...

The latest release earlier this month of the K Desktop Environment, or KDE, is a solid upgrade that could very well win back the hearts and fingers of Linux users who wandered off to other, less powerful desktop shells. I am particularly impressed with its smooth integration into the dedicated KDE distribution in Linux Mint 13.

Microsoft has announced that Asus, Lenovo, Samsung and Dell will unveil tablets based on Windows RT by the time it launches the operating system in October Each is developing a variety of form factors and peripherals, Microsoft said....

After posting revenue growth of 45 percent from a year prior, many companies would see an increase in stock price reflecting investor confidence. However, daily deal leader Groupon posted its first-ever quarterly profit as a public company and quickly saw its shares fall to new lows This isn't normally how things work -- why the investor worries?...

App.net founder Dalton Caldwell watched the social Web's trajectory with admiration and then dismay over the years. From all accounts, he liked its initial promise. As it morphed into a commercialized, ad-supported ecosystem of products, however, he apparently grew disillusioned. Hence the crowd-funded campaign Caldwell has launched to build ad-free, subscriber-based rival products...

Google has agreed to buy the Frommer's brand of travel publications. John Wiley & Sons, the publishing company that own the Frommer's travel brand, confirmed it will sell all of its travel assets to the Internet giant. The assets have been on sale since March, when the company announced it aimed to shed some of its assets, including travel, culinary, general interest, pets and crafts.

Researchers from IBM and European university ETH Zurich have announced they have directly mapped the formation of a persistent spin helix in a semiconductor for the first time. They observed how electron spins move in a semiconductor while rotating, like couples doing a waltz. This will let them manipulate the spin, which is a crucial step toward developing spin-based transistors that can be electrically programmed. That, in turn, could help achieve more efficient means of storing data...

When SAP's five founders launched the company in June 1972, it's unlikely theyforesaw where the IT industry would travel in the decades to come. SAP's core business applications, including enterprise resource planning(ERP) solutions, continue to support tens of thousands of companies globally -- but howthose organizations and their employees work, communicate and collaborate, both at theoffice and on the go, is changing...

Salesforce.com is rolling out a limited pilot of yet another social media initiative -- Salesforce Communities. The offering combines its Chatter product, its Salesforce.com business processes, and an underlying social intelligence that makes it easy to show people the right information and give them the correct access to experts, said Doug Bewsher, senior vice president, Salesforce Chatter...

For employees at Motorola Mobility, there were probably better ways tostart the business week. On Monday, Google announced that it wascutting about 4,000 jobs at its mobile phone business division, andthat it will close or consolidate about one-third of its 90 locationsaround the world This represents about 20 percent of MotorolaMobility's 20,000 e...

The makers of a video surveillance program developed by former United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) staffers attempted to sell their system to several big-name tech firms, according to leaked memos One of several internal emails written by executives at intelligence firm ...

IBM has expressed interest in acquiring the heart of Research In Motion's operations -- its enterprise services unit, according to two unnamed sources cited in a Bloomberg report last week This is not the first indication of a company's interest in acquiring part of the ailing BlackBerry maker, and RIM's executives have said they would consider "al...

Google is altering its algorithms to disfavor websites that are frequently accused of carrying content that violates copyright regulations The search engine will include a new search signal in its rankings. Starting this week, its algorithms will include the number of copyright removal notices that Google receives. Sites that have multiple notices ...

The attack last week on journalist Mat Honan's iCloud account has the potential to strip the silver lining from the cybernimbus Honan had his digital life destroyed when hackers, in a convoluted effort to hijack his Twitter account, ended up trashing everything connected to his Apple iCloud account....

There's a great chase scene in Minority Report when Tom Cruise, having been identified as a future murderer, is making his escape through a futuristic mall. He's doing so with some urgency while trying to keep a low profile. Unfortunately, the advertising billboards, which are smarter than a NASA rocket scientist, start crying out to him, vying for his attention and blowing his cover...

I was reading James Kendrick's column on Windows 8 tablets over on ZDNet last week, and he is clearly having trouble adapting to what is becoming a tablet world. James and I came from the first age of personal computers. I'm pretty sure he's younger than I am, and I think he is showcasing what will be a problem for many of us who grew up on PCs. Bigger is better, and tablets aren't bigger. [*Correction - Aug. 13, 2012] ...

Is Microsoft Bottoming Out? - Part 1 You'd think that Microsoft was all but dead, judging by some of the industry scuttlebutt. Microsoft'stactical and strategic technology and business missteps are well publicized and dissected adinfinitum.

Hackers have hit Blizzard's Battle.net online gaming network, stealing users' email addresses, the answers to their personal security questions, and information relating to mobile and dial-in authenticators The intruders hit the company's North American servers, which support players in North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and South...

While the promise of mobile payments still remains very much at the IOU stage, the Electronic Transactions Association on Thursday announced the formation of the Mobile Payments Committee, a task force that includes representatives from the four main U.S. carriers -- Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile -- as well as Google, Isis, PayPal, Verifone and Intuit...