IT News Week 2 Dec 2017

For IT News Week 1 Dec 2017.
  • PR - Dec 15, 2017 - Hitachi Vantara Continues To Bolster Its Global Leadership Team With New Executive Appointments
  • PR - Dec 14, 2017 - Rakuten Card more than doubles data processing speed with Cloudera Enterprise
  • PR - Dec 14, 2017 - Lenovo Malaysia Brings Festive Perks to Customers
  • PR - Dec 13, 2017 - ASUS Launches ZenFone Max Plus
  • PR - Dec 12, 2017 - Barracuda Cautions Against the Use of Outdated Backup Tapes
  • PR - Dec 8, 2017 - Motorola & Lenovo's Participation in Lazada's 12.12 Online Revolution
  • PR - Dec 7, 2017 - Symantec Security predictions 2018
  • PR - Dec 7, 2017 - Sophos 2017 Malware Trends and 2018 Predictions


PR - Dec 15, 2017 - Hitachi Vantara Continues To Bolster Its Global Leadership Team With New Executive Appointments

Mark Ablett has been named senior vice president of global go-to-market (GTM) strategy for Hitachi Vantara and Daniel Chong has been named senior vice president of Asia Pacific (APAC).

Mark AblettDaniel Chong

In his new role, Ablett will be responsible for developing the company’s global GTM strategy, partnering with Hitachi Vantara’s customers to help them successfully navigate and execute complex digital transformation journeys.

Chong will assume Ablett’s former post as SVP of APAC at Hitachi Vantara. He previously served as the company’s vice president and general manager (GM) of mainland China and Taiwan.

PR - Dec 14, 2017 - Rakuten Card more than doubles data processing speed with Cloudera Enterprise

Cloudera (NYSE: CLDR) today announced that Rakuten Card Co., Ltd, one of the leading credit card companies in Japan, is using Cloudera Enterprise to process data at more than twice the speed of their legacy system. With strong membership growth and an ever-increasing number of transactions, Rakuten Card needed to speed up the processing power of its mission-critical system to keep pace with business demand. Rakuten Card fully migrated from its legacy system to a modern platform with Cloudera’s solutions, powered by Apache Spark, enabling the company to:
  • Support a variety of use cases, such as real-time streaming analytics, machine learning, predictive modelling, and advanced analytics
  • Address and resolve performance issues that were previously a cause of concern
  • Reduce time spent on maintenance and management, allowing more time to focus on growing strategic areas of the business
By leveraging the suite of operation and management tools available through Cloudera Manager, coupled with the expertise and advice from Cloudera’s support team of skilled engineers, Rakuten Card has also been able to achieve optimum application performance. For more information on how Cloudera’s solutions enable financial services institutions to evolve and expand their businesses, please find the press release attached and appended below.

PR - Dec 14, 2017 - Lenovo Malaysia Brings Festive Perks to Customers

To usher in the festive season, Lenovo Malaysia has plenty of promotions and giveaways for you to participate in -
  • Come and learn more about the holiday promotions at their booth at the Malaysia IT Fair @ Mid Valley Exhibition Centre (MVEC) from 15 -17 December.
  • Christmas and New Promotions
    • Fans who purchase the Lenovo Ideapad 320s and Lenovo Yoga 720 will receive a Lenovo Heart Rate band, or JBL Headphones (while stocks last)
    • Fans of Lenovo who purchase the Lenovo Legion Y520, Lenovo Legion Y720, Lenovo Legion Y520 Tower and Lenovo Ideacentre Y720 Cube stand a chance to win Star Wars: Jedi Challenges, a Legion I Intel Gaming Chair, or the grand prize of a trip for two to Bangkok to watch the Legion of Champion II 2018 Finals in January 2018

Lenovo also put together some gift ideas for the special people in your life: The Lenovo Star Wars Special Edition Yoga 920, the Lenovo Tab 4 10 Plus, and the exclusive Star Wars: Jedi Challenges!  

PR - Dec 13, 2017 - ASUS Launches ZenFone Max Plus

ASUS Malaysia today announced ZenFone Max Plus, the first model in the new ZenFone Max Series, the world’s only range of high-battery-capacity smartphones. ZenFone Max Plus is the first ASUS smartphone with a 5.7-inch full-view display in an amazingly compact body that's no larger than many standard 5.2-inch smartphones.


  • MAX Display: Large 5.7" full-view slim-bezel display provides expanded viewing area with no size penalty compared to standard 5.2" smartphones
  • MAX Stamina: High-capacity 4130mAh battery gives up to 26 days standby, with a 10% capacity giving 67 hours of standby; 3 hours talk time on a 15min charge
  • MAX Photography: 16MP PixelMaster and 120° wide-view dual rear cameras with PDAF provide photo lovers with supreme flexibility for framing and composition
  • MAX Security: First ASUS smartphone with Face Unlock, supplemented by a rear fingerprint sensor for secure and easy unlocking in any situation
PR - Dec 12, 2017 - Barracuda Cautions Against the Use of Outdated Backup Tapes

Barracuda Networks, a leading provider of cloud-enabled security and data protection solutions, cautions corporations from relying on outdated technology such as tape backups to store sensitive customer data.

The caution comes in lieu of a recent announcement by a financial institution, that several of its magnetic tapes containing back-up data had been lost in transit during routine operations.

James Forbes

James Forbes-May, the Vice President of APAC Sales for Barracuda says, “We still see some organisations opting to use tapes for backup as they seem slightly cheaper. However, in the long run, the cost multiplies when we factor in the need for physical storage, rotation, transportation and the weakest link – human interaction.

Magnetic tapes need to be changed out, transported offsite to a storage facility, rotated often. It is crucial that organisations with sensitive customer data, use solutions that can enable backup and offsite data replication to be automated and encrypted

“Companies must make sure all steps are taken to ensure their customers privacy is never compromised. It is essential that consumers are able to rely on the credibility of an organisation especially in the financial sector,” he ends.

PR - Dec 8, 2017 - Motorola & Lenovo's Participation in Lazada's 12.12 Online Revolution

Motorola is giving back to its fans even more with their latest participation in Lazada’s 12.12 Online Revolution happening from 12th to 14th December. There will be special promotions and discount available worth up to RM516 exclusively on Lazada for only three days!

“To show our appreciation to our loyal Motorola and Lenovo mobile supporters in Malaysia for a great year, we are giving back to them with amazing promotions for 3 days only through Lazada’s 12.12 Online Revolution. It’s also a great opportunity for our supporters to get a lovely gift for their loved ones ahead of Christmas and the New Year,” said Lydia Foo, General Manager of Lenovo Mobile Business Group and Motorola Mobility Malaysia.

Below is a quick guide on all the devices and accessories eligible for promotion to help you get the most out of the promotions these three days.
  • Moto X4 (RM1899)
  • Moto G5S Plus (RM999)
  • Moto M (RM799)
  • Moto E4 (RM549)
  • Lenovo K6 Note (RM599)
  • Lenovo Ultimate K8 Note (RM999)

PR - Dec 7, 2017 - Symantec Security predictions 2018

In 2017, we’ve witnessed major service disruptions around the world with large-scale attacks like WannaCry and Petya attacks. Organisations will need to gear up for a busy year ahead as Symantec expects that the trend will become more pronounced as attackers step up on their attacks and introduce new attack methods – surprising us in ways that we never imagined.

Here is a snippet of some of Symantec’s top cyber security predictions for 2018:
  • Blockchain Will Find Uses Outside Of Cryptocurrencies But Cyber criminals Will Focus On Coins and Exchanges
    Cyber criminals will focus on compromising coin-exchanges and users’ coin-wallets since these are the easiest targets, and provide high returns. Victims will also be tricked into installing coin-miners on their computers and mobile devices, handing their CPU and electricity over to cyber criminals.
  • Cyber criminals Will Use Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) To Conduct Attacks
    2018 will mark the first year where we will see AI versus AI in a cybersecurity context. While AI and ML have often been discussed as technologies for protection and detection, we will see cyber criminals adopting these to conduct attacks.
  • Supply Chain Attacks Will Become Mainstream
    Supply chain attacks have been a mainstay of the classical espionage and signals-intelligence operators, and are moving into the cybercriminal space, becoming mainstream. With publicly available information on suppliers, contractors, partnerships and key-people, cyber criminals can find victims in the supply chain and attack the weakest link.

PR - Dec 7, 2017 - Sophos 2017 Malware Trends and 2018 Predictions

This year’s Malware Report from Sophos reveals just how malware is being weaved into this everyday technology, and how, year on year, we are seeing cybercriminals become more intelligent in their attacks, making it increasingly important for consumers to be wary of the dangers out there.

Sumit Bansal

Whilst many consumers may live in denial that an attack like this will ever affect them, Sophos’ research revealed the opposite. Sumit Bansal, Director of ASEAN and Korean at Sophos, reviews the most prominent risks from 2017, and what we can expect in 2018.
  • The extent of ransomware attacks from 2017
  • How online gaming was used to catch consumers off-guard
  • The level of malicious Android apps detected this year
  • 2018 thoughts and predictions

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