Articles by John P. Mello Jr.

Ad spending growth trends were mixed across the largest U.S. digital ad platforms in Q3, while pricing growth was weak, according to a report released today by an independent performance marketing firm While all but Facebook saw stronger volume growth in the quarter, only Instagram, with a 21% year-over-year increase, and YouTube, with a 12% jump, ...

Identity-related system breaches are on the rise, and organizational help desks are emerging as a popular target for threat actors, according to a new report by RSA The report, based on a global survey of 2,100 cybersecurity, identity, access management, and IT professionals, found that more than two-thirds of the organizations participating in the...

Security leaders facing workforce shortages are turning to artificial intelligence to close the skills gaps in their organizations, according to survey results released today by a global cybersecurity company Some 97% of 1,850 IT and cybersecurity decision-makers across 29 countries reported using or planning to use a cybersecurity solution that le...

Some 41% of schools in the United States and the United Kingdom have experienced AI-related cyber incidents, ranging from phishing campaigns to harmful student-generated content, according to a recently released study from a systems identity and access management firm Among the 41% of schools experiencing an AI-related cyber incident, 11% reported ...

Cybersecurity researchers revealed Tuesday how artificial intelligence can be used to clone a person's voice in real time to mount voice phishing attacks on unsuspecting organizations Researchers from the NCC Group noted in a company blog that they launched attacks using real-time voice cloning against real organizations and successfully recovered ...

New parental controls for one of the most popular generative AI chatbots on the web were rolled out Monday by OpenAI The company announced that controls for ChatGPT will be available to all users of the chatbot, allowing parents to link their account with their teen’s account and customize settings for a safe, age-appropriate experience....

The takedown of a massive outlaw telecom network in the New York City metro area by the U.S. Secret Service has raised concerns about the security of the nation's mobile infrastructure The Secret Service announced Tuesday that it had dismantled a network of electronic devices located throughout the New York tristate area that were used to conduct m...

A new rule by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) aimed at beefing up cybersecurity at contractors doing business with the agency could spawn more whistleblowers in the military-industrial complex The rule, set to take effect Nov. 10, governs the agency’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program, which verifies that defense cont...

A technology leap comparable to the jump from vacuum tubes to integrated circuits has been achieved with the delivery of the first full-stack quantum computer built using a standard silicon CMOS chip fabrication process Quantum Motion (QM), maker of the computer, announced Monday that the hardware, which uses mass-manufacturable 300mm silicon CMOS ...

Waning trust in tech companies has spawned a new C-level role: Chief Trust Officer (CTrO) According to a recent trends report by Forrester Research, tech companies are struggling to garner the trust of businesses and the public due to missteps following many breakthrough technology advances. The report pointed out that stalkers have adopted Apple A...

A new thin iPhone was the star of Apple's "Awe Dropping" event aired online Tuesday The new Air, at 5.6 millimeters thick, is the thinnest iPhone Apple has ever produced. "It's unlike anything you've ever held before, and it's packed with features," John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, said at the event....

In most cases, a misleading result from a Google search is harmless, but a case study by a consumer financial information website released Monday shows how those results can cause economic harm to searchers In its study, WalletHub did a Google search for "best 0 APR credit cards." Here's what it found:...

A survey released Monday by a trade-in comparison website found that 30% of iPhone owners are "considering" switching to foldable phones by Apple's competitors if the company waits until 2026 to launch a foldable of its own According to the survey by SellCell, 20.1% of iPhone owners would consider switching to a Samsung foldable and 10.2% to a Goog...

A plan to bolster the nation's cybersecurity that will cost virtually nothing was unveiled Tuesday by the Internet Security Alliance (ISA) In a 21-page document, the alliance offers five recommendations that it maintains "will cost the federal government virtually nothing" and, as a bonus, save private industry billions....

For nearly a decade, Apple has been trying to reduce its dependency on China for production of its cash cow, the iPhone. With the iPhone 17, it's taking a major step in that direction. All models of that phone will be made in India, Bloomberg reported Tuesday Bloomberg noted: "The company is producing all four iPhone 17 models in India ahead of the...

As more consumers tap into artificial intelligence to enhance their online shopping experiences, new risks are being created for e-commerce merchants. To address those risks, a pair of e-commerce security companies is partnering to offer a new unified framework that they say will enable merchants to safely reap the benefits of AI shopping The frame...

Tradeoffs. The world of tech is full of them. Yet, as Forrester Research points out in a recent trends report, tradeoffs can give disruptive technologies a Jekyll and Hyde personality, providing great benefits but at the same time undermining an organization's sustainability efforts "Disruptive technologies are a double-edged sword for environmenta...

Technology has become a keystone for making schools safe for kids these days. It's appearing everywhere, even in things as simple as the visitors' sign-in sheet "While many schools have paper log visitor management, we continue to see an increase in using electronic visitor management that can track visitors and cross-check them against national da...

With AI agents expected to account for 20% or more of e-commerce traffic in the next five years, digital merchants face a new wave of risks and opportunities. To help e-commerce businesses meet those risks and capitalize on those opportunities, Forter, based in New York City, rolled out some new features for its trust platform on Tuesday Those feat...

Google advanced one of its initiatives Monday to address the burgeoning demand for energy by its data centers, driven by power-hungry artificial intelligence applications The company announced agreements with Indiana Michigan Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority to throttle energy demand from machine learning workloads at its data centers in th...