Cyber Security: More Than Just Passwords
• November 10, 2014

Cybercrime is here to stay. There have been so many headlines about data breaches and stolen user credentials that the topic has become almost blasé. In August, the New York Times reported that a Russian crime ring had amassed a collection of 1.2 billion username and password combinations.

More corporations are suffering data breaches, now including such major players as Target, Kmart, Home Depot, even P.F. Chang’s. A recent study by HP and the Ponemon Institute found that the 2014 cost of cybercrime has risen 96 percent in the past five years. The current average is estimated to be $12.7 million per organization. For the most part, these breaches stem from criminal organizations.

Imagine the damage that could be caused if a nation-state’s full resources were committed to carrying out a security breach. In reality, there’s little imagination necessary; cyberwarfare is alive and well. Stuxnet made huge waves back in 2010, but the U.S.-Israeli joint effort isn’t even close to being the only cyber-equivalent to an airstrike.

Officials in Kiev are claiming that Russian forces are disrupting their military communication networks. In 2008, cyber-attacks overwhelmed websites and servers in Georgia just ahead of the Russian-led invasion, calling to mind a similar situation with Estonia. During a spat with Moscow, in 2007, Estonia experienced a 10-day cyber-assault on their internet services, causing major disruptions to financial systems.

The United States is not invulnerable, either. In 2008, the Agent.BTZ worm ate into the military’s classified computer networks. More recently, computer systems in the White House itself were illegally accessed.

Consider all the critical infrastructure controlled by computer systems: electrical grids, traffic systems, natural gas pipelines. Now add to these the communications backbones in use by the federal government and private industry, upon which financial services depend. That’s a lot of surface area to protect.

In May of 2012, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned of a “gas pipeline sector cyber intrusion campaign” linked to the Chinese government. Media outlets like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and tech companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, have had their share of cyber-attacks as well, with China again the alleged perpetrator. The Chinese government is also suspected of hacking iCloud to spy on the Chinese people, according to Greatfire.org, an organization that researches Chinese internet censorship.

Cyber Command, or CYBERCOM, is America’s first line of defense against state-sponsored cyber-attacks, having been created in response to the Agent.BTZ worm. As is the case for the private sector, more cybersecurity threats mean higher costs for government, resulting in a budget explosion for CYBERCOM. Fiscal 2014’s allocation of $477 million was nearly twice the prior year’s budget.

The total expenditure on CYBERCOM since 2010 has been $1.1 billion. That might sound like a hefty price tag for a fledgling government agency, but as national security threats move from bombs and bullets to botnets and malware, it’s definitely money well spent.

IPhone 6: Worth the Hype
• October 1, 2014

The most readily-apparent differences between the iPhone 6 and its predecessor are in form: where the iPhone 5 is a little boxy, the iPhone 6 is slim and trim, striking an impressive balance between substantiality and lightness of being. Though 17 grams heavier than its predecessor, the phone’s weight increase is balanced in such a way that the feel of the iPhone 6 is more reassuring than that of the iPhone 5.

The 4.7-inch display on the iPhone 6 (up from 4 inches on the iPhone 5), is just enough of an increase to deliver much-needed real estate without inflating the iPhone 6 to a degree that would require extra space to carry or a closer eye to look at the screen. In terms of display quality, though, the odd choice of a 1334 x 750 resolution for the iPhone 6 doesn’t change the pixel density one bit; the iPhone 5, 5c and 5s all sport the iPhone 6’s 326ppi.

In terms of functionality, the iPhone 6 offers little in the way of earth-shattering improvements. Looking past the changes in iOS 8, the hardware upgrades seem to have a negligible impact on performance, despite the inclusion of the much-touted Apple A8 processor, which replaces the A7 in the iPhone 5s. Apple claims the A8 is 25 percent faster and has 50 percent better graphics than the A7, though the average user likely won’t notice a huge difference with today’s mainstream apps.

With the iPhone 6, Apple has stuck by the 1GB RAM allotment of the iPhone 5 in a nod to prolonging battery life. However, RAM bottlenecks tend to account for more performance degradations in the end-user experience than underpowered processors.

And what about battery life? According to Apple’s estimates, there is a significant improvement in the audio category; you’ll get an additional 10 hours of music time out of the iPhone 6, up to 50 total hours, compared to the 40 hours estimated for the iPhone 5s. Across the other categories – video, Wi-Fi, LTE and 3G browsing – the increases are token and insubstantial

The majority of the bells-and-whistles associated with the iPhone 6 come via iOS 8 and are as-yet-unrealized in their full potential. Apple Pay, the new near-field communications (NFC) technology incorporated into the iPhone 6 that will theoretically allow iPhone 6 owners to use their devices as a tap-and-go credit card, is still in its infancy. Metal, Apple’s new technology geared towards mobile game developers, will supposedly allow the creation of more immersive and richly detailed games that take advantage of the iPhone 6’s new hardware. Apps that leverage Metal will take time to become available, though.

The Takeaway: Wait and see. The iPhone 6 and iOS 8 have real potential, both individually and as a team. But unless you dislike the iPhone 5 for aesthetic reasons or are one of those who simply must have the latest and greatest on day one, my advice would be to wait a few months to let Apple work out the unavoidable new-release kinks and give the wider tech world a chance to capitalize on the new development features.