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Google announced it will now offer Microsoft License Mobility, Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition and a free version of the Chrome Remote Desktop application on its Google Compute Engine infrastructure-as-a-service platform.
The enhancements are designed to let businesses move their Windows applications from on-premise installations to the cloud more easily, Google Cloud Platform Product Manager Martin Buhr said in a blog post.
Blackphone will update the PrivatOS operating system for its security-focused smartphone early in 2015. The update include separate containers or “spaces” on the mobile handsets so that users can keep their work and personal apps separate on the devices.
The new “Spaces” feature will let users create separate self-contained areas for apps, data and accounts on the same device, according to a Dec. 9 announcement by SPG Technologies, maker of Blackphone.
New self-replicating ransomeware studied by SophosLabs researchers can spread by the usual means, such as by opening an infected email or by going to a malware-infected Website, but is capable of rapidly infecting data files across corporate networks and is difficult to eradicate once it becomes entrenched on desktops or servers.
Once it is established the malware will lock up computers and demand users to pay a ransom to unlock the data files. Fortunately, this malware can be eliminated and data files restored if by carefully backing up hard drives up.
One way to tell whether remote backup files are also infected is to look at the file names of those backups to see if they have an EXE file extension. If they do, then look for an older backup.
The Federal Communications Commission is asking the big four wireless carriers in the United States to turn on anti-theft features in their smartphones by the end of March in 2015 to try to reduce the incidence of smartphone thefts by making the devices useless to thieves if they are stolen.
Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the FCC, made the request last week in letters that he sent to leaders of Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, as well as to U.S. Cellular, according to a Dec. 5 report by The Washington Post.