Today’s topics include the launch of Salesforce’s Heroku Enterprise, the addition of another layer of security to Microsoft’s SQL Server 2016, Amazon’s effort to move services deeper into Android devices and Safebreach’s cyber-attack simulator helps enterprises find security risks.
Salesforce.com has launched a newly architected enterprise version of its Heroku application development platform. Customers use the platform to build their own customer- and partner-facing apps and deploy them in the Salesforce App Cloud.
The company introduced Heroku Enterprise last September at its DreamForce conference in San Francisco. Heroku Enterprise’s key new features—Private Spaces, Global Regions and Integrated Identity—involve upgraded application agility, accessibility, security and collaboration functionality.
In the run up to this year’s launch of the SQL Server 2016, Microsoft is touting the database server’s enhanced privacy enforcement capabilities. SQL Server 2016 represents a step up in terms of database security.
In addition to Always Encrypted technology from Microsoft Research, the upcoming release enhances data privacy through a new Dynamic Data Masking (DDM) feature that can be used to hide sensitive information from prying eyes. Dynamic Data Masking was incorporated into Azure SQL Database in November.
Amazon is reportedly negotiating with smartphone vendors to try to get its sales and services offerings more deeply integrated into Android phones so customers can do business with the company more easily.
The company’s efforts come after its Amazon Fire phone failed in the marketplace in 2014, when it wasn’t able to compete with handsets from strongly entrenched rivals in the smartphone market. According to BGR.com, part of the initiative also aims to supplant some Google services on devices to try to take more of a leadership role in low-level device systems.
One way to know if a company is vulnerable to cyber-attacks is to try to breach its network—safely. That’s the goal of SafeBreach, which announced the official launch and general availability of its security testing platform yesterday.
The SafeBreach platform runs what Bejerano referred to as the “hacker playbook,” that is, the offensive knowledge of attackers. The hacker playbook includes all manner of cyber-attack techniques, for example, attempting to exfiltrate credit card data, activating malware and trying brute-force password attacks.