The good: The Google Chromecast is a dirt-cheap wireless video dongle that streams Netflix and YouTube to your TV using Android or iOS tablets as remotes, with Android users also getting access to Google Music and Google TV and Movies. Its small size hides neatly behind your TV and makes it easy to take on-the-go.
The bad: The beta screen-mirroring feature won't work as well as you want it to, so you're largely limited to four apps and without support for several major ones, including Amazon Instant, HBO Go, MLB.TV, Spotify, and Rdio. The lack of a dedicated remote also means you always need a smartphone or tablet nearby.
The bottom line: Google's $35 Chromecast streaming-TV dongle is certainly cheap, but its limited initial app support and total reliance on mobile devices keep it well behind the Apple TV and Roku -- at least for now.

If you've heard anything about Google's Chromecast, you've heard that it costs $35. Google seemingly picked the perfect price for its new sticklike streaming device, generating massive buzz and eliminating the usually rational process that occurs before clicking "add to cart". The dongle is already sold out and back-ordered for weeks.

But once you've lived with the Chromecast for a while, $35 feels less like a fantastic deal and more like exactly what a device like this should cost. The Chromecast lets you stream from Netflix and YouTube using your Android or iOS mobile device as a remote, with Android users also getting access to Google Music and Google TV and Movies. It also supports the ability to mirror any content from a Chrome browser running on a Mac or Windows PC, including Hulu, HBO Go, and full episodes from major TV networks like CBS, NBC, Fox, and ABC via their respective Web sites. And the hardware is delightfully compact and well-built, making it easy to toss in your bag for travel or moving from room to room.

What it doesn't do is everything else: there are no dedicated apps for many major services (including Amazon Instant, HBO Go, Spotify, Rdio, and MLB.TV), no dedicated TV interface for standalone use, no support for personal media sitting on your devices (aside from a clunky hack), and the awesome-sounding screen-mirroring feature ends up being entirely underwhelming in practice. Basically, you can stream Netflix, YouTube, and a couple of Google services; $35 feels about right.

The Chromecast is clearly Google's best living room device so far, almost entirely thanks to its impulse-worthy price. It doesn't challenge the Apple TV or Roku's boxes on merit, both of which remain much better options as your primary living room streamer. Chromecast has a lot of room to improve if more apps offer support, but at the moment it's best suited for people deep in the Google media ecosystem looking for a living room solution.
Read the full review here
Source by Matthew Moskovciak | July 25, 2013 | via Cnet

A vulnerability on SIM cards, and in particular on the DES algorithm for the encryption, could compromise the security of mobile phones.

A serious vulnerability on SIM cards used in some mobile phones has been found, exploiting the flaw an attacker could eavesdrop on phone conversations, could install malicious applications on the device or it could impersonalize handset’s owner. The discovery is very concerning, the vulnerability could compromise the security for 750 million mobile phones.

Karsten Nohl, founder of Security Research Labs in Berlin, revealed to The New York Times that he has identified a vulnerability in encryption technology used for SIM that could allow an attacker to obtain the 56-digit SIM card’s digital key necessary for the card modification.
 
Nohl revealed that it is possible to exploit the vulnerability in less than two minutes using a common PC.
Read the full story here

Source - Pierluigi Paganini via Security Affairs

Despite attention-grabbing headlines about cyber-threats from external attackers, company bosses in fact see their own employees as the greatest threat to corporate data and computer systems.
 
That is the view of 53% of respondents to ‘Boardroom Cyber Watch 2013’, an international survey of senior executive opinion conducted by IT Governance, the global leader in IT governance, risk management and compliance expertise.
 
The threat from employees was ranked ahead of risks from criminals (27%), state-sponsored cyber-attackers (12%) and competitors (8%) by an international sample of 260 board directors, IT directors and other technology professionals polled by IT Governance in April and May 2013.
 
The survey confirms the high level of cyber-threat facing today’s organisations, with 25% of bosses saying they have received a ‘concerted attack’ in the past 12 months. However, the true total may be higher, as over 20% are unsure if their organisation has been subject to such an attack.
 
However, many board directors still appear inadequately informed about cyber-risks. While a majority of respondents say their board receives ‘regular’ reports on the status of their organisation’s IT security, 52% say that such reports are received, at best, annually. Only 5% say reports are submitted daily, with 11% being submitted weekly and 33% monthly.
 
Furthermore, despite cyber-threats potentially impacting many mission-critical business operations, only 30% of respondents say an understanding of current IT security threats is a prerequisite for board-level job candidates.
 
Alan Calder, Chief Executive of IT Governance, says: “In the face of the rapid development and deployment of new cyber-threats, such infrequent executive oversight of IT security status seems alarmingly casual. Companies are not ignorant of the risks: 77% of bosses told us their organisation has a method for detecting and reporting attacks or incidents. However, in the boardroom, many companies still appear too removed from the action for directors to meet their governance obligations.”
 
This lack of insight perhaps explains why boardrooms find it difficult to judge how much they should be investing in cyber security measures. A significant minority – over 40% – of respondents say their company is either making the wrong level of investment or are unsure if their investment is appropriate. A quarter of respondents admit to having lost sleep about their cyber security in the past year.
 
Yet the survey reveals the competitive advantages that flow from effective cyber security. Fully 74% of respondents say their customers prefer dealing with suppliers with proven IT security credentials, while 50% say their company has been asked by customers about its information security measures in the past 12 months.
 
Calder says: “The best way for organisations to prove their infosec credentials is to comply with, and be certificated against, ISO 27001, the global best practice standard for information security management. This lets you signal to customers anywhere in the world that you have a robust method for addressing the entire range of risks associated with systems, people and technology.
 
“ISO 27001 is no secret: 87% of our respondents tell us they are aware of it. However, only a tiny minority of businesses have so far been certificated to the standard, so most are denying themselves an advantage their customers are telling them they want.”  
 
‘Boardroom Cyber Watch 2013’ was conducted as an online survey by IT Governance. The 260 respondents represent organisations of all sizes, with revenues ranging from less than US$5m to more than US$500m. The sample is truly international: while the majority are from organisations based in the UK and United States, respondents from South America, Central Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand have also contributed.
 
A copy of the full ‘Boardroom Cyber Watch 2013’ report is available from www.itgovernance.co.uk/what-is-cybersecurity/boardroom-cyber-watch.aspx.

In the market for a tablet? Your first choice should be the iPad (fourth generation). It has the best performance, the deepest software catalog, and a fantastic ecosystem supporting access to an incredible number of apps, games, music, and video. However, if you like the idea of a high-performing tablet, but you're not one for adding more cash to Apple's already substantial coffers, the Google Nexus 10 might be up your alley. With its incredibly high-resolution screen, fast Cortex A-15 CPU, Micro-HDMI, and the promise of always having the very latest version of Android, it succeeds in offering a viable 10-inch alternative to the iPad. If price is a concern, or you simply want a smaller tablet, the $200 Nexus 7 is powerful, comfortable, and along with the Nexus 10, provides one of the best Android tablet experiences yet. Check out the rest of the top tablets for more options. Click here to read the full article
Source by Eric Franklin | July 15, 2013 | via CNET

There's no sign that the plunge in the PC market is going to end anytime soon. In fact, it just keeps going and going.

Worldwide PC shipments fell to 76 million units in the second quarter of 2013, a 10.9 per cent drop from the same period last year, Gartner reported on Wednesday. That's the fifth consecutive quarter of shipment declines, marking the longest duration of a drop in the PC market's history.

Research firm IDC, meanwhile, echoed Gartner's gloomy sentiment, saying that worldwide shipments fell 11.4 per cent compared with the same quarter this past year.

As if that weren't enough, all regions continued to see a nosedive, despite improving economic conditions in some areas, Gartner reported. The culprit? Gartner pointed to more consumers turning to tablets and smartphones as their gadgets of choice for going online.

Here's what principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa had to say about the decline:

Despite the slump for all PC makers, Lenovo still managed to hold on to its top spot, beating long-time rival Hewlett-Packard.

In the second quarter, according to Gartner, Lenovo's unit sales slipped 0.6 per cent, which meant that it saw the narrowest loss — though not by much. It posted a market share of 16.7 per cent, compared with 14.9 per cent in the second quarter a year ago. HP was close behind, with 16.3 per cent market share and global shipment declines of 4.8 per cent, while Dell had 11.8 per cent share after seeing a 3.9 per cent decrease.
By Desiree Everts DeNunzio   |   July 11, 2013 | Via CNET.com