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Internet security at home avoid being an online victim – North Coast Courier

Viruses, phishing, malware and ransomware are some of the new words and terms that we have had to come to terms with as computers and digital devices play a larger role in our lives.

In May this year, the WannaCry ransomware attack hit the Internet.

This is the type of malicious software that threatens to publish the victims data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid.

Within 48 hours, the attack had affected companies and government department across the globe, and it is estimated that one in ten organisations in the USA were affected.

We were not immune in South Africa and even sophisticated, IT-savvy companies such as Telkom were impacted and their customer service platforms crippled, said Tim Parle, managing director of Durban-based Internet and digital solutions company Mitsol.

Moreover, research opinion is that 2017 will be worst in every aspect of information security, and that as the song goes we aint seen nothing yet!

Tim Parle of Mitsol

So this begs the question as to what we can we do in our personal capacities to shield against these looming threats?

Integrated functions will include anti-phishing, password management, checking your home WiFi routers security and even automatically turning off your webcam while banking. All of this will allow you to surf, bank and pay more safely online.

Overall it is wise to take a professional approach to your personal Internet security.

To find out more or to view available packages on offer from Mitsol, visit their website orcontact them on 031 566 2451 or email info@mitsol.net.

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Healthcare Industry May Not Be Prepared For Internet of Things – JD Supra (press release)

A recent survey conducted by ZingBox, a Silicon Valley internet security startup, found that more than 90% of healthcare IT networks have Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The survey further found that more than 70% of IT departments believe that current security systems for laptops and servers can also protect connected medical devices.

According to Xu Zou, ZingBox CEO, Typically you will see 10 to 15 IoT devices per bed in a hospital. He defines a healthcare IoT device as anything that is portable and connected to the Internet.

This has caused serious problems with medical and other organizations. For example, on May 12, 2017 a ransomware cryptoworm called WannaCry attacked on devices on every continent. An estimated 200,000 computers in 150 countries were infected. The attack included hospitals in England and Scotland and affected up to 70,000 devices, including MRI scanners, blood-storage refrigerators, and theater equipment. Some ambulances were diverted and some non-critical emergencies were turned away.

A more recent global attack occurred on June 27, 2017. Petya (also known as NotPetya), a ransomware cryptovirus, affected largely Ukrainian and Russian hospitalsbut also hit locations in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In ransomware attacks, malware prevents a user from accessing certain computer records (e.g., patient records). These records are not released until a specified amount is paid to an anonymous recipient. Generally, these types of attacks rely on cryptocurrencies, such as BitCoin. Cryptocurrencies function like paper money, so the transaction is anonymous and difficult to trace.

Health care has been late to respond to the need for protected information, and the information is worth more, said Michael Ebert, a partner with KPMG who advised companies on cybersecurity. Its amazing how far behind we are, and we know we have to do something.

Ransomware attacks not only show the vulnerability of hospitals (and healthcare companies generally), but they present a threat to human life. For example, experts have suggested that up to 500,000 childrens medical records are on sale and could be used to compromise the care given to a child.

Ransomware attacks are on the rise. A 2017 Verizon Data Breach analysis found that ransomware attacks rose from the 22nd most common type of malware attack to the 5th most common between 2014 and 2017. [H]olding files for ransom is fast, low risk and easily monetizable, wrote the authors. The report noted that 72% of all health care malware attacks in 2016 were ransomware.

Investments into IoT technology is also rising. So far it is at nearly $25 billion and is expected to rise dramatically. Accordingly, the spread of the technology can be expected to increase. Examples within the medical device community include blood pressure and heart rate monitors.

Most of those surveyed by ZingBox may be optimistic about the state of their security. However, the healthcare industry is likely to be more vulnerable in the future as the IoT becomes more ubiquitous.

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Healthcare Industry May Not Be Prepared For Internet of Things - JD Supra (press release)

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Nvidia more bullish on cryptocurrency than AMD – MarketWatch

Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Jensen Huang summed up the chip makers view of cryptocurrencies in a single phrase Thursday: rock n roll.

Thats how Huang described his companys ability to ride out what he sees as a blossoming market for his companys graphics cards in mining the digital currency.

Crypto is here to stay, and the market will grow to be quite large, Huang said Thursday on the companys second-quarter call with analysts. Its not likely to go away any time soon. There will be more currencies to come, they will come from different nationsWe stay very close to the market, and understand the dynamics very well.

Dont miss: Intel earnings have message for Nvidia and AMD: Bring it on

Nvidia NVDA, -4.28% detailed quarterly results Thursday that beat expectations handily for sales and earnings, but the stock plunged more than 6.5% in after-hours trading following an already punishing day during the regular session. The companys shares are still up more than 50% this year, against the S&P 500 indexs SPX, -1.45% gains of 8.9%, as investors bet on Nvidias artificial-intelligence efforts to pay off in server and autonomous-driving sales.

Huang seemed to think crytpocurrency mining could add another long-term growth area to Nvidias bull case Thursday, and hinted at products developed specifically for those efforts, telling analysts on the call that the company offers the coin miners a special coin-mining SKU that is optimized for mining.

When asked whether the CEOs comment confirmed the rumored development of specific cryptocurrency products, an Nvidia spokesman declined to comment.

Analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy told MarketWatch that he didnt believe that Huang was suggesting new cryptocurrency products, but rather offerings that partners in the sales channel were developing with Nvidia chips. Moorhead pointed out that there is at least one card based on Nvidias Pascal architecture that is manufactured by Asustek Computer Inc. 2357, -1.71% and marketed to cryptocurrency miners.

That is a similar approach to how Nvidia rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, -5.53% is approaching crypto mining, but Nvidia sounds much more optimistic on the long-term prospects for customers seeking to mine digital currencies.

Some of our partners are also offering mining-specific cards that have a different feature set, such that were really segmenting the market between gaming and mining, Su said on her companys earnings call last month. But its important to say we didnt have cryptocurrency in our forecast, and were not looking at it as a long-term growth driver.

AMD also beat earnings expectations thanks to a boom in cryptocurrency mining that uses graphics-processing units. The development of new digital currencies beyond Bitcoin over the past few months, particularly on the Ethereum blockchain, have seemed to drive sales of the two companies GPUs.

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Coinbase Becomes First Bitcoin ‘Unicorn’ – Fortune

A Bitcoin company has finally attained the "unicorn" title, an honorific bestowed upon startups valued at more than $1 billion.

Coinbase, a brokerage that established itself as one of the biggest brands in a now-booming cryptocurrency market, has raised $100 million at a private valuation of $1.6 billion that includes the capital raised, the company tells Fortune. The venture capital firm Institutional Venture Partners led the round with participation by Spark Capital, Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, Section 32, and Draper Associates.

Coinbase had for months been rumored to be raising around $100 million at a valuation of $1 billion or more, as the Wall Street Journal reported in June. That deal, its fourth, is now final.

In previous rounds, Coinbase had raised a total of $117 million at a private valuation approaching $500 million, as Fortune reported. That sum already made it one of the most well financed Bitcoin ventures around, next to Circle and 21.

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Coinbase has been riding a wave of interest in cryptocurrencies in recent months. Virtual currency prices exploded this year with the resurgence of Bitcoinnow trading at more than $3,400 per Bitcoin, well above its previous 2013 highs in the $900 rangeas well as the ascent of Ethereum, a rival cryptocurrency network that, for one thing, allows people mint and sell their own digital tokens.

Overall, the total market value for cryptocurrencies and tokens combined has soared to more than $120 billion from just under $20 billion at the beginning of the year. This exuberance has led many industry watchers to warn of a possible bubble.

Founded in 2012, Coinbase started as a Bitcoin wallet service that helped customers stash their digital wealth. The company later moved into the brokerage space, opening online exchanges where traders can swap or sell crypto coins.

This year has been a banner year for Coinbase. According to the company, it has facilitated the exchange of more than $25 billion in digital currency to date, five times more than the total sum it processed from its founding through the end of last year.

On Wednesday, Fidelity Investments, the asset manager, added the ability for customers to view the cryptocurrency holdings in their Coinbase accounts on its own website.

During the recent Bitcoin blockchain fork in which a faction of the network broke off and created a new currency, Bitcoin Cash, some customers blasted Coinbase for saying it did not intend immediately to support the new money. Eventually, Coinbase reversed course and agreed to allow users to access their potential Bitcoin Cash holdings at the start of next year.

Coinbase has also been battling an IRS inquiry in recent months that seeks information about cryptocurrency buyers and sellers for tax purposes. The agency most recently said it would exempt people from the probe who transacted less than $20,000 in digital currency.

These hiccups haven't slowed the company's pace. Coinbase said it would put the newly raised money toward bolstering its engineering and customer support teams, opening a New York office for its professional trading operations, and continuing to develop Toshi, an Ethereum-based messaging and wallet app that it debuted last year.

Coinbase isn't the only recent benefactor from crypto mania that has lately gripped the world. GV, the venture capital arm of Alphabet, formerly known as Google Ventures, recently led a $40 million funding round for Blockchain, a cryptocurrency wallet provider based in London. Other investment firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, and Sequoia have been backing so-called crypto hedge funds, like Polychain Capital and Metastable, that invest in digital tokens and cryptocurrencies too.

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For Cryptocurrencies, the Future is Now – Daily Reckoning

Yesterday, I presented the case that you can make a fortune in cryptocurrencies. I dont think Ive ever seen anything quite like it in my career.

And the good news is that you dont need to know anything about Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies to take part in the bonanza.

In fact, what I call penny cryptocurrencies are one of the last legal ways for small investors to grow rich, starting with a small initial grubstake.

Consider

On Friday, March 17, 2017, a tiny little cryptocurrency called EnergyCoin was trading at a little over one third of a penny. The exact price was .003578 of a dollar.

Then a powerful super-spike struck and over a 99-day period EnergyCoin skyrocketed to 34 cents. Thats a whopping 9,566% gain enough to turn a $1,000 investment into a staggering $95,660.

Or imagine if you had a good feeling about EnergyCoin and put down $5,000

You could have collected $478,300. Thats over $4,800 a day for 99 days straight. Double that starting stake to $10,000, and youre looking at close to a cool million from one single trade.

Thats like earning a $9,662 salary per day for more than three full months!

Now I hope you can you see why Im so excited about the unlimited potential of these super-spikes in cryptocurrencies.

Practically every day, Im seeing astronomical gains of 300%400% even 3,000% some in as little as 24 hours.

Heres another opportunity that came along

On November 20th, 2013, a cryptocurrency by the name of Freicoin was ripe for the picking. Shares traded for fractions of a penny.

10 days later, shares exploded to 33 cents each. Even a small investment was a moon shot.

Had you put $5,000 into this cryptocurrency play, you would have earned yourself a fantastic sum of $291,500. Thats a gain of 5,820% in just one simple move.

But heres where it really gets interesting

Lets say you put all that money into another little-known cryptocurrency named Digitalcoin.

On December 14th, 2013, just 14 days later, you couldve earned five times your money.

Youd be rewarded with a massive sum of $1,489,565.

That would have made you a millionaire in just 24 days. And with just two simple moves.

Now lets take it up a notch

Imagine you make one final perfectly timed move

Had you rolled your money into a cryptocurrency by the name of Worldcoin that was trading for just pennies on the dollaryoud have made another 300% in short order.

Thats enough to turn your initial stake of $5,000 into a landslide lump sum of over four million dollars.

$4,021,825 to be exact.

Thats three buys and three sells. And a starting stake of just $5,000 wouldve turned into more than $4 million dollars.

Beats working for a living, right?

OK, but lets be completely honest

For every winner, there are probably 100 more cryptocurrencies out there that are nothing but duds. Right?

Thats why in order to win in this market and to win big you need to be able to separate the real deal from the losers.

To do that, you need someone who knows the cryptocurrency markets through and through.

Ive made my bones as a venture capitalist. And I know markets pretty darn well, if I do say so myself. Ive put in my time at Morgan Stanley, Ive worked in Silicon Valley, I appear on the financial shows, Ive checked all the boxes.

But I knew that I needed to partner with a true expert in this field if I wanted to master cryptocurrencies. And from the moment I saw this market explode

I knew exactly who I wanted as my secret weapon for this new project of mine.

The thing is, I just didnt know if hed agree to do it. And Ill tell you this he wasnt easy to get.

It was a pursuit that took me months of time and all the persuasion I could muster.

Sure, he earned a degree in mathematics from the world-renowned Trinity College, Cambridge. And hes got a Harvard MBA.

To top it off, hes been tenured as an advisor to the U.S. Treasury Department.

And hes got more than four decades of experience in the creation of new money across the world. For instance

When former Yugoslavia broke into six countries, including Macedonia, these countries needed currency. But more than that, they needed currency worth something.

Thats where this cryptocurrency genius came in

The U.S. government sent him over not only to launch the currency, but to make it valuable. After all, anyone can launch a currency. But to make it valuable is something else altogether. Just ask Zimbabwe.

To make a long story short, our man succeeded.

He saved the Republic of Macedonia, with a special type of money move that netted the nation a whopping $600 million.

Another time he worked with the World Bank to create an entirely new type of currency transaction. And in just seconds, he pulled $11 million out of thin air.

Imagine having nothing one day, and the next day having a bank account with $11 million or even $600 million.

Its all possible when you have both the right opportunity (the cryptocurrency markets) and the right know-how (like our expert).

Since that time this genius has been called on by big banks to find ways to profit from the newest, fastest-moving markets available.

But despite all that attention, I just had to get him for my project

I didnt just want any old Wall Street suit, government academic, or banking insider to head up this project with me.

After all, there are a lot of academics and insiders Ive met that are lousy at making money. Instead, I needed someone proven to have both the academic background and the investing chops to hand-pick the biggest winners.

Thats what this genius brings to the table.

And anyone who knows me knows that I never recommend blindly investing in anything, no matter how good it looks on paper.

Thats even more important when it comes to these crypto super-spikes. Thats because a lot of the money being made in these currencies is based not just on technology, but complex sequences of math.

And separating the wheat from the chaff can only be done by someone who understands both mathematics and money.

Thats exactly what this secret weapon understands, like no one else.

When you get that combination right, the potential is unlimited. Thats how investors get to pocket 12 times their money on CorgiCoin in 35 days or

39 times their money on MojoCoin in 2 days or 144 times their money on Friecoin in 11 days.

So heres the bottom line:

Im happy to report that after earmarking $2.2 million, and after hundreds of emails and phone conversations (and more than a little bit of persuasion on my part)

I finally got a binding agreement that secures this cryptocurrency genius time and expertise over the coming years.

I officially locked him into my team.

The main reason I handpicked this man was for his ability to predict massive currency movements before everyone else.

I can honestly say my secret weapon is one of a handful of people in the entire world who has actually created a real, tradable currency.

And thats a mega-advantage in this market.

As youve seen, these cryptocurrency super-spikes can deliver life-changing gains, lightning quick.

They key is finding the handful of candidates with unique characteristics, untapped market demand and an upcoming catalyst destined to launch them into the mainstream.

Thats exactly what were doing right now. Our A Team is in place and hard at work. And I can confidently say that there are fortunes waiting to made over the next month alone.

For cryptocurrencies, the future is now.

And this is your invitation to that future.

Regards,

Louis Basenesefor The Daily Reckoning

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Overstock Now Accepts Various Altcoins for Payment – Including … – Bitcoin News (press release)

Overstock just became the first major retailer to accept bitcoin cash and altcoins at the point of sale for payment. They announced a partnership with Shapeshift.io to streamline the process. Now Overstock customers can transact via Shapeshifts native API easily using Bitcoin Cash, Monero, Litecoin, Ethereum, and more.

Also read:Fork Wars: Segwit Lock-In and Communication Breakdown

Overstocks press release provides instructions on how to use the service. The post read, During checkout, customers will select their preferred cryptocurrency and submit the order before being prompted to transfer the coins, just as they would with any other digital wallet transaction. Overstock will then utilize ShapeShift to convert the cryptocurrencies to bitcoin.

This move to integrate Shapeshift is not a surprising pivot by Overstock.The company has had a bunch of firsts in regards to cryptocurrency adoption and usage. For instance, they were the first major retailer to integrate bitcoin payments back in 2014. They also issued the first blockchain stockwith a Series A Preferred offering in late 2016 on thet0platform.

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne is also known for his rejection of government, as well as his pro-freedom mindset. It is this urgency for liberty that has driven Byrne and his company to dive headlong into decentralized assets. Byrne elaborated:

Overstock is pro-freedom, including the freedom of individuals to communicate information about value and scarcity without relying on a medium created through the fiat of unaccountable government mandarins. For that reason, we have been an early proponent and adopter of cryptocurrencies.

Overstock has made their transition into the altcoin market as these assets gain more popularity. According to coinmarketcap.org, there are now over 1,000 altcoin currencies. It is true that some of these tokens may not be legitimate cryptocurrencies, but their appeal is growing rapidly within the community.

The press release does also mention that bitcoin is still the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, but it represents less than 50% of the market today. It is down from 80% over a year ago, and Shapeshift supports dozens of these alternative assets. It is especially interesting that this move by Overstock represents Bitcoin Cashs first appearance for acceptance on the market.

Do you think more stores will begin accepting Bitcoin Cash and other altcoins? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Overstock

At Bitcoin.com theres a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more.

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Overstock Now Accepts Various Altcoins for Payment - Including ... - Bitcoin News (press release)

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Cloud Storage: Mature Saturation or Early Adopter Phase? | Hacked … – Hacked

This article was posted on Thursday, 02:48, UTC.

Cloud storage options have been available at a consumer level for decades, in fact, if you consider them properly. One of the earliest such options was called iDrive, which began operations in 1995. A private company, they are still in operation, offering services that directly parallel that of their newer rival, Dropbox. Additionally there have been efforts like Carbonite and Google Drive.

It seems that the curve of technological adoption begins with centralized services and is later revolutionized by decentralized ones. In the same way that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are in the early stages of disrupting how people transmit money, Storj, Filecoin, Siacoin, and others are in the process of disrupting cloud storage. However, what is unclear to this author at this point is how much this market really can be worth long-term.

While there has been a period of time where extremely fast local storage was more expensive, these prices are coming down now. You can buy a 1TB SSD drive for a few hundred bucks, and with two of them you can have a RAID setup for redundancy. The price of extremely reliable, extremely fast, and extremely large drives is only going to continue coming down. How long before its so inexpensive that the concept of charging for access to it is less enticing? Even large firms with scaling needs might eventually be able to do it cheaper in house as the cost of hardware comes down.

Okay, so its unlikely that this will be a huge problem for the industry. In digital services, virtually everything has a market. Fair enough. But we must also consider what advantages these decentralized offerings have over their centralized counterparts. For one thing, encryption and security are sort of at the heart of the networks. As such, only the file owners are able to view their contents. This has great value to international firms, legal firms, and more. There may be cases where someone determines a file is safer in an encrypted cloud than in a local semi-encrypted disk.

Then there are businesses where no amount of redundancy is too much, such as web hosting companies. Apart from Siacoin, Storj, and Filecoin, there is also SONM, for which storage is just one more computer resource they would like to allow people to distribute in a decentralized manner. SONM appears to this author as one of the most technologically interesting solutions to the problem of computer resource costs.

Forbes says that that we will see close to $300 billion spent on cloud services this year alone. It would seem that as more and more people come online from remote parts of the world, there will be a higher demand for inexpensive storage and back-up services. The long-term trajectory of all decentralized efforts in this category is probably, if executed correctly, nearly vertical.

P. H. Madore lives in Arkansas with his wife and children. He has covered the cryptocurrency beat over the course of hundreds of articles for Hacked's sister site, CryptoCoinsNews, as well as some of her competitors. He is a major contributing developer to the Woodcoin project, and is currently nearing the completion of a cryptocurrency exchange in concert with the firm he primarily works for, Vermont Secure Computing Consultancy.

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How To Have Cloud Storage and Backup For Life For Less – Daily Beast

Whether youre storing music, movies, or photos, youre probably running out of room on at least some of your devices. Sure, you can buy flash drives or external hard drives, but thats one more thing to lug around and worry about losing. You can easily solve all of your storage needs with the cloud service Zoolz Dual Cloud Backup Storage. Zoolz gives you lifetime access to a 500GB Instant Vault drive (for data youll need instantly) and a 500GB Archive Storage drive (for data you wont need immediately) so youll have plenty of room to store all of your files. Unlike Apple's cloud, you don't have to worry about managing storage space or monthly payments. Yes, it's actually that easy. Plus, both drives have all the latest features, like military-grade 256-AES encryption and drag and drop access so everythings safe and convenient. Zoolz Dual Cloud 1TB Storage normally costs $3,600, but today you can get storage $29.99.

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World’s Leading Physicist Says Quantum Computers Are Tools of Destruction, Not Creation – Futurism

Weapon of Mass Disruption

Quantum Computers are heralded as the next step in the evolution of data processing. The future of this technology promises us a tool that can outperform any conventional system, handling more data and at faster speeds than even the most powerful of todays supercomputers.

However, at the present juncture, much of the science dedicated to this field is still focused on the technologys ultimate utilization. We know that quantum computers could manage data at a rate that is remarkable, but exactlywhat kind of data processing will they be good for?

This uncertainty raises some interesting questions about the potential impact of such a theoretically powerful tool.

Last month, some of the leading names in quantum technologies gathered at the semi-annual International Conference on Quantum Technologies in Moscow. Futurism was in attendance and was able to sit and talk with some of these scientists about how their work is moving us closer to practical quantum computers, and what impact such developments will have on society.

One of the most interesting topics of discussion was initiated by Alexander Lvovsky, Quantum Optics group leader at the Russian Quantum Center and Professor of Physics at the University of Calgary in Canada. Speaking at a dinner engagement, Lvovsky stated that quantum computers are a tool of destruction, not creation.

What is it about quantum computers that would incite such a claim? In the end, it comes down to one thing, which happens to be one of the most talked about potential applications for the technology:Breaking modern cryptography.

Today, all sensitive digital information sent over the internet is encrypted in order to protect the privacy of the parties involved. Already, we have seen instances where hackers were able to seize this information by breaking the encryption. According to Lvovsky, the advent of the quantum computer will only make that process easier and faster.

In fact, he asserts that no encryptionexisting today would be able to hide from the processing power of a functioning quantum computer. Medical records, financial information, even the secrets of governments and military organizations would be free for the takingmeaning that the entire world order could be threatened by this technology.

The consensus between other experts is, essentially, that Lvovsky isnt wrong. In a sense, hes right, Wenjamin Rosenfeld, a physics professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, stated in an interview. He continued, taking a quantum computer as a computer,theres basically not much you can do with this at the moment; however, he went on to explain that this may soon be changing.

To break this down, there are only two quantum algorithms at the moment, one to allow a quantum computer to search a database, and the other,Shors algorithm, which can be used by a quantum computer to break encryption.

Notably, during the conference, Mikhail Lukin, aco-founder of theRussian Quantum Centerand head of the Lukin Group of the Quantum Optics Laboratory at Harvard University, announced that he had successfully built and tested a 51-qubit quantum computerand hes going to use that computer to launch Shors algorithm.

Vladimir Shalaev, who sits on the International Advisory Board of the Russian Quantum Center and is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, takes a more nuanced approach to this question, saying it is neither a tool of destruction nor creationit is both: I would disagree with him. I think I would say that any new breakthrough breeds both evil and good things.

He evoked the development of laser technology as an example, saying, Lasers changed our lives with communications, surgery, their use in machinery, but they are also used in missiles to destroy buildings.But I think this is life. Nothing comes with only good, there is always bad as well. So I dont think it is just a destructive technology, it could also be a constructive one.

There is a great deal of truth to Shalaevs assessment. Nuclear technology was primarily developed as a destructive tool. After the war, many more positive applications were found, impacting energy, medicine, and agriculture, among many other fields. Quantum computers may not be capable of the physical destruction of a nuclear bomb, but their potential application in relation to encryption is the digital equivalent, making this topic worthy of reflection in these early stages.

So, if quantum computers do have such dangerous potential, why are we pursuing them? As Lukin expounds, there are other potential applications outside of encryption breaking, applications that many experts are excited about.

For example, Lukin sees enormous potential in quantum sensors. It has the potential to change the field of medical diagnostics, where some of the tasks which require huge labs can be performed on the scale of aniPhone. Imagine the implications for third world countries in parts of the world like Africa. It can really allow to diagnose and treat patients. I think theres actually a huge impact on society, he explained.

Also, the processing power of quantum computers could push research in artificial intelligence (AI) forward by leaps and bounds. Indeed, it could assist this field to such a degree that AI could be a part of the answer to the problem proposed by Lvovsky. To that end, Lukins asserts, Im fairly convinced that, before quantum computers start breaking encryption, we will have new classical encryption, we will have new schemes based on quantum computers, based on quantum cryptography, which will be operational.

Much like lasers or nuclear weapons, the scientists involved in creating quantum computers are unable to predict the total utility of this technology. There very well could be a host of world changing applications for quantum computers. Still, even with just considering the encryption busting potential of the technology, we must remain cognizant of the power we areunleashing.

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World's Leading Physicist Says Quantum Computers Are Tools of Destruction, Not Creation - Futurism

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Driving operational excellence with your cloud vendors – Network World

Once, there was a pin factory. It employed ten workers each of whom performed a different task. This organizational structure allowed them to generate 48,000 pins every day. If the people working at the plant were working independently, the output of each would have been limited to 20 pins at most totaling 200 pins. This story describing division of labor was used in Adam Smiths 1776 book The Wealth of Nations, as an example of operational excellence (OE).

If your company is to survive in a competitive market, OE must be sought, explained Faisal Hoque in Fast Company. In other words, the enterprise must identify, understand and create the capabilities, behaviors and focuses necessary for repeatable, continuous and measurable operational improvement, said Hoque.

True. However, multi-vendor cloud hosted environments can make achieving OE feel particularly complicated and challenging to accomplish, especially because this technology is growing so quickly. Over two-thirds of firms in the United States are budgeting more for cloud systems in 2017 than they did in 2016, according to a poll of 300 IT professionals from B2B research company Clutch. To specifically look at infrastructure as a service (i.e., cloud hosting), it is actually the fastest growing segment; skyrocketing at 36.8 percent per Gartner, IaaS is expanding more rapidly than either cloud platforms (PaaS) or software (SaaS).

Clouds rapid growth should not be an excuse to set operational excellence aside, but a call to action to ensure that you have instituted OE strategies into the way that you partner with cloud services. Lets explore this topic by answering five critical questions.

The cloud systems that are available to businesses are proliferating, and (as indicated by the above figures) adoption rates are staying strong and even increasing in some segments. If you are a CIO at an enterprise that is in the process of transitioning from an extensive in-house application hosting architecture to cloud hosting, you want to maintain your companys standards (and your own) for computing operations throughout.

When your hosting is multi-vendor, tasks you need to complete for your IT systems that can become difficult to manage include remote system monitoring; disaster recovery and business continuity planning; transaction processing; task scheduling; and administration of system changes. There is a general tendency to assume that these types of activities do not demand as much attention in the third-platform world as they did previously, but it is necessary to integrate all your operations, even if a multi-vendor or multi-cloud scenario makes that seem daunting.

When you are cloudifying legacy systems, the challenging thing is really that you are throwing numerous elements into the air and having to make a bunch of adjustments at the same time. Well, perhaps thats overly dramatic, but you do have to align various operational aspects in fast succession.

Tim Porzio, Vice President of Operations and Infrastructure at Sodexo North America, discussed this complexity in CIOReview. It is necessary to modify your operational standards, tools, and policies and procedures proactively, Porzio noted, so that your ability to provide application hosting services smoothly throughout your ecosystem continues to exemplify the principle of operational excellence.

Moving over to cloud involves making choices. The goal of the CIO should be to blend all elements into a coherent, detailed and comprehensible operational excellence management system (OEMS). A positive way to view this work is that it is often neglected, so performing it well can be a differentiator. It is an opportunity to define your expectations from cloud partnerships. In the absence of this effort, your data and disaster recovery are placed in the hands of remote services, a hodgepodge of external hosting at companies that have undergone a range of different assessments.

When you are moving to cloud aggressively, you want to be clear there is a common perception of operational excellence. To get there, it helps to build standards through a cloud services model, including tiers of service. Since service accountability with cloud is substantially different, it must be conveyed that services will not necessarily be the same with cloud as they were prior to the transition. This model should introduce your OEMS. Plus, you want to list requirements of any specific providers. There should be service levels, or tiers, and a listing of tasks that are performed accompanying each of your cloud partners. You then want to do the same with your applications: assign each to a tier depending on the extent to which they are mission-critical.

Once this model or framework is complete, you should see that you may not have identical services to your on-premise offerings; and that, while service accountability may be challenging to manage, you can control your IT in the expanding cloud environment through conscientious tiered planning.

Standardize the management system in order to integrate its disparate components. That way you can deftly manage all aspects from operational monitoring to escalation, from tracking of system modification to governance.

Now, with your OEMS in hand, meet with the cloud provider. It must be clear that the partnership is based on mutually understood expectations. Talk about the process that will be followed, how you will communicate, governance, key performance indicators and your legal agreement.

Establish a formal, built-in way to communicate at predefined intervals (monthly or quarterly) to be sure that service quality is strong. Rate the provider before each meeting, and then review the rating when you talk. Mention improvements that could be made. Verify that any issues will be resolved.

You want the points of view of each of your stakeholders to be infused within the operational excellence management system; otherwise some will view it as bureaucratic nonsense, despite its merits. Send your colleagues notes from your periodic governance assessments, or encourage their active participation.

Consider the key performance indicators of value to IT, as well as how reliable and supported the system is, so that you can quickly and effectively measure how well the service is being delivered and experienced.

It should be clear by now that cloud computing and OE are not mutually exclusive. In fact, this technology is being increasingly adopted by enterprises precisely because it improves their operations. How? Well, various ways, but one is very simple and straightforward. When you move a system to an external hosting provider, it means that maintenance and security is being handled beyond your walls. That means you are able to focus on development rather than spending all your time making sure your infrastructure is up to snuff.

Keep in mind, just because you can passively enjoy some amount of operational excellence simply by moving to the cloud, it is ridiculous to think that anything excellent will come easily. By reviewing the above points and discussing your OEMS with providers, you can make sure that you maintain your own operational standards even as your infrastructure becomes increasingly diverse and complex.

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