This week in Tech, we tested out a curved smartphone, took a look at
tech stocks and more. Here's what you need to know about the week in
Tech:
1) Google agrees to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.9 billion
Google's efforts to break into the hardware market will go forward without Motorola products. The company sold Motorola to Lenovo this week for $2.9 billion.
Google will keep most of its Motorola patents and will license other patents to Lenovo. Lenovo will get the Motorola brand as well as its current and future products.
RBC analyst Mark Mahaney told USA TODAY's Alistair Barr this sale is a good move for Google: "This was an underperforming asset and was always a stretch for them. They probably never should have gone into the handset business."
2) Review: LG G Flex: The straight truth about a curvy smartphone
The curved smartphones introduced at this year's CES are finally here. USA TODAY's Ed Baig got a preview of LG's new G Flex smartphone this week. Here are a few things he had to say about the phone:
Pro: The Flex's curved display is a "unique and very large design" that cuts down on glare. The phone has "a decent 13-megapixel camera" and a "solid battery."
Con: LG says the phone has a "self-healing back" that automatically fixes scratches and nicks, but Baig said this claim didn't hold up in tests. He said he "had a [hard] time determining whether the experience was somehow more immersive — or superior — compared with your typical large display."
Should you buy it? Baig said the Flex has an "aesthetically pleasing approach to smartphone design," but he's "not rushing out to buy it."
3) The week in Tech stocks: Facebook beats estimates, Yahoo stumbles
Tech companies set Wall Street abuzz this week when they released fourth-quarter earnings reports, with wildly different results across the board.
Facebook reported a net income of $780 million on $2.6 billion in revenue, beating Wall Street's estimates. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a conference call that more than half the company's revenue came from mobile.
Yahoo didn't fare as well in its earnings report. The recently revamped company forecast reported earnings of $290 million to $330 million for the first quarter of 2014, and it reported that Alibaba Group, a Chinese e-commerce site owned by Yahoo, had slow growth in the same quarter. CEO Marissa Mayer remains optimistic and said she plans to focus more on advertising in 2014.
4) Facebook unveils Paper app
Facebook is branching out further into the media world with a news reader. The app, called Paper, gives a user personalized news and stories from major news outlets shared by a user's Facebook friends.
The app integrates a user's Facebook News Feed and allows for longer friend posts in a magazine-style layout. The app lets a user scroll through stories horizontally and vertically and comes with full-screen photo slideshows.
5) Fate of Apple's iPhone 5c in question
Is Apple's "budget iPhone" on its way out? All signs point to yes. The company reported low iPhone 5c sales in a quarterly report Monday.
Experts told USA TODAY's Alistair Barr that Apple's wallet-friendly phone was a good concept but failed to deliver. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said demand "has not been good," and he thinks Apple will reintroduce the phone on the market with a much lower price.
Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt was less optimistic: "It wouldn't shock me if it's replaced. It was an interesting concept but priced incorrectly. A more fashion-conscious phone with colors and plastic should have been lower priced.
"This is not like stealing credit card information or something
with direct financial value," Sverdlove said. "What does an attacker
gain from a large number of email accounts? Such information is valuable
when viewed as part of a bigger campaign."
Sverdlove said that control of an email account could potentially
be used as a way to conduct a phishing attack and to spread malware. The
bottom line for him is that the stolen email addresses are not the
ultimate target—something bigger is looming on the horizon. That said,
thanks to Yahoo's quick action, the ultimate target may never be
revealed publicly.
Password Security
One particular area to highlight in the Yahoo Mail breach is that it
wasn't Yahoo itself that gave up the username and password information.
"The mantra the
security industry is always pushing on end users of 'Never use the same
password across multiple sites' has shown here to be good advice," Erik
Cabetas, managing partner at Include Security, told eWEEK.
"From what Yahoo has released so far, simply having a different password
from whatever site was breached would have protected users from this."
The message of password reuse security is one that Hord Tipton,
executive director of the International Information System Security
Certification Consortium (ISC2), echoes.
"Diversifying your passwords for each account is essential to protecting
all of your online information," Tipton said. "Once a password has been
stolen, hackers often attempt to access multiple accounts, compounding
the potential damage."
Tipton also suggests following best practices for password use overall,
including having a password of at least eight characters, using a
combination of alphanumeric characters and changing each password every
60 to 90 days. It is also imperative that users do not reuse old
passwords or use the same password for multiple accounts.
The use of two-factor authentication is also a good best practice,
according to Cabetas, and such practice would have limited user risk in
the Yahoo Mail breach. Yahoo has offered two-factor authentication since
December 2011, and any users with two-factor authentication enforced
wouldn't have been compromised by this attack campaign.
Roger Thompson, chief emerging threat researcher at ICSA Labs, noted
that the Yahoo Mail attack is another example of no matter how complex
and unique your passwords are, they can no longer protect you.
"Password breaches are, regrettably, part of the fabric of the Internet
now. In other words, they are a given," Thompson said. "Until
organizations move from passwords to stronger forms of authentication
like universal identity solutions, everyone should adopt a
one-password-per-site policy, leveraging tools for password management."
Overall, though breaches are never a positive event, Yahoo's actions and response are being seen in a positive light.
"While no timetable or scope of the attack has yet to disclosed by
Yahoo, it does appear that Yahoo's team did a great job of detecting the
attack and taking appropriate action with the remediation and public
notification," Cabetas said. "From what we know so far, it looks like
they've done a stellar job at protecting their users in this case." -
See more at:
http://www.eweek.com/security/yahoo-email-is-breached-lessons-learned.html/#sthash.ZRuPRqrH.dpuf
"This is not like stealing credit card information or something
with direct financial value," Sverdlove said. "What does an attacker
gain from a large number of email accounts? Such information is valuable
when viewed as part of a bigger campaign."
Sverdlove said that control of an email account could potentially
be used as a way to conduct a phishing attack and to spread malware. The
bottom line for him is that the stolen email addresses are not the
ultimate target—something bigger is looming on the horizon. That said,
thanks to Yahoo's quick action, the ultimate target may never be
revealed publicly.
Password Security
One particular area to highlight in the Yahoo Mail breach is that it
wasn't Yahoo itself that gave up the username and password information.
"The mantra the
security industry is always pushing on end users of 'Never use the same
password across multiple sites' has shown here to be good advice," Erik
Cabetas, managing partner at Include Security, told eWEEK.
"From what Yahoo has released so far, simply having a different password
from whatever site was breached would have protected users from this."
The message of password reuse security is one that Hord Tipton,
executive director of the International Information System Security
Certification Consortium (ISC2), echoes.
"Diversifying your passwords for each account is essential to protecting
all of your online information," Tipton said. "Once a password has been
stolen, hackers often attempt to access multiple accounts, compounding
the potential damage."
Tipton also suggests following best practices for password use overall,
including having a password of at least eight characters, using a
combination of alphanumeric characters and changing each password every
60 to 90 days. It is also imperative that users do not reuse old
passwords or use the same password for multiple accounts.
The use of two-factor authentication is also a good best practice,
according to Cabetas, and such practice would have limited user risk in
the Yahoo Mail breach. Yahoo has offered two-factor authentication since
December 2011, and any users with two-factor authentication enforced
wouldn't have been compromised by this attack campaign.
Roger Thompson, chief emerging threat researcher at ICSA Labs, noted
that the Yahoo Mail attack is another example of no matter how complex
and unique your passwords are, they can no longer protect you.
"Password breaches are, regrettably, part of the fabric of the Internet
now. In other words, they are a given," Thompson said. "Until
organizations move from passwords to stronger forms of authentication
like universal identity solutions, everyone should adopt a
one-password-per-site policy, leveraging tools for password management."
Overall, though breaches are never a positive event, Yahoo's actions and response are being seen in a positive light.
"While no timetable or scope of the attack has yet to disclosed by
Yahoo, it does appear that Yahoo's team did a great job of detecting the
attack and taking appropriate action with the remediation and public
notification," Cabetas said. "From what we know so far, it looks like
they've done a stellar job at protecting their users in this case." -
See more at:
http://www.eweek.com/security/yahoo-email-is-breached-lessons-learned.html/#sthash.ZRuPRqrH.dpuf
"This is not like stealing credit card information or something
with direct financial value," Sverdlove said. "What does an attacker
gain from a large number of email accounts? Such information is valuable
when viewed as part of a bigger campaign."
Sverdlove said that control of an email account could potentially
be used as a way to conduct a phishing attack and to spread malware. The
bottom line for him is that the stolen email addresses are not the
ultimate target—something bigger is looming on the horizon. That said,
thanks to Yahoo's quick action, the ultimate target may never be
revealed publicly.
Password Security
One particular area to highlight in the Yahoo Mail breach is that it
wasn't Yahoo itself that gave up the username and password information.
"The mantra the
security industry is always pushing on end users of 'Never use the same
password across multiple sites' has shown here to be good advice," Erik
Cabetas, managing partner at Include Security, told eWEEK.
"From what Yahoo has released so far, simply having a different password
from whatever site was breached would have protected users from this."
The message of password reuse security is one that Hord Tipton,
executive director of the International Information System Security
Certification Consortium (ISC2), echoes.
"Diversifying your passwords for each account is essential to protecting
all of your online information," Tipton said. "Once a password has been
stolen, hackers often attempt to access multiple accounts, compounding
the potential damage."
Tipton also suggests following best practices for password use overall,
including having a password of at least eight characters, using a
combination of alphanumeric characters and changing each password every
60 to 90 days. It is also imperative that users do not reuse old
passwords or use the same password for multiple accounts.
The use of two-factor authentication is also a good best practice,
according to Cabetas, and such practice would have limited user risk in
the Yahoo Mail breach. Yahoo has offered two-factor authentication since
December 2011, and any users with two-factor authentication enforced
wouldn't have been compromised by this attack campaign.
Roger Thompson, chief emerging threat researcher at ICSA Labs, noted
that the Yahoo Mail attack is another example of no matter how complex
and unique your passwords are, they can no longer protect you.
"Password breaches are, regrettably, part of the fabric of the Internet
now. In other words, they are a given," Thompson said. "Until
organizations move from passwords to stronger forms of authentication
like universal identity solutions, everyone should adopt a
one-password-per-site policy, leveraging tools for password management."
Overall, though breaches are never a positive event, Yahoo's actions and response are being seen in a positive light.
"While no timetable or scope of the attack has yet to disclosed by
Yahoo, it does appear that Yahoo's team did a great job of detecting the
attack and taking appropriate action with the remediation and public
notification," Cabetas said. "From what we know so far, it looks like
they've done a stellar job at protecting their users in this case." -
See more at:
http://www.eweek.com/security/yahoo-email-is-breached-lessons-learned.html/#sthash.ZRuPRqrH.dpuf
1) Google agrees to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.9 billion
Google's efforts to break into the hardware market will go forward without Motorola products. The company sold Motorola to Lenovo this week for $2.9 billion.
Google will keep most of its Motorola patents and will license other patents to Lenovo. Lenovo will get the Motorola brand as well as its current and future products.
RBC analyst Mark Mahaney told USA TODAY's Alistair Barr this sale is a good move for Google: "This was an underperforming asset and was always a stretch for them. They probably never should have gone into the handset business."
2) Review: LG G Flex: The straight truth about a curvy smartphone
The curved smartphones introduced at this year's CES are finally here. USA TODAY's Ed Baig got a preview of LG's new G Flex smartphone this week. Here are a few things he had to say about the phone:
Pro: The Flex's curved display is a "unique and very large design" that cuts down on glare. The phone has "a decent 13-megapixel camera" and a "solid battery."
Con: LG says the phone has a "self-healing back" that automatically fixes scratches and nicks, but Baig said this claim didn't hold up in tests. He said he "had a [hard] time determining whether the experience was somehow more immersive — or superior — compared with your typical large display."
Should you buy it? Baig said the Flex has an "aesthetically pleasing approach to smartphone design," but he's "not rushing out to buy it."
3) The week in Tech stocks: Facebook beats estimates, Yahoo stumbles
Tech companies set Wall Street abuzz this week when they released fourth-quarter earnings reports, with wildly different results across the board.
Facebook reported a net income of $780 million on $2.6 billion in revenue, beating Wall Street's estimates. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a conference call that more than half the company's revenue came from mobile.
Yahoo didn't fare as well in its earnings report. The recently revamped company forecast reported earnings of $290 million to $330 million for the first quarter of 2014, and it reported that Alibaba Group, a Chinese e-commerce site owned by Yahoo, had slow growth in the same quarter. CEO Marissa Mayer remains optimistic and said she plans to focus more on advertising in 2014.
4) Facebook unveils Paper app
Facebook is branching out further into the media world with a news reader. The app, called Paper, gives a user personalized news and stories from major news outlets shared by a user's Facebook friends.
The app integrates a user's Facebook News Feed and allows for longer friend posts in a magazine-style layout. The app lets a user scroll through stories horizontally and vertically and comes with full-screen photo slideshows.
5) Fate of Apple's iPhone 5c in question
Is Apple's "budget iPhone" on its way out? All signs point to yes. The company reported low iPhone 5c sales in a quarterly report Monday.
Experts told USA TODAY's Alistair Barr that Apple's wallet-friendly phone was a good concept but failed to deliver. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said demand "has not been good," and he thinks Apple will reintroduce the phone on the market with a much lower price.
Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt was less optimistic: "It wouldn't shock me if it's replaced. It was an interesting concept but priced incorrectly. A more fashion-conscious phone with colors and plastic should have been lower priced.
Yahoo Mail users were targeted by attackers, although Yahoo claims its systems were not at fault.
Yahoo announced late on Jan. 30 that its widely used consumer mail service was attacked recently. "Recently, we identified a coordinated effort to gain unauthorized access to Yahoo Mail accounts," Jay Rossiter, senior vice president of Platforms and Personalization Products at Yahoo, wrote in a Tumblr blog post. "Upon discovery, we took immediate action to protect our users, prompting them to reset passwords on impacted accounts." According to Rossiter, the Yahoo Mail usernames and passwords were not stolen directly from Yahoo; rather, they were obtained via a compromise of a third-party database. The Yahoo Mail attack appears to be another example of the types of larger multistage campaigns that are becoming more common, Harry Sverdlove, CTO at Bit9, told eWEEK. The big question for Sverdlove is why the attackers went after Yahoo Mail.
Responding to—and Recovering from—Sophisticated Attacks
Yahoo Mail users were targeted by attackers, although Yahoo claims its systems were not at fault.
Yahoo announced late on Jan. 30 that its widely used consumer mail service was attacked recently. "Recently, we identified a coordinated effort to gain unauthorized access to Yahoo Mail accounts," Jay Rossiter, senior vice president of Platforms and Personalization Products at Yahoo, wrote in a Tumblr blog post. "Upon discovery, we took immediate action to protect our users, prompting them to reset passwords on impacted accounts." According to Rossiter, the Yahoo Mail usernames and passwords were not stolen directly from Yahoo; rather, they were obtained via a compromise of a third-party database. The Yahoo Mail attack appears to be another example of the types of larger multistage campaigns that are becoming more common, Harry Sverdlove, CTO at Bit9, told eWEEK. The big question for Sverdlove is why the attackers went after Yahoo Mail.
Responding to—and Recovering from—Sophisticated Attacks
Yahoo Mail users were targeted by attackers, although Yahoo claims its systems were not at fault.
Yahoo announced late on Jan. 30 that its widely used consumer mail service was attacked recently. "Recently, we identified a coordinated effort to gain unauthorized access to Yahoo Mail accounts," Jay Rossiter, senior vice president of Platforms and Personalization Products at Yahoo, wrote in a Tumblr blog post. "Upon discovery, we took immediate action to protect our users, prompting them to reset passwords on impacted accounts." According to Rossiter, the Yahoo Mail usernames and passwords were not stolen directly from Yahoo; rather, they were obtained via a compromise of a third-party database. The Yahoo Mail attack appears to be another example of the types of larger multistage campaigns that are becoming more common, Harry Sverdlove, CTO at Bit9, told eWEEK. The big question for Sverdlove is why the attackers went after Yahoo Mail.
Responding to—and Recovering from—Sophisticated Attacks
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