WebProNews

Category: DevWebPro

DevWebPro

  • Google Rolling Out June 2021 Core Update

    Google Rolling Out June 2021 Core Update

    Google is rolling out the latest updated to its search engine algorithm, and webmasters the world over are anxiously waiting.

    Google updates its search engine ranking algorithm regularly, usually every six months or so. This summer, however, Google will be rolling out two updates in quick succession, one in June and one in July

    Changes to the algorithm can wreak havoc on websites and their rankings, significantly impacting businesses. Google has not listed exactly what the updates address, only that some sites may see their rankings go up…or go down…or stay the same — Google is obviously a fan of really clearing things up.

  • Microsoft Bing Not Showing Image Results for Tiananmen ‘Tank Man’

    Microsoft Bing Not Showing Image Results for Tiananmen ‘Tank Man’

    Microsoft is facing accusations of censorship as users the world over are unable to bring up pictures of the Tiananmen “tank man.”

    “Tank man” is a search term often used to bring up pictures of a man facing off against a line of tanks during the demonstrations in China’s Tiananmen Square in June 1989. With it being the anniversary of that event, people are naturally turning online to look up old images.

    Microsoft, however, doesn’t appear to be showing the picture, leading some to believe it is censoring results to appease Chinese authorities. Microsoft has denied the accusation to Reuters, saying it was “due to an accidental human error and we are actively working to resolve this.”

    Interestingly, DuckDuckGo is also not showing any pictures. The privacy search engine relies on results from Bing, and is therefore impacted too.

    Google, meanwhile, is still showing applicable results.

  • Prosus Buying Stack Overflow for $1.8 Billion

    Prosus Buying Stack Overflow for $1.8 Billion

    Prosus has announced it is buying Stack Overflow for $1.8 billion, as it increases its focus on the online learning market.

    Prosus is a consumer internet group that has investments in the online classifieds, education technology, food delivery and payments and fintech markets. The company is the largest shareholder of Tencent Holdings, the Chinese company behind some of the biggest games, including Fortnite, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Call of Duty: Mobile and Ring of Elysium.

    Prosus appears to be making a major move in the online education market with the acquisition of Stack Overflow. Stack Overflow is one of the top 50 websites in the world, with an extremely active user base. In fact, 85% of the site’s community visits every week to access the 52+ million questions and answers, most about programming and development.

    “We are delighted to be welcoming Stack Overflow to the Prosus family as we increasingly focus on the future of workplace learning,” Larry Illg, CEO of EdTech at Prosus, said. “Learning of any kind typically begins with a question and their platform is critically important for global developers when they have questions about their work. There is an opportunity to connect more deeply with their community through our other education platforms to further fulfill their learning needs.

    “With enduring skills shortages and ever-evolving needs within technology organizations, technology training has emerged as the largest and fastest growing segment of corporate learning and development,” Illg continued. “As an operator of businesses across 90+ countries, we understand the needs of technologists and developers, particularly in high-growth markets. In addition to further scaling its community in the markets we know well, we want to help Stack Overflow Teams to expand within enterprises to address an underserved opportunity to transform their technology learning and collaboration.”

    “We are excited to be joining the Prosus family, which catapults us into a new phase of growth and allows us to expand and accelerate Stack Overflow’s impact around the world,” Stack Overflow’s CEO, Prashanth Chandrasekar, said. “Prosus’s expertise growing and nurturing communities, especially in a global context, will make our public platform even more invaluable in helping developers and technologists learn and grow. Given Prosus’s focus on the future of the workplace, their partnership will allow our market leading SaaS collaboration product, Stack Overflow for Teams, to reach thousands more global enterprises, allowing them to accelerate product innovation and increase productivity by unlocking institutional knowledge.”

    The deal is expected to close in Q3 2021.

  • Microsoft Bing’s Content Submission API Now in Public Beta

    Microsoft Bing’s Content Submission API Now in Public Beta

    Microsoft has moved its Bing Content Submission API into beta, after two years of private beta.

    One of the challenges search engines face is keeping up with the constant influx of new websites and content. As a result, search engines use automated software that “crawls” the web, indexing it and adding new sites to the search results.

    Two years ago, Microsoft introduced its Bing Content Submission API as a way for webmasters to manually submit new URLs. After spending the last two years in private beta, Microsoft is opening the doors to a public beta.

    At Bing, webmasters don’t have to wait to get their content crawled and indexed. Bing offers webmaster the abilities to tell Bing about the latest changes in their sites, such as providing latest added, updated or deleted content and URLs.

    Bing already supports the ability for webmasters to notify Bing about URL changes via its Bing URL submission API (setup guide) but now (under Beta launch) also the ability to notify Bing directly about URL along with content changes via Bing Content Submission API. This will not only help webmasters to reach to more relevant users on Bing but also will reduce BingBot crawl load on their sites. This blog post will provide a generic overview along with step-by-step instruction on adopting the same.

    Webmaster interesting in trying the new feature can use this form.

  • Google Now Accepting Indexing Bug Reports

    Google Now Accepting Indexing Bug Reports

    Google is now accepting bug reports regarding indexing issues, making it easier for webmasters to address problems.

    Last year Google introduced its bug reporting feature as a way for webmasters to report security issues. Thanks to the success of the program, Google is expanding it to include indexing issues.

    Indexing issues can be reported in the URL Inspection Tool and the Index Coverage Report.

  • EFF Partners With DuckDuckGo, Adopts Its HTTPS Dataset

    EFF Partners With DuckDuckGo, Adopts Its HTTPS Dataset

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is partnering with DuckDuckGo to include the latter’s HTTPS dataset in its HTTPS Everywhere browser extension.

    The EFF and DuckDuckGo are closely aligned in their commitment to protecting user privacy. DuckDuckGo’s privacy browser extension for the desktop, and its standalone privacy browser for iOS, rely on the company’s Smarter Encryption technology.

    Smarter Encryption upgrades a standard unencrypted (HTTP) website connection to an encrypted (HTTPS) connection where possible. Smarter Encryption is more advanced than many competing options, since DuckDuckGo crawls and re-crawls the web to keep its dataset current.

    The EFF is now adopting DuckDuckGo’s Smart Encryption dataset for use in its own HTTPS Everywhere browser extension. Like Smart Encryption, HTTPS Everywhere is designed to help upgrade insecure connections. The EFF’s solution previously used “a crowd-sourced list of encrypted HTTPS versions of websites,” a less efficient and less comprehensive solution than DuckDuckGo’s.

    “DuckDuckGo Smarter Encryption has a list of millions of HTTPS-encrypted websites, generated by continually crawling the web instead of through crowdsourcing, which will give HTTPS Everywhere users more coverage for secure browsing,” said Alexis Hancock, EFF Director of Engineering and manager of HTTPS Everywhere and Certbot web encrypting projects. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with DuckDuckGo as we see HTTPS become the default protocol on the net and contemplate HTTPS Everywhere’s future.”

    “EFFs pioneering work with the HTTPS Everywhere extension took privacy protection in a new and needed direction, seamlessly upgrading people to secure website connections,” said Gabriel Weinberg, DuckDuckGo founder and CEO. “We’re delighted that EFF has now entrusted DuckDuckGo to power HTTPS Everywhere going forward, using our next generation Smarter Encryption dataset.”

  • Google Changes Search Console Algorithm for Counting Image Impressions

    Google Changes Search Console Algorithm for Counting Image Impressions

    Google has announced a change to how image impressions are counted in Search Console, effective April 6.

    According to the company, the algorithm for counting image impressions has been adjusted, and adjustment that could lead to a drop in numbers.

    Search Console improved the algorithm for counting image impressions in Search results. As a result, you may see a small drop in your image impressions in Search. This is not a drop in actual impressions, just a more accurate calculation of image impressions when type=image is specified in the Search Performance report.

    As Google highlights, this doesn’t mean the actual impressions are down, just how they’re being counted. This will also not impact rankings in any way.

    The notice should offer some peace of mind to webmasters wondering why their numbers were dropping after April 6.

  • Microsoft Build Developer Conference Scheduled May 25 – 27

    Microsoft Build Developer Conference Scheduled May 25 – 27

    Microsoft’s Build conference, aimed at developers, has been confirmed for May 25 – 27, 2021.

    Microsoft Build is the company’s conference aimed at web and software developers, and helps showcases the company’s technologies. Per the company:

    Microsoft Build is where developers, architects, start-ups, and students learn, connect, and code together, sharing knowledge and expanding their skillset, while exploring new ways of innovating for tomorrow.

    Microsoft has confirmed May 25 – 27 as the dates, dates that were originally leaked several weeks ago. Just like last year, the conference will be entirely virtual, due to the pandemic, and will be free to attend.

  • Cloudflare Rolls Out API Abuse Detection

    Cloudflare Rolls Out API Abuse Detection

    Cloudflare, one of the leading content delivery networks, has announced API Discovery and API Abuse Detection.

    Application programming interfaces (APIs) are used by companies in every industry. APIs provide a way for different programs and platforms to communicate with each other or hardware components. Many companies use hundreds, or even thousands, of APIs. Unfortunately, despite their value, APIs can be easily abused.

    Cloudflare is looking to address that issue with two tools: API Discovery and API Abuse Detection.

    API Discovery is designed to help companies keep track of the APIs they have. In some cases, companies have so many that they lose track of them, or easily confuse similar ones.

    API Abuse Detection uses a two-prong approach to detecting abuse: volume and sequence. Based on the estimated volume a company should realistically expect on a given API, Cloudflare can detect when volume is higher than it should be.

    Similarly, an API has a valid sequence of events when it’s used properly. Cloudflare can monitor an API for calls that are out of sequence, a likely indication it’s being abused.

    The new tools are currently available in early access.

  • Microsoft, Mozilla and Google Work to Address Web Browser Compatibility

    Microsoft, Mozilla and Google Work to Address Web Browser Compatibility

    Three of the biggest browser makers are working to improve compatibility and reduce cross-browser issues.

    One of the biggest challenges since the early days of the web is making sure websites work with a variety of browsers. In the early days, websites would proudly display “Made for Internet Explorer” or “Made for Netscape Navigator” badges. Unfortunately, consumers were the ones who suffered.

    As the web matured, open standards became the norm and helped usher in a new era of compatibility. With multiple different rendering engines, however, incompatibilities still remain.

    Microsoft, Mozilla and Google, along with other companies, are working to address those issues. The initiative is called #Compat2021.

    Google outlined how important the initiative is in a blog post:

    Compatibility on the web has always been a big challenge for developers. In the last couple of years, Google and other partners, including Mozilla and Microsoft, have set out to learn more about the top pain points for web developers, to drive our work and prioritization to make the situation better. This project is connected to Google’s Developer Satisfaction (DevSAT) work, and it started on a larger scale with the creation of the MDN DNA (Developer Needs Assessment) surveys in 2019 and 2020, and a deep-dive research effort presented in the MDN Browser Compatibility Report 2020. Additional research has been done in various channels, such as the State of CSS and State of JS surveys.

    The goal in 2021 is to eliminate browser compatibility problems in five key focus areas so developers can confidently build on them as reliable foundations. This effort is called #Compat2021.

    Individuals can track the progress of the group using the Compat 2021 Dashboard.

  • Mozilla Leads the Charge For Net Neutrality’s Reinstatement

    Mozilla Leads the Charge For Net Neutrality’s Reinstatement

    Mozilla, along with a coalition of companies, has sent a letter to the FCC asking for the reinstatement of net neutrality.

    Net neutrality rules were passed during the Obama administration and repealed during the Trump administration. Net neutrality prohibits companies from treating different services or types of internet traffic by different standards, or setting up internet “fast lanes” for companies that pay more.

    For example, AT&T customers were able to watch HBO Max — which AT&T owns — on their mobile devices without the streaming counting against their data plans. In contrast, competing streaming services did count. If this type of practice became widespread, it could cause users to gravitate toward or away from certain services, based solely on the whims of the carriers and internet providers with a financial motivation to push or punish a particular service.

    In the case of AT&T, they announced they are dropping their preferential treatment of HBO Max as a result of California’s net neutrality legislation. While net neutrality was killed on a national level, individual states are free to impose their own rules, setting up a potential legislative quagmire.

    Mozilla, ADT, Dropbox, Eventbrite, Reddit, Vimeo and Wikimedia have now sent a letter to the FCC asking the agency to reinstate federal-level net neutrality.

    We are writing to express our support for the reinstatement of net neutrality protections through Federal Communications Commission (FCC) action. As leading internet-based businesses and organizations, we believe that these fundamental safeguards are critical for preserving the internet as a free and open medium that promotes innovation and spurs economic growth. Net neutrality enjoys bipartisan support among the American public, and many may need to rely on protections enforced by the FCC as more offices and classrooms continue to shift to online settings during the pandemic. By using its authority to restore net neutrality at the federal level, the FCC can help protect families and businesses across the country that rely on high-speed broadband access and help spark our recovery.

    Net neutrality simply preserves the environment that has allowed the internet to become an engine for economic growth. The rules serve as protections that users have in their relationship with internet service providers, preventing ISPs from blocking, throttling, or prioritizing traffic for payment. And in an environment where users frequently lack meaningful choices between ISPs, net neutrality can ultimately encourage greater long-term investment across the network stack by promoting broadband buildout, faster service, and new applications.

    While the current administration has not commented on its intentions, some experts believe it is only a matter of time before net neutrality is reinstated. Given the digital transformation underway, such legislation would go a long way toward protecting all users and companies.

  • Wikimedia Enterprise Seeks to Turn Big Tech Into Paying Customers

    Wikimedia Enterprise Seeks to Turn Big Tech Into Paying Customers

    Wikimedia is looking to turn Big Tech into paying Wikipedia customers with the creation of Wikimedia Enterprise.

    Wikipedia is the premier online encyclopedia, crowd-sourced and free for anyone to use. Many of the biggest names in tech, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google rely on the encyclopedia.

    Every couple of weeks, Wikipedia provides a snapshot of everything on the site to various tech companies, data the companies use in search and other products. The Wikimedia Foundation, responsible for Wikipedia, is now seeking to monetize that data feed.

    Wikimedia Enterprise is a new product from the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Wikimedia Enterprise provides paid developer tools and services that make it easier for companies and organizations to consume and re-use Wikimedia data.

    According to Wired, the free data stream will still be available to all users, but Wikimedia Enterprise will offer a data stream that is more up-to-date and compatible with the client company’s formats. Given that many of the big tech companies have entire teams dedicated to managing the incoming Wikipedia data, licensing it from Wikimedia Enterprise could save significant time and money.

  • DuckDuckGo Calls Out Google’s Apps For Spying On Users

    DuckDuckGo Calls Out Google’s Apps For Spying On Users

    DuckDuckGo is mincing no words in calling out Google’s apps for spying on users and not respecting their privacy.

    Google drew widespread criticism for taking months to roll out updates to its iOS apps after Apple introduced privacy labels in the App Store. The new feature is designed to let users know exactly what personal information an app collects and tracks. Google has only recently updated many of its apps, after dragging its feet for months after privacy labels went live.

    DuckDuckGo is calling the company to task for what Chrome and the Google app privacy labels reveals about Google’s data collection.

    Google is already facing increased backlash for its privacy practices, including a lawsuit that claims the company continues to track people even when Chrome’s Incognito Mode is enabled.

    Users who truly value privacy should migrate away from Google’s apps sooner rather than later.

  • Google Wants a More Private Web, Will Not Build ‘Alternate Identifiers’ to Replace Cookies

    Google Wants a More Private Web, Will Not Build ‘Alternate Identifiers’ to Replace Cookies

    Google has announced it has no intention to build or use “alternate identifiers” as a replacement to cookies for tracking individuals.

    Google stunned the industry when it announced it would remove support for third-party cookies in Chrome, which currently has roughly 70% of the web browser market. While useful for providing site functionality, cookies are often used to track individuals across websites and build a startlingly complete picture of a person’s interests and browsing habits.

    Some had thought Google might develop alternative identifier solutions to replace cookies, but the company has firmly shot that idea down. David Temkin, Director of Product Management, Ads Privacy and Trust, outlined the company’s plans in a blog post:

    That’s why last year Chrome announced its intent to remove support for third-party cookies, and why we’ve been working with the broader industry on the Privacy Sandbox to build innovations that protect anonymity while still delivering results for advertisers and publishers. Even so, we continue to get questions about whether Google will join others in the ad tech industry who plan to replace third-party cookies with alternative user-level identifiers. Today, we’re making explicit that once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.

    Temkin reiterated the company’s commitment to its Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) API. FLoC is designed to hide an individual in the crowd, essentially providing privacy through obscurity. Some are not convinced, however, with the EFF labeling FLoC “a terrible idea.”

    Still, given Google’s history of ignoring and abusing individuals’ privacy, a history that has resulted in lawsuits, its refreshing to see the company take at least some stand for privacy.

    Keeping the internet open and accessible for everyone requires all of us to do more to protect privacy — and that means an end to not only third-party cookies, but also any technology used for tracking individual people as they browse the web. We remain committed to preserving a vibrant and open ecosystem where people can access a broad range of ad-supported content with confidence that their privacy and choices are respected. We look forward to working with others in the industry on the path forward.

  • Brave Launching Privacy-Focused Brave Search

    Brave Launching Privacy-Focused Brave Search

    Brave, the privacy-focused web browser made by JavaScript creator Brendan Eich, is throwing its hat in the search engine ring.

    Brave has made a name for itself as one of the best web browsers for an out-of-the-box privacy focus, aggressively blocking trackers and ads. The browser uses Chromium as its rendering engine, ensuring its high performance and compatibility. Brave also includes its own cryptocurrency, which can be used as a way of rewarding content makers, in an effort to reinvent how paid web content works.

    The company’s latest effort is its most ambitious yet, with plans to take on Google with a more privacy-focused alternative — Brave Search.

    Billed as “search without a trace,” Brave Search will respect privacy, not harvesting user data, tracking or profiling users, or being beholden to advertisers. The search engine will offer both ad-free paid search and ad-supported free search options.

    The most critical basis of a search engine is its index of the web. To make Brave Search a reality, the company acquired Tailcat, an open search engine developed by the same team responsible for German search engine Cliqz, a Hubert Burda Media holding. Tailcat will form the basis of the new Brave Search.

    “Brave has grown significantly over the past year, from 11 million monthly active users to over 25 million. We expect to see even greater demand for Brave in 2021 as more and more users demand real privacy solutions to escape Big Tech’s invasive practices,” said Brendan Eich, CEO and co-founder of Brave Software. “Brave’s mission is to put the user first, and integrating privacy-preserving search into our platform is a necessary step to ensure that user privacy is not plundered to fuel the surveillance economy.”

    “We are very happy that our technology is being used at Brave and that, as a result, a genuine, privacy-friendly alternative to Google is being created in the core web functions of browsing and searching,” added Paul-Bernhard Kallen, CEO of Hubert Burda Media. “As a Brave stakeholder we will continue to be involved in this exciting project.”

    “The only way to counter Big Tech with its bad habit of collecting personal data is to develop a robust, independent, and privacy-preserving search engine that delivers the quality users have come to expect. People should not be forced to choose between privacy and quality,” said Dr. Josep M. Pujol, head of the Tailcat project. “The team is excited to be working on the only real private search/browser alternative to Big Tech available on the market.”

    With Google Chrome and Google Search boasting a 70% and 92% share of their respective markets, Brave definitely has an uphill battle ahead of it. Nonetheless, the company has gained significant momentum over the last couple of years. In addition, Google’s antitrust troubles have opened the door to what may be the best opportunity to challenge the once unassailable market leader.

    In the meantime, interested users can sign up to be put on a waiting list for early access to Brave Search.

  • Judge ‘Disturbed’ by Google’s Data Tracking

    Judge ‘Disturbed’ by Google’s Data Tracking

    U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh has expressed she is “disturbed” by accusations regarding the depth of Google’s data tracking habits.

    Google is facing a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of lying to its customers when it says it doesn’t track them in Chrome’s Incognito Mode. When Incognito Mode is active, the browser is not supposed to remember browsing history, filled out form data, cookies, site data and more.

    The lawsuit alleges that Google is leveraging code in its analytics platform — which is used on countless websites — to bypass Incognito Mode. This allegedly gives Google the ability to scrape data to piece together a profile of users’ browsing and habits.

    According to Bloomberg, Judge Koh was “disturbed” by the accusations. When Google tried to have the case dismissed, Judge Koh said it was “unusual” that Google would go to the “extra effort” to collect the data in question, unless it was using it to do the very thing Incognito is supposed to prevent.

    Google is facing multiple lawsuits, both for its privacy practices and for alleged anticompetitive behavior. A judge finding the company’s actions ‘distrusting’ is not a good look for Google.

  • Microsoft Testing a Web Browser Version of xCloud

    Microsoft Testing a Web Browser Version of xCloud

    Microsoft’s xCloud game streaming service may be coming to iPhones and iPads soon, with employees reportedly testing a web-based version.

    xCloud is currently available on Android devices, as well as Xbox and Windows 10, but is not available for Apple’s iOS and iPadOS platforms. Microsoft had previously announced it would bring a beta of the service to iOS in Spring 2021. In order to do so, Microsoft is working on a web browser version that will not need App Store approval.

    According to The Verge, sources have confirmed that Microsoft employees are testing a web-based version of xCloud internally, prior to the release of the public beta.

    For any customers worried that a web-based iOS version will somehow be a second-class citizen, Microsoft is also bundling the web version into the Windows 10 Xbox app. Like Google Stadia, the web version of xCloud requires a Chromium-based browser, such as Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome.

  • Google Improves Image Search Results, Reduces Duplicates

    Google Improves Image Search Results, Reduces Duplicates

    Google has made changes to its search algorithm to improve image search results by cutting down on duplicates.

    Virtually every internet user is familiar with searching for a specific picture, only to have to scroll through 167 copies of the same image. Google has evidently had enough as well, as the company announced it has worked to cut those down.

    The company has also improved image searches for terms that could have drastically different types of items that share the same name.

  • COVID Has Really Impacted Aerospace… and the Air Force

    COVID Has Really Impacted Aerospace… and the Air Force

    “COVID has really impacted the aerospace industry in this nation and nations around the world disproportionately to other industries… and the Air Force has not been exempt from these impacts,” says former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Dr. Will Roper:

    COVID Has Really Impacted Aerospace… and the Air Force

    COVID has really impacted the aerospace industry in this nation and nations around the world disproportionately to other industries. The Air Force has not been exempt from these impacts. We have had to go into a wartime posture and engage with exceptional authorities and funding to keep the aerospace industry, which allows us to go to war, whole.

    But aside from the crisis response that we’ve all been in it’s forced us to do some serious reflection about how we engage with production and supply chains going forward. How does the Air Force need to change the way it views its future self so that we’re not just more ready for a crisis when it occurs but we’re actually designing better systems, doing better engineering, and using technology more effectively? Systems that we need to go to war are going to be hidden behind doors where their vulnerabilities are never going to be exposed because of secrecy.

    Secrecy Hinders Our Ability To Digitally Go To War

    We’re moving into an era where we’re leveraging commercial technology more frequently. Because of that, we can no longer hope that secrecy, keeping our systems classified, will be the sole means for us to be secure. We need to find a new paradigm where openness is also part of our security posture. Now we’re not going to be able to copy commercial industry one for one. Our systems in many cases don’t have a commercial analog. We can’t quickly replace them.

    We’re not in a competition where spirals occur in years. Many of our aerospace breakthroughs, especially those in technologies like stealth, take time to do. Secrecy is going to continue to be part of the equation. But secrecy can’t be the catch-all approach to how we ensure systems are able to digitally go to war and be ready to fight in a cyber environment against an adversary as capable as we are.

    Containerization Solves The Secrecy Problem

    The software development capabilities that technologies like Kubernetes or containerization and Istio bring in to the Air Force. It’s amazing that companies like Google that have now transitioned this to an open-source driven initiative have solved a lot of what we would have to solve as a military. How do you write code in a development environment, in that tech stack that may also represent the physical aspects of your system, but it certainly represents the software components?

    How do you go from your development environment out to the edge securely and know your code will run the same way. Containerization solves that problem for us. The military is behind and adopting it. It’s not old but this technology is moving through industry as fast as Linux did. If we don’t get off the dime we will be left behind. Keep pushing the Air Force and Space Force on this. Do not let us get comfortable.

    COVID Has Really Impacted Aerospace… and the Air Force
  • SolarWinds Hack Was Supply Chain Attack, Says Datadog CEO

    SolarWinds Hack Was Supply Chain Attack, Says Datadog CEO

    “What’s interesting here about the SolarWinds hack, in particular, is that it’s what’s called a supply chain attack,” says Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel. “This means the attack was made on the code that was shipped to the SolarWinds customer. Then there is this new notion in security called shifting left. By left, it means is closer to the developer and earlier in the development process.”

    Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel discusses how the SolarWinds hack signals an increased focus by hackers to target software earlier in its development:

    The SolarWinds hack was definitely a very big one. It’s not especially surprising to see new important hacks like this one but definitely a very impactful one. What it makes very clear is that there’s going to be even more of an arms race when it comes to security. It’s not surprising companies are transforming. They’re having more and more of their activity that is happening online is happening in software. So there’s much more that can be done by attacking that software.

    What we do is we gather as many signals as possible across observability and monitoring. This is the way we come from and across security. What’s interesting here about the SolarWinds hack, in particular, is that it’s what’s called a supply chain attack. This means the attack was made on the code that was shipped to the SolarWinds customer. Then there is this new notion in security called shifting left. By left, it means is closer to the developer and earlier in the development process.

    There’s something really interesting there when it relates to us (Datadog) in how we can solve the problem for our customers by bringing security earlier into the development process and tied in more to the operations and the development of the application. That’s definitely something that we’re investing in and something that we think is going to be a big area of investment for customers in the future.

    SolarWinds Hack Was Supply Chain Attack, Says Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel
  • Opera Acquires YoYo Games, the Company Behind GameMaker

    Opera Acquires YoYo Games, the Company Behind GameMaker

    Opera has announced it has acquired YoYo Games, the company behind GameMaker.

    GamerMaker Studio combines drag-and-drop elements with a scripting language to to help novice programmers create games with minimal programming. While the acquisition may seem out of place for a company long-known for its web browser, the acquisition aligns with Opera’s recent moves.

    The company announced its new Opera GX web browser in June 2019. Unlike its legacy browser, Opera GX was aimed at gamers from the beginning. Still in early access, the browser provides ways to limit its network use to save bandwidth for whatever games are running, as well as quick ways to kill RAM-hogging tabs. The browser also includes built-in Discord support. Discord is a popular communication platform gamers use when playing multi-player and PvP games.

    “We are very excited to start working with the team at YoYo Games,” said Krystian Kolondra, EVP Browsers at Opera. “We see the platform as being an ideal acquisition to complement our global ambitions in gaming, along with our Opera GX gaming browser. We look forward to further growing Opera GX and to driving the growth of GameMaker, making it more accessible to novice users and developing it into the world’s leading 2D game engine used by commercial studios. We are also thrilled to find future synergies between YoYo Games’ products and Opera GX.”

    “It’s been clear to us from the first time we spoke to them that the whole of the team at Opera is incredibly passionate about games,” said Stuart Poole, General Manager of YoYo Games. “Since joining them last week, the positivity and creative energy we are seeing from them has been overwhelming. We have always had big plans for improving GameMaker across all platforms, both from the perspective of improving accessibility and further developing the features available to commercial studios; and now we can’t wait to see them arrive much sooner.”

    Opera’s acquisition illustrates the ongoing digital convergence among industries that, at first glance, appear to have little in common.