Month: June 2016

Controlling sensitive data is a continuing challenge for enterprises. Hackers are responsible for more than their fair share of data leaks, but accidental disclosure by employees of things like social security numbers and banking details is also significant: folders get shared with too many people, e-mail addresses are fat-fingered to inadvertently include people outside the organization, and so on. The use of cloud-based apps like Salesforce, Google Apps, and DocuSign makes control of data even more complex, as even on-premises data can be inadvertently placed online. This isn't always done with the IT department's knowledge or oversight, as users turn to useful services to help them do their jobs without involving IT.

Mountain View-based startup Egnyte is hoping to offer a solution with its new Egnyte Protect service. It provides access control and will soon enable selective encryption and control over data residency and retention, spanning both local storage and common cloud services. Protect uses features of the files—things like "created by the finance department" or "contains a social security number"—to apply rules to them. For example, any files containing social security numbers can be blocked from public sharing, or any file with financial data must be encrypted.

Egnyte Protect is a software-as-a-service offering, using cloud-provided compute resources to continuously classify and analyze documents and file activity. Rules are a mix of IT-configured manual policies and automated rules from large-scale data analytics. These rules can be somewhat flexible; for example, sending an administrative alert only on the second attempt to share private data (so that accidental clicks don't necessarily cause an escalation and intervention). The rules are applied regardless of whether files reside on premises or in the cloud and are used both for local applications and online ones.

Yahoo's once-iconic San Francisco billboard, pictured here in 2011. (credit: Scott Schiller)

Verizon is submitting a $3 billion (£2 billion) bid to purchase Yahoo's core Internet business, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cites an anonymous source. Though at least one more round of bidding is expected, Verizon is reportedly the leading contender.

A Verizon spokesperson declined comment when contacted by Ars this morning.

Yahoo has been shopping itself around for months in an attempt to sell off just about everything except its valuable stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba. Yahoo is also looking to sell other assets including real estate and patents, but Verizon reportedly isn't interested in buying those.

(credit: Neilson Barnard / Getty Images)

Samsung may release two smartphones with bendable OLED screens in 2017, according to a new report. "People familiar with the matter" claim that one model is a flip phone that folds in half, not unlike Samsung's China-only SM-W2016, while another will feature a 5-inch display that "unfurls" into a tablet-sized 8-inch panel. The devices could appear as soon as February 2017, when Mobile World Congress takes place in Barcelona.

While the report may seem a little far fetched, this is not the first time that Samsung has been linked to flexible displays. Reports on "Project Valley"—the apparent codename for the devices—date back as far as early 2015, although those reports initially claimed Samsung was aiming for a 2016 release. Instead, Samsung released the well-received Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, with the latter featuring a curved AMOLED display.

Samsung did, however, showcase its foldable display technology at SID Display Week 2016, with Slashgear capturing the display in action. According to the site, when fully opened the 5.7-inch 1080p display is just 0.3mm thin, and can be rolled into a tube with a 10mm radius. The display shown didn't feature a touch layer, which would likely add to the overall thickness, as well as reduce its flexibility.

A provocative white hat hacker who has previously disclosed vulnerabilities in both California’s ObamaCare portal and FireEye's core security product has now revealed a serious flaw in the Council of Better Business Bureau’s (CBBB) Web-based complaints application, which is used by nearly a million people annually to file complaints against businesses.

The CBBB criticized the “unauthorized application vulnerability test” but said in a statement that they believe “the motivation was not malicious," and are "not pursuing the matter further."

The CBBB is the umbrella organization for the independent local BBBs, the not-for-profit consumer advocacy groups that operate in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The BBBs attempt to mediate disputes between consumers and businesses, and also accredit businesses based on how well the business meets the BBB’s “Standards of Trust.”