A supposed hack of a US energy utility perpetrated by Russian hackers has proved to be false, with investigators – and journalists – accused of jumping to wrong conclusions on the basis of minimal evidence….

© Source: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/3001758/russian-hack-on-us-power-company-a-false-alarm
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Microsoft is shifting its licensing for its Azure cloud service, eliminating the pay-as-you-go option for new Azure customers using MPSA (Microsoft Products and Services Agreement) as of Feb. 1. Instead, they will be steered toward the company’s CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) program.
Geared to organizations with at least 250 users, MPSA is Microsoft’s simplified agreement consolidating purchase of cloud services and software. The move detailed today follows on Microsoft’s decision to not proceed with its proposed Enterprise Advantage program, which was meant to allow customers to buy organization-wide on the MPSA.
Microsoft’s volume licensing focus is on creating synergies across three business strategies: partner value-added, self-service web, and partner-assisted, said Richard Smith, Microsoft general manager of commercial licensing. This required adjustments in licensing programs.
« We are guiding customers interested in Azure toward licensing options that best help them realize the full value of Azure services, leading with our partner value-added option, » said Smith. This includes CSP featuring IoT and other « advanced » scenarios; Enterprise Agreement, for customers needing terms not specified by other programs or open programs for customers with 500 users or devices; and the Microsoft Online Subscription Program, for self-serving directly through the web.
« As of February 1, 2017, MPSA customers purchasing Azure for the first time will be guided to CSP, » according to Microsoft, « and pay-as-you-go Azure will no longer be available for new Azure customers through the MPSA.  » Customers currently purchasing Azure through MPSA will not be affected.

© Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/3156032/cloud-computing/microsoft-drops-a-pay-as-you-go-azure-cloud-option.html
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The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is always a big showcase for the latest new technologies including security and the 2017 edition of the show, which ran from Jan. 5 to 8, was no exception. A one major theme at CES in recent years has been connected consumer devices, commonly referred to now at the Internet of Things. IoT devices have helped to introduced new security risks for consumers and technology devices have responded with new devices and software to help protect them from emerging security threats. At CES 2017 both ends of the IoT spectrum were well represented with new devices for home security as well as new technologies to help protect connected devices. Among the new IoT devices announced at CES 2017 is a security floodlight from Ring that provides an internet-connected camera as part of a motion sensing outdoor light fixture. To help protect against insecure IoT devices, multiple vendors including Symantec, McAfee and Bitdefender announced new technologies to help secure consumer networks. Improving the security of user access was also a key theme with new security authentication products announced by Kensington and Yubico. In this slideshow takes a look at seven security products that were announced at CES.

© Source: http://www.eweek.com/security/slideshows/seven-new-security-iot-products-technologies-that-debuted-at-ces-2017.html
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Democratic groups and figures weren’t the only ones targeted in Russia’s suspected campaign to influence last year’s U. S. election. Russian cyberspies also targeted computers from state-level Republican groups and stole information from local voter registration records, FBI director James Comey said.
« There were successful penetrations of some groups and campaigns, particularly at the state-level on the Republican side, » Comey said during a senate committee hearing on Tuesday.
He and three U. S. intelligence chiefs spoke at the hearing, following their Friday report accused the Kremlin of ordering a covert campaign that helped boost incoming President Donald Trump’s election chances.
As part of that campaign, the hackers stole sensitive files from the Democratic National Committee, in addition to an aide to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and leaked them online.
On Tuesday, Comey discussed other targets Russian cyberspies allegedly hacked. Among them, were state-level voter registration records that included name and address information.
« What the purpose of those intrusions was is not clear, » Comey said. « But there’s no doubt the Russians attacked, intruded, and took data from some of those systems.  »
Any alteration to a voter registration database might sow chaos on election day, he said. « Someone shows up to vote and your address is different, » he said. « That creates delay, controversy, and confusion.  »
Comey also said that Russian hackers had targeted old email domains belonging to the Republican National Committee. Although the breached domains were no longer in use, the hacker nonetheless « harvested » information from them, he said.
Despite the hacking efforts, no evidence was found showing Russia ever breached vote tallying systems or altered any votes during the election, U. S. intelligence chiefs said.
Comey also said there was no sign that Russia ever hacked Trump’s campaign.
U. S. intelligence agencies have so far declined to release evidence proving the Kremlin’s involvement in the hacks, citing the need to protect its methods. But the intel gathering relied on « multiple high-quality sources, » including human ones and technical collection, U. S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said during the hearing.
Russia, however, has denied any involvement in the hacks. On Monday, a Kremlin spokesman said the unfounded accusations were driving a « witch hunt.  »
Trump has also remained skeptical over Russia’s suspected role in the hacks. Nevertheless, some U. S. lawmakers have been urging the incoming administration to take greater action and punish the Kremlin.
« This sounds like a pretty effective and successful effort to sow chaos, » Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said during Tuesday’s hearing. « In essence, it sounds like they achieved what they wanted: to get us to fight against each other over whether our elections were legitimate. « 

© Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/3156608/security/us-intel-russia-hacked-republican-groups-during-election.html
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Well, CES 2017 is over. We don’t know if you were busy last week, but things were pretty crazy here at TR HQ. We doubled down on CES coverage and did our best to take a good look at all the hardware news that poured out from the show.
The biggest individual bit of news was probably the launch of Intel’s 7th-generation Core processors, codenamed Kaby Lake. We did an in-depth review of the Core i7-7700K , so if you’re curious about it go ahead and click that link. A new CPU release tends to produce a deluge of product line refreshes, and this CES was no exception in that regard.
Both AMD and Nvidia had some big announcements to make, too. The red team had some meaty info about its Vega graphics architecture , showed off Ryzen-ready chipsets and motherboards , and FreeSync 2. Meanwhile, on the green corner, Nvidia G-Sync HDR is coming to some sweet high-end displays, and GPU-destitute gamers everywhere have access to GeForce Now game streaming. Let’s dig deep into the news, shall we?
Kaby Lake CPUs and mobos
AMD
Nvidia
Desktop and SFF systems
Laptops
Monitors
Peripherals with rainbows
Networking
Odds and ends
Whew, that was a lot of links. Check them out and let us know if we missed anything interesting in the comments section below.

© Source: http://techreport.com/news/31256/the-tech-report-ces-2017-news-recap
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Battery tests run by CNET Labs fell within our acceptable parameters across multiple runs.
Last month, venerable product testing publication Consumer Reports said it couldn’t recommend Apple’s latest MacBook Pro models because of inconsistent battery life results. On the 13-inch model, CR got battery runs that ranged from 16 hours down to less than four hours.
After working with Consumer Reports to figure out why its tests we not giving the expected results, Apple and the publication on Tuesday announced a possible culprit .
For its battery testing in MacBooks, Consumer Reports used a developer mode in Safari that turned off the browser cache. By itself, that wouldn’t have made the battery life so wildly inconsistent. But that developer mode also contained a previously unknown bug that Apple says affected the battery score.
In a statement Tuesday, Apple said the publication’s previous tests didn’t reflect consumer usage and that developer bug has now been fixed.
While some consumers have also complained about battery life that fell short of Apple ‘s promised 10 hours on the new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models , the tests run by CNET Labs fell within our acceptable parameters across multiple test runs. (Every publication and testing organization, including CNET Labs, uses its own proprietary battery test methodology).
At the time, I wrote : « Battery life is the big question here. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar ran for 10:07 on our streaming video playback test, which matches up with Apple’s predicted 10 hours of battery life. The lower-end 13-inch Pro without the Touch Bar ran for an even more impressive 11:36 in same test, beating Apple’s estimates.  »
In an updated blog of on its website , Consumer Reports said, « Once our retesting of the MacBook Pro’s batteries is complete, we will report back with our update and findings. « 

© Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/consumer-reports-apple-macbook-pro-retest-battery-life-developer-mode-bug/
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