Tony is principal analyst with the Bradley Strategy Group, providing analysis and insight on tech trends. He is a prolific writer on a range of technology topics, has authored a number of books, and is a frequent speaker at industry events. More by Tony Bradley
You don’t want a rootkit infection. Any malware compromise is bad, but rootkits—by their very nature—are especially nasty. The irony is that you might have a rootkit infection right now and not know it. That’s sort of the point of a rootkit.
Wikipedia defines it: “A rootkit is a stealthy type of software, often malicious, designed to hide the existence of certain processes or programs from normal methods of detection and enable continued privileged access to a computer.” The term rootkit actually derives from Unix—where the administrator-level system privileges are called “root”—combined with “kit,” which is commonly used to refer to a package of software tools. On a Windows PC it might make more sense to call it a “kernelkit” or “adminkit,” but the term “rootkit” has stuck.
Because a rootkit operates with elevated administrative privileges, it can do things that most software applications can’t do, functioning at a deeper level of the operating system than most security software is capable of scanning. A rootkit can hide files, processes, services, registry keys, hard disk sectors, and more so that the operating system itself, and other software running on the system don’t even realize they’re there.
Tony is principal analyst with the Bradley Strategy Group, providing analysis and insight on tech trends. He is a prolific writer on a range of technology topics, has authored a number of books, and is a frequent speaker at industry events. More by Tony Bradley
For some, a laptop bag is just a piece of luggage dedicated to safely transporting a portable PC or tablet from Point A to Point B. For business travelers, though, the laptop bag is more like a Swiss Army knife—an essential element filled with the gadgets and accessories you need.
1. Laptop power cord Panic. That is the feeling that hits you when you arrive at a destination and realize you forgot to pack the power cord for your laptop. Without it, you have mere hours of productivity before your laptop will die, and you’ll be dead in the water. If possible, you should have a spare power cord that is always in your laptop bag so you don’t run the risk of forgetting to bring one. If you can swap out the battery on your laptop, you might want to carry a spare battery as well.
2. Smartphone / tablet charger Along those same lines, you also don’t want to embark on a business trip without the adapter or cable you need to recharge your smartphone or tablet. Ideally, you should have a backup always stored in your laptop bag for the same reason cited above.
Tony is principal analyst with the Bradley Strategy Group, providing analysis and insight on tech trends. He is a prolific writer on a range of technology topics, has authored a number of books, and is a frequent speaker at industry events. More by Tony Bradley
It was a good year for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. According to the latest data from Net Apps, IE gained only slightly in December, but overall it reversed its fortunes from 2011 and recaptured a fair amount of lost market share in 2012.
First, let’s look back at the previous year. Internet Explorer started out 2011 with 58.35 percent of the browser market. By the end of 2011, though, Google’s Chrome browser had eaten a significant chunk of that market share (and a bit from Firefox as well), and Internet Explorer plummeted more than six percentage points to only 51.87 percent market share.
Internet Explorer regained market share in 2012 at the expense of rival browsers.Read more »
Tony is principal analyst with the Bradley Strategy Group, providing analysis and insight on tech trends. He is a prolific writer on a range of technology topics, has authored a number of books, and is a frequent speaker at industry events. More by Tony Bradley
Is your business still using Windows XP? If so, you’re not alone. But, you should also seriously consider moving to a newer operating system. You could just step up to Windows 7, but there’s also a pretty strong case to be made for moving to Windows 8—particularly Windows 8 Enterprise.
It’s a bit cliché at this point to talk about what a dramatic change Windows 8 is compared with previous versions of Windows. Microsoft gave the UI a complete overhaul and reengineered the Windows operating system with tablets and touchscreens in mind. Beneath the veneer, though, it’s still Windows, and once you get accustomed to navigating the new OS, Windows 8 is pretty slick.
Tony is principal analyst with the Bradley Strategy Group, providing analysis and insight on tech trends. He is a prolific writer on a range of technology topics, has authored a number of books, and is a frequent speaker at industry events. More by Tony Bradley
It’s always fun this time of year to look back on the year we’re about to leave behind, and to make some predictions about what we might expect the year ahead to look like. We already have a comprehensive look back at the biggest security stories of 2012, and now here’s a look at some trends to watch for 2013.
These prognostications come from McAfee—the respected information security and antimalware company, not its international man of mystery founder. McAfee is one of the companies with a global presence and the skills and knowledge required to distill evolving trends and determine where things are headed.
McAfee shares some security predictions for 2013.Read more »
Tony is principal analyst with the Bradley Strategy Group, providing analysis and insight on tech trends. He is a prolific writer on a range of technology topics, has authored a number of books, and is a frequent speaker at industry events. More by Tony Bradley
With Christmas only a few days a way, most businesses will be shutting down for a holiday break at the close of business today. It should be a time of peace and relaxation—a time to reflect on the year that has slipped away, and to envision goals for the year to come. But, it seems a majority of IT admins and security professionals will still be losing sleep over potential cyber attacks.
nCircle, an information risk and security management company, commissioned a survey of 270 IT security and business professionals. It asked a range of questions around information security risks and practices, and the breakdown of the results is interesting.
If you have solid security in place, you're not at any greater risk over the holidays.Read more »
Tony is principal analyst with the Bradley Strategy Group, providing analysis and insight on tech trends. He is a prolific writer on a range of technology topics, has authored a number of books, and is a frequent speaker at industry events. More by Tony Bradley
A funny thing happened recently. A survey of 45,000 PCWorld readers found that a majority prefers Apple laptops. While that’s just one perspective from one audience, it represents a trend that Microsoft and Windows PC OEMs should be concerned about.
Large enterprises are too entrenched in Windows to shift the entire IT ecosystem to Mac OS X. It could be done, but like stopping a train, or turning a cargo ship—it would take some time.
Small and medium businesses, however, are more agile and can switch platforms on a whim. And, according to a report by Intermedia, recent SMB tech purchases are overwhelmingly favoring Apple. BGR states that nearly 70 percent of all smartphone activations for SMBs in the most recent quarter were iPhones, and more than 90 percent of the SMB tablet purchases were iPads.
