Lenovo reveals the Flex laptop series, a pair of new Yogas, and the Flex 20 all-in-one PC

Lenovo makes more noise at IFA today, announcing two new ThinkPad Yoga models, the Flex thin-and-light series, and the Flex 20 portable all-in-one PC. Each of four new PCs will feature fourth-generation Intel Core processors (aka Haswell), but the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is the most interesting, thanks to its 13-inch display that delivers an eye-popping resolution of 3200-by-1800-pixels.

The Yoga 2 Pro feature’s the now-familiar dual-hinge design that allows the display to be oriented into four modes: Tent, stand, tablet, and laptop. But unlike previous models, this one will boast a 13-inch multi-touch display with native resolution of 3200 by 1800 pixels. The new chassis is also thinner and lighter than previous models, measuring 0.61 inches thick and weighing 3.06 pounds.

The Yoga 2 Pro, also pictured above, features a backlit keyboard.

Processor choices will range up to a Core i7 with integrated graphics, coupled with up to 8GB of DDR3 memory. Storage options consist of 128, 256, or 512GB SSDs, and I/O ports include one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0, micro HDMI, and an SD/MMC card reader.

The Yoga 2 Pro will be available in October at prices starting at $1100.

The ThinkPad Yoga delivers all the presentation flexibility of the consumer-oriented Yoga in an IT-friendly form factor.

Many corporate IT departments eschew Lenovo’s consumer-oriented IdeaPad product line, a policy that left a lot of suits disappointed that they couldn’t pack the earlier IdeaPad Yoga 11S or Yoga 13 in their briefcases.

That barrier should disappear with the ThinkPad Yoga, a rugged convertible featuring a magnesium-alloy shell, a 12.5-inch Gorilla Glass touchscreen, and a “lift-and-lock” keyboard that automatically retracts the keyboard to present a flush surface when the notebook is placed in tablet mode.

The ThinkPad Yoga will be available with Intel Core i3, Core i5, or Core i7 CPUs and up to 8GB of DDR3/1600 memory. In spite of its 0.74-inch thickness, the machine will be outfitted with a 1TB hard drive as standard equipment, with a 256GB SSD as an available option. The ThinkPad version of the Yoga will be limited to 1920 by 1080 resolution, but it will be available with an optional Wacom pen digitizer. It will also get a better collection of I/O ports, including two USB 3.0 ports and a four-in-one card reader in addition to mini HDMI.

The ThinkPad Yoga will be available in November at prices starting at $949.

It’s easy to mistake the Lenovo Flex, available in 14- and 15-inch configurations, for the Yoga series, but there’s a key difference. The display on the Flex series pivots only 300 degrees. You can position it to face forward to watch a movie or make it easier to use the touchscreen, but you can’t pivot it into tablet mode.

No, that's not a Yoga. It's the Lenovo Flex 14 (unlike it's more limber cousin, its display can pivot only 300 degrees).

The Flex 15’s display delivers full 1920 by 1080 resolution, but the 14-inch model is limited to 1366 by 768 pixels. Discrete Nvidia mobile graphics will be offered as options. Both models will be available with up to Intel Core i7 CPUs and up to 8GB of memory. Storage comes in the form of mechanical hard drives (up to 500GB for the Flex 14, and up to 1TB for the Flex 15), with 16GB SSD cache drives as available options. The Flex line will also be thicker and heavier than the Yoga series, with the 15-inch model measuring 0.87 inches thick and weighing 5.07 pounds.

The Lenovo Flex series will be available later this month at prices starting at $630.

I was quite taken with Lenovo’s 27-inch IdeaCentre Horizon portable all-in-one, but carting a 19-pound computer around the house isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. The Flex 20 scales that concept down to a 19.5-inch touchscreen display, shaving more than 10 pounds in the process. Unfortunately, the Flex 20 also scales the resolution down: to 1600 by 900 pixels. On the bright side, it’s compatible with the joysticks, strikers, and e-dice that Lenovo developed for the Horizon.

You might think of the Lenovo Flex 20 as a scaled-down IdeaCentre Horizon 27.

The Flex 20 will be available with up to a Core i7 processor, 8GB of DDR3 memory, and a 500GB hybrid hard drive with an 8GB SSD cache. I/O ports are limited to two USB 3.0 ports and a headset jack. The all-in-one will have an integrated 720p webcam and stereo speakers. Lenovo says it should be capable of running on battery power for up to three hours.

The Flex 20 will be available later this month at prices starting at $900.

Michael manages PCWorld's hardware product reviews and contributes to TechHive's coverage of home-control systems and sound bars.
More by Michael Brown

View the original article here

Leaked US spying budget reveals investments in 'groundbreaking' cryptanalysis

IDG News Service - The U.S. intelligence community is reportedly using 20% of its $52.6 billion annual budget to fund cryptography-related programs and operations.

Some of those funds are invested in finding weaknesses in cryptographic systems that would allow breaking encrypted communications collected from the Internet and elsewhere, according to a portion of a top-secret document published Thursday by The Washington Post and obtained from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The document is the fiscal year 2013 budget proposal summary for the National Intelligence Program, which spans 16 agencies with over 107,000 employees. The entire report called "FY 2013 Congressional Budget Justification" has 178 pages, according to the Post, but the newspaper only published 17, including a 5-page statement signed by U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

In his statement, Clapper listed the primary areas of investment for the intelligence community which included Signals Intelligence (SIGINT). In respect to SIGINT he wrote: "We are bolstering our support for clandestine SIGINT capabilities to collect against high priority targets, including foreign leadership targets. Also, we are investing in groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities to defeat adversarial cryptography and exploit internet traffic."

Cryptanalysis is the science of analyzing cryptographic systems in order to find weaknesses that would allow obtaining the contents of encrypted messages without advance knowledge of the encryption key.

Previous documents leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA is collecting Internet communications en-masse with the help of telecommunication and technology companies. U.S. companies that operate the backbone telecommunications and Internet infrastructure are paid millions of dollars every year by the government to allow the NSA to collect data as it moves through their fiber-optic cables and networks, the Post reported Thursday.

The newly leaked budget reveals that this money is paid through a project called the "Corporate Partner Access" that was expected to cost $278 million during fiscal year 2013, the newspaper said. There are some other payments for "Foreign Partner Access" totalling $56.6 million, although it's not clear if these are for foreign companies, foreign governments or other entities.

The NSA's mass upstream interception of Internet traffic has prompted many people in the security community to wonder what the agency's crypto-cracking capabilities might be in relation to encryption schemes and protocols that are in widespread use on the Internet today. Some crypto experts believe that there is not reason to believe the NSA can crack strong encryption algorithms vetted by scientists, but others said that the feasibility of breaking widely used encryption protocols like SSL/TLS depends on various factors, like key size and other configurations.

While the leaked budget document does not provide details about the NSA's ability to crack encrypted communication, it does confirm that cryptography and cryptanalysis are one of the U.S. intelligence community's key areas of interest.

Twenty-one percent, or roughly $11 billion, of the 2013 budget was intended for the Consolidated Cryptologic Program (CCP), which includes NSA programs and is staffed by around 35,000 employees. This makes it the second most expensive program of the intelligence community after the Central Intelligence Agency program, which was supposed to receive 28% of the funds.

Of the $11 billion used to fund the CPP, around $2.5 billion, or 23%, were intended for "collection and operations" and $1.6 billion, or 15%, for "processing and exploitation." The program's biggest expenses were estimated in the "enterprise management and support" category which was set to receive 26% of the funds.

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

View the original article here

Leaked U.S. spying budget reveals investments in 'groundbreaking' cryptanalysis

The U.S. intelligence community is reportedly using a fifth of its $52.6 billion annual budget to fund cryptography-related programs and operations.

Some of those funds are invested in finding weaknesses in cryptographic systems that would allow breaking encrypted communications collected from the Internet and elsewhere, according to a portion of a top-secret document published Thursday by The Washington Post and obtained from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The document is the fiscal year 2013 budget proposal summary for the National Intelligence Program, which spans 16 agencies with over 107,000 employees. The entire report called “FY 2013 Congressional Budget Justification” has 178 pages, according to the Post, but the newspaper only published 17, including a 5-page statement signed by U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

Edward Snowden

In his statement, Clapper listed the primary areas of investment for the intelligence community which included Signals Intelligence (SIGINT). In respect to SIGINT he wrote: “We are bolstering our support for clandestine SIGINT capabilities to collect against high priority targets, including foreign leadership targets. Also, we are investing in groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities to defeat adversarial cryptography and exploit internet traffic.”

Cryptanalysis is the science of analyzing cryptographic systems in order to find weaknesses that would allow obtaining the contents of encrypted messages without advance knowledge of the encryption key.

Previous documents leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA is collecting Internet communications en-masse with the help of telecommunication and technology companies.

U.S. companies that operate the backbone telecommunications and Internet infrastructure are paid millions of dollars every year by the government to allow the NSA to collect data as it moves through their fiber-optic cables and networks, the Post reported Thursday.

The newly leaked budget reveals that this money is paid through a project called the “Corporate Partner Access” that was expected to cost $278 million during fiscal year 2013, the newspaper said. There are some other payments for “Foreign Partner Access” totalling $56.6 million, although it’s not clear if these are for foreign companies, foreign governments or other entities.

The NSA’s mass upstream interception of Internet traffic has prompted many people in the security community to wonder what the agency’s crypto-cracking capabilities might be in relation to encryption schemes and protocols that are in widespread use on the Internet today. Some crypto experts believe that there is not reason to believe the NSA can crack strong encryption algorithms vetted by scientists, but others said that the feasibility of breaking widely used encryption protocols like SSL/TLS depends on various factors, like key size and other configurations.

While the leaked budget document does not provide details about the NSA’s ability to crack encrypted communication, it does confirm that cryptography and cryptanalysis are one of the U.S. intelligence community’s key areas of interest.

Related: Report: The NSA pays millions for U.S. telecom access

Twenty-one percent, or roughly $11 billion, of the 2013 budget was intended for the Consolidated Cryptologic Program (CCP), which includes NSA programs and is staffed by around 35,000 employees. This makes it the second most expensive program of the intelligence community after the Central Intelligence Agency program, which was supposed to receive 28 percent of the funds.

Of the $11 billion used to fund the CPP, around $2.5 billion, or 23 percent, were intended for “collection and operations” and $1.6 billion, or 15 percent, for “processing and exploitation.” The program’s biggest expenses were estimated in the “enterprise management and support” category which was set to receive 26 percent of the funds.

View the original article here

Email security strongest from social media, report reveals

Email from social media brands is some of the safest on the Internet, while electronic posts from financial services brands is some of the riskiest, says a report released last week by an email security provider.

"Consumers may be worried about their privacy settings, but in terms of protecting consumers via email, social media is the clear leader," said the report from Agari, which analyzed more than a trillion emails during the second quarter of this year.

Agari uses that analysis to create a Trust Index for email in financial services, e-commerce, social media, travel, logistics, and gaming industries.

The index is based on a Trust Score—a reflection of the adoption and deployment of security measures in an industry to protect its customers from malicious email—and a Threat Score—which provides a measure of relative risk based on malicious activity and attempted attacks.

Social media led all industry sectors during the June quarter with a Trust Score of 73.1, out of a possible 100.

Ranking companies and industries based on the ThreatScore, and TrustScore benchmarks gives consumers and leading brands visibility into how aggressively a sector is being threatened and which companies are taking action to secure email and protect consumer data and trust, the report explained.

"Social media has been far more aggressive about protecting their customers and far more responsive to keep up with the technologies available to protect their customers," Agari founder and CEO Patrick Peterson said in an interview.

Among those technologies is DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance), which Agari's report said can virtually eliminate brand abuse through fraudulent email attacks and drastically reduces the risks of consumer loss, reputation damage, and financial liability.

"A lot more people should be using DMARC because it allows administrators and organizations to be able to reject mail if it doesn't match certain parameters no matter where it says it's coming from," said Paul Ferguson, vice president for threat intelligence at Internet Identity.

Nevertheless, Ferguson was skeptical of the glowing grades given social media by Agari. "We see daily campaigns with emails harboring malicious content that's masquerading as DHL, Fedex, Dun & Bradsteet or social media like Facebook and Linkedin," he said.

In fact, social media may contribute to the problem by fueling a growing culture of interrupt-alerts that demand attention without forethought. "It allows bad guys to blend in with that noise," Ferguson explained.

Other sectors analyzed by Agari didn't fare as well as social media. "The most significant, but not at all surprising, discovery comes from financial services where there has been a huge spike in malicious activity, more than doubling from the prior quarter," the report said.

"In fact, consumers are seven times more likely to receive a malicious email from their bank than from any other type of company," it said.

Despite that spike, financial services still managed a Trust Score of 39.7, a seven percent jump over the previous quarter and significantly higher than the worst sector in the report: travel, with a score of 17.2.

"This sector, and the airlines in particular, is doing the least of all industries we analyzed to secure email and prevent their consumers from becoming victims of an attack," the report said.

"Even airlines like JetBlue that are well known for being leaders in delivering a better digital experience, are putting customers at risk with very little effort in preventing these types of attacks," the report added.

Agari also reported that many consumers do not realize that 95 percent of data breaches start with a phishing email. "I think we can safely say that after however years it has been, we've lost the battle of educating about threats," George Tubin, a senior security strategist with Trusteer, told CSOonline.

"We're just not going to be able to educate people to identify these things," he said.

"We need to keep educating, but the only way we're going to be successful with this is to fight these technology attacks with technology defenses," Tubin said. "We shouldn't be relying on human judgement to determine what's a legitimate email and what isn't."

John Mello writes on technology and cyber security for a number of online publications and is former managing editor of the Boston Business Journal and Boston Phoenix.
More by John P. Mello Jr

View the original article here