BUSINESS

Motherboard spy chips: truth, hoax or conspiracy?

Sven Krumrey

Just another chapter in the trade war?

Recently, the IT landscape was shuck at its core when Bloomberg Businessweek reported that mainboards from market leader Supermicro came with tiny spy chips no bigger than the size of a grain of rice. If this turned out to be true, most data centers would be at risk of data theft or computer sabotage. The main potential victims were said to be US cloud service providers with their gigantic databases. And while fierce debate rages on, there's also a political side. So who's deceiving whom?

more

BUSINESS

Away with your conscience: Project Dragonfly

Sven Krumrey

Heading east

2010 was a special year: Google voluntarily gave up money. After Chinese censorship authorities had tightened the thumbscrews, the US company faced the consequences and withdrew from the Chinese market, leaving the field to their competitors. This also meant services like Gmail, Google Drive or Playstore were no longer welcome in the Middle Kingdom. This move earned Google a lot of respect, further underpinning their "Don't be evil" mentality and their quest for freedom of information. Eight years later, both their noble mindset and scruples have seemingly gone up in smoke. Enter Dragonfly

more

BUSINESS

What is VPN? A short introduction plus test

Sven Krumrey

Here goes nothing without encryption

The term "VPN" frequently shows up on the Internet. This technology is old hat for some and a mystery to others. Read on to learn what VPN means and what it looks like in practice.

more

BUSINESS

How do cryptocurrencies work?

Sven Krumrey

Valuable investment or unnecessary hype?

You can't escape them. They're in the news, on entertainment programs or show up in Internet ads. Cryptocurrencies are ubiquitous. But how do they work and how can a single individual, that might not even exist, invent a new currency along with the technical foundation? Though there are now quite a number of cryptocurrencies available, I'll focus on the darling of the digital currency movement: Bitcoin.

more

BUSINESS

A farewell to Windows Phone!

Sven Krumrey

Colorful but not coveted: Windows Phone

When managers have a chat without firing off marketing buzzwords things get really interesting. Last week, Joe Belfiore, the man in charge of Windows Edge, announced the end of Windows in the mobile space as a side note. Windows 10 for cellphones will no longer be developed and users will only receive bug fixes and security updates until the end of 2019. That means there'll only be two big competitors left in the cellphone market, i.e. iOS and Android. Even though Windows Phone ran on only 1% of all cellphones it had a resounding effect. Rarely had it become so apparent where market power ends and how hard it is to close an innovation gap.

more