Fahmida Y. Rashid

The man versus machine “Jeopardy” battle between IBM supercomputer Watson and two former “Jeopardy” champions may be over, but as far as IBM is concerned, there is more work left to be done. While Watson handily defeated its human opponents during the two-game tournament that aired between Feb. 14 and Feb. 16, the real story […]

The ability to totally erase data from storage devices is a critical component of secure data management, regardless of whether the organization is just throwing away an old system or repurposing it for someone else’s use. Recent research indicates, however, that sanitizing solid-state drives is not easy. Three researchers from the Department of Computer Science […]

Plextor is introducing a new line of solid state storage drives that promises speed and performance. The M2 will be available in three capacities, including the 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. At 2.5 inches, The M2 is the same as its M1 series, the company’s first SSD line launched almost exactly a year ago. The M1 […]

Another round of anti-government protests, another wave of Internet crackdowns. This time, the crackdown appears to be happening in Bahrain. As demonstrations enter Day 4 in the small island nation of Bahrain, it appears the government is severely restricting Internet access within the country, Arbor Networks told eWEEK. Internet traffic data showed Bahrain traffic was […]

Researchers from University of Massachusetts Amherst and Texas A&M University have succeeded in writing information to flash memory under low-voltage conditions, paving the way for a new generation of low-power gadgets that can store data. They presented the paper Feb. 16 at the USENIX File and Storage Technologies Conference in San Jose, Calif. Flash memory […]

The Secretary of State recently called Internet freedom a foreign policy priority for the United States. Now a law professor at Columbia University has very clear plans on how to make it possible to have privacy and security online. It all begins with the Freedom Box, a personal server running free software that would make […]

Despite the constantly changing security landscape with evolving threats and new tactics, there are several key victories in the fight against cyber-crime, experts said. There is big money in the Internet, said Adam Palmer, Norton lead cyber-security advisor at Symantec, and that applies to both businesses and criminals. It’s important for the industry to work […]

The humans redeemed themselves in the second game of the man vs. machine “Jeopardy” tournament, after the previous game’s debacle, but it wasn’t enough. The best “Jeopardy” player is now a computer named Watson. Watson didn’t dominate the Feb. 16 game as thoroughly as it had on the previous night, with Ken Jennings and Brad […]

CA Technologies added new security capabilities to its cloud-authentication service that allows customers to have more control over how users access corporate applications. CA added tagless identification and module authentication capabilities to its CA Advanced Authentication Cloud Service and deepened the integration with CA SiteMinder, the company said Feb. 16. SiteMinder is a centralized Web […]

Thieves robbed a van containing health records for more than 1.7 million patients, staff, vendors and contractors of the North Bronx Healthcare Network in New York City. The computer backup tapes were stolen Dec. 23, but the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation began notifying victims Feb. 9, according to a statement issued Feb. […]

SolarWinds announced the Switch Port Mapper on Feb. 16 for IT professionals to obtain detailed connected device information for each port. With the Switch Port Mapper, IT teams can also identify port speed and any erroneous port connections, Josh Stephens, SolarWinds vice president of technology told eWEEK. IT teams spend a significant amount of time […]

Although Watson routed the humans in the first “Jeopardy” match, its Final Jeopardy question left everyone scratching their heads. The Final Jeopardy category was “U.S. Cities.” Watson said, “What is Toronto?” with multiple question marks denoting its lack of confidence. The clue was: “Its largest airport is named for a World War II hero, its […]