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Today’s topics include PayPal unit TIO Networks disclosing a breach of 1.6 million accounts; Google’s Safe Browsing tool warning users of secret data collection; Intel and AMD chips driving enterprise server growth; and Microsoft’s release of its Dynamics NAV 2018 ERP Suite.
PayPal Holdings revealed on Dec. 1 that its TIO Networks payment processing service was the victim of a data breach, impacting 1.6 million customers.
“As announced on November 10, PayPal suspended the operations of TIO to protect customer data,” PayPal stated. “This ongoing investigation has identified evidence of unauthorized access to TIO’s network, including locations that stored personal information of some of TIO’s customers and customers of TIO billers.”
The TIO Networks systems are separate from the PayPal network, and PayPal said the breach had no direct impact on its users. TIO is in the process of contacting impacted customers and will be offering free credit monitoring and identity protection services from Experian. PayPal added that services will not resume until confidence in the security of the TIO platform has been restored.
Starting in 60 days, Google’s Safe Browsing tool will warn users of Android devices when they use any application that collects personal data without consent. The same warning will appear when an Android user arrives on a website that contains links to applications that collect personal data.
Developers of applications that handle personal user data, including email addresses and phone numbers, will need to alert users to that fact and provide their own privacy policy as well. If developers collect user data for purposes unrelated to the application’s core function, they will now have to spell out why they are collecting the data and how they plan on using it.
Users will need to provide their consent before the application can be used.
The global server market for the past several quarters has been kept afloat by hyperscale cloud service providers like Amazon, Google and Facebook that continue to need to fill their massive data centers. However, enterprises are once again buying servers after holding back while awaiting systems powered by new processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.
According to IDC analysts, revenue in the worldwide server market jumped 19.9 percent in the third quarter, reaching $17 billion, while shipments of the systems grew 11.1 percent. The increased enterprise activity represents revenue jumps of 37.9 percent for Dell, 26.5 percent for IBM and 6.9 percent for Cisco.
Enterprises have largely sat on the sidelines in recent quarters, waiting for Intel and AMD to release their latest chips, which promise improvements in everything from performance to energy efficiency. Now with systems powered by the new processors coming onto the market, enterprises are beginning to buy again.
Microsoft’s small and midsized business customers can now automate more business processes with the release of its Dynamics NAV 2018 enterprise resource planning software, which has been enhanced with artificial intelligence.
Dynamics NAV 2018 features improved interoperability with Office 365, and, like the rest of Microsoft’s application and cloud service portfolio, is also gaining some new AI capabilities that will automate repetitive and tedious tasks.
These capabilities include “new out-of-the-box Microsoft Excel report templates … as well as deeper utilization of Microsoft Cognitive Services for image recognition of inventory items and contacts,” all of which help streamline business processes, said James Phillips, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Business Applications division.