Google Chrome to Flag Untrusted Symantec Certificates as Unsafe

Today’s topics include Google urging webmasters to replace untrusted Symantec digital certificates; Tenable launching its Lumin cyber-exposure benchmarking platform; worldwide server market revenue up 25 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017; and Druva and Wipro joining forces for data management as a service in mobile devices.

Starting with the April 17 release of Google's Chrome 66 browser, all SSL/TLS certificates that Symantec issued prior to June 1, 2016, will be flagged by Chrome as unsafe, as well as those issued by Symantec-owned brands such as Verisign, Thawte and Equifax. Users attempting to navigate to these sites will receive a prominent error message warning them that their connection is not secure or private, and a button will be displayed offering to take them "Back to safety."

Google has already released an early version of Chrome 66—the so-called First Canary version—and will release the first beta of Chrome 66 on March 15. After that date, beta users with sites running the offending certificates will start experiencing failures.

Starting with Chrome 70, all websites with SSL/TLS certificates that Symantec issued after June 1, 2016, will be impacted in the same way. Google will release the First Canary of Chrome 70 on July 20.

Cyber-security vendor Tenable on March 8 announced Lumin, a cyber-exposure benchmarking service that helps organizations better understand their overall risk profile.

Lumin is part of the tenable.io software-as-a-service platform launched in January 2017, which provides security scanning and vulnerability management capabilities.

Renaud Deraison, CTO and co-founder of Tenable, said that Lumin imports data from multiple third-party sources outside of Tenable, including Qualys and ServiceNow, and takes all the scan results and merges them with threat data to see what vulnerabilities are actually being exploited. Lumin provides a ranking for detected vulnerabilities to prioritize and remediate the most impactful issues.

According to Gartner, big IT suppliers with hyper-scale data centers are buying more and more servers. Worldwide server revenue increased by 25.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017, while shipments grew 8.8 percent year over year.

Overall in 2017, worldwide server shipments grew 3.1 percent and server revenue increased 10.4 percent compared to 2016. Dell EMC ended the year in the No. 1 spot in server revenue with 19.4 percent market share, followed closely by Hewlett Packard Enterprise with 19.3 percent. Dell EMC grew 39.9 percent in the fourth quarter, while HPE grew 5.5 percent.

Dell EMC also maintained the No. 1 position in server shipments in the fourth quarter of 2017 with 18.2 percent market share. Despite a decline of 12.8 percent in server shipments in the fourth quarter, HPE was still second with 13.8 percent of the market.

As of March 7, global consultancy and software developer WiPro and edge device data management provider Druva are partnering to provide data management as a service for Wipro’s LiVE Workspace suite of enterprise administrative tools. Along with Druva’s longtime service for Windows devices, this deal brings the service to Apple devices.

LiVE Workspace provides enterprises with what it calls an “anywhere, anytime, any device” digital workplace. This enables companies to offer their employees a choice when deciding which tools empower them to be more productive.

Through this service, companies can more effectively enhance data protection and management while at the same time providing a better IT experience to employees.