Information Technology

Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images The US is preparing to ban the world’s most popular router over national security fears. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Chinese-owned TP-Link is currently under investigation by the US Justice, Commerce, and Defense departments because of its link to several high-profile hacking incidents. The move […] More

Google/ZDNETDuring the holidays, your inbox is fuller than usual with promotions, order confirmations, and tracking information. The high volume prompts bad actors to try scamming users out of their money while making it more challenging for email providers to protect users against them. Also: US may ban world’s most popular routers and modems More

Benson George/Getty Images When Microsoft introduced Windows 11 in 2021, its new, stringent hardware compatibility test included checking for the presence of a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) — specifically, one that meets the TPM 2.0 standard. So, what is a TPM, and why does Windows insist that you need one?  Also: How to upgrade your ‘incompatible’ […] More

Bloomberg/Getty Images The US may soon ban the world’s most popular router over national security fears. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Chinese-owned TP-Link is currently under investigation by the US Justice, Commerce, and Defense departments because of its link to several high-profile hacking incidents. The move comes as the US government […] More

PerlaStudio/Getty Images Between unencrypted messaging hacks, data breaches, and AI scam calls, smartphone-centered security threats appear to be everywhere. iVerify found that one type of spyware is trying to make a comeback. Also: Why you should power off your phone once a week – according to the NSA Last week, the mobile security firm resurfaced findings from its spyware […] More

Grafana Labs/ZDNETThere are a handful of leading commercial toolmakers to help IT detect and respond to system outages and application failures, commonly referred to as “incident management and response,” including companies such as PagerDuty, as well as various “observability” companies like Datadog and Dynatrace.Also: 7 solid reasons to consider AIOpsHowever, the market is finally opening up to open-source software approaches, according to a report released last week by JP Morgan’s software analysts. The open-source offerings, riding a wave of “AIOps” and other new industry approaches, have a serious shot at giving PagerDuty and the others a run for their money.The rise of open-source alternatives to PagerDuty”There has also been a lot of progress made in the open-source world,” wrote JP Morgan software analyst Pinjalim Bora.Bora cites as examples the open-source startup Raintank of New York City, which does business as Grafana Labs. The company has introduced “an on-call solution as an open-source project, which is free to use for self-managed and on-premise deployment.” The company also sells cloud-based managed services that are not open-source.JP Morgan participated in a $240 million round of funding for Grafana in 2022. The company has raised a total of $840 million from venture capitalists, including Coatue Management and Lightspeed Management, according to FactSet.Also: Grafana 7.0 promises to connect, unify, and visualize all your dataBora notes that the rise of open source is just one component of an explosion in incident response tools vendors in recent years. The market has gone from around 70 such offerings in early 2022, both open and closed source, to a hundred or more now, “with the number of vendors serving the enterprise doubling in that time period from 15 to 30.”AI is automating a lot of IT’s problem-solvingThe AIOps category, which has long been debated as a viable category by IBM and others, is getting a shot in the arm from generative AI investments. A report last month by venture capitalists at Menlo Ventures noted that IT operations currently make up the largest single category of enterprise spending on Gen AI, at 22%.Also: Enterprises are struggling with what to do with Gen AIBora casts the matter of open and closed source in a brighter light: AI is going to automate a lot of problem-solving that is currently IT’s job.The use of Gen AI-based coding assistants, such as Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, he believes, will change the cycle of code writing, checking, and remediation.”The increasing use of AI code assistants in building of applications likely will have some impacts in this space as well,” wrote Bora. “While on one hand it will likely drive up workload growth, it could also lower mean-time-to-resolution.”For instance, we think as more machines write code, it could create patterns that are easier to find and remediate vs. human-written code, potentially reducing the number of critical P1 events [Priority 1, high-priority incidents for IT], and thus likely somewhat diluting the value proposition of a premium on-call scheduling tool.”Open Source More

Lance Whitney/ZDNETTrying to find lost luggage at an airport can be a frustrating experience. One method that can help is placing an Apple AirTag inside your bag. And now you can even share the location with airline officials so they can participate in the search.New with the recently released iOS/iPadOS 18.2 and MacOS Sequoia 15.2 is an option in the Find My app to create a shareable link to the location of a lost AirTag. Anyone who receives the link will be able to track down its whereabouts and hopefully uncover your missing luggage or other item.Also: The 10 best tech gifts you can buy at Walmart this year – including AirTags You can share the link with a trusted family member, friend, or traveling companion. However, sharing it with airline personnel can be more productive as they can hunt for your bags in places inaccessible to you and the general public.Starting this week, United, Delta, and Air Canada will support this new feature to track down lost or delayed bags, Apple senior marketing VP Greg Joswiak said in a Monday post on X. Joswiak also promised that support from more airlines is coming soon.Initially revealing the new feature last month, Apple said it will partner with more than 15 airlines to offer the new Find My option. These include Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Eurowings, Iberia, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Turkish Airlines, United, Virgin Atlantic, and Vueling. More will be added over time. More

Schools and colleges will often block websites and online services in the name of safety, but sometimes, these blocks become a frustrating catch-all or accidentally restrict educational resources. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) can help you circumvent these blocks and firewalls by disguising your IP address and rerouting your traffic through a server network, hiding your online activities and preventing you from being monitored by school or college administrators. Also: The best VPNs for streamingStudents have enough to manage without being prevented from accessing online resources. Indeed, as a former teacher, I would use a VPN in some of the schools I worked at to stop myself from being blocked from social media and other services. To easily bypass existing restrictions, you need a VPN service that combines privacy, speed, a robust server network, and one that has a reputation for successfully managing firewalls and restrictive policies.What is the best school VPN right now?Our pick for the best school VPN is NordVPN More