Apple iCloud and Gmail hacker gets 18 months in jail

A US man is given a sentence of 18 months in jail for hacking into celebrity iCloud and Gmail accounts after investigators failed to find a link with the leak of celebrity nude photos online in 2014

Red Cross data breach shows security is still not a priority

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service has responded quickly to a breach of 550,000 donor details, but security commentators say the incident shows security is still not a priority for many organisations

Hundreds of IT contractors let go and projects put on hold as DWP denies rumours of overspend

Hundreds of digital and technology projects are under review at the Department for Work and Pensions - but department denies rumours of budget overspend

United Utilities protects field engineering deployment with AirWatch

United Utilities deploys mobile device management software AirWatch to secure Samsung devices running a SAP workforce management app

SDN trailblazer Big Switch Networks launches in UK

Having established a base of paying customers through a key partnership with Dell, SDN supplier Big Switch Networks is opening its first European offices and gunning for Cisco’s ACI business

Minds behind Entiq and Level 39 launch Plexal innovation centre

Founder of Entiq and Level 39 launches innovation hub at Here East space in the London Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Nintendo Switch is the spiritual successor to the Nvidia SHIELD

 Nintendo has revealed its new console, the Switch (which was codenamed the NX prior to its public debut). The thing that makes Switch different from any other console out there by a major game maker is its ability to quickly transition from home console to portable, thanks to a tablet format for the primary gaming hardware, and modular a modular ‘Joy-Con’ controller design. Is… Read More

Zwift merges indoor fitness with massive multi-player online gaming

 At its core, Zwift is indoor cycling software. But layered on top of its functionality is a community that in the two years the company has been operating has grown in both scale and shear strength. At an event at Rapha’s cycling in SF, I found myself surrounded by core users proudly flaunting their team names and meeting, often not for the first time. Even Barry Bonds showed up to… Read More

Six reasons to be hyped for the Nintendo Switch (and four reasons to worry)

 Yesterday saw the introduction — after many leaks and rumors — of the Nintendo Switch, the company’s next game console. It isn’t due to arrive until March of next year, which is infinitely frustrating because it looks amazing for several reasons, not all of them obvious. Here’s why I’m more excited about the Switch than for any Nintendo product in a long time. Read More

Pokémon Go’s first ever in-game event ups the candy count for Halloween

 Pokémon Go players will get the chance to participate in the game’s first ever in-game event this Halloween, starting Wednesday October 26 and running through November 1. The event will feature higher encounter rates for spooky Pokémon, including Drowzee, Zubat, Gastly, Gengar, Golbat, Haunter and Hypno, and trainers will also get more candy for catching, buddy training and… Read More

Xiaomi beefs up its mobile virtual reality push with Mi VR

 Xiaomi has added another mobile VR headset to its portfolio: announcing the Mi VR today — which it says is its first virtual reality headset with an inertial motion controller. Read More

Gaming features in Windows 10 Creator’s Update include native Beam streaming

 Game Broadcasting for Windows 10 is coming, which brings built-in game streaming to the platform at the OS level. The tech for this is built using Beam, the TechCrunch Battlefield company acquired by Microsoft earlier this year. The Game Broadcasting tools provided by Beam incorporate interaction options for spectators, including the ability to make suggestions. On stage at the Windows… Read More

Minecraft comes to Apple TV

 Minecraft, having already come to just about every other platform, is now on Apple TV, or will be soon at any rate. Well, that’s pretty much the news! Read More

John Lewis chooses three retail tech startups to receive 2016 JLab funding

Department store retailer John Lewis selects three retail tech startups to receive their share of the £200,000 JLab funding pot

BT reports solid growth despite weak pound

The collapse in the value of the pound following the EU referendum has not dented BT’s confidence, with strong growth reported across multiple business units

Government launches inquiry into Emergency Services Network

The Public Accounts Committee is to scrutinise the controversial Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme

Schneider Electric praised for positive response to ICS security flaw

Schneider Electric has patched a security flaw that highlights the vulnerability of industrial control systems to cyber attack

Google suspends US FTTP broadband roll-out

Google parent Alphabet calls a halt to its roll-out of FTTP broadband in the US as it embarks on a strategic rethink

World wide web inventor Tim Berners-Lee to join Oxford University

The University of Oxford has appointed Tim Berners-Lee as a professor at its computer science department

Information security set for steep trajectory, says (ISC)2

By helping to create a thriving, diverse and open information security community, (ISC)2 hopes to ensure a steep rise for the profession

Dyn reveals details of complex and sophisticated IoT botnet attack

DNS services provider Dyn, which was the victim of a large-scale DDoS attack perpetrated by an IoT botnet earlier in October, discusses details of its experience

Twitter cuts Vine and jobs as revenue growth slows

Twitter has announced it is to restructure with the aim of achieving profitability in 2017, but in the meantime it is axing its Vine video sharing service and around 350 jobs

Amazon shares fall on disappointing quarter - but AWS up 55%

Amazon reported disappointing quarterly profit but its AWS cloud business grew sales by 55% and is now 10% of the company's revenue

Interview: How Swedish bank prepared robot for customer services

SEB bank is currently integrating artificial intelligence into its customer services channels, following an internal trial of the technology

PlayStation VR is easily the winner in virtual reality right now

 Consumer virtual reality has a clear new leader today, and it’s the just-launched PlayStation VR. Unequivocally, this is the best VR experience currently available outside of the kinds of high-flying, super-secret test rigs that exist out there for army training or whatever that cost millions of dollars. That includes top-of-line hardware like HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, as well as… Read More

Six new Sun and Moon Pokémon evolutions revealed

 Pokémon Sun and Moon’s release for 3DS rapidly approaches, and the Pokémon Company is unveiling eight new Pokémon unique to the new games, including six evolutions of Sun/Moon characters and two Alola-region variants of existing pocket monsters. The new Pokémon include two evolutions of a new dragon/fighting type that looks like a good candidate for inclusion in my primary lineup of six. Read More

Rockstar teases Red Dead Redemption follow-up

 Rockstar is toying with the emotions of fans of its popular western adventure game Red Dead Redemption, with a couple of teaser images that are clearly leading up to a big announcement. Fans and industry observers suspect we could finally see the studio announce a sequel to the 2010 Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game. Red Dead Redemption was itself a follow-up to Red Dead Revolver, a… Read More

Razer acquires audiovisual icon THX as it explores growth beyond the games industry

 Razer, the company that develops hardware and services for gamers and the world of gaming, has made an acquisition to catapult it to more platforms and more people: The company has acquired THX, the legendary audio and video quality assurance company that was originally founded by George Lucas as part of Lucasfilm. Razer’s CEO Min-Liang Tan said in an interview that the terms of… Read More

Red Dead Redemption 2 confirmed for Fall 2017

 Rockstar games confirmed a sequel to Red Dead Redemption is on the way for release in Fall 2017, tweeting the date along with the promise of a trailer arriving this Thursday, October 20. The follow-up to Rockstar’s epic Western action-adventure game series has been teased through Rockstar’s account, leaving many to suspect a sequel was planned, but now we know for sure. The… Read More

Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition is a lovely piece of self-contained 80s nostalgia

 Nintendo’s got a gift for repurposing. In the 30+ years since it was first released, the NES and its beloved range of intellectual properties have been repackaged in just about every way imaginable – and heck, even that system’s most beloved protagonist was on-loan from a platformer about a giant ape with a princess-stealing problem. Mind, none of this is a criticism, really.… Read More

HP’s OMEN 17 is an epic gaming laptop that needs just a tweak or two

 HP Inc. isn’t a name that comes to mind when you think of “enthusiast PC gaming system,” but the more endearing folks at HP think that recent tweaks made to OMEN gaming brand can change brand perception in the eyes of PC gamers, like myself. Read More

Is VR a leap back in time for the games industry?

 When we look back through the annals of time, there, etched in the history books will be “2016: The year of VR.” And what a year it’s been. We’ve already seen the Samsung VR launch to great applause, but with the imminent release of the PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift devices, the sector is about to shift into overdrive. But VR is not exactly new — the concept has… Read More

Nintendo added $1.36 billion in market cap after Nintendo NX teaser

 In just a few minutes, Nintendo will unveil (update: meet the Nintendo Switch) the first official teaser for the Nintendo NX, the company’s next flagship console. While the console isn’t supposed to come out until March 2017, people are excited — including investors. A few minutes after Nintendo teased the NX preview on Twitter, Nintendo’s shares jumped. The company… Read More

Nintendo wants all third-party games on the Nintendo Switch

 Nintendo finally unveiled the successor to the Wii U and 3DS — the Nintendo Switch. Interestingly, Nintendo won’t just be showing off its own games before the release. In the press release, the company announced that it has partnered with most of the big video game companies. For once, Nintendo wants to partner with third-party developers in a big way. While many video game… Read More

The new Remix Android set top box adds 4K video

 Even with an abundant number of Android set top boxes floating around, the promise of the Remix Mini managed to capture Kickstarter’s imagination in a big way, pulling in $1.6 million in pledges when it closed in August of last year. The device’s success was due in no small part to pricing – the company was offering early birds a first-gen version of the system for $20, a… Read More

Osmo’s new Pizza Co. game uses augmented reality to teach kids about running a business

 With its latest title, educational game-maker Osmo is tackling a subject that’s close to CEO Pramod Sharma’s heart — entrepreneurship. Co-founded by Sharma and Jérôme Scholler (both former Googlers), Osmo makes iPad games that combine touchscreen gameplay with real-world objects and physical activities in front of the screen. Past games have covered topics like coding,… Read More

A short list of some games we want to see on the Nintendo Switch

 Nintendo showed off its new console, the Nintendo Switch, for the first time, in a video earlier today. It’s basically a tablet to which you connect two controllers when you’re carrying it around, and then you use a regular controller when the tablet is plugged into the TV. In other words, it’s a kind of hybrid console where you can play both while you’re on the move… Read More

Flytoget’s digital transformation accelerates express train service

Flytoget implements a development platform to enable it to respond quickly to the demands of digital-minded customers

Mobile internet will grow GDP and generate jobs in Asean countries

Mobile internet penetration in Southeast Asia will boost the region’s gross domestic product and increase employment, a report says

Robot Wars: Team Storm uses modern IT to breathe new life into legacy machines

Robot Wars’ Team Storm is applying the principles of DevOps, IoT and real-time data analytics in advancing the design of its machine, while setting out to inspire a new generation to get into robotics

Gain insights into customer behaviour

Predictive analytics can give marketing campaigns a head start, but business stakeholders may need convincing

Slow response to Privacy Shield EU-US data transfer programme

Only 40 US firms has been certified under the Privacy Shield transatlantic data transfer programme, but this is expected to gain momentum

Europe lags US in gigabit broadband deployments

Network test firm Viavi inaugurates its Global Gigabit Monitor, examining the pace of gigabit broadband roll-out around the world

Sage data breach underlines insider threat

Organisations need to take insider threats more seriously say security experts, as Sage warns that a data breach using an internal log-in may have compromised employee data at nearly 300 UK firms

Cloudian makes HyperStore object storage available from AWS

System available with storage tiers on-site and in the Amazon cloud monitored and billed from the AWS interface

Disaster Tech Lab brings emergency internet to refugee camps

Voluntary organisation Disaster Test Lab deploys ruggedised Cradlepoint technology to provide mobile connectivity to 18 refugee camps in Greece

Financial sector faces era of cyber mega heists

Banks and other financial institutions are threatened by a new breed of elite cyber criminals running professional operations that will use any means to achieve their goals, says Barclays security chief

Case study: Improving food safety and traceability

We look at how Transparency-One is using a Neo4j graph database to deliver traceability across the global food supply chain

Met Office moves weather observation site to Azure

The Met Office's Weather Observation Website (WOW) used to run on Google's cloud, but has switched to Microsoft's Azure cloud platform

Vodafone to end broadband landline rental charges

Vodafone becomes the first UK internet service provider to remove line rental charges for new and upgrading fibre-based broadband customers

UK security startup discovers one-stop-shop for cyber crime businesses

Setting up a cyber criminal business is easier than ever believed, according to UK information security startup Digital Shadows

Digital Greenwich joins forces with University of Surrey for 5G smart city tests

Collaboration will investigate “smarter” ways to cope with challenges related to transport, health, energy and the built environment

Gotcha! Norwegian prime minister caught playing Pokémon GO during parliamentary debate

 Pokémon GO fever may be receding in the U.S., but in Norway it’s still raging. The country’s prime minister, Erna Solberg, was caught red-handed playing the game in parliament. Read More

Security Think Tank: Making a game of phishing

What are the most effective types of security controls and end user training approaches to dealing with phishing?

SMEs are the Achilles heel for Asean security

Small to medium-sized enterprises in the Asean region will be gateways to large enterprises for cyber criminals unless they improve their security

Birmingham Uni beefs up network automation, virtualisation to support research

The University of Birmingham has deployed a Brocade switching infrastructure and network virtualisation to support the needs of its research teams

IoT security threat is real, says researcher

The security threat posed by IoT devices is not hype, says security researcher James Lyne

Amex Global Business Travel pools data lake to bolster ‘duty of care’

Amex Global Business Travel is investing in modern IT, including cloud analytics, to pivot its business towards serving the traveller in their whole journey

Time to move on with social engineering training, says Jenny Radcliffe

Organisations need to move from awareness of the risk of social engineering to empowering employees to understand and recognise the threat to protect themselves and the company, says Jenny Radcliffe

Dymaxia: Combining cloud, IoT and wearables to manage the anxiety of autism

Canadian startup Dymaxia explains how it's using cloud, IoT and wearable devices to help autistic people manage anxiety

Malaysia and Singapore face IT talent shortage

Organisations in Malaysia and Singapore face tough competition to attract the right skills to drive their IT strategies

Mirai IoT botnet code release raises fears of surge in DDoS attacks

Organisations with an online presence should prepare for terabit-class IoT botnet-based DDoS attacks that could knock almost any business offline or disable chunks of the internet, warn security experts

DDoS attacks consistent, relentless and costly, report shows

The latest global DDoS report from Neustar underlines the importance of investing in appropriate defences as the high volume of attacks looks set to increase

Microsoft calls for cross-industry collaboration to create ‘responsible and inclusive’ clouds

Software giant launches A Cloud For Global Good campaign in a bid to get the industry focused on creating off-premise environments that are accessible to all

Splunk .conf2016: Closing the tech gender gap requires a shift in culture

Cyber security experts assembled at the Splunk 2016 conference to discuss the gender gap in cyber security and what can be done to solve it

Dreamforce 2016: Salesforce stakes claim for baked in artificial intelligence

Salesforce inaugurates Dreamforce 2016 by restating a claim to bring artificial intelligence to bear on its customer relationship management cloud-delivered software

Mastercard rolls out selfie payments in UK

Financial services provider Mastercard announces its cardholders in the UK will be able to use a selfie as authentication to pay for goods

Best of VMworld Europe User Awards 2016: Shortlist announced

Find out who made the shortlist for this year's Best of VMworld Europe User Awards, which is set to take place on Wednesday 19 October 2016 at VMworld, Barcelona

More organisations than ever have DR plans, but don’t keep them up to date

The prevalence of disaster recovery plans increases year on year, but many fail to keep their plans up to date or test them, according to a survey sponsored by Databarracks

Look to over-the-top services to secure mobile, says specialist

Mobile network operators should look to 3G and 4G while enterprises should consider OTT services to provide the best security, says telecommunications industry veteran and pioneer Charles Brookson

Home IoT technology irrelevant to most home owners

Smart home technology, such as security systems and IoT-enabled thermostats, is overpriced and uninteresting to most home owners, says Beecham Research report

Demand rises for low-cost flash storage across Australia

Flash storage gains popularity in Australia, as smaller organisations are attracted by lower prices and higher capacity

Google’s new VR headset is a hipster Daydream

 Looking cool has never been Google’s strong suit. This is the engineer-led company that brought us Google Glass, after all. Yet some beanie-clad Mountain View designer seems to have had a vinyl-fueled revelation. Google is late to the game of non-cardboard virtual reality headsets. Oculus, Samsung, HTC, and others have popularized sci-fi looking VR masks. So to standout, Google needed… Read More

Play this killer self-driving car ethics game

 Should a self-driving car full of old folks crash to avoid puppies in the cross-walk? Is it OK to run over two criminals if you save one doctor? Whose lives are worth more, seven-year-olds or senior citizens? In, This new game called the “Moral Machine” from MIT’s researchers, a car’s breaks fail and you have to choose whether it crashes into a barrier, killing the… Read More

Lightseekers aims to evolve toys-to-life with rich stories and many ways to play

Skylanders, Amiibo, Disney Infinity – the toys-to-life category got big, fast, but most of the action in the space following Skylanders tended to be mostly derivative, without really pushing the category forward when it comes to the breadth of available technologies. Lightseekers, a new cross-platform action RPG game debuting on Kickstarter today that incorporates physical toys created… Read More

Computer Weekly @ 50 startup interview: Pilgrim Beart, founder, DevicePilot

We speak to DevicePilot's founder, Pilgrim Beart, about sing the cloud to monitor and secure mobile devices

Security Think Tank: Phishing awareness a key element of a security positive culture

What are the most effective types of security controls and user training approaches for dealing with phishing?

Neutron’s role evolves in OpenStack networks

We examine the progress of Neutron, OpenStack’s cloud networking module

TalkTalk overhauls broadband packages to challenge rivals

Internet service provider TalkTalk throws down the gauntlet to its rivals by making a number of changes to its packages that it claims will put customers' interests first

Dutch government uses Microsoft Dynamics to improve recruitment

Government recruitment and career management of senior civil servants in the Netherlands has been improved through a Microsoft Dynamics implementation

Digital apprentice turns social media into power security tool

Social security is not only a source of info for attackers, but a powerful way to raise awareness of security, as a young cyber security worker is demonstrating

Government provides free digital skills training to unskilled adults

The UK government announces plans to offer free skills training to adults in the UK who are lacking relevant digital skills qualifications

Telegram levels up its bot platform with competitive games that live inside chats

 Messaging platform Telegram is powering up on the chatbot front, with the launch of what it dubs a “bot-powered gaming platform” — in a bid to try to drive more engagement via addictive new features. Read More

NGOs challenge UK and US mass surveillance in human rights court

Privacy International, Liberty and the American Civil Liberties Union are among 10 human rights groups backing a landmark challenge to mass surveillance in the European Court of Human Rights

Computer Weekly @ 50 startup interview: Jamie Avi-Dan, CEO, ShareOptic

We speak to ShareOptic co-founder, Jamie Avi-Dan about his company is aiming to make cloud security affordable

Computer Weekly @ 50 startup interview: Christine Hawkins, CEO, Info-CTRL

We speak to Christine Hawkins, CEO, Info-CTRL, on how the product consolidates a set of two-dimensional spreadsheets into a three-dimensional database

Computer Weekly @ 50 startup interview: Paul Green, creative director, Iotic Labs

We speak to Paul Green, creative director, Iotic Labs, about why the company has created an internet-like environment for things

Computer Weekly @ 50: The future of us – how the next 50 years of tech will reshape the world

In this panel debate filmed at our 50th anniversary we contemplate how IT could evolve over the next 50 years

Computer Weekly @ 50 startup interview: Chris Dye, VP marketing, Glasswall Solutions

Chris Dye, VP of marketing explains how Glasswall helps organisations ensure electronic file and document integrity, security and assurance

Computer Weekly @ 50 startup interview: Callum Murray, MD, Amiqus

We discuss with Callum Murray, managing director of Amiqus, how the company uses machine learning and open data to build tools

Computer Weekly @ 50 startup interview: Ky Nichol, CEO, Cutover

We speak to the CEO and co-founder of Cutover about what makes his company unique

Manchester tech firms clamour for faster broadband connections

Tech businesses in Manchester are crying out for better broadband connections, according to a report commissioned by digital connectivity analysts WiredScore

Google to open UK datacentre region as enterprise cloud push gathers pace

Internet giant outlines next phase of enterprise cloud development, including rolling out machine learning across its portfolio and building out its global datacentre presence

Brexit has thrown ICO plans into flux, admits information commissioner

The ICO is working to ensure that the UK's post-Brexit data protection law is progressive, stands up to scrutiny and provides stability, says information commissioner Elizabeth Denham

Singapore’s merged IT and media agency is up and running

Government organisation will drive digital and media technology in business, government and society

Business rate increases will hurt UK broadband sector, says industry

Stakeholders have criticised the Valuation Office Agency for huge rises in business rates on fibre cables that may affect the cost of broadband services

CISOs need to be more business-focused, says Publicis CISO

Information security leadership is about politics, getting a place at the top table and showing what security can do for the business, according to Publicis CISO Thom Langford

Amazon shows its first games integrated with Twitch

 Amazon Game Studios this week showed off the first games that will be integrated with live-streaming site Twitch, which Amazon acquired for over $1 billion in 2014.  The new games will run on Lumberyard, the game engine powered by Amazon Web Services, that debuted earlier this year. These integrations will allow gamers to stream their broadcasts in real-time, overlaid with live stats,… Read More

PewDiePie’s new game “Tuber Simulator” hits the top of the App Store, crashes

 What happens when the world’s biggest YouTube star Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg tells his 48 million YouTube subscribers to download and play his new mobile game? The game promptly shoots up to the top of the App Store, and the servers crash under the load. That’s what happened, at least, following the iOS and Android launch of “PewDiePie’s Tuber… Read More

Nintendo shows off some highly nerdy features of the NES Mini

 Nintendo has further taken the wraps off the must-have gaming gadget of the holidays — which is to say, the one we’re all buying ourselves as soon as it’s available. An aggressively retro-themed video released today visually demonstrates three of the the NES Mini’s features. Brace yourself, it’s about to get real nerdy in here. Read More

Twitch appears to be getting its own version of Amazon Prime, called “Twitch Prime”

 It appears that Twitch-integrated games are not the only thing Amazon has been working on with the live-streaming site it owns. A small number of Twitch users are now reporting seeing a new section called “Twitch Prime” pop up in their profiles. According to a banner ad spotted by one user, Twitch Prime will include perks like “free loot every month,” as well as… Read More

Twitch announces Twitch Prime, Loyalty Badges and video uploads

 Twitch, the video game live-streaming service acquired by Amazon for nearly a billion dollars back in 2014, kicked off its annual TwitchCon conference this afternoon with a keynote. With keynotes generally come a bit of news… and sure enough, here’s what’s new: Twitch Prime: As we scooped right before the Keynote, Twitch officially confirmed Twitch Prime. Included for free… Read More