Today’s topics include how the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active failed water-resistance tests conducted by Consumer Reports, the encryption technology being added to the Salesforce Shield security platform, the upcoming launch of the Windows Server 2016 and InfoArmor’s discovery of a major health record breach.
Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Active smartphone is a ruggedized version of its popular Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphones, all built to be water-resistant. But Consumer Reports says that two S7 Active smartphones failed separate water-submersion tests, causing the phones to stop working.
Consumer Reports carried out the tests to check Samsung’s water-resistance claims that are frequently highlighted in the mobile device maker’s advertising. In a July 8 article, Consumer Reports described how it submerged a Galaxy S7 Active handset in the equivalent of 5 feet of water for 30 minutes.
The first phone was placed in a water tank that was pressurized to 2.12 pounds per square inch to simulate 5 feet of water, and a timer was set for 30 minutes, the story reported.
When the handset was removed from the tank, Consumer Reports testers found that water had damaged the screen and infiltrated the front and rear camera lenses.
Salesforce.com has updated the Salesforce Shield security platform with new capabilities that allow companies to use their own encryption key system to secure their data.
The new capabilities, described as “Bring Your Own Key,” are being tested as part of a pilot that involves customers and third-party key providers.
Salesforce Shield customers will have a variety of options for encrypting their data, including open-source crypto libraries, such as OpenSSL, as well as their existing Hardware Security Module infrastructure and third-party services, such as Amazon Web Services Key Management Service and AWS CloudHSM. A finished version is expected to be released later this year.
Microsoft announced on July 12 that it is planning to officially launch Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016. The server operating system and IT management software suite will be made generally available at Microsoft’s upcoming Ignite conference, scheduled to take place Sept. 26–30 in Atlanta.
In the meantime, Microsoft is urging administrators to evaluate Windows Server 2016 by downloading the final version of the OS, Technical Preview 5, which the company says contains all of the new features that distinguish it from its predecessors.
A group of attackers infiltrated American health care institutions and stole at least 600,000 patient records and attempted to sell more than 3 terabytes of associated data, according to a report set to be released later this week from security firm InfoArmor.
Andrew Komarov, chief intelligence officer at InfoArmor, told eWEEK that he informed the National Healthcare and Public Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center about the attacks in May.
InfoArmor was able to discover the attack through what Komarov referred to as, “deep e-crime monitoring” as well as profiling the threat actor involved in the attacks.