As part of security enhancements in the forthcoming EDGAR 20.1 release, the SEC will no longer accept connections to the EDGAR system that do not follow the TLS 1.2 standard. Since the GoFiler family of products uses Microsoft’s Security Support Provider Interface to connect to the EDGAR system, support for TLS 1.2 in the application is based on the current Windows operating system and Internet Explorer.

Last month, XBRL US introduced a free application program interface (API) standard as a Proposed Release. The API is designed to help programmers create, extract, and analyze XBRL formatted data. It is meant to be a standard that acts as a software intermediary, allowing applications to communicate with one another. Investors and analysts alike can use the XBRL API to gain access to and manipulate XBRL data, both historical data and data that is up-to-date. The API will work with any XBRL database or taxonomy.

On October 18th, the SEC announced the launch of the Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub). The FinHub will be a resource for public engagement on the SEC’s finanical technology (FinTech) related issues and initiatives. These issues include distributed ledger technology (including digital assets), automated investment advice, digital marketplace financing, and artificial intelligence/machine learning, among other points of interest. FinHub will replace, consolidate, and build on the work of several internal working groups at the SEC that focus on similar issues.

On September 12th, 2017, SunSpec Alliance and XBRL US announced the launch of a 30-day public review period on the initial draft of the Orange Button taxonomy for solar financing.

Back in November of 2013, Microsoft released a Security Advisory stating that by January of 2016 Microsoft would no longer allow root authorities to issue certificates using the SHA-1 hashing algorithm. As that date has come and gone, most users probably never even noticed anything happening. This is because browsers were quick to adopt the new changes. E-commerce is part of everyday life and no one wants to buy something from a site that their browser says is insecure. However, SSL certificates are used for many other things, including verifying publishers of software and drivers. This is also known as code signing.

As computers advance so do their operating systems, bringing better user experiences and faster operations. However, such changes usually have a cost so not all businesses adopt a change unless it there is a very clear and measurable benefit. Evidence of this practice was abound when the end of life came for Windows XP, as many businesses were still using that operating system instead of Vista, 7 or 8. Waiting until after the end of support for an operating system to occur before upgrading isn’t ideal, and the difficulties such businesses encountered should be a lesson for all.

With the changing pace of technology, companies like Microsoft need to be vigilant about security issues. Every office has experienced it – that one user that gets a virus and the whole office becomes infected in a matter of minutes. To combat this problem Microsoft has started to force computers to update automatically. Gone are the days of Windows XP where users could continue to hit “Postpone” for weeks on end. Now we have the new Windows Update that installs and restarts your computer for you. Instead of coming into work to a virus attack, users are now unfortunately coming into work to find their documents and applications closed and their computers restarted.