News

• Samsung smartphones, tablets running Knox get U.S. Defense Department approval

  Samsung said Friday that its smartphones and tablets running its Knox security and management software have been cleared for use on the U.S. Department of Defense network.

• 'Dual personality' could morph into Jekyll and Hyde for Samsung and BlackBerry

  BlackBerry and Samsung have separately launched security and management software with dual-personality features for their latest Z10 and Galaxy S4 smartphones, both designed to meet the demands of a growing BYOD marketplace.

• Know the key legal and security risks in a cloud-computing contract

  You're no longer in control of your data once you hand it over to a cloud storage provider, but you're legally still responsible for it. Knowing what's in your cloud-provider contract is critical, says tech attorney Milton Petersen.

• Skype instant messaging in China is censored, spied upon

  The Chinese version of Skype contains spyware that searches for blacklisted words and phrases, blocks instant messages that contain them, copies them to servers and captures the rest of IM chats that have been flagged in this way, according to researchers.

• RSA: Big data, analytics services will secure data centers

  RSA, the security division of EMC, kicks off its annual security conference on IT security today with a pitch to establish its new Big Data Security and risk-governance products as a foundation for security operations centers. And RSA says it'll send in its security professionals to help set them up, too.

• Samsung bolsters BYOD management with a Fort Knox approach

  Samsung hasannounced an improved version of its SAFE management and security system for popular Samsung-branded smartphones and tablets.

• Opinion: Big Data, big business, big government, bigger brother

  In his 1990 book "The New Realities," Peter Drucker noted: "Knowledge is information that changes something or somebody - either by becoming grounds for action, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable of different and more effective action." And that is what Big Data is delivering ... new knowledge, new insights and new actions, all of which will give us new problems to deal with.

• Source code to original Adobe Photoshop released

  The Computer History Museum announced this week that the source code to the original version of Adobe Photoshop would be made freely available.

• Ubuntu smartphones to ship in October, report says

  Smartphones running the open source Ubuntu operating system will start shipping in October, although it isn't clear if they will be available in the U.S., according to a report.

• BlackBerry's Super Bowl ad: It's already a loser

  Representatives of The-Company-Formerly-Known-as-Research-in-Motion have reached out to embrace the company's legions of followers on "social channels" in arms of love. They gently remind us that this Sunday, Feb. 3, "BlackBerry will be featured in Super Bowl XLVII [or 47 for the Roman Numerally challenged] for the first time ever."

• Cloud security vendor Crossbeam bought by private equity firm

  Crossbeam has been bought by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, opening up the door for the security company to expand its product line both in-house and via acquisitions.