Today’s topics include Google’s intention to start shaming websites that fail to use the more secure HTTPS internet protocol, How Dell and HPE are taking diametrically opposed approaches to rebuilding their businesses to stay competitive in the IT infrastructure market, Trick 3D’s launch of its Floorplan Revolution real estate VR service, and why internet and managed service providers in the UK fear that government surveillance will only weaken network security.
As a self-appointed watchdog of network security, Google will soon start publicly shaming websites that fail to use the HTTPS protocol for transmitting passwords and other sensitive data.
Google will mark their websites as “non-secure” so users know clearly that their personal data is not being protected adequately. Website owners have until Jan. 1, 2017, to implement HTTPS for transmitting sensitive data. Google’s new site labeling policy will go into effect after that date.
The move is part of an ongoing effort by the company to get website owners to start using HTTPS, long considered a much safer alternative to HTTP. Eventually, Google will start marking all HTTP sites as non-secure and not just when they fail to use HTTPS to handle sensitive data.
The diametrically opposed strategies that Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are taking to navigate their way through a rapidly changing tech industry were on full display the same day last week, giving executives for both the chance to make their cases.
Dell CEO Michael Dell and his HPE counterpart, Meg Whitman, not only argued why they made the moves they did, but also why they believe their respective strategies put their company in a better position to manage the industry’s shift to the cloud and the broad range of emerging technologies, including the fast-growing internet of things, the proliferation of mobile devices, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and software-defined everything.
At the CTIA Super Mobility 2016 conference in Las Vegas, vendor Trick 3D was showing off its Floorplan Revolution cloud-based real estate visualization services, which were launched in March after some eight years of development and refinement.
Part of the delay in bringing the product out was due to the real estate slowdown, particularly involving high-end properties, since the 2008 recession, Chad Eikhoff, the founder and creative director of the virtual studio company, told eWEEK.
Floorplan Revolution allows prospective buyers to virtually tour a property using a VR visualization based on the 2D floor plans envisioned by developers.
The VR images can be viewed using any device, including a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop or a desktop computer, or can be viewed in more detail using a VR headset and a custom app for the HTC Hive, Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard viewers.
While most internet and managed service providers see cyber-attacks on a weekly basis, the most common concern among these companies is that government surveillance will weaken network security and make providers a more inviting target for cyber-attackers, according to a report released by the UK Internet Services Providers Association.
The report, released Sept. 6, found that 54 percent of respondents were attacked every week. Currently, denial-of-service attacks and SQL injection attacks are the main types of cyber-threats internet and managed service providers face, with 91 percent of respondents suffering a denial-of-service attack, 64 percent an SQL injection attack and 36 percent a phishing attack.