AWS Announces Third Generation EC2, Cisco to Extend Security to Cloud With New Acquisition and More in This Week’s News

AWS Unveils Third Generation Elastic Cloud Computing

Last week, AWS unveiled their third generation of EC2 (Elastic Cloud Computing) instances.

In order to meet customer needs that require more powerful computing solutions for visualisations and 3D rendering, new AWS instances offer double the CPU power and host memory as well as the most powerful GPU available for cloud instances.

How One AI-Driven Media Platform Cut EBS Costs for AWS ASGs by 48%

How One AI-Driven Media Platform Cut EBS Costs for AWS ASGs by 48%

AWS said that the new instances were developed with heavy CPU-needs in mind. Customers that deal with CPU-heavy processes, like medical imagery or seismic visualisations, can now leverage the G3 EC2 instances for all performance and graphic-intensive applications.

Logo of Amazon Web Services displayed on a wall.

Read More: AWS Blog, Cloud Pro

Cisco Will Acquire Observable Networks to Extend Their Security to the Cloud

In an effort to enable cloud-hosted network forensics security apps, Cisco has announced the acquisition of Observable Networks.

The platform will enable Cisco’s customers to leverage StealthWatch solutions in their cloud. It’s meant to provide real-time monitoring of all traffic, including user tracking, device-tracking and other types of traffic. Observable’s platform uses machine learning to faster detect threats and enables faster reactions to them, which will significantly improve Cisco’s own StealthWatch solutions.

“The ability to improve visibility, security and response capabilities across an entire IT surface, including highly distributed branch environments and public cloud infrastructures, is becoming increasingly important as companies and organizations continue their digital transformation.”

Rob Salvagno, VP of Corporate Business Development at Cisco

The acquisition is due to come through somewhere in the first quarter of 2018, while staff and technology alignments are yet to be defined.

Cisco logo displayed prominently on a sign.

Read More: Cisco Blog, Cloud Pro

Hacked Dating Site to Reimburse 37 Million Affected Users

Roughly 37 million users whose personal data has been exposed about two years ago, are now entitled to a reimbursement after a US court order.

Ashley Madison, the dating site whose data has been breached, has pledged to pay somewhere near $3,500 to each victim.

The site was hacked back in July 2015 and hackers published almost 100 GB of sensitive data onto the dark web. The leaked data included victims’ usernames, first and last names, email addresses, passwords, credit card data information, street names, phone numbers, and transactions records, which led to blackmails and even suicides.

An image featuring the Ashley Madison logo with the word 'HACKED!' overlaid,showing a woman holding a finger to her lips.

Read More: Reuters, Hacker News

Russian Hacker Sentenced to 9 Years for Financial Fraud

Alexander Tverdokhlebov, a 29-year-old Russian-born hacker, has been sentenced to 110 months of prison for running botnets as well as for stealing and trafficking credit card numbers.

The hacker has been accused of running huge 500,000-machines botnets and reselling sensitive data on exclusive Russian-speaking cybercriminal forums. The hacker was arrested in February and pleaded guilty on March 31.

According to court data, Tverdokhlebov offered illegal services on underground forums, operated several botnets made of compromised home and office computers. Further data suggests that Tverdokhlebov claimed that “he possessed 40,000 stolen credit card numbers and could control up to 500,000 infected computers.” at various occasions between 2009 and 2013.

Upon the hacker’s arrest in February, authorities seized $5 million in Bitcoin and $272,000 in cash.

A black t-shirt with the text 'Everybody needs a hacker' printed on the back.

Read More: Hacker News, IBTimes

In-Car Skype for Business Now Available for BMW Owners

BMW is expanding its in-car tools and will include the ability to join Skype meetings. The feature will be integrated through BMW’s iDrive system.

The software can inform the driver about upcoming meetings or reschedulings. The announcement comes as the latest business-focused tool BMW has implemented.

“In today’s always-on culture, people need to be productive from anywhere – including their cars. Commute times are reaching record highs and people work from a variety of locations. This means that people need a way to capitalise on time spent in their cars.”

Ulrich Homann, Chief Architect at Microsoft

The new features will launch in Germany, France and the UK first, but the dates are yet to be announced.

Close-up view of a car dashboard interface displaying the menu for Skype for Business participation and other options.

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