European citizens have complained en masse that companies such as Amazon, Apple, YouTube, and Spotify are misusing their data.

The claims were brought to light by Austrian privacy group noyb, led by activist Max Schrems, which say that the companies highlighted are not adhering to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Schrems said in the complaint that he requested eight streaming companies including Amazon, Apple, Spotify, Netflix, Soundcloud, YouTube and UK-based sports streaming service DAZN, provide the information they hold about customers.

However, Soundcloud and DAZN didn’t even respond to the request, while the others failed to provide adequate data about how their customers’ details were used.

“Spotify takes data privacy and our obligations to users extremely seriously,» the company said in a statement. «We are committed to complying with all relevant national and international laws and regulations, including GDPR, with which we believe we are fully compliant.»

Schrems said that most companies his group sent requests to simply set up automated replies but this isn’t compliant with GDPR. Companies must provide details about the data they collect, how the data is used and stored and who it’s shared with in order to comply with the law.

“In most cases, users only got the raw data, but, for example, no information about who this data was shared with,» Schrems added.

The companies could find themselves with fines of up to €20 million or 4% of their global turnover if they’re found to be violating GDPR regulations.

Other companies such as Facebook and Google have come under fire for not adhering to the law in Europe following the introduction of the GDPR in May last year.

AWS has unveiled a managed backup service that will help customers backup their data, whether it resides on-premise or in the cloud.

AWS Backup makes it easier for companies to manage their data by offering a single place for data in storage volumes, databases, and file systems to be managed and audited.

Users can schedule backups as frequently as required, set retention policies and monitor backups and restores from the dashboard. It also ensures firms can comply more easily with regulatory demands.

The company explained it had developed AWS Backup so businesses can get rid of the fragmented processes associated with data backup and scheduling.

Although using the cloud means there’s more flexibility when apps and services are distrusted across multiple environments, this makes it very hard to manage.

“As the cloud has become the default choice for customers of all sizes, it has attracted two distinct types of builders, “ said Bill Vass, vice president of storage, automation, and management services at AWS.

“Some are tinkerers who want to tweak and fine tune the full range of AWS services into a desired architecture, and other builders are drawn to the same breadth and depth of functionality in AWS, but are willing to trade some of the service granularity to start at a higher abstraction layer, so they can build even faster.

“We designed AWS Backup for this second type of builder who has told us that they want one place to go for backups versus having to do it across multiple, individual services.”

At launch, AWS Backup will work for Services including Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS), Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS), Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), and AWS Storage Gateway, which will allow a connection to on-premise data backup too.

Support for other AWS services will be added in the future. AWS Backup will run side-by-side AWS’s existing manual backup service.

A server that made its way into the public domain has revealed information about a whole host of FBI investigations from the last ten years.

The server, which once belonged to the State of Oklahoma, was storing 3TB worth of data about investigations it was working on with the FBI. The entire device was unsecured, according to reports, potentially exposing confidential data to the masses.

This mammoth data leak was uncovered by security firm Upguard, which reported the server had no security to protect the information from prying eyes.

As well as data about dealings with the FBI, the server also contained social security numbers, names, and addresses of 10,000 brokers, plus information needed to access remote desktops of government workers.

Other information found on the device included copies of communications with the Oklahoma Securities Commission and confidential personal information about AIDS patients residing in the state.

A press announcement was made to the public detailing the breach, saying the Oklahoma Department of Securities (ODS) had launched an extensive review into the leak, saying it was revealed following the installation of a firewall.

“An accidental vulnerability of limited duration to a server containing archived data was discovered and immediately secured,” the statement said.

“The ODS has notified law enforcement and OMES regarding the incident. A forensic team is currently conducting an analysis to determine the type and number of data files that may have been exposed and who may have accessed them.”

Upguard said that as soon as it discovered the security hole, it advised the ODS and the vulnerability was closed.

Oklahoma state officials are now communicating with individuals that may have been affected by the potential breach.

“The ODS is reviewing internal procedures, controls and security measures to ensure such incidents cannot occur in the future,” the statement continued.

Oracle has revealed the latest version of its Java Card, used for securing internet of things (IoT) devices such as smartwatches and other hardware that process large amounts of information.

Java Card 3.1 can be used in a vast array of applications, from telecoms devices and contactless payments terminals to cars, smart meters and wearables. It will help simplify the rollout of 5G technologies, securing the transfer of data between the device and the network, whether 5G or NBIoT networks.

“Connected devices’ volumes are expected to increase in the upcoming years, posing an increasingly complex challenge as growth adds system complexity to the infrastructure handling device data,” Volker Gerstenberger, president and chair of the Java Card Forum said.

“Java Card 3.1 is very significant to the Internet of Things, bringing interoperability, security and flexibility to a fast-growing market currently lacking high-security and flexible edge security solutions.”

Some of Java Card 3.1’s new features include support for deploying edge security services using an I/O model to transport sensitive data using a range of physical layers and application protocols.

It also introduces new APIs that specifically address the rapidly-evolving IoT marketplace demands, such as the ability to exchange sensitive data with other connected devices. Multiple applications can be installed on each chip, with the option of adding more after it has been deployed.

With full developer support for creating new services and applications, Java Card 3.1 makes developing, enhancing and deploying security-centric applications a much easier task, Oracle explained.

“Java Card is already used and trusted as a leading security platform for countless devices in the multi-billion-dollar smart card and secure element industry,” said Florian Tournier, senior director for Java Card at Oracle.

“The 3.1 release enables the rollout of security and SIM applications on the same chip, allowing those services to be used on a large spectrum of networks from NB-IoT to 5G, and on a wide range of devices.”

Veeam announced it has received $500 million in investment from Insight Venture Partners to accelerate its growth in the data management sector.

As part of the agreement, Veeam will also receive support from the investor’s internal business strategy arm, Insight Onsite as well as the capital to invest in smaller organisations as part of its merger and acquisition plan.

Veeam and Insight Venture Partners have a solid history, with the investment firm contributing to Aelita Software, the first company set up by founder Ratmir Timashev, Bill Largent and Andrei Baronov.

“Back then, we relied on Insight to provide strategic counsel and support, and after we sold that company to Quest Software in 2004, we continued our relationship,” said Timashev. “Over the years, Insight has been a trusted advisor to Bill Largent, Andrei Baronov and me, even acquiring a minority share in Veeam back in 2013.”

Veeam has grown fast over the last five years, boasting more than 325,000 customers and 60,000 partners. It now wants to take this to the next levels and snatch a greater market share from the likes of IBM, Dell and Veritas.

Insight Venture Partners explained it wanted to invest in Veeam so it could help the data management business to become the “most trusted” backup provider through the Veeam Availability Platform.

“Over the past decade, Veeam has established itself as the premier vendor for on-premises backup and recovery software, and is now No.1 in the market for providing data management for public and private cloud environments,” Michael Triplett, managing director at Insight Venture Partners, and member of the Board of Directors at Veeam.

“Veeam has unparalleled leadership in terms of technology, vision and go-to-market strategies, which we believe will only further extend its No.1 market position. Insight is thrilled to continue this journey with Veeam’s management.”

Only 48% of businesses have the infrastructure set up to detect whether their IoT infrastructure is open to a data breach, a report by security firm Gemalto has revealed.

Firms are now asking for the government to intervene and set better regulations around IoT security to prevent potentially damaging hacks into such devices.

In fact, 79% of the 950 decision makers the company spoke to said they think the government should play a more involved part in combating IoT-related cybercrime, whether this is creating a framework for firms to adhere to or making it clearer who is responsible for protecting IoT.

“Given the increase in the number of IoT-enabled devices, it’s extremely worrying to see that businesses still can’t detect if they have been breached,” said Jason Hart, CTO of data protection at Gemalto.

“With no consistent regulation guiding the industry, it’s no surprise the threats – and, in turn, vulnerability of businesses – are increasing. This will only continue unless governments step in now to help industry avoid losing control.”

The leading challenges businesses refer to when discussing IoT security are data privacy (38%) and the collection of large volumes of data – a problem surfaced by 34% of respondents.

However, perhaps surprisingly, Gemalto’s report revealed that only 59% of organisations are investing in IoT security, such as encrypting data sent over the network.

One of the leading technologies adopted by businesses to secure their data against criminals is the use of blockchain and adoption is up to 19% from just 9% in the last year and almost a quarter of firms are now saying they would consider using it to protect their assets.

“Businesses are clearly feeling the pressure of protecting the growing amount of data they collect and store,” Hart continued.

“But while it’s positive they are attempting to address that by investing in more security, such as blockchain, they need direct guidance to ensure they’re not leaving themselves exposed. In order to get this, businesses need to be putting more pressure on the government to act, as it is them that will be hit if they suffer a breach.”

Google has awarded IBM’s MaaS360 with Watson the accolade of the first Android Enterprise Recommended for businesses utilising both company-owned and BYOD devices.

To become a recognised partner, software must offer businesses a true enterprise-level experience, with the tools to help businesses and employees be more productive. They must utilise Android’s enterprise features and developers must work closely with Google to ensure a consistent and successful deployment for enterprise teams.

IBM’s MaaS360 with Watson offers a Unified endpoint management (UEM) platform that introduces artificial intelligence to enable endpoints and end users to interact with apps, content and data seamlessly.

It helps IT teams secure Android phones, tablets and ruggedised devices with centralised device management, whether those devices are in the office or out in the field.

«With significant Android Enterprise activations for MaaS360, we’ve prioritized not only the product roadmap to ensure our clients can adopt the Android Enterprise solution sets, but also training and enablement for the IBM sales and support organizations to best support the platform,” said John Nielsen, offering manager of MaaS360 at IBM Security.

«With the consistency that Android Enterprise provides clients across various Android manufacturers, we do not anticipate the adoption trend to slow down any time soon.»

As Android has developed, so has IBM MaaS360. Although many of the features of the platform are now offered as standard on Android, especially with the introduction of Android 9 Pie, it also tags on AI features not available from Android devices.

Features such as MaaS360 Policy Recommendation Engine forms part of the device set-up process, enabling administrators to set policies such as passcode, container and restrictions to ensure employee devices are secured. Everything can be managed through a central console, reducing IT support time.

MaaS360 Assistant uses artificial intelligence to increase employee productivity, but reduce support calls and Business Dashboards for Apps analyses apps in use by employees, ensuring the company is getting the highest ROIs from those deployed.

IDC has revealed that cloud infrastructure has generated more revenue for tech businesses compared to traditional IT infrastructure for the first time ever.

During the third quarter of 2018, cloud infrastructure components, such as servers, enterprise storage, and Ethernet switches grew by 47.2%, with the research firm estimating this will result in 37.2% growth for the entirety of 2018.

Cloud-related revenues accounted for 50.9% of the total worldwide IT infrastructure vendor revenues, up more than 7% year-on-year.

«The first three quarters of 2018 were exceptional for the IT Infrastructure market across all deployment environments and the increase in IT infrastructure investments by public cloud datacenters was especially strong driven by the opening of new datacentres and infrastructure refresh in existing datacentres,» said Natalya Yezhkova, research director, IT Infrastructure and Platforms.

However, the company has predicted this growth will start to slow in the next 12 months as cloud vendors make some changes to their operational structure, specifically in supply chain.

«After such a strong year we expect some slowdown in 2019 as the overall market cools down and some cloud providers work through adjustments in their supply chain. However, IDC expects the shift in IT infrastructure spending toward cloud environments will continue.»

Dell continued to dominate the market, with 50.7% revenue growth in Q3 2018 compared to the same quarter of 2017, although Lenovo’s revenue growth was perhaps the most impressive – its cloud-related revenues grew by 182%, increasing its market share from 2.5% in Q3 2017 to 4.8% in Q3 2018. Little-known vendor Inspur also made great strides, with growth of 179.4% year-on-year and taking 6.3% of the market share.

By 2022, IDC expects traditional IT infrastructure spending to decrease to 42.4% of the total worldwide IT infrastructure spend as more businesses move away from traditional architecture to embrace the cloud.

Salesforce has updated its Commerce Cloud platform, adding AI integration, visual search, and inventory availability services to businesses in the retail sector.

Through these new additions to the company’s e-commerce marketing platform, businesses can connect with customers throughout their entire buying journey and not just when they reach the company’s site.

For example, the Einstein Recommendations API can offer targeted product recommendations to customers that may have expressed an interest in other products, whether using mobile apps, devices, customer service channels or more. Another Einstein-powered feature is Einstein Visual Search, which allows customers to search for products using images rather than text. When a customer uploads a picture or screenshot of a product, they’re presented with similar products from your store that match their needs.

“Digital commerce no longer starts with just a shopping cart,” said Mike Micucci, CEO of Commerce Cloud at Salesforce. “With Salesforce Commerce Cloud, companies have a trusted partner who can help them meet their customers wherever they are and deliver commerce everywhere through a platform full of AI-powered commerce services, APIs and a robust partner ecosystem.”

Another new addition to Salesforce Commerce Cloud is High-scale Inventory Availability Service, which allows businesses to sync their inventory across all sales channels, including in-store and fulfilment centre, plus digital channels to enable powerful features such as real-time customer stock checks throughout the year.

«With Salesforce, Michaels has launched new branded e-commerce sites, unified our in-store and online experience, and integrated user-generated content from social media,” added Steve Carlotti, executive vice president of marketing at Salesforce customer The Michaels Companies.

“We are also bringing together commerce, service and marketing to drive more effective audience engagement and ensure that every customer communication is timely and relevant.”

SSE is teaming up with Tigerspike and AWS to deliver smart city services to the masses via its Internet of Things (IoT) platform.

Part of the threesome’s strategy is to develop SSE’s Mayflower smart lighting solution, which is comprised of the entire infrastructure for smart lighting in cities, including sensors and devices to light up cities autonomously.

But that’s just the start of Mayflower. SSE and Tigerspike will develop new connected solutions, such as smart parking and assisted living, road temperature, weather stations, air and gully monitoring to build an entire connected city ecosystem. It will also include a framework for the management of multiple sensors, devices and associated communications protocols, which can be provided to third-party developers to create even more apps.

“SSE Enterprise has long been one of the leading providers of street lighting services in the UK, so this partnership will allow us to develop next-generation technology that will help make the smart city revolution a reality,” said Stephen Stead, head of strategy, new markets and digital services for SSE Enterprise.

“Applications we expect to develop will help local authorities address many of their key issues whether this be air quality, urban parking management, deployment of EV charging or the challenge of supporting vulnerable people in their own homes.”

Stead added that the new partnership will benefit city councils and town planners, helping them create new applications to meet local authority demands, whether that’s conserving energy or providing better solutions to residents.

“We’re very excited to be working on this programme with SSE. Tigerspike’s continued involvement in smart cities projects such as this one demonstrates our commitment to improving people’s lives through technology,” added Josh Haagsma, general manager of Tigerspike Europe.

“We’re passionate about being at the forefront of the Smart Cities revolution and helping to deliver the benefit of the digital transformation of government services to millions of citizens. We look forward to using AWS to create the digital products for SSE that enable this revolution.”