More bad news in the security sector this week, IBM is reporting there is a group of hackers (Dyre Wolf) going after financial wire transactions.
Speaking of transactions, IBM had a mobile heavy news week: More new apps with Apple (8 in total, 4 focusing on healthcare), they are spending $3B on internet of things infrastructure and management (seemingly around collecting data from wearables) and finally IBM announced a mobile app partnership in China.
This is a week of lawsuits: IBM is being sued by shareholders over their hardware write off and everybody involved with the HP Autonomy purchase is suing each other.
Also in HP news, the EMC merger (actually acquisition) rumor is floating around again.
IBM
- IBM investing $3B in Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure: (JS: need to start thinking about this in terms of mobile)
The company understands that the majority of data generated and collected cannot be analyzed, as there is no proper infrastructure to do so – but will work with partnering companies to develop tools and services for app developers.
- Speaking of mobile, IBM/Apple announce 8 more enterprise apps
The new group expands that to healthcare, with four of the eight new apps in that sector. Another app is in industrial products, with others coming to retail, airlines, and insurance. Healthcare, perhaps more than any other industry, is ripe for innovation. Technology is everywhere, but there remains room for improvement all over the place. Here’s an overview of the new offerings.
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/ibm-and-apple-unveil-eight-more-enterprise-ios-apps/
- IBM introduces another social tool called “Verse”
A direct result of IBM’s $100 million investment in design innovation, IBM Verse integrates email, calendars, file sharing, instant messaging, social and more – all through a single collaborative, cloud-based environment. (Note: It is hosted on SoftLayer)
- IBM is getting sued by stockholders due to their hardware selloff:
http://www.law360.com/technology/articles/638893/ibm-hit-with-investor-suit-over-shedding-hardware-business - IBM gets involved with Chinese telecom to manage mobile apps
This is really interesting considering China has been throwing out US based companies lately.She did mention that the deal with China Telecom was already underway before the Chinese government announced the new regulations, but she would not make any comment on the potential effect of the new policies on the MobileFirst business.
http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/04/ibm-and-china-telecom-sign-deal-to-manage-mobile-apps/
- Weather Channel dumps amazon for IBM (Cloud and IoT)
http://www.ibtimes.com/weather-channel-taps-ibm-cloud-services-1864750 - Can Watson evaluate your contracts?
And it adds to technologies such as e-discovery, online dispute resolution, e-mediation and predictive coding that have already sent a shiver through the world’s law firms by threatening to automate many tasks once performed by humans clocking in and clocking out on the client’s purse.
http://www.itnews.com.au/CXOChallenge/402214,is-your-lawyer-smarter-than-ibms-watson.aspx
HP
- More from the story that never ends: HP sues former Autonomy execs for $5.1B
http://seekingalpha.com/news/2402156-hp-sues-autonomy-execs-for-5_1bMore detail: They are going after Deloitte because they did the accounting treatment for the deal:http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2015/04/02/hewlett-packard-in-talks-to-reach-legal-settlement-over-alleged/page/1/
Wait there is more: Mike Lynch (Autonomy founder) is suing HP due to their “smear campaign”…
http://www.cbronline.com/news/verticals/the-boardroom/mike-lynch-sues-hp-over-autonomy-smear-campaign-4544263 - A brutal summary of HP’s leadership and decision over the last few years:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2015/04/01/new-h-p-way/
Other
- Security: Dyre Wolf malware steals more than $1 million, bypasses 2FA protection
The Dyre Wolf campaign, as it has been dubbed by IBM Security researchers, targets businesses that use wire transfers to move large sums of money, even when the transactions are protected with two-factor authentication. The heist starts with mass e-mailings that attempt to trick people into installing Dyre, a strain of malware that came to light last year. The Dyre versions observed by IBM researchers remained undetected by the majority of antivirus products.
- Salesforce acquires Toopher (mobile authentication):
http://www.itnews.com/access-control-and-authentication/91422/salesforce-acquires-mobile-authentication-firm-toopher - Salesforce is helping employees move out of Indiana
http://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-offers-indiana-employee-relocation-package-2015-4 - What should EMC buy?
Macquarie Research‘s Rajesh Ghai opines that a merger with Cisco Systems (CSCO) would be “logical,” but that a merger with HP Enterprise, soon to be one half of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), seems “a more likely outcome.”
Is this “Big Joe’s” swan song?
As Joe Tucci approaches the twilight of his illustrious career, we believe he recognizes a huge part of how his legacy will be perceived in future years will be the state he leaves EMC in when he calls it a day. We see him as an immensely proud man likely to do his best for shareholders over the next few months.
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2015/04/02/emc-what-they-should-buy-per-macquarie-summit/