Companies struggle to keep their networks secure, and are becoming frustrated by cyberattacks and data breaches. Despite some interest in launching retaliatory attacks, there are a number of hurdles that make it difficult, legal issues aside - not only would it be ineffective because it could escalate the matter further, but there are concerns victims would launch cyberattacks against the wrong targets.

The topic came back to life after JPMorgan Chase may have recruited hackers to launch attacks in retaliation for a cyberattack. Cybersecurity experts and the US government don't recommend companies seek revenge, as US infrastructure has the most to lose - and it'll likely end poorly for the victim either way.

"The technical sector is the backbone of the American economy, and if we start engaging in these kind of behaviors, in these kind of attacks, we're setting a standard, we're creating a new international norm of behavior that says this is what nations do," said former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, in a an interview that PBS Nova will publish soon.

CES 2015 - Two themes stuck out this year in the consumer SSD world at CES 2015, Silicon Motion and 3bit per cell NAND flash.

At the ADATA suite we found these two topics merging together in the new ADATA SP320 SSD, the first retail branded product with a SMI SM2256 controller. Paired with the new Silicon Motion controller is 3bit per cell (TLC) NAND. ADATA didn't tell us what flavor of TLC rests under the cover. At this time the pool is fairly shallow but in the coming months several NAND flash fabs will deepen the pool.

The SP320 will ship in four capacity sizes, read up to 560 MB/s and write up to 510 MB/s, both sequential. No word on the random performance or price but we expect both to be low considering the low cost consumer placement of this product.

CES 2015 -ADATA had a working reference Seagate SandForce SF3700 SSD on display at CES 2015. The SF3700 has run over the expected release date, but with manufacturers highlighting the SF3700 in working demo's we know the controller is coming closer to market. Speculation is that shipping products will be ready around June, which is around the Computex trade show.

The demonstration was powered by a SandForce SSD placed on a PCB adapter board which allows an M.2 SSD to work over a standard PCIe slot. The SF3700 controller on display, commonly referred to by the code-name Griffen, communicates over a PCIe 2.0 x4 connection, though a x2 variant is also under development. The Griffen controller can communicate via either the AHCI or the NVMe protocol across the PCIe connection.

An important distinction between earlier demo's is the fact that the working demo was running without a heat sink. This points to continued optimization of the power consumption metrics, which relate directly to heat generation. The SF3700 has several key technologies, such as DEVSLP functionality, to allow it to operate within a very low power and thermal envelope.

CES 2015 - Today we spoke with Silicon Motion (SMI) on several topics, but later learned more details that helped to piece a puzzle together. Analyst reports show that 3bit per cell (TLC) will quickly overtake 2bit per cell (MLC) NAND in the future. Samsung dominates the 3bit per cell area, but SanDisk has also started shipping products with the technology. Toshiba will soon follow suit, the company actually produces TLC wafers with SanDisk in the Flash Forward joint venture. It's been stated that Micron will have TLC ready for consumer SSD devices as early as Q2 2015, and the technology is already utilized in other product types from Micron/Lexar/Crucial, such as SD cards.

Silicon Motion's upcoming SM2256 controller was designed exclusively to usher in the TLC era, and today we saw the controller working inside this laptop with Samsung TLC flash. At this time only two companies selling to the channel use Samsung NAND flash - Samsung and Seagate.

Samsung already has two existing low cost consumer SSD products on the market with 3bit per cell flash, the 840 EVO and 850 EVO. This leaves us to wonder why Silicon Motion would spend valuable engineering resources with Samsung TLC NAND. Enter Seagate and the the company's strategic alliance with Samsung for guaranteed Samsung flash, as seen with the Seagate 1200 SSD. Did we inadvertently just capture a quick look at what may be an early test of a Seagate consumer SSD that uses a Silicon Motion controller today?

CES 2015 - Over the last year we've often discussed Silicon Motion's rise in the SSD controller space. The fabless semiconductor's SM2246EN controller was well received, first by smaller SSD manufacturers, and now by NAND flash fabs.

This week, SanDisk announced the new SSD Plus that is priced less than $70 in 128GB. The SSD Plus won't break any performance records but is clearly designed to break price barriers. SanDisk didn't brief media before introducing the SSD Plus at Storage Visions 2015, but since that time we've learned that Silicon Motion is inside with a custom variant of the SM2246EN controller.

Getting one NAND fab company to use your controller is a big step for a controller maker that was virtually unheard of one year ago. Getting two is big news for investors. Just days after the SanDisk announcement, Crucial, a division of Lexar and also a NAND flash manufacturer, announced the new BX100. Again, this new low cost consumer SSD with 16nm MLC flash is managed by a Silicon Motion SM2246EN controller.

CES 2015 - We had a chance to take a sneak peak at Intel's widely anticipated computing stick here at CES 2015. The tiny dongle-like computer will feature a quad-core Atom-based CPU, and come in two versions; one supporting Windows and the other supporting Linux. The Windows-based stick will feature 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage while the Linux version will have only 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. Storage can be expanded through the microSD slot.

The stick features HDMI as its video output and features both micro USB and full-size USB connectors, however one will have to be used for powering the device as it will not be powered through HDMI like some other dongles. Intel said as more and more TVs start supporting the new power-over-HDMI standard, future versions of the NUC will feature this technology. While the stick is very small, it is a full-blown PC with its own mini fan. The stick will cost $149 and $89 for the Windows and Linux versions respectively.

Intel is also launching a new series of Broadwell-U based NUCs. These NUCs will feature M.2 for storage as well as a special USB connector able to provide 1.8A of current for fast charging. They will also have replaceable lids, which can be used for customization. You could have a lid featuring a picture of your significant other and give the NUC as a gift. The replaceable lid also hints at the possibility of customized versions featuring add-ons like a TV tuner, which I saw in its infant stages.

CES 2015 - We went on down to the GIGABYTE CES event here in Vegas, where we looked at all of the latest stuff that the company has on offer. So without further delay, let's dive right into the juicy goodness.

GIGABYTE just launched their greatly anticipated X99 SOC Champion. The board had been in the works for months, during that time top overclockers from around the world gathered to see how far GIGABYTE's champion could go. They ended up with 9 world records, 14 global firsts, 2 hardware firsts, and even the top X99 reference clock. This motherboard's name is well deserved.

I was invited to overclock at GIGABYTE's CES ballroom event, and the champion does live up to all the hype. Much of its success comes from the hardware on the board. Since the board has 4 SMT DIMMs instead of the typical 8 through-hole DIMMs found on most X99 motherboards, memory signaling is much cleaner and memory overclocks are higher as a result.

CES 2015 - SAPPHIRE didn't have anything new to show off at CES 2015, so instead it was just showing off a handful of their most popular products.

We went in and talked to a few of the executives at the company, teeing up some new projects going into the New Year that you will have to check back with TweakTown in the near future to check out. All we can say is: it'll kick ass. Until then, here are some images of video cards that you can check out, starting with the Radeon R9 290X 4GB and R9 280X 4GB.

Here's the SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon R9 4GB.

To celebrate next week's release of 'Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Fifth Season' on Blu-ray HD and DVD, we have five copies of the final season of the show on Blu-ray to give away to readers, thanks to our friends at Warner Home Entertainment.

No one goes quietly. Concluding a powerful and groundbreaking five-season run, 'Boardwalk Empire' is an Emmy-winning HBO drama series from Academy Award nominee/Emmy Award winner Terence Winter. Season 5 begins in 1931, a full six years after the end of Season 4. In stark contrast with the Roaring '20s, the country is in the throes of the Great Depression and with the end of Prohibition in sight, Nucky (Steve Buscemi) is looking to legitimize himself by forging alliances with liquor producers.

To go into the running to take a Blu-ray home, simply answer the following question:

CES 2015 - Oculus VR had a gigantic setup at CES 2015 this year, but they were hosting private meetings for people to go in and check things out, so we set one up quite sometime ago to ensure we could get our hands, and eyes on the latest Rift prototype.

We stopped in and had a chat with Oculus VR's VP of Product, Nate Mitchell, who is one of the best guys in the industry. He walked us over the new Rift prototype known as "Crescent Bay", something that was shown off at Oculus Connect a few months ago. This is the first time the new Rift headset has been open to the public to test out, which is why we wanted to get down there and check things out.

The current DK2 unit has a 1920x1080 resolution, thanks to the Galaxy Note 3 panel it features inside of it. Oculus isn't stating what resolution the new Crescent Bay prototype is running at, but from my short time with it, I suspect we're seeing a 1440p panel, with some form of resolution scaling. Similar to NVIDIA's Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) technology, where it renders a larger picture, and then scales it down to the resolution of the monitor, or in this case, the VR headset.