How Australian organisations approach the challenges of big data will be key to their success. There are five areas business leaders should watch in 2015, says HP's Dr Roger Kermode. [ + ]

Fewer than 43% of Australian and New Zealand organisations say they are prepared for cyberattacks, yet 61% say they expect their organisation to face an attack in 2015, according to a new survey. [ + ]

This week: an unstoppable cricket robot; Apple's Siri turns snitch; hound found on Mars; solar-powered around-the-world flight; and origami-powered internet. [ + ]

Critics of the Obama administration's proposed cybersecurity reforms have warned that the changes could impede security research and criminalise white-hat hackers. [ + ]

There are many cloud-based unified communications solutions available, and each has its pros and cons. By better understanding the options, IT leaders can decide which option best fits their needs. [ + ]

To counter ever-sophisticated cyberthreats, organisations will need to continually improve their security practices, but many CISOs are overconfident in their company's security capabilities, a Cisco survey suggests. [ + ]

Shadow IT is now commonplace among Australian organisations, but this is freeing CIOs to take a more prominent role in driving business strategies, a BT survey suggests. [ + ]

Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe reportedly reach a $504 million class action settlement; BlackBerry shares surge on news of Samsung's offer to buy the company; and Google halts sales of Google Glass. [ + ]

Australia's cloud communications market is set to reach $650m by 2020 as businesses move to softphones, cloud and mobile apps, according to new research from Telsyte. [ + ]

Google has disclosed two new security flaws in Windows before a fix has been implemented, days after Microsoft asked the web giant to change its policies to avoid such a situation. [ + ]

The University of Arizona has launched the new Inspark Science Network, an initiative to create compelling science courses using tools from Australia's Smart Sparrow. [ + ]

Problems with the migration of 350,000 Melbourne IT customers to a new web hosting platform have overloaded the company's support lines and left customers fuming. [ + ]

More than three in four IT decision-makers in Australia and New Zealand claim that the complexity of storing and managing data is impacting their ability to innovate, according to a new survey. [ + ]

This week we look at: using the cloud to fight an ant invasion; UK PM’s plan to ban Snapchat; the very latest in rocket failures; and a poker-playing computer algorithm that can beat a human. [ + ]

Consumer-grade tools such as Dropbox have wormed their way into the workplace, producing a variety of headaches. But some experts say banning them is at best impossible and, at worst, can damage your business. [ + ]