Xpertfeed

Summary: The city with the highest-profile Linux desktop projects is turning back to Windows, but the fate of Linux isn't tied to the PC anymore. After a nearly decade-long project to move away from Windows onto Linux, Munich has all but decided on a dramatic u-turn. It's likely that, by 2021, the city council will start to replace PCs running LiMux (its custom version of Ubuntu)  with Windows 10 . Going back maybe 15 or 20 years, it was seriously debated as to when Linux would overtake Windows on the desktop. When Ubuntu was created in 2004, for example, it was with the   specific intention of replacing Windows   as the standard desktop operating system. Linux on the desktop has about a two percent market share today and is viewed by many as complicated and obscure. Meanwhile, Windows sails on serenely, currently running on 90 percent of PCs in use. There will likely always be a few Linux desktops around in business -- particularly for developers or data sc...

Summary: DXC Technology will be the name of the new $26 billion IT services company formed by the proposed merger of CSC and HPE's Enterprise Services business. Upon the closing of the proposed merger between Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) and the Enterprise Services business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), the new organisation will be renamed to DXC Technology before it begins its journey as a  $26 billion IT services giant. The completion of the merger is slated for April 3, 2017, which will see DXC Technology list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol DXC, subject to final approvals. "With a mission of leading clients on their digital transformation journeys, DXC Technology will be recognised globally as a force multiplier, enabling clients to seize the opportunities presented by today's rapidly changing technologies," Lawrie said in a statement on Wednesday.Current CSC chairman, president, and CEO Mike Lawrie will serve as DXC Tech...

Summary: The successful Series C finance round brings the bug bounty platform's funding to $74 million. HackerOne  has announced $40 million in Series C financing and plans to use the cash to expand the platform's hacking community. HackerOne, a bug bounty platform utilized by thousands of companies worldwide to find researchers able to responsibly disclose security flaws for cash rewards and credit, has over 100,000 hackers on its books. Due to rising popularity with businesses interested in hosting up a bug bounty program without starting from scratch, the vulnerability discovery 'outsourcing' system has proven to be a successful model for tackling today's constant cyberattacks and vulnerability exploitation by cyberattackers. The Series C funding round, led by Dragoneer Investment Group, also indicates the rising interest of investors. HackerOne says the company enjoyed " unprecedented business growth" in 2016, and as the average cost of a b...

Summary: The security release fixes three flaws in the content management system. WordPress has patched three security flaws including a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability and SQL injection problem which could lead to the creation of new vulnerabilities. The first bug, reported by David Herrera of Alley Interactive, is an information disclosure vulnerability which reveals the user interface for assigning taxonomy terms in the "Press This" function -- used to publish posts through browsers -- to users that do not have permission to see it.Last week, the content management system's (CMS) developers said  in a security advisory  that the new fixes resolve three important security issues, all of which impact WordPress versions 4.7.1 and earlier. The second issue was discovered in the WP_Query process, used to access variables and functions in the WordPress core, by researcher Mo Jangda. When passing data seemed "unsafe," the system became vulnerable ...

Summary:With a new policy after the US election, Google reveals the results of its actions to limit fake news sites. Google has released its 2016 Bad Ads report, to show how serious it is about combating deviants who abuse its massive ad network, from fraudulent advertisers to phony news sites. The company says it axed 1.7 billion bad ads in 2016, just over double the 780 million it took down in 2015 for violating its various policies.  In 2016 it also introduced important new policies to combat the rise of fake news. In the wake of Brexit and the US election, Facebook, Twitter, and Google were criticized for not doing enough to prevent fake news spreading on their platforms.  In November, Google introduced  a new AdSense policy  for publishers to prevent fake news sites from generating ad revenue on its platform. Since launching the policy, Google says it has permanently banned nearly 200 AdSense publishers for violating its new rules against  "mi...

Summary: Microsoft's latest acquisition, 3D data-optimization vendor Simplygon, is part of Redmond's strategy to make 3D part of future users' experiences. Microsoft is acquiring Simplygon , a Swedish 3D data-optimization vendor, for an undisclosed amount. The announcement, made by corporate vice president of Next Gen Experiences Kudo Tsunoda, on January 17, is part of Microsoft's " 3D for Everyone " strategy, of which the upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update is a key piece. Simplygon will help Microsoft simplify the process of capturing, creating, and sharing information in 3D, Tsunoda said. The Simplygon technology will complement the new Paint 3D application (codenamed "Beihai") and new online creator community, Remix3D.com. Simplygon was developed by Donya Labs AB in Sweden, a company developing "automatic 3D data-optimization solutions." Simplygon currently is a player in the 3D game optimization and augmented reality/virt...

Summary: Over a quarter of MongoDB databases left open to the internet have been ransacked by online extortionists. Tens of thousands of poorly configured MongoDB databases have been compromised over the past week, with attackers wiping data and demanding up to one bitcoin to return it. Victor Gevers, from Netherlands-based GDI Foundation, and Niall Merrigan, a Norway-based developer, have been tracking a surge in attacks on MongoDB installations in which a handful of groups are wiping vulnerable databases and replacing them with an empty database with names such as a 'WARNING', 'PWNED', and 'PLEASE_READ'. The attackers claim to hold a copy that can be purchased for between 0.2BTC and 1BTC, but there's no guarantee the data is actually available if a payment is made. According to Merrigan,  some 27,000  MongoDB servers have been compromised in the past day, up from  an estimated 2,000  on January 3 and  8,542 on January 5 . MongoDB is a popular...

Summary: Intel outlines its plans to be the brains of the autonomous vehicle, but it'll have to duel with Qualcomm and NXP among others. Intel, best known for the processors behind PCs, servers and data center gear, now wants to be the brains behind autonomous vehicles. The chip giant at CES 2017 launched a new brand, Intel GO, that's designed for autonomous driving and aim to link cloud computing, connectivity and the car. To back up its efforts, Intel is launching t wo development kits to connect GO with Atom and Xeon processor s. Intel said its GO effort will provide the first 5G-ready development platform. The company also launched its 5G modem at CES.  CNET's Stephen Shankland  has the deep dive and the strategy details. As for partnerships, Intel is teaming up with BMW and Mobileye to have 40 autonomous vehicles on the roads by the second half of the year. Intel announced a partnership with BMW and Mobileye in July. The Intel moves come as the company boug...

Summary: Rocky times at Cyanogen turn for the worse. The open source project and source code will remain available, but there will be no more nightly builds. Cyanogen late Friday  announced  all services and nightly builds will be discontinued no later than December 31.  The open source project and source code will remain available for personal development. The move, "part of the ongoing consolidation of Cyanogen," comes after it named a new CEO and laid off a huge portion of its staff. While it once wanted to offer a better version of Android, Cyanogen will now focus on building Android OS "mods" for OEMs. Owners of smartphones running Cyanogen OS, like the OnePlus One, will have to  switch  to the CyanogenMod ROM. As TechCrunch  points out , this isn't a commercial OS, rather managed by a community of developers. We have reached out to the Cyanogen folks to learn more about its future with the latest LineageOS.

Summary: Remote code execution bugs in Apport, an Ubuntu Linux default file handler, has opened a door to attacks and crashes. Donncha O'Cearbhaill, an Irish security researcher, found a  remote execution bug in Ubuntu . This security hole, which first appeared in Ubuntu 12.10, makes it possible for malicious code to be injected into your system when you open a booby-trapped file. This can be used to crash your system or run malware. It does not -- a small blessing -- enable attackers to become the root user. Apport in turn generates a crash file with the unusual ".crash" extension and a  magic byte  sequence.  Magic bytes are the unique sequences  meant to identify a file. For example, a PDF document without a PDF extension can still be identified as PDF by its hexadecimal magic byte sequence: "25 50 44 46."O'Cearbhaill found that Ubuntu will open any unknown file with  Apport  if it begins with "ProblemType: ". Apport is Ubuntu's ...