The USB 3.0 Promoter Group released the USB 3.0 specifications at the first SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference in San Jose, California, held on on Monday, November 17th. The completion of the specification, the technical map for USB 3.0 – also known as SuperSpeed USB, will enable manufacturers to produce new USB 3.0 based devices for the market in about a year.

The new USB specification states lower power consumption and enhanced performance, while providing backward compatibility with billions of USB 2.0 enabled computers and peripheral devices currently in use. The specifications also state that data transfer rates have increased to up to ten times faster than Hi-Speed USB 2.0 standards. The SuperSpeed USB works at 5 Gigabits per second compared to the fastest speed of 480 Megabits per second offered by USB 2.0. Read more…

In a statement issued today, the German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (known as BSI) recommends that all Internet Explorer users switch to an alternative browser. They may resume using Explorer after a fix is issued by Microsoft for a critical vulnerability that has been implicated in the Chinese cyberattack against Google.

If you missed it, yesterday McAffee released a report outlining details of the cyber assault on Google and around 20 other major technology companies. It specifically implicates a critical flaw in all versions of IE that allows hackers to “perform reconnaissance and gain complete control over the compromised system.” Microsoft has responded that it is developing an update to the vulnerability. Read more…