Phil Zimmermann goes full circle as Silent Circle launches encrypted email

Phil Zimmermann goes full circle as Silent Circle launches encrypted email

Twenty years on from PGP

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Security guru and privacy campaigner Phil Zimmermann could finally fulfil the commercial potential of his famous PGP encryption software of the 1990s with the news that his Silent Circle startup has added email encryption to its roster of products.
Launched last year mainly as a premium security suite for businesses and individuals that view personal communications security as a must rather than an expense, Silent Circle already offers secure document transfer and encrypted video, voice and SMS text on desktops and mobiles.
Silent Mail, the long-promised element to encrypt email and attachments, can now be integrated with a range of POP and IMAP-compatible desktop and mobile email (Outlook, Android and iPhone) clients to complete the list.

A key selling point of the system is that it does not interfere with the user’s email environment and makes end-to-end encryption between other enrolled users transparent.

Big-data science requires SDN, says research network chief

The 'one-size-fits-all' Internet can't accommodate new research applications and huge data flows

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Software-defined networking in universities today is like the early Internet decades ago, and big-data researchers in genomics and other fields already need it for their next set of discoveries, according to the head of Internet2.
Internet2 runs a US-wide network linking research institutions, and it's already using elements of SDN on its production infrastructure. SDN, a closely watched set of technologies at various stages of development, is intended to shift the control of networks from specialised devices such as switches and routers to software that can run on standard computing platforms and be virtualised. It promises a range of benefits that could include lower costs, faster service deployment and more network innovation.
The Internet itself began as a tool to help far-flung researchers share data and insights. But the massive amounts of data that many scientists work with today, thanks to advances in computing and storage, require new ways to communicate, said David Lambert, Internet2's president and CEO, at the Open Networking Summit conference on Wednesday.

Intel acquires Mashery for planned services suite

Intel will add Mashery to its growing collection of software and services companies

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Intel has purchased Mashery, a provider or API management tools, in the chip maker's latest move to expand into software and services.
The Mashery API management service will become a core element of a suite of cross-platform services that Intel plans to offer to enterprises, an Intel spokesman said Wednesday.
Mashery offers a set of tools for managing APIs (application programming interfaces) that can be deployed on-premise or used as a service in the cloud. The package includes a portal that external parties can use to access APIs, as well as caching, security tools, a user dashboard and usage reports. Mashery products have been used by organizations such as USA Today, Expedia, Aol's Patch, Aetna and Best Buy.

ARM Big.Little energy management tech gets backing

ARM unveils new licensing model for Big.Little that allows companies to use individual component designs

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More companies have signed on for ARM's Big.Little chip design technology, which mixes low-power and power-hungry cores for more efficient energy use of chips in smartphones, tablets, servers and other equipment.
Seventeen companies have so far licensed Big.Little, ARM said in a statement Wednesday. That is a jump from seven companies announced at the Mobile World Congress in February.
Big.Little is meant to preserve battery life on faster smartphones and tablets. Its design reserves high-power cores for demanding tasks like video playback, while the low-power processors take on mundane tasks like answering phone calls or playing audio. That effectively provides power-efficient use of processors and better performance per watt.

Samsung is using the Big.Little design in its Exynos 5 Octa chip, which combines four high-power ARM Cortex-A15 cores with four low-power ARM Cortex-A7 processors. The Octa 5 chip is used in some Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphones. A prototype tablet displayed by ARM at MWC also demonstrated the processor, with the low-power cores largely handling background tasks.