The information technology sector, including companies that are directly and indirectly involved in providing IT products and services to the federal government, will be especially affected by the provisions of the "Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity."

Tapping into natural language understanding technology as part of an overall approach to managing customer relations improves the experience that businesses provide to their customers. Brands already implement a variety of solutions to gain data and insights from customer interactions. Still, many companies struggle to catch trends or potential problems due to disparate data.

Google's new service aimed at beefing up the search capabilities of retailers' websites may make those sellers more competitive with Amazon. Google Cloud Retail Search hopes to address the staggering problem of "search abandonment," which costs retailers more than $300 billion a year in the U.S. alone, according to research performed by The Harris Poll and commissioned by Google Cloud.

Anyone with a stake in keeping ahead of cybersecurity assaults and enterprise network intrusions through API vulnerabilities can now tap into expert advisories and security reports. API security company Salt Security last week launched Salt Labs, a now-public forum for publishing research on API vulnerabilities.

One of the strains on the logistics industry is increased consumer demand for speedy delivery -- and this requirement is making it even more important to consider the environmental impacts of faster fulfillment. We spoke with experts in the field to find out what's happening to make logistics more sustainable, and how this sustainability can be good not just for the planet, but for business.

In addition to its condemnation of China, the White House announced that the U.S. Justice Department has filed charges against four Ministry of State Security hackers allegedly engaged in a multiyear campaign targeting foreign governments and entities in key sectors, including maritime, aviation, defense, education and healthcare in a least a dozen countries.

The build-versus-buy decision is an important one. Companies have been making similar choices about their technology stacks for decades. When it comes to customer data platforms, however, some organizations are rushing to make a determination. There are some important questions to ask before making a build-or-buy choice. Let's take a look at the factors involved.

Amazon is on the brink of a possible breakup, and marketers should be ready to seize the opportunity. It's difficult to imagine life without Amazon -- as we know it. But with ongoing antitrust probes by Congress, there's a real possibility that Amazon's e-commerce dominance may soon end. Let's examine what a breakup of Amazon could look like -- and why it's likely a win for brand marketers.

The U.S. technology industry is guardedly supporting a massive legislative package designed to address a range of issues affecting the sector, including a federal commitment to add billions of dollars to government technology research and development programs. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., characterized the legislation as "a landmark bill to out-compete China in key emerging technology areas critical to our national security."

By cutting out the middleman, brands can earn a higher margin and gain direct access to consumers and their data. For these reasons, leading brands such as Nike are aggressively making the shift to DTC, and other large retailers are following suit. However, many forget to take into account three important factors.

Effective metrics provide a point of comparison for the business and become behavior-changing in how decisions are made, according to Aurimas Adomavicius, president of Devbridge, a global digital products consultancy. TechNewsWorld spoke with Adomavicius to pursue the concept of how software developers can put meaningful metrics to work.

Clients of SolarWinds, which experienced a high-profile data breach last year, are being targeted in a probe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a Reuters report. "The impact of these large-scale breaches clearly has the potential to destabilize stock prices and the broader stock market, so it makes sense that the SEC would pursue such a line of inquiry," said Oliver Tavakoli, CTO of Vectra AI.

Organizations are beginning to develop, design, and manage their own voice assistant systems that are independent of today's general-purpose voice platforms. The desire to manage the entirety of the user experience is driving this transition. The Open Voice Network is dedicated to supporting this transformation with industry guidance on the voice-specific protection of user privacy and data security.

Artificial intelligence may well be the Holy Grail solution for more effective shopping optimization for merchants. The list is almost endless when you tally the potential uses. It can be anywhere, from classification issues like recommendations to search and merchandising personalization. It also aids retailers in things like optimization and visual modeling.

A configuration error in the systems of content delivery provider Fastly knocked out numerous large websites and apps around the globe Tuesday. The event served up a reminder of how distributed networks play a critical role in the internet today -- and how important it is to make sure that the software in distributed systems is running properly.

E-commerce merchants are literally at the mercy of the digital checkout systems tied to their web stores. For retailers, what happens on the other side of the "pay" button is critical to avoiding denied approvals. Online payment service provider Credorax peeled back the curtain for the E-Commerce Times to reveal the ins and outs of what happens behind the pay button.

The U.S. government is moving at a brisk pace to launch information technology projects authorized by the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Federal information technology providers are looking for the chance to participate in contracts flowing from the $1 billion allocated by the plan to the government's Technology Modernization Fund.

IT has not been simply about data processing for a long time. Recent data breaches show the increasing importance of things like encryption, automated database management, and taking security measures to safeguard vital data. All of that is necessary overhead that must be supported by CPU cycles. The cheaper and faster those cycles, and the lower their energy demands, the better.

New research by threat detection and response firm Vectra AI shows that the most common threats to corporate networks remain consistent throughout all companies -- regardless of their size. Researchers calculated the relative frequency of threat detections that were triggered during a three-month span. The results detail the top 10 threat detections that customers receive by relative frequency.

As the value of cryptocurrencies continue to soar, new investors are eager to get in on the action, and scammers are more than willing to accommodate them. According to the Federal Trade Commission, claims of losses from cryptocurrency fraud skyrocketed from October 2020 to March 2021. The median loss reported neared a 1,000 percent increase over the same period a year ago.

Advancements in 5G connectivity and accelerated digital transformation of business operations creates heightened risk and expanded attack surfaces for security teams to harden and protect. Now, efforts by several internet industry groups are focused on new measures to fix inherent security weaknesses with the rapidly expanded use of IoT devices for enterprises and consumers.

Last week at Dell Technologies World, the most significant announcement was a massive as-a-service offering called Dell Technologies Apex. This promises to return the IT market to its long lost but fondly remembered IBM past. Let's talk about Apex this week. We'll then close with the product of the week, an impressive new WiFi 6E wireless mesh solution from Linksys.

Picking the ideal Linux distribution takes research and planning. Not because Linux is a challenge. Rather, the Linux OS offers a seemingly unending selection of distributions to meet general computing as well as special needs for enterprise, SMBs, and personal use. Deciding which distribution of Linux is right for you involves a number of variables and factors.

A recent study by Kaspersky revealed that nearly one quarter of PCs still run Microsoft Windows 7, which stopped receiving mainstream support in January 2020. Using an end-of-life operating system that no longer receives security updates is akin to driving a car with a brake light on, suggested Oliver Tavakoli, CTO at Vectra AI.

U.S. senators heading antitrust issues have flagged Apple's new AirTag effort as potentially anticompetitive after Tile CEO CJ Prober started complaining because Apple could put his company out of business. Let's talk about Apple, vendor lock-in, and antitrust. Then we'll close with the product of the week, the new AMD-powered Surface Laptop in beautiful black.

This year's revised federal tax code plus new Covid-19 initiatives provide additional incentives for startup companies, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. If you received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, you may qualify to have that indebtedness forgiven; and other tax incentives this year provide new deductions to lower your tax bill.

A set of flaws in a widely used network communication protocol that could affect millions of devices has been revealed by Forescout Research Labs and JSOF Research. The nine vulnerabilities discovered by security researchers dramatically increase the attack surface of at least 100 million Internet of Things devices, exposing them to potential attacks that could take the devices offline or to be hijacked by threat actors.

Microsoft has announced it is purchasing Nuance Communications, a natural language to computer processing company, in a deal valued at $19.7 billion. "Nuance's popular healthcare-focused products and services will provide Microsoft an instant revenue stream and relationships with existing Nuance customers," noted Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT.

Even the most customer-centric businesses can overestimate their performance or miss the broad trends in customer behavior. That is why NICE inContact conducts annual surveys that track the customer experience from the perspective of businesses and consumers. CRM Buyer discussed the recent findings and related issues in more detail with the company's CEO Paul Jarman.

Engaging in disaster recovery requires a company to think about many things, but despite the long checklists that are created to accomplish DR, there are some areas that frequently get overlooked in business continuity and disaster recovery planning. With this in mind, it is imperative to address all areas of concern before a disaster strikes, not during or after the event.