ComputerWorld – Page 39 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: Matthew Finnegan| Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2022 09:01:00 -0700

The California State Assembly is considering new rules that would offer workers greater protection from the use of digital monitoring tools by employers.

The “Workplace Technology Accountability Act” (AB 1651), introduced by Assemblymember Ash Kalra, would create a way to protect workers against the use of technologies that can negatively affect privacy and wellbeing.

The bill would “establish much needed, yet reasonable, limitations on how employers use data-driven technology at work,” Kalra told the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee on Wednesday. “The time is now to address the increasing use of unregulated data-driven technologies in the workplace and give workers — and the state — the necessary tools to mitigate any insidious impacts caused by them.”

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 20, 2022 admin

Top 6 e-signature software tools

Credit to Author: Keith Shaw| Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2022 03:00:00 -0700

The COVID-19 pandemic did not just disrupt physical meetings and physical office spaces; workflows that relied on in-person interaction, such as signing documents and contracts, were also highly impacted. Electronic signature (e-signature) software has surged in popularity over the past two years as enterprises looked to modify their signature workflows to support a remote workforce, said Holly Muscolino, group vice president for content strategies and future of work at IDC.

With many companies returning to an in-person office environment or adopting a hybrid workforce approach, where employees work some days in the office and some at home, e-signature vendors are working to convince businesses that they are still relevant. Although the market has slowed down, Muscolino said, “it’s still showing healthy growth, because there are still companies who have not adopted this technology. There is still significant room for adoption.”

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 18, 2022 admin

When humans make tech mistakes

Credit to Author: Susan Bradley| Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2022 08:54:00 -0700

We often think vendors are perfect. They have backups. They have redundancy. They have experts that know exactly how to deploy solutions without fail. And then we see they aren’t any better than we are.

Let’s look at a few recent examples.

In the small to mid-sized business (SMB) space, StorageCraft has long been a trusted backup software vendor. One of the first to make image backups easy to do, it was used and recommended by many managed service providers. After StorageCraft was acquired by Arcserve in March 2021, there were no immediate major changes in how the company ran.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 15, 2022 admin

April's Patch Tuesday: a lot of large, diverse and urgent updates

Credit to Author: Greg Lambert| Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2022 10:40:00 -0700

This week’s Patch Tuesday release was huge, diverse, risky, and urgent, with late update arrivals for Microsoft browsers (CVE-2022-1364) and two zero-day vulnerabilities affecting Windows (CVE-2022-26809 and CVE-2022-24500). Fortunately, Microsoft has not released any patches for Microsoft Exchange, but this month we do have to deal with more Adobe (PDF) printing related vulnerabilities and associated testing efforts. We have added the Windows and Adobe updates to our “Patch Now” schedule, and will be watching closely to see what happens with any further Microsoft Office updates.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 13, 2022 admin

Apple has good privacy arguments, but critics aren't listening

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2022 09:41:00 -0700

Apple CEO Tim Cook this week warned that regulators are on the edge of making poor decisions that will impact our future during a passionate speech in defense of personal privacy and his company’s business models at the Global Privacy Summit in Washington DC.

Neither good nor evil

The thrust of Cook’s argument is that privacy and security are essential building blocks of trust for a technologically advanced society. But that huge potential is being constrained by surveillance and insecurity.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 12, 2022 admin

Duckduckgo launches privacy browser beta for macOS

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2022 12:53:00 -0700

Privacy-centered search engine DuckDuckGo today launched the beta of its desktop browser for macOS.

The browser is designed from the ground up to maintain privacy, the company said, meaning it will not collect information about users and will not install cookies or tracking codes on devices. DuckDuckGo also said it can block “hidden trackers” before they load.

Duckduckgo first announced plans for a macOS desktop browser in December 2021. (The browser is already available as a download for mobile devices). In 2019, DuckDuckGo added Apple Maps support and has since made other improvements to how it works on Apple devices.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 6, 2022 admin

Windows 11 — we haven’t seen anything, yet

Credit to Author: Rob Enderle| Date: Wed, 06 Apr 2022 10:24:00 -0700

Disclosure: Microsoft is a client of the author.

Microsoft this week had an analyst event about Windows 11 and a variety of productivity, management, and security features the company has planned. Over the last couple of years, Microsoft has aggressively improved both Windows and Office 365, but the big change ahead is the potential blend of Windows with Windows 365. We’ll see that start by the end of the year. The end game should be what appears to be a Windows desktop that integrates so well with the cloud that it can, when necessary, seamlessly switch between instances to comply with company policy, assure security, and provide recourse on automatic demand from Azure Cloud.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 5, 2022 admin

Apple quietly stops meaningful auto-updates in iOS

Credit to Author: Evan Schuman| Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2022 09:14:00 -0700

In the mobile world pitting Apple’s iOS devices against Google’s Android devices, Apple has historically had one distinct advantage: patches and updates.

Given the fragmented nature of Android (hundreds of handset manufacturers versus just one for iOS), it is simply far easier for Apple to quickly and efficiently push out updates in a way that allows a large percentage of users get updates quickly. That has been true regardless of whether its new functionality or a critical security patch.

So what’s the problem? Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, has quietly said that Apple has dramatically slowed down auto updates — by as much as a month.

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