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Today’s topics include LinkedIn’s effort to update its social network desktop experience, an analysis of the market conditions that forced telecommunications provider Avaya to declare bankruptcy, Google’s program that helps developers fix security flaws in their mobile Android Apps and a recent report finds that data breaches rose over 40 percent in 2016.
Using LinkedIn on a desktop browser is a very different experience than using the professional social network’s apps for iOS and Android. On a web browser, LinkedIn looks and behaves much like a typical web site on desktops, calling up a new page practically each time a user clicks on a link.
The mobile apps, on the other hand, provide fast, practically uninterrupted access to LinkedIn’s sharing, messaging and profile-optimization features. In the near future, the web-mobile divide at LinkedIn is set to disappear.
Over the next few weeks, LinkedIn is rolling out a new desktop site, the largest redesign in its history according to Jan. 19 blog post.
Telecommunications provider Avaya, spun out of AT&T in 2000 and which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Jan. 19, stands as yet another example of what can happen if a company doesn’t move quickly enough when a technology sea change engulfs it.
Kodak didn’t make the move to digital fast enough. DEC and Sun Microsystems saw Linux impacting their enterprise server and PC businesses, but were slow in adjusting. Avaya didn’t make the move to cloud, messaging and mobility in a timely manner.
Faced with rising debt costs, increasing market competition and declining revenue, the Avaya had no choice but to protect itself legally from its creditors. It was an outcome that analysts, competitors, creditors and investors had been expecting for more than a year.
The Google Play App Security Improvement program was designed to help developers protect their products against common threats.
Since last May alone, the tips and recommendations provided by the service helped some 90,000 developers identify and fix security issues in more than 250,000 Android applications, Android security program manager Rahul Mishra said in a blog update this week.
Google has also set up a new page that consolidates information on all 26 identified security issues in one page. The page contains links directing developers to the appropriate security resources for each issue and contact information for those who need additional support.
Reports of data breaches rose more than 40 percent in 2016, with 72 percent caused by hacking, skimming or phishing and the majority of records were stolen from the health care industry, according to a report released by the Identity Theft Resource Center on Jan. 20.
Using public breach reports and information provided by more than a dozen state agencies—along with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the ITRC identified more than 1,093 incidents, up from 780 in 2015.
The business sector encountered the greatest number of breaches, accounting for 45.2 percent in 2016, followed by the health care and medical sector at 34.5 percent.
While some of the increase may be due to ITRC’s more extensive sources of information, much of the rise in reports is likely due to organizations seeing a greater number of attacks, Adam Levin, founder of CyberScout, told eWEEK.