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Today’s topics include Panasonic releasing the Toughbook 20 two-in-one PC; 36 people indicted for participating in a cybercrime ring that stole $530 million; a LinkedIn resume tool going live in Microsoft Word; and Google paying out nearly $3 million last year to bug hunters.
Panasonic has revamped its Toughbook 20 rugged 2-in-1 portable computer with a faster Intel Core i5-7Y57 vPro processor and an included 256GB SSD storage drive in its standard configuration, offering enterprises another choice for workers who are on the go. The Toughbook 20, which starts at $3,099 and runs on Windows 10, can be used as a laptop or transformed into a tablet by detaching its 10.1-inch touch-screen component from its laptop base.
Enterprise users can also purchase a Windows 7 version of the Toughbook 20. Both models are built to withstand extreme environmental conditions, including shocks, vibrations, humidity, rain, dust, dirt, sand, temperature extremes and thermal shock, as well as direct drops onto impervious surfaces from up to four feet.
The machines weigh about 3.9 pounds and also include an integrated, waterproof stylus pen for writing on the touch-screen display, an 8-megapixel auto-focus rear camera, a 1080p webcam and a three-year warranty.
On Feb. 7, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a federal indictment charging 36 individuals with participating in a global cybercrime effort known as the Infraud Organization. Of the 36 individuals who were indicted, 13 have already been arrested.
“Today’s indictment and arrests mark one of the largest cyberfraud enterprise prosecutions ever undertaken by the Department of Justice,” stated Assistant Attorney General John Cronan. Those charged include U.S. citizens as well as individuals from Australia, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Pakistan France, Italy, Kosovo and Serbia.
According to the indictment, the Infraud Organization allegedly was responsible for $530 million in losses. Going a step further, the indictment claims that Infraud was intending further fraud that could have resulted in over $2.2 billion in losses.
After a trial release to members of the Office Insider early-access and feedback program, LinkedIn’s AI-enabled Resume Assistant is now broadly available to all Office 365 users. The tool, which will show up in the Review tab in Word 2016 for Windows, combines artificial intelligence with LinkedIn’s massive trove of career data to help jobseekers craft resumes and find job openings.
“Resume Assistant gathers insights from millions of LinkedIn profiles to inspire you with examples of how others in similar roles—or aspirational roles—describe their work experience, directly within Microsoft Word,” said Kylan Nieh, senior product manager at LinkedIn.
Resume Assistant also automatically surfaces relevant job opportunities from LinkedIn directly in the Word interface. Users can additionally directly access LinkedIn’s freelance hiring hub, ProFinder, for expert help in writing resumes, acing interviews and developing other career-enhancing skills.
As part of its Vulnerability Reward Program, Google last year paid $2.9 million to bug hunters who found security vulnerabilities in its products and services. This is slightly less than the more than $3 million the company paid out in bug bounties in 2016.
Since Google launched the program in 2010, it has paid a total of over $12 million for vulnerability discoveries.
The Vulnerability Reward Program is designed to bolster the security of Google’s growing product and service portfolio by rewarding third-party security researchers who discover and responsibly report bugs in Google-developed apps on Google Play, the Chrome Web Store and in iTunes. Also covered under the program are Google-owned web services, including YouTube.