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  • Zippin CEO: In 5-10 Years Every Store Will Be Checkout Free

    Zippin CEO: In 5-10 Years Every Store Will Be Checkout Free

    What if going to a store was easier than shopping online where you could just walk in and pick up your purchases and walk out with payment happening all in the background?

    You have heard about Amazon’s cashierless stores, Amazon Go, and their plans to open thousands of those stores in the coming years. Now there are startups that intend to bring this concept to all stores by providing a software platform and a technology solution to retailers.

    Zippin Co-founder and CEO Krishna Motukuri talked about the technology behind his new checkout-free solution in a recent CNBC profile:

    At Zippin, our mission is to banish checkout lines for good. You can simply walk in, check-in when you enter, pick up whatever you want, and simply walk out. If there was somebody that actually was able to follow a customer around the store and see what they were picking and just took a note of that information and then when they walked out simply just gave them a bill, it would be very convenient for the customer.

    We use overhead cameras that look straight down and get a bird’s-eye view of the entire store. That allows us to uniquely identify customers and we use that information to also understand which items they’re picking from the shelf and which ones they’re putting back. This information is paired with sensors that are on the shelf that worked with the cameras to accurately identify which products cart picked.

    As we’ve seen in the online world where ecommerce customers can actually see which product you’ve clicked on how long you actually considered it or whether you put it in the cart or taking it out, there will be retailers that will be responsible in the way they use that information.

    In addition to supermarkets and grocery stores, we’re also getting a lot of interest from hotels, airports, stadiums, and commercial buildings. For the first time, this technology allows you to operate a store more cost efficiently. We expect more of these smaller stores to appear in residential complexes and office buildings where there was nothing other than just a vending machine and some salty snacks before.

    Our next step is to actually take the technology to an existing retailer and implement it in their stores. I would say five to ten years you should expect every store will be checkout free.

  • Ford CEO: A New Cloud-Based System Being Developed to Control All Driverless Cars

    Ford CEO: A New Cloud-Based System Being Developed to Control All Driverless Cars

    The automobile business has become a technology business with the advent of driverless cars that learn on their own via artificial intelligence. Now we have learned that Ford is involved in working on a cloud-based central monitoring system that will revolutionize transportation. There are privacy implications too, where governments will know where your car is at 24 hours a day.

    From a technology standpoint, this cloud system will help prevent accidents, keep traffic moving, enable smart intersections and promote environmental advantages by bringing more efficiency to every transport mile.

    Ford Motor Company President and CEO James Hackett discussed this concept this morning at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York:

    Three Transformative Technologies

    Ford’s advantage in the future is that it’s got in its hand in three technologies that have been transformative. The first is the nature of propulsion which is moving from gas to electric. It might surprise you that less than 5 percent of the market right now is electric, but it’s estimated to be 30 percent in the near future.

    The second technology has to do with robotics. You’ve heard about AI where the vehicle is so smart that it can drive itself in the future. The third technology, which isn’t as public, is the notion of a cloud-based system over the vehicles. The confluence of the three of these technologies means that we can now design transportation systems differently and with a system that enables and empowers a better CO2 outcome.

    A New Cloud-Based System Being Developed to Control All Driverless Cars

    This cloud-based structure is something that hasn’t been here and what it allows is the vehicle and the city to now have a connection. I was in a discussion yesterday with Prime Minister Trudeau and he asked while we were sitting in a traffic light late in the evening when there is nobody in the intersection, why does the red light stay on. In the future, the vehicle will be mediated through intersections like that with this smart system.

    If you are an investor looking at this it will be over an $11 trillion industry. This is why the tech industry is so interested in our business because it’s a systems play of the smart technologies of the vehicle and the environment coming together. It’s talking about building bandwidth so the vehicles can communicate, 5G is really important. It’s also about making smart intersections so that the navigation of the vehicles are safe.

    Then a third idea is parking where we can have the vehicle communicate with parking spaces. You lose more fuel efficiency trying to find a parking space than you do being stuck in traffic.

    Combination of Vehicles and Technology Now Defines the Car Business

    I look at the car business as a combination of vehicles and technology which is what’s defining it in the future, versus just thinking about it as a pure vehicle. Think of it this way, the cars have a number of computers and software in them today but the way they are in the future is really rolling computers. You have to think of the business differently because of that.

    Ford Committed to be “In Market” with a Driverless Car by 2021

    Ford is committed by 2021 to be in market with a driverless electric car. But this is a marathon, the cars will be super smart and they learn. The way they learn is by being driven. When they hit the market they will be safe, probably have narrow assignments as to what they can do, but over time they will expand.

    The great thing is that when you hear about serving the world, this is going to allow us to do things because the vehicle is intelligent, like getting goods to people that couldn’t get it, helping people have jobs that don’t have transportation today or helping take older people to the doctor. This kind of assistance will be available with that technology.

    This aspect of the car business is one where there is no profit yet, the technology is new, the design of the systems is emerging, but it’s where all the future will be.

  • How to Write Code 10-20 Times Faster

    How to Write Code 10-20 Times Faster

    Writing code is at the heart of software and it’s what makes applications like Google, Facebook, and Tinder work. The problem for startups and large enterprises alike is that writing code is a tremendous undertaking, costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time. For years, companies have been trying to create code-writing software with limited success.

    Appian CEO and founder Matt Calkins says that their code writing platform is a generational improvement that will literally, according to an independent study, enable developers to write code 10-20 times faster because it takes the code writing out of code writing.

    Matt Calkins explains how their revolutionary code writing platform works in an interview this morning on Squawk Box:

    We Can Write Code 10-20 Times Faster

    These days companies compete based on the software they write, that’s how they impress us. As customers, every company has to be more efficient but also more appealing. It used to be just back office and now it’s front office too, now it’s appealing to everybody and differentiating from their competition.

    Every company’s got to write a lot of software and they need a faster way. We can write code 10-20 times faster because instead of writing it by lines you draw it like a picture. It’s a flowchart with boxes and arrows and you depict your intentions in the software and then we translate that into code. It’s an interpretation layer, you could think of it as a code already existing but it’s not blocks of code because that wouldn’t be smart.

    Built-In Artificial Intelligence

    The is absolutely AI in there, but AI is not the translation it’s just an augmentation. AI isn’t smart enough yet to actually write your code. The important thing here is there’s never an authoritative layer that you can go down to and modify. We’re interpreting your instructions, so you express what you want in software and then we interpret that on every mobile device and on any cloud in a scalable way.

    You write something in Appian and it’s going to end up being in a native app on your phone. It’s going to be a native app on every phone and every device. Appian is going to translate your intentions that you expressed in a flowchart in drag and drop ways into a piece of software that’ll run on your phone.

    What’s Missing in Code Writing is Simplicity

    Over the years there have been a lot of attempts to create an easy way to write software and this is the latest generation and I think it’s gone a lot further than the other generations. You can tell that because we’re being run by the biggest organizations in mission-critical ways, unlike these old attempts that kept it simple and weren’t powerful enough to do the top job. We’ve got some of the top firms in almost every industry around the world running multi-million dollar applications on the Appian platform which shows that it’s really industrial strength stuff.

    My mission is simplicity, with the organization too, everything about creating code should be simpler in order to allow people to develop more of it and change it faster. I think that’s what’s really missing in code.

  • CEO’s of Adobe, Microsoft, SAP Announce the Launch of the Open Data Initiative

    CEO’s of Adobe, Microsoft, SAP Announce the Launch of the Open Data Initiative

    CEO’s of Adobe, Microsoft, SAP announced the launch of the Open Data Initiative, a new data repository in the cloud dedicated to facilitating collaboration across the global research community. This is an initiative squarely aimed at Facebook and Google, in effect challenging them to provide all customer related data back to the customer. Here is Microsoft’s portal to the Open Data Initiative.

    Below are key highlights from a discussion the three tech CEO’s had on CNBC…

    Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft:

    The insight that all three of us had based on the work we’re doing with many customers, such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Walmart, today as customers they’re all excited about this open data initiative. It’s their real insight that led us to do this, how do we work to put them in control of their own customer data, because that’s the real currency.

    Any brand out there cares deeply about the continuous improvement of their own customer data understanding. The three of us coming together is going to be central to them feeling in control of their own customer data.

    Bill McDermott, CEO, SAP:

    There isn’t a CEO in the world that does not want to have a single view of their customer and they have to connect their demand chain to their supply chain and do so in real time. If you think about the consumer whose social, mobile, they’re geospatial, they’re always on the fly, they’re going to shop different companies in all channels, direct to consumer and retail, and you have to make sure that connection point with that consumer is really intimate.

    These companies need to be intelligent enterprises because more and more AI and predictive analytics is going to rule how you engage with that customer. Ultimately, what you have to do is fulfill, so now you’re going to see the demand and the supply chain completely integrated and that data will be shared evenly among our companies so the customer is the major benefactor of the Open Data Initiative we announced today.

    Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe:

    All three of us shared this vision of how do we enable enterprises to put customers at the front of the digital journey. Getting behavioral data, getting transactional data, and getting customer engagement to be the front and center is the most important thing that enterprises can do so that digital is actually a tailwind rather than a headwind.

    What Marketo does is add to our offerings in the Experience Cloud of being able to create this unified profile for all customers. The thing that every customer will tell you today is that they want an engaging experience with whoever they’re doing business with, whether it’s financial services, automotive, or retail. Adobe focused a lot more on B2C customers, but the same requirements that were true for B2C customers are now true for B2B customers and that’s what Marketo provides.

    Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft:

    The name itself should tell everything, it’s an open data initiative. It’s about really unlocking the data that is our customers’ data about their own customers. I think what is foundational here is trust. In other words, ultimately customers will decide.

    Also, compliance with their own customers trust in them is also going to be very key, because if you think about it one of the top considerations for anything around customer data is privacy and regulation around privacy. So the most important thing here would be for each vendor to think through how they participate here and ensure that there is more trust in the entirety of the value chain, starting with the end consumer to the brand and to us as software vendors or tech companies.

    I think the real challenge is going to be for some who may want to join but their business model is probably not going to allow them to join. I think overall though what we have all anchored on is if we can create an architecture and an incentive system that turns the tide to put customers in control of their own customer data I think the overall economy will be better off.

  • Cyber Attacks on Small Businesses are on the Rise, Here’s How to Stay Safe

    Cyber Attacks on Small Businesses are on the Rise, Here’s How to Stay Safe

    While recent data breaches on large enterprises like Home Depot, Target, and Yahoo made headlines worldwide, a 2016 report by cybersecurity firm Symantec revealed that 43 percent of cybercrimes actually target small businesses. What’s more alarming is that the number of attacks on small business has been trending upward every year since 2011. It’s easier to target small companies because many of their owners are not educated about the risks or don’t implement adequate safeguards to protect themselves.

    However, a data breach can damage your company’s reputation and revenue. It can even put you out of business altogether. In fact, a reported 60 percent of small businesses fold within six months of a cyber attack. The need to protect yourself and your customers cannot be overstated.

    Here are five safety measures your small business can implement to fend off cyber attacks:

    1. Install the right software and keep it updated.

    Good anti-virus, spyware and/or malware prevention software is your initial line of defense. Invest in a reliable one and keep it updated regularly. As a business owner, you should never ignore an update, no matter how busy you are. The older versions of a software or system are what hackers often work on.

    Minimize the risk by making sure your antivirus software and operating system are up-to-date. Once you’ve been notified of an update, designate a time of the week to install it into your data system.

    A lot of small business owners also make the mistake of just buying whatever data security software was recommended to them without understanding it or using it properly. To choose the right software, you’ll need to assess the type of data you’re protecting and how it will be stored. Is the information you’re protecting sensitive or neutral? How many people will have access to the information and for how long do you intend to store it? Data security is not one size fits all.

    2. Invest in a secure network.

    Select a dedicated and secure server that only your company and employees use. It might mean shelling out more money upfront, but your network is guaranteed to be secure from external attacks. This will significantly reduce the risk of your customers’ information being hacked. You should also make sure that your data is always backed up. A second copy will lessen the devastation of a malware attack.

    3. Implement extensive security protocols.

    Use every safety protocol and security strategy to protect data while still keeping it usable. Implement steps like multi-factor authentication and data encryption. Make sure you develop strong passwords to prevent hackers from cracking your code. Experts say passwords should be around 13 to 15 characters and should not be a word. Instead, go with random symbols, letters, and numbers. Investing in good encryption software is another way to protect your customers’ personal data.

    4. Educate your team and train them to follow best practices.

    Most of the time, a data breach is caused by an employee’s negligence or complacency. This was what happened in the Target hack. It’s also something you see all the time in brick-and-mortar stores. Computers are left open and available or passwords scribbled on post-its for everyone to see.

    Root cause of a data breach infographic

    Make sure you take the time to educate your staff on security technology and train them to understand and follow best practices for preventing a security breach. Cybercriminals use ploys that look legitimate so employees should know what to look for. You should also have a memo or a list of best security practices to follow, like changing passwords regularly or being careful when using personal devices at work.

    5. Secure sensitive documents.

    Make it a habit to safeguard important documents even if you no longer need them. Instead of just throwing customer files and documents in the trash, take the extra step of shredding them. It’s also a good idea not to store your clients’ credit card information. After all, there’s no need for you to do so and they can’t be stolen from you if you never collected them in the first place.

    These security measures might look like a lot of work, but it is all worth it. After all, it’s better to err on the side of caution instead of losing customers or your reputation because of a data breach. 

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • Twilio’s Unique Platform Business Model Drives It’s Success

    Twilio’s Unique Platform Business Model Drives It’s Success

    Twilio’s success is driven by its unique platform business model where its products are provided to developers based on usage. Companies only pay for what they use with no contracts required and they billed based on whatever is the fundamental value driver of the product they are using.

    Recently, Jeff Lawson, Twilio CEO, discussed their innovative products and business strategy on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street“:

    Why is Twilio a Successful Business?

    It’s really the continued success of our platform business model. Platform developers can use Twilio to solve a wide variety of problems inside of their companies and how their company communicates with their customers. Whether that’s voice phone calls in a contact center or that’s text message alerts, even real-time video communications and things like Facebook Messenger, you can incorporate all those things using Twilio.

    It’s the broad breadth of things that developers can build on top of Twilio coupled with our usage-based pricing model which really aligns our success with our customers’ success, so we get paid when our customers use Twilio more and build things on top of our platform. The combination of the breadth of things you can build as well as the alignment we have with their customers, that’s the platform business model that has worked so well.

    Every Company is Getting Reinvented Because of the Power of Software

    Uber is one of our largest customers, they represent about four percent of our revenue today, but we have many different companies on our platform. Whether it’s Lyft and other rideshare companies as well as everything from Silicon Valley tech companies to Fortune 500 companies including major banks and insurance companies.

    In fact, one of the customers we noted at our Q2 call was U-Haul which is not a company you typically think of as a software company. Every company is getting reinvented because of the power of software. Every company realizes that they too are a digital company now and if your business is U-Haul you have to reinvent yourself with software and when they do the software developers who work at those companies bring Twilio in.

    Customer Engagement is the Lifeblood of Every Company

    I think that every company regardless of what they do is always investing in their own growth and their customer relationships. So when you think about customer engagement, how a company talks to its customers, that’s a source of growth for every company. That is the lifeblood of every single company.

    How you engage with your customers and what they think of those interactions, that is the brand perception and that is the reality of the product delivery.  

    The Platform Business Model is a Unique Business

    We think that our business model, the platform business model, is a unique business. It’s not software as a service, it’s got a lot of different attributes, it’s not traditional on-premise software, it is a new kind of software company. Because of that usage-based model we can sustain a nice expansion rate and nice growth rate.

    How Are the Services Measured?

    Things like phone calls and text messages and video sessions are measured in gigabytes and our new contact center Twilio Flex is measured in the amount of time the agents spend using it. Each one of our products we break down into the fundamental value driver for our customers and we bill for that and what that does is it aligns our customers’ success with our success very nicely.

  • Oracle’s Autonomous Database Cloud is a Huge Technological Advantage

    Oracle’s Autonomous Database Cloud is a Huge Technological Advantage

    The release by Oracle of its AI-powered Autonomous Database Cloud earlier this year and just adding Transactional Processing to its abilities last week is huge for Oracle and its customers who need this cutting edge technology. Oracle considers the Autonomous Cloud a generational release because it literally is the first database in the world that can build itself and update itself without human help.

    Oracle CEO Mark Hurd recently spoke to CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” about it:

    Oracle Autonomous Database Is a Generational Release

    Probably our most important generational database release is the Autonomous Database. This is where the database is integrated with AI and machine learning that really just self-patches and self-tunes. It actually creates a position where your security issues go down, you get higher uptime, and you pay less money. We really never in our history had a database release that had as many positive business outcomes as opposed to just technology.

    This is a place where you get better performance, more uptime and you will eliminate tons of labor. Most of our customers, for example, I know this has become a bigger issue with C-Suites now where the amount of time it actually takes to patch software can be months for most of our customers.

    This release of the Autonomous Database literally eliminates that need to patch. This is a generational release for us as we bring it to market.

    Oracle BYOL Explained

    Let me explain BYOL (Bring Your Own License). That is simply where you can buy a license and you can use it on-premise or in the cloud, so it’s basically a currency that you can move across platforms. We’re one of the very few companies that allow you to do that, so we believe it’s an advantage for our customers and what they want and that’s why we utilize that strategy.

    Second,  I think you need to divide up what’s happening in the applications market versus what’s happening in the infrastructure and platform market. In the applications market, there’s an opportunity now for most companies to modernize all of their systems.

    ERP is Moving to the Cloud

    Let’s start with the back office systems, the biggest category of back-office applications is called ERP. ERP is basically companies financial supply chain manufacturing systems, etc.

    All of those are really going to get replaced over the next several years as companies move to the cloud where there are much more innovation and much more work done by somebody else as opposed to by the customer. We’re in the very early innings of that market.

    Oracles Technology is a Competitor Differentiator 

    We have a significant lead technology wise in ERP and we went through a ton of customer wins in the quarter. That market is going to over the next several years be very exciting. The technology infrastructure market, that’s as you move further up the stack, meaning from compute and storage to database to other tools and systems, Oracle gets more differentiated from competition the further you move up the stack.

    Just replacing somebody’s computer with somebody’s infrastructure, while that’s interesting, the more technology you have and the more IP differentiates Oracle. Oracle has always been differentiated by doing the hardest jobs the best, by investing in R&D and investing in innovation.

    Oracle Autonomous Database for Transactional Processing Announced

    Larry Ellison, Oracle Co-Founder, CTO, and Executive Chairman, made the announcement:

    We’re announcing the immediate availability of the Oracle Autonomous Database transactional processing. Now the machine learning based technology not only can optimize itself for queries for database warehouses and Data Marts, but it also optimizes itself for transactions.

    It can run batch programs, reporting, Internet of Things, simple transactions, complex transactions, and mixed workloads. Between these two systems, the system that is optimized for data warehousing and the system that’s optimized for transaction processing, the Oracle Autonomous Database now handles all of your workloads. All of them.

    Larry Ellison also recently gave his take on the Autonomous Database Cloud:

    The cool thing about the Autonomous Database Cloud is because it is autonomous the database is fully automated.  Human Beings don’t create the database, the database creates itself. Human Beings don’t tune the database, the database tunes itself.

  • Cybersecurity is Rapidly Changing

    Cybersecurity is Rapidly Changing

    “We cannot control our adversary,” says Rick McElroy, Security Strategist for CarbonBlack, a leading next-generation cybersecurity firm. “Although we can choose to control them once in our environment. We have little to no control over when the “big attack” happens. For too long I think we have focused so hard on finding the adversary that our internal threat intelligence has suffered as a result”. Sharing threat intelligence has gotten easier. Vendors have done a ton to allow teams to cultivate and exchange threat intel and while there is always more work we have abandoned the one thing we have a hope of controlling. The home field advantage.”

    Editor Note: CarbonBlack is offering a free webinar on why companies are moving toward next-generation security here:

    Free Webinar: Why Companies are Replacing AV with Advanced Endpoint Protection

    McElroy adds, “I have heard major CISOs sit in a room and say “asset management is impossible, so why try?” How is this what a leader would say? Yes, this thing we do isn’t easy but giving up is a sure fire way to never achieve a strategic goal.”

    “It’s time we bring this to all defenders, not just customers of a certain organization. Carbon Black is on a mission to make the world safe from cyber attacks. To achieve this mission, we need every one of us sharing and helping quiet the noise. We need application developers and threat hunters on the same page. We need to unite as a community.”

    Traditional AV is Falling Short

    Just about every enterprise company is feverishly working on implementing next-generation solutions to protect against internet threats. The primary reason is that traditional AV software is no longer effective enough:

    First, let’s look at why traditional AV is falling short against the cyber-attacks organizations face today. Traditional AV technologies still rely on a signature-based approach that can only identify known threats. Attackers can run circles around this approach by making small tweaks to their malware in between signature updates; this allows them to operate with impunity while organizations scramble to deploy new updates.

    In short, traditional AV leaves organizations one step behind the attacker. Making matters worse, a signature-based approach cannot detect modern attacks that do not write files to disk (so-called file-less attacks) or techniques that use trusted system tools like PowerShell to perform malicious actions. In order to combat the shortcomings of traditional AV, organizations must ensure that they have AV technology that takes a proactive approach to cybersecurity. – Dan Larson, Vice President Product Marketing at CrowdStrike via Security Ledger.

    The Security Fight Has Escalated

    “Nearly 20 years ago, viruses such as the Melissa virus and Love Bug worm were causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage, hijacking email servers, corrupting corporate and government documents, and forcing systems to shut down,” stated Martin Borrett, IBM Distinguished Engineer and CTO IBM Security Europe. “Today, cybercrime is a global plague that will cost the world economy $6 trillion annually by 2021, according to Cybersecurity Ventures.”

    Borrett added, “As cybercriminals, nation-state attackers and hacktivist groups have become more sophisticated, the security industry has grown up to defend our national security as well as the vital interests of businesses and consumers. Gradually, the battle between attackers and defenders has become something akin to an arms race: New types of attacks lead to new defenses to block them. Security innovations become outdated as soon as attackers find ways around them. Meanwhile, cyberattackers continue to rely on social engineering tricks that are hard to defend against.”

    New Cybersecurity Approaches Are Clearly Needed

    According to Dr. Kirk Borne, Principal Data Scientist at Booz Allen, what’s needed is for companies to modernize their current cybersecurity defenses:

    For modern cybersecurity operations to be effective, it’s necessary for organizations to monitor diverse data streams to identify strong activity signals. This includes monitoring network traffic data to find well-known patterns of common adversary activities, such as data exfiltration or beaconing. While these detection techniques are critical to cybersecurity operations, it is imperative to leverage such signals to predict future activities. Further capabilities could even be created to modify the behavior of the actor (or analyst) to the benefit of the organization and mission. This could include systems on networks that are trained to autonomously take action, such as blocking access to resources or redirecting traffic, based on a predicted behavior.

    Modern attackers are too agile and creative for organizations to rely on passive descriptive analytics or reactive diagnostics techniques for protection. Rather, building an ability to forecast future outcomes through predictive analytics that utilize prior knowledge of events, particularly the precursor signals evident before an attack, are proactive measures. – Dr. Kirk Borne via a recent post on O’Reilly Media.

  • Google Reportedly Allows App Developers to Read the Private Messages of Gmail Users

    Google Reportedly Allows App Developers to Read the Private Messages of Gmail Users

    A new report from the Wall Street Journal has revealed that third-party app developers have access to the emails of millions of Gmail account holders. Two companies have reportedly even allowed employees to read said emails. While Google claims that these developers have been thoroughly vetted, there are still fears that this could end up as a data breach similar to the Cambridge Analytica fiasco.

    According to the Wall Street Journal, Gmail users that have signed up for some services, specifically travel and shopping price comparison tools, have agreed to terms and conditions that enabled the developers of this software and services to read their emails.

    Gmail’s access settings do allow app developers and data companies to see the user’s emails and the private details that go with it, like the recipient’s address and time stamps. They can actually even view the whole message. And while application does require user consent, the permission form is admittedly vague on letting humans read emails instead of just machines.

    These third-party developers claim to only use the information gathered from Gmail account holders for advertising purposes and targeted shopping suggestions. Google asserted that it has extensively vetted these developers, a process that entails checking that the company’s identity is represented by the app, that the data requested is in line with the service it offers, and that its privacy policy clearly states that it will monitor emails.

    The Wall Street Journal report mentioned two specific apps that had access to said emails – Edison Software and Return Path. The former reportedly had employees read thousands of emails to assist in the training of its “Smart Reply” feature while the latter also allowed staff to read private messages to help in the development of the company’s software. Both companies said they have permission from users and that their actions were covered in their terms and conditions.

    In a blog post, Return Path gave assurances that they “take great care to limit who has access to the data, supervise all access to the data.”

    Meanwhile, Edison Software CEO Mikael Berner clarified the context in which their engineers read “a small random sample of de-identified messages” by saying it was for R&D purposes. He also revealed that the company stopped the practice some time ago and that all the data has been expunged “in order to stay consistent with our company’s commitment to achieving the highest standards possible for ensuring privacy.”

    It’s not certain yet what kind of blowback the news that Google has allowed third-party developers access to user emails might have on the company. In all likelihood, it will be scrutinized the same way Facebook was after the Cambridge Analytica issue.

  • HipChat Maker Atlassian Calls It Quits, Sells to Rival Slack

    HipChat Maker Atlassian Calls It Quits, Sells to Rival Slack

    The saying “If you can’t beat them, join them” certainly holds true for Atlassian and Slack. The former is selling its rights to HipChat and Stride to rival Slack and will even be making a small investment in the company.

    The surprising news was announced recently by Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. Aside from tweeting his company’s purchase of the two products, he also explained that the move was to “better support those users who choose to migrate” to Slack. Joff Redfern, Atlassian’s VP of Product Management, also confirmed the news. In a blog post, he said this was the “best way forward for our customers and for Atlassian.”

    What was not as surprising was the revelation that the company would be shutting down both HipChat and Stride. The former is one of Slack’s main competitor in the workplace chat arena while the latter is a chat and collaboration system that Atlassian rolled out in 2017.

    Atlassian clarified that they only sold the intellectual rights to HipChat and Stride and that Slack will not be handling support for the two products. However, existing HipChat Server and HipChat Data Server customers will still enjoy product support until their license period ends. The two products will be discontinued on February 15, 2019.

    Slack and Atlassian will also be working together to migrate all of the enterprise giant’s users over to Slack. The two companies will also be collaborating in developing future integrations. Atlassian will also be receiving a small stake in Slack, with the startup paying an undisclosed amount to the company in the next three years.

    Atlassian tried hard to remain competitive in the office chat space environment by moving its HipChat users to Stride. Aside from the usual chat and communication features, Stride also offered project-tracking and audio and video conferencing. However, the revamped system just wasn’t enough to bring in new users and the company started to consider selling.

    Atlassian co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes told Bloomberg that they’re proud of what their team has built, but also admitted that “it is a crowded space, and there’s a pragmatic option there.”

    The alliance between the two rivals makes sense, especially with Microsoft chipping away at Slack’s dominance in corporate chat software. Microsoft has put the pressure on with its Teams software, which is now available to its 135 million Office cloud subscribers. It has also released a free version of Teams to attract new users. At the moment, Slack reportedly has 500,000 live organizations using its system while Microsoft says 200,000 active organizations are using Teams.

  • New Drop Box Add-On Makes it Easier to Find and Share Files in Gmail

    New Drop Box Add-On Makes it Easier to Find and Share Files in Gmail

    Dropbox took advantage of the Google Next event to reveal its new Gmail add-on. The first product of its partnership with Google, the extension will make it easier for Dropbox users to find, send, and save files from inside their Gmail inbox.

    Gmail users who install this new plug-in will be able to attach a Dropbox file to their email by linking it directly to the relevant file or folder stored in the hosting service. And since the content is attached as links, file size is not an issue. Recipients of the email will also be able to access the file or folder without having to install any extra software.

    Once installed, the add-on will appear on Gmail’s right-side rail. Clicking on the Dropbox icon will prompt it to scan the email thread for attachments. It will also show useful contextual information, like the sender’s name, the file name, and where it is located (email or Dropbox). Users can also view their whole Dropbox file system, making it easier to add and attach files.

    Dropbox describes the Gmail add-on as a convenient method to organize the workplace as it allows the user to access saved content within Gmail. This does away with the need to toggle between the two applications. The add-on also makes it possible for Gmail users to save an emailed file directly to their Dropbox account.

    Dropbox explains in a blog post that the “integration deepens our investment in the G Suite ecosystem, offering a cross-browser, cross-platform addition to our existing Dropbox for Gmail extension for Chrome.”

    This latest add-on is compatible with any browser and will also work on the official Gmail application for Android. Dropbox also has plans to bring the extension to iOS, although there’s no launch date set yet.

    The Gmail add-on is just the tip of the iceberg. Dropbox has also shared its plans to develop add-ons that would let account holders use Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets directly within the file-hosting service. There are also talks of integration with Google Hangouts. This feature will let users send links to files saved in Dropbox directly to Hangouts.

  • Microsoft is Making Office 365 Better, Here’s What to Expect

    Microsoft is Making Office 365 Better, Here’s What to Expect

    Microsoft revealed last week that major updates are headed to Microsoft Office. These changes are for Office 365 and Office.com users and are expected to start rolling out beginning this month and will continue throughout the year. People can expect to see changes like a simplified command ribbon, new colors and icons, and enhanced search function coming to Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

    Microsoft said in a blog post that their customers have revealed that they continue to use Office for important work because of the power that the software’s apps offer. But users also said they want the software “to adapt to the changing environment” and for the company to “simplify the user experience and make that power more accessible.”

    What Updates are Coming to Microsoft 365

    The company is bringing its vaunted Fluent Design system to its Office apps. One feature coming to Microsoft Excel, Powerpoint, Word, and Outlook is a new ribbon design. The simplified ribbon is smaller, easier to use, has new animations, more accessible icons and a more modern look and color. A dedicated color and avatar for participants using the same document will also be included.

    Users will also start seeing new icons and colors across all apps. Since these icons and colors are designed as scalable graphics, they will appear crisp and clean regardless of the size of the screen.

    Users will also be getting an improved search experience that can anticipate contacts, find upcoming meetings, or revisit previous searches. They will also be introduced to “zero query search,” a feature wherein users can see recommendations powered by the Microsoft Graph and AI by simply placing their cursors over the search box.

    Microsoft Also Launching Office 2019

    Microsoft is also planning to offer the newest version of its standalone business software, the Office 2019, by the latter part of the year. But businesses can sign-up in advance and preview what new features the software will offer.

    Office 2019 is geared for companies that are not ready to run everything from the cloud and prefer to keep some apps on their on-premise servers. Businesses will have to pay a one-time fee to use and enjoy the new and updated Microsoft Office. They will also gain access to any future updates and features as they are released.

    Some things that Office 2019 will reportedly have are enhanced inking capabilities, including a roaming pencil case feature. Outlook users will have updated contact cards, @ mentions support and focused inbox features. Meanwhile, Word will have integrated sounds, text-to-speech features, and a new black theme while Excel will have improved 2D maps, Power Query, and Power Pivot.

    Businesses without Office 365 subscription plans that are interested in seeing a preview of Microsoft 2019 beta should sign up at the company’s Collaborate portal.

    [Featured image via Office 365]

  • Microsoft is Reportedly on the Verge of Acquiring Github

    Microsoft is Reportedly on the Verge of Acquiring Github

    Microsoft is reportedly in acquisition talks with GitHub, according to sources privy to the matter. Based on the Bloomberg report, the deal to purchase one of the biggest code repository companies will be announced as early as Monday.

    Founded in 2008, GitHub was a popular hosting site of codes, projects, and documentation for several developers and companies. It is the commonly used platform for open-source software projects, boasting of more than 20 million developers working across 67 million repositories in 2017. GitHub has come a long way from having just 2,000 users when it first started 10 years ago.

    Back then, Microsoft disparaged open-source programs built on GitHub because of its proprietary software in the market. Open-source software allows developers to play around, improve, and share codes, making it a threat to Microsoft applications. Over time, the software giant became more receptive to the idea, launching its own open-source community over a decade ago and shifting its bigger projects on GitHub in 2015.

    These days, Microsoft is the top contributor to the site, while other big tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple also use GitHub. Microsoft’s seismic move to open-source technology, as well as cloud computing, began when CEO Satya Nadella took over the top post in 2014. Since then, the company has been pushing for ways to support Linux as it veers away from depending on the Windows operating system.

    It’s likely that Nadella’s vision has impressed GitHub, opting to sell instead of going public. Although the terms of the deal remain under wraps, GitHub was reportedly valued at $2 billion in 2015. This was lower than its $5 billion asking price when acquisition talks were discussed previously, say sources familiar with the deal.  

     GitHub is viewed by many as the de-facto source code platform where developers can connect and collaborate. However,  it suffers from a few operational problems such as monetizing its products and turnover in its executive ranks. One of the company’s co-founders, Chris Wanstrath, stepped down as its CEO in August 2017. Since then, there has been no replacement while Chief Business Officer Julio Avalos handles daily leadership in the interim.          

    GitHub posted losses of about $66 million for three quarters in 2016 but reported revenue of $98 million during the same year, according to Bloomberg. However, its annual revenue doubled to $200 million in 2017, driven mainly by its paying corporate accounts. The company began offering GitHub Enterprise, a paid option for corporations with additional features and services, such as 24/7 support, dynamic hosting alternatives, and private workspaces, among others.

    With GitHub’s push for more corporate clients, investors anticipate an initial public offering in the future. The company seems to benefit significantly from selling out instead of going public, particularly since Microsoft appears eager to snap up the platform based on their intermittent talks over the years.

  • Facebook ‘Weaponized’ User Data, Says Bikini Photo-Finding App Developer

    Facebook ‘Weaponized’ User Data, Says Bikini Photo-Finding App Developer

    Facebook is facing accusations of gathering more user data than disclosed. According to court filings, former start-up Six4Three claimed that the social media company conducted mass surveillance on its users and their friends alike.

    Based on the lawsuit documents, Facebook reportedly had access to its users’ text messages, photos, and microphones. It can even track their locations by remotely activating the Bluetooth on mobile devices without permission. All of these accusations were detailed in Six4Three’s fifth version of the complaint, initially filed in 2015.

    The court document read, in part:

    “Facebook continued to explore and implement ways to track users’ location, to track and read their texts, to access and record their microphones on their phones, to track and monitor their usage of competitive apps on their phones, and to track and monitor their calls.”

    In response, Facebook refuted the claims by saying that these “have no merit and we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously.” The company clarified rumors back in March that it was monitoring calls and messages of its users. Rather, they only collected call and text message history as part of its opt-in feature under Facebook Lite and Messenger on Android.

    The former start-up also contended that Facebook had access to several photos on iPhones. But the social media company pointed out that users can opt-in to the photo syncing feature of the app for easier uploading.

    Allegations of breaching user privacy and data collection remain touchy subjects for Facebook,  following its involvement in the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. Prior to the scandal, the social media giant has removed the access of third-party developers to personal information. This policy change reportedly led to the failure of Six4Three’s controversial paid app Pikinis, where users can find their Facebook friends’ swimsuit photos.

    Along with accusations of causing its financial ruin, Six4Three claimed that Facebook ‘weaponized’ its ability to access user data, sometimes without explicit consent, to earn billions of dollars. There was also a mass surveillance scheme, details of which were redacted from the latest filings per Facebook’s request. These documents, such as email correspondence among senior executives, contain confidential business matters and were sealed from public view until further notice. 

    Facebook has continued to deny the purported claims, filing a motion to have the case dismissed by invoking the free speech defense under the law in California. Six4Three, on the other hand, is trying to stop the social media giant from getting the case thrown out. As the legal battle wages on, Facebook still faces continued scrutiny over its users’ paranoia on weak data privacy and protection controls.

  • Slack Lets You Get Even More Work Done With New ‘Actions’ Tool

    Slack Lets You Get Even More Work Done With New ‘Actions’ Tool

    In its bid to become more than just a messaging platform, Slack has been collaborating with several companies to building integrations across apps. Called “Actions,” this simple shortcut lets you work with productivity tools like Asana, Zendesk, Jira, and Hubspot, among others without leaving the app.

    Similar to Slackbots, Actions let users turn any Slack conversations into tasks, messages, or follow-ups via the integrations. You can even add comments to tickets and pull requests as well as save information for review later. All you have to do is click on the drop-down of any Slack message to choose the appropriate action, without typing a slash command or messaging a chatbot.

    It seems like integrations with third-party apps make for a better user interface and easier Slack experience. With Actions, users save time since detailed information is automatically sent out to the corresponding app. This means that if you create a new ticket or assign a new task based on a Slack message, Zendesk or Asana generates the same on its platform by mirroring information.

    To date, Slack has eight million daily users on its platform, three million of which are paid accounts. And with 200,000 developers on board, Slack wants to improve user experience on the platform through deeper integrations with popular apps. For others, this may be a better alternative than memorizing commands or sorting through hundreds of productivity Slackbots in the app directory.

    Not content with being just a messaging service, Slack wants to position itself as the de facto collaboration tool in the workplace. As more companies rely on several enterprise software to handle various tasks like project management and customer service, there’s logic and value in integrations.

    “There’s such a demand for specialized software, and for great tools that are easy to use and interoperable with all applications you use,” Slack chief product officer April Underwood pointed out. “We think this is good, and we think more tools means customers have more choice. Ultimately there’s more competition in the marketplace, that means the best tools, the ones that truly help companies do their best work, rise to the top.”

    In fact, Slack is facing increasing competition from other companies out to build simpler but well-constructed collaboration tools. Atlassian, for instance, has made its team communications platform Stride open to developers, allowing customization for your team. On the other hand, Microsoft has continued to improve Teams, its collaborative software. It is fully incorporated into the company’s various applications, such as Microsoft Office and Skype, and features extensions allowing integration with non-Microsoft products.

    Slack’s flexibility and continued addition of numerous features make the platform a favorite amongst smaller, niche companies. But as these companies expand, Slack might need more action to convince them of the collaboration tool’s indispensability in the larger workplace.  

    [Featured image via Slack website]

  • China is Home to the World’s Most Valuable AI Startup, SenseTime is Valued at $4.5 Billion

    China is Home to the World’s Most Valuable AI Startup, SenseTime is Valued at $4.5 Billion

    The artificial intelligence community received a major boost recently with SenseTime’s history-making funding round.

    The Chinese startup recently announced that it has raised $600 million in funding, a feat that has made SenseTime the most valuable AI startup in the world. A Bloomberg report also pegged the company to have a $4.5 billion valuation, easily dwarfing that of its rivals.

    The Series C funding round is said to have been led by the Alibaba Group. Singapore’s Temasek and Chinese company Suning.com reportedly also invested heavily in the company.

    Joe Tsai, executive vice chairman of the Alibaba Group, said in a press release that they are impressed by SenseTime’s pioneering AI work and R&D capabilities in visual computing and deep learning.

    “Our strategic partnership with SenseTime will spark more innovation and create value for society,” Tsai added.

    The massive investment appears to be further proof of how committed some companies and governments are in AI research and development, even if some academics and technology leaders have raised warnings about how the fast-growing technology could be susceptible to abuse.

    The warnings didn’t seem to deter companies like Facebook and Google from investing more resources into AI. Apple even went so far as to poach Google’s AI head in a bid to improve its own chances.

    SenseTime is known for developing facial-recognition technology that has been used in various industries, like security and financial technology. SenseTime is also the power by China’s impressive surveillance system. The company’s software assists in processing data accumulated by the country’s 170 million strong CCTV cameras. It’s also integrated into 100 million and more mobile devices.

    SenseTime tech is also utilized in customer analysis systems and checkout-less lanes. There are even reports that the company is developing a program that can analyze data from thousands of live camera feeds.

    The funding the company received will reportedly be used to bolster its AI platform and further its business ventures. The startup has revealed that it has already secured partnerships with about 400 companies, including Qualcomm on smart technology and Honda on an autonomous driving system.

    The news that a Chinese-based company has been recognized as the highest valued AI company in the world might serve as a wake-up call for American AI startups. After all, China boldly announced last July that it aims to be the world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030 and now it seems the country is well on its way to achieve just that.

  • Microsoft is Now Offering AI Certification Courses, Job-Ready Skills and Real-World Experience Included

    Microsoft is Now Offering AI Certification Courses, Job-Ready Skills and Real-World Experience Included

    Professionals wanting to polish their skills or add machine learning to their resume can now do so via the Microsoft Professional Program. Recognizing the need for companies to train their employees in the latest AI trends, the software giant is now offering a series of courses to the public that comes with “a digitally shareable, résumé-worthy credential.”

    The new program is called the Microsoft Professional Program for AI where, as promised by Microsoft, participants will get “job-ready skills and real-world experience.” The seminar is targeted to engineers who want to improve their data science and artificial intelligence skills.

    The online courses will be under the guidance of expert instructors as well as hands-on labs. The AI program consists of nine skills where each skill is estimated to take between eight and 16 hours for participants to complete. There is also a final project that each student must complete to pass the course.

    The program emphasizes hands-on learning where students are taught “how to work with data to build and train machine learning models that power interactive bots.” In addition, the series covers a variety of topics that are relevant in today’s workplace such as ethics in AI, using Python as the programming language for manipulating data and different types of machine learning models and how to create them.

    However, participants do not have to complete each segment in one go. Students can opt to complete each module within three months while the final project has a six-week deadline. Each segment or course is only offered four times in one year.

    Enrollees earn credit for finishing a course or segment. Should they require it, they can get Verified Certificates from edX.org.

    AI skills are becoming increasingly useful in today’s workplace. As explained by Microsoft  Research AI assistant director:

    “AI is increasingly important in how our products and services are designed and delivered and that is true for our customers as well. Fundamentally, we are all interested in developing talent that is able to build, understand and design systems that have AI as a central component.”

    For employees, getting AI certified is time well spent. With salaries for AI professionals going through the roof it should be considered a worthwhile investment in their future earning potential.

    [Featured image via Microsoft]

  • Cloudflare Makes the Internet More Private With 1.1.1.1 DNS Service

    Cloudflare Makes the Internet More Private With 1.1.1.1 DNS Service

    Cloudflare recently announced a way for the public to enjoy faster and more private Internet. The top performance and security company just rolled out 1.1.1.1, the first DNS service of its kind developed specifically around the concept of putting privacy first and foremost.

    A lot of Internet users are unaware that everything on the web begins with a DNS request. Known as the Internet’s directory, a DNS translates a name into a numerical online address that a computer understands. However, DNS is an unsecured and unencrypted system. It’s also very slow.

    Every Internet Service Provider (ISP) has the capability to monitor DNS requests and see every app or website that a person visits, even if said site is encrypted. This information is sometimes sold and used for ad targeting.

    Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 provides an alternative to that. The service offers users unmatched security and speed. With 1.1.1.1, loading time of web pages become shorter and key user data are kept secret from ISPs. The service also supports DNS over HTTPS and encrypted DNS. Plus, data from logs is erased after 24 hours and no user data or IP addresses are stored.

    Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince says the practice of selling user data to advertisers is “creepy,” especially since the data will be used to target consumers without their knowledge and consent. Prince also said that what people do on the Internet is no one’s business and that Cloudflare designed 1.1.1.1 to ensure that the company and the ISPs of the world won’t know what users are doing online.

    The 1.1.1.1 service is reportedly easy to set up. The system doesn’t require any special software or technical skill. Anyone can have the system up and running in less than five minutes. To use the service, the user has to change the DNS server settings on their device. Instructions on how to go about this can be found on Cloudflare’s website.

    Installation is free and is available for desktop computers and mobile devices. However, Cloudflare says paying clients will receive biggest speed boosts.

    [Image via Cloudflare]

  • Salesforce Acquires CloudCraze, a B2B eCommerce Software Startup

    Salesforce Acquires CloudCraze, a B2B eCommerce Software Startup

    Salesforce has added another tool to their CRM applications with its upcoming acquisition of CloudCraze, a Chicago-based eCommerce platform.

    The news was announced on Monday by CloudCraze. While the terms of the deal with Salesforce was not disclosed, it was revealed that the two companies had already signed an agreement.

    CloudCraze president Ray Grady pointed out in the company’s announcement that the B2B industry is slated to grow to $1.2 trillion and that it’s crucial for businesses to grab this opportunity. He also added that “the addition of CloudCraze to the Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Salesforce and its customers can now take advantage of this shift to digital commerce, enabling business buyers to browse and purchase online as easily as consumers shop today.”

    The deal between the two companies is not surprising considering how intertwined CloudCraze and Salesforce are.  Salesforce built its B2B software on CloudCraze’s platform and its investment division also supported CloudCraze’s $20 million round in 2017. Insight Venture Partners also backed the Chicago startup during its latest funding run.

    Last year’s investor round gave CloudCraze the needed capital to scale its business and expand its team. The company’s software helps businesses produce online revenue and remain connected to their customers effortlessly. Companies that use the platform can instantly see all the relevant customer data and quickly share it across various channels. Companies like Coca-Cola, GE, Kellogg’s, and L’Oreal are all using CloudCraze.

    This is far from the first startup that Salesforce bought. About two years ago, the company purchased Demandware. It also absorbed Chicago startups Gravitytank AKTA, InStranet, and Model Metrics. The company also acquired SteelBrick in 2015 for $300 million.

    CloudCraze will be Salesforce’s second acquisition for the year, after taking a break from buying startups in 2017. The company acquired Attic Labs in January. It’s still unknown if Salesforce will be going on a buying spree again this year, although the company has been very open about its new revenue goals. Acquiring fast-growing startups is one sure way to hit their mark.

    [Featured image via Salesforce APAC YouTube]

  • Microsoft Announces Plans to Bring Progressive Web Apps to Windows 10

    Microsoft Announces Plans to Bring Progressive Web Apps to Windows 10

    It was over a year ago when Microsoft outlined its plans to bring Progressive Web Apps (PWA) to Windows 10. Now that plan is becoming a reality, with Microsoft giving users a preview of PWAs and breaking down its strategy to bring them to the Microsoft Store.

    Progressive Web Apps are web applications that are run and delivered similar to a regular app from the Microsoft Store. These apps are built on or optimized by web technologies like Cache API, Fetch networking, Push notifications, Service Worker, and Web App Manifest. This suite of tools will all be automatically enabled when EdgeHTML 17, the latest version of the Edge’s rendering engine, goes live sometime in the spring.

    Users can download PWAs from the Microsoft Store. It will run in its own sandboxed area as an AppX file, doing away with the need for an open browser. Since these apps do not require any platform-oriented code, developers can design apps that can run on various platforms.

    In a blog post, the Microsoft team revealed that they have been using the Bing Crawler to search out and review PWAs that they’re thinking of offering in the app store. There’s reportedly a shortlist of PWAs that have already been picked for initial testing.

    Microsoft is also welcoming developers to proactively send their Progressive Web Apps to them. But the applications would have to meet certain standards, though. The Redmond-based company has set several quality control measures for developers building PWAs. Some of these measures include sites mandated to be secure and should take into account automated testing for quality. Web App Manifests should have quality and Service Workers should be viewed as an enhancement. Lastly, the PWA has to comply with the policies of the Microsoft Store.

    Submitting their PWAs to the Microsoft Store gives developers control over how their app would appear, along with other benefits like access to user ratings and reviews and analytics on the number of installs, uninstalls, performance, crashes, and shares.

    [Featured image via Microsoft]

  • Nvidia Says Its New Patch is Immune to Recently Discovered Spectre Bug

    Nvidia Says Its New Patch is Immune to Recently Discovered Spectre Bug

    Last week, Nvidia ran into some problems with the recently revealed “Meltdown” and “Spectre” bugs. When the manufacturer announced that it would be releasing a new patch to address the memory-related vulnerabilities, some outlets misinterpreted the statement as an indirect admission that perhaps, even its GPU might be vulnerable.

    For those who might be wondering what Spectre and Meltdown are,  here’s a brief explanation:

    Just days after the explosive New Year celebration, the entire computing world received an even more explosive revelation—everyone’s been sitting on top of a security flaw that has existed for more than two decades.

    On January 3, Meltdown and Spectre, two security vulnerabilities present in every computer, tablet and even smartphones since 1995, were finally revealed to the world. Before you go ahead and unplugged all your computing devices, just take a deep breath and relax; everything is being taken care of. Patches are being deployed and the vulnerabilities should soon become a thing of the past.

    If you have to blame someone, blame it on our need to have our computers run faster. In 1995, manufacturers developed the idea of executing certain computer processes ahead of time, even before users inputted their choice. This process was termed “speculative execution.”  For example, if you frequently visit a particular website that requires login credentials, your computer would guess that you would want to enter your password and begin loading the necessary files. This, of course, boosts computing speed as your PC will be correct about your intentions most of the time. The problem starts when the user inputs a choice different from what the computer had predicted. The computer then has to throw away the useless data into the cache memory.

    This would not have been a problem back in those days when PCs were usually stand-alone. These days, however, everything is connected and, with this interconnectivity, researchers were actually able to prove that someone connected to the system could actually take a peak at the contents of those rejected data. While it may not necessarily contain sensitive information, there is that chance that it may indeed contain personal data like credit card numbers.

    In response to the security vulnerabilities, Nvidia decided to update the driver software of its GPUs. However, Nvidia’s move was misunderstood and some even took it as an admission that even its GPUs could be vulnerable as well.

    To address the misconceptions about its products, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang clarified the company’s position during the Q & A portion at a press conference on Wednesday. “Our GPUs are immune, they’re not affected by these security issues,” Huang asserts. “What we did is we released driver updates to patch the CPU security vulnerability.”

    As Huang explains it, the patches are basically similar in nature to the patches provided by other tech companies and not an indication that its hardware is particularly vulnerable. “We are patching the CPU vulnerability the same way that Amazon, the same way that SAP, the same way that Microsoft, etc is patching because we have software as well,” he said.

    Summing it up, Huang declared, “I am absolutely certain that our GPU is not affected.”

    Just what level of threat do those vulnerabilities expose regular users of the internet? According to UPROXX, the general public should not be too worried about it. For starters, those vulnerabilities are very hard to exploit. In addition, there is really no indication that there were security issues that resulted in any exploitation. When you come to think of it, it even took those experts more than two decades to realize that the flaws existed.

    Everything should be fine as long as you run the fixes being prepared by various tech companies.

    [Featured image via Nvidia]