With the news that as of 20 September 2022, the new Windows 11 update started its rollout in 190+ countries, we look at what it includes and how these elements could benefit your business. The Focus Microsoft says that the new Windows 11 22H2 update......
Following the announcement by the USB Promoter Group of the imminent arrival of the new USB4® Version 2.0 connectivity standard, we look at what is, and what advantages it offers. What Is USB4 Version 2.0? USB4® Version 2.0 specification (USB4 2.0) is the name for......
UK communications regulator Ofcom has announced that it will soon be launching a market study under the Enterprise Act 2002 into competition in the UK’s cloud sector and its ‘hyperscalers’. What Is The Enterprise Act 2002? The Enterprise Act 2002, which came into force on......
Following a move by the Iranian government to restrict access to Meta’s WhatsApp, the company has said in a tweet that it “will do anything” within its technical ability to keep its service up and running for Iranian users. What Happened? After protests which followed the death......
Energy regulator Ofgem is warning consumers to beware of scam email messages claiming to offer discounts on energy bills. The phishing scam messages invite recipients to apply for the £400 “non-repayable discount” by following a link to a fake Ofgem phishing website to provide personal......
A new study by 1Password has revealed that almost half of employees put their companies at risk by using risky online habits to avoid difficulties logging in and out of apps at work. Taking Risks With Company Security The study, by passwords manager maker 1Password......
Google has been given the largest ever anti-trust fine of 4.125 billion euros from the EU, following an unsuccessful appeal. What Was The Anti-Trust Issue? The European Commission (EC) originally fined Google in 2018 for breaching its anti-trust laws by forcing Android phone-makers to install......
Aviation tracker website Flightradar24 has reported that the RAF plane flight carrying Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin from Edinburgh to London on September 13 was the most-tracked flight ever. Tracked By 5 Million It was reported that 5 million people tracked the RAF flight, which beats......
In this insight, we look at what OnlyFans is, its features and benefits, and alternative platforms that offer similar services. What Is It? Launched in 2016, London-based OnlyFans is a subscription-based content hosting and sharing platform which has around 150 million registered users (according to......
Cybersecurity company Kaspersky has reported that cyber criminals are using malware that can log into compromised YouTube accounts and upload a gaming video (disguised as a game cheat) which distributes malware. The videos prompt gamers to click on a link in the description and disable......
If you’d like to customise and personalise your Chrome browser, including changing the colour, the theme, and the avatar, here’s how: – Click on the three dots (top right) and click on ‘Settings.’ – Click on ‘You and Google.’ – Pick a theme colour and......
After the death of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8th, we take a look at the technology the 96-year-old monarch was known to use during her reign. Did Queen Elizabeth Embrace or Avoid Tech? Queen Elizabeth II very much embraced and enjoyed technology, particularly what......
The speed at which the deaths of famous people are updated on Wikipedia was highlighted by the Queen’s Wikipedia page being updated just minutes after the first news reports of her death were made public. Twitter Account Monitored Update The “depths of Wikipedia” Twitter account......
In this insight, we take a look at some of the many options available for sharing files that self-destruct. Why? Many business IT users have occasions where they need to send sensitive information, e.g. passwords and other private work data and files but would feel......
With Google announcing that Android 13 gives businesses using Android Enterprise new ways to get more out of their devices, we take a look at what the more business focused OS offers. Simplifying The Separation And Management of Personal and Work Profiles Android’s Work profile already helps......
A fine was imposed on Halfords by the UK’s privacy regulator after numerous complaints were raised about a marketing email encouraging people to redeem a £50 voucher. Even though Halfords maintained that the £50 government-backed voucher represented a legitimate interest, the ICO said it was......
In this article, we compare the TikTok and YouTube platforms and take a look at some of the pros and cons of each. Similarities There are several important similarities between YouTube and TikTok. For example: – Both are popular video-sharing social media platforms that encourage......
In this insight, we look at what Softaculous is, what features it offers, and how it can be used to help businesses. What Is It? Softaculous is a time and hassle-saving, open-source app, auto-script installer that enables the user to install any app in a......
Cruise company Royal Caribbean Group has announced that it will be using Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Starlink satellite Internet for broadband connections aboard its ships. What Is Starlink? Starlink, operated by billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX company uses a constellation of low orbit satellites around the......
The UK government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has proposed a new set of rules to tighten up network security against cyberattacks in broadband and mobile carriers. Amongst The Strongest In The World The government says that the new regulations and code of......
Security intelligence solutions company Securonix has warned that threat actors have been using the ‘Go’ programming language and a Microsoft Office attachment in a phishing email to launch malware attacks. If the recipient of the email opens it and has macros enabled, a photo from......
In this article, we look at how the risks to businesses posed by pirated software can far outweigh the benefits of using it, and how you can protect your business from the true costs of pirated software. Benefits On the surface, there appears to be......
Thames Water has said that it wants to work with data centres in its jurisdiction to enable them to use raw water rather than drinking quality water for cooling. Switching To Raw Rather Than Drinking Quality Water Just as the drought has led Thames Water......
With the world facing a considerable semiconductor microchip shortage, we take a look at the causes and effects of the shortage plus some potential solutions. Why Is This Important? Microchips are now included in virtually everything from watches to white goods and crucially in larger,......
Following an experiment by Bristol and Cambridge Universities, Google has announced that it plans to run adverts on YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook, educating users about how to spot disinformation and misinformation. ‘Pre-Bunking’ Experiment The University experiment which led to Google’s decision to run adverts......
Home media streaming service Plex has warned users to reset their passwords following a suspected hack that could affect up to up to half of its 30 million users. Plex has apologised and said that it has discovered how the threat actor accessed the system......
In this article, we look at what ‘job phishing’ is, how it works, and how you can protect yourself from this type of fraud. What Is Job Phishing? Job phishing refers to recruitment/employment scams where fraudsters pose as recruitment agents or reputable companies. The fraudsters......
In this insight, we take a brief look at Calendy contrasted against Microsoft Bookings and highlight some of the pros and cons of each. Calendy Founded in 2013, Calendy is a SaaS meeting and event scheduling app for website, Chrome extension or mobile app, which......
Microsoft Excel’s new @mentions feature allows users to create, assign, and track tasks in a workbook, thereby making collaboration in Excel easier. Added To Roadmap 2020 The @mentions feature, which was added to Excel for the web in 2020 and added to the Microsoft 365......
A Google data centre going offline in July due to a cooling related failure is just one of a slew of challenges posed by climate change that the big tech companies are facing. Heatwave Knocks London Data Centre Offline The heatwave in July caused outages......
A new report from Kaspersky says that millions of people may be at risk from adware hiding in browser extensions, and from malware, adware, and riskware disguised as browser extensions. The advice is to protect devices from malicious browser plugins by only downloading them from......
In this insight, we look at what Microsoft Azure is, plus what it offers businesses. Azure Microsoft Azure (formerly Windows Azure) is Microsoft’s public cloud computing platform. Public cloud refers to cloud computing services offered over the public Internet and available to anyone, i.e. the......
Advanced, an IT supplier to the NHS, has been hit by a ransomware attack that could take a month to recover from. What Happened? Birmingham-based ‘Advance’ provides digital services to the NHS such as patient check-in and NHS 111. The company’s Adastra software works with......
New privacy features being rolled out this month mean that WhatsApp users can now leave group chats silently. Three New Privacy Features WhatsApp has announced the introduction of three new privacy features: Leave Groups Silently, Choose Who Can See When You’re Online, and Screenshot Blocking......
Communications regulator Ofcom has opened an investigation to make sure that telecoms providers are complying with rules to ensure that there is always uninterrupted access to 999 calls. Investigation Into Compliance With General Condition A3.2(b) The new investigation will essentially decide whether providers are operating in......
A security company task force Sophos X-Ops has reported to Black Hat USA 2022 in Las Vegas that ransomware gangs are competing for resources, leading to a trend of victims being attacked by multiple gangs over a short space of time. It even suggested that......
While some people are busy asking whether we’re seeing the death of cryptocurrencies, a new report says 60 percent of us will be using digital wallets by 2026. Digital Wallet Usage Driven By ‘Superapps’ A Juniper Research study says that the presence of ‘superapps’ will......
With the Online Safety Bill threatening to undermine end-to-end encryption, we look at the strengths and weaknesses of this security trade-off. Encryption Encryption comes from the science of cryptography. In today’s digital world, encryption refers to using electronic devices to generate unique encryption algorithms which......
Google has made it easier to do quoted searches by adding snippets to search results to help users save time in locating a phrase in a web page. Quoted Searches Quoted Searches are searches where the search term is placed within quotation marks to find......
In this insight, we take a look at what GitHub and GitLab are, and why they are important in the world of software development. GitHub, from GitHub Inc., is a not-for-profit website and cloud-based hosting service for open-source development projects – it is the largest......
Cyber security researchers have warned that GitHub users are being targeted with similarly named but malicious copies (containing malicious code) of legitimate repositories. The copied repositories are designed to siphon user environment variables, steal API keys, tokens, crypto keys, and execute arbitrary code on affected......
If you need to instantly deliver important and time-sensitive information to contacts and groups in WhatsApp, you could use ‘voice messages.’ Here’s how to use this feature: To send a voice message – Open an individual or group chat. – Tap and hold the microphone......
Following Amazon suing the admins of more than 10,000 Facebook groups over an alleged co-ordinated fake reviews campaign, we look at how to spot fake reviews and dubious ratings on Amazon. Why Use Fake Reviews? On the site of one of the world’s largest retailers......
A 1976 Apple-1 prototype, believed to have been owned by Steve Jobs and hand-soldered by Steve Wozniak is being auctioned and is expected to fetch around $500,000. At $400,000+ Already! The prototype is essentially a broken circuit board with a crack in it but at......
A new Oxford University study involving 38,935 video-game players overs six weeks has concluded that there is little to no evidence for a causal connection between game play and well-being. Why Do We Believe Spending Time Playing Video / Online Games Is Bad For Us? ......
Google has announced that due to the need for more time to evaluate alternatives, it is delaying (by nine months) its plans to rid Chrome of third-party tracking cookies. Third-Party Cookies A cookie is a piece of code (used for tracking) that takes the form......
A new Proofpoint report has warned that hackers, who used to use macro-enabled documents attached to messages to deliver malware are now adapting to Microsoft’s move to block XL4 and VBA macros by default for Office users. Proofpoint says that hackers have now switched to......
With an ONS survey showing that from October to December 2019 and January to March 2022, homeworking in the UK more than doubled from 4.7 million to 9.9 million people, we take a closer look at the figures and what’s behind them. COVID 19 Pandemic......
With young people now unlikely to read newspapers or watch the TV news, and following the latest Ofcom report, we look at which channels people get their news from. Decline of Printed Newspapers Newspaper readership has been declining for many years but the drop in......
Google has sacked senior software engineer Blake Lemoine, who made the news after saying that Google’s LaMDA chatbot’s responses to questions showed that it was a sentient being. What Happened? Back in June, Google engineer Blake Lemoine reported that the Language Model for Dialogue Applications......
For those who have so many apps open that they run out of space on the taskbar, Microsoft is adding an overflow button where the excess ones can be accessed. Overflow – Button With Three Dots For those who need it (i.e. those who are......
Threat hunters at Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 have warned that a Russia-based hacking group known as Cozy Bear, Nobelium, APT29 and Cloaked Ursa, are using trusted, legitimate cloud services such Dropbox and Google Drive in their attacks. For example, the group’s recent attacks on......
In this tech-insight, we look how extreme heat can affect IT hardware and what measures you can take to keep the equipment cool and prevent damage. High Temperatures Hot weather UK-style is not normally a problem. With an average temperature here of about 14 °C, temperatures over......
BMW UK is now offering ConnectedDrive owners Front Seat Heating for a £15 per month or £150 per year subscription. BMW ConnectedDrive Services BMW ConnectedDrive Services use the smart / Internet connected element of the car to enable owners to use software to activate more......
Vodafone and Virgin Media O2 have announced that their customers will be joining both Three and EE’s customers in having access to high-speed mobile connectivity on London’s Tube network, including within the tunnels. Joined BAI As confirmed by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, Vodafone......
In this article, we look at what eyestrain is, what causes it, and the many measures you can take to prevent it. What Is Eyestrain? Eyestrain is eye fatigue, caused by intensely focusing the eyes during a task, such as staring at a computer screen......
Microsoft’s 365 Defender Research Team has warned that a flaw in macOS coupled with Microsoft Word’s backward compatibility could allow the circumvention of App Sandbox rules. This could enable potentially malicious macros to run in Word, leading to users downloading malware, or ransomware. The advice......
Following recent security concerns about Amazon’s plans to enable Alexa to mimic voices, we look at how easy it is to do, what the benefits are, and what risks it poses. Alexa The Mimic Recently, Amazon announced that it was working on technology to enable......
Following a recent Intellectual Property Office (IPO) consultation, it has been decided that AI will not be allowed to patent inventions. What’s The Issue? As highlighted by a legal battle dating back to 2018, some people believe that if AI systems invent something, they should......
Rising electricity prices, energy-hungry crypto mining operations and falling cryptocurrency prices are thought to be behind a significant decrease in the amount of electricity being used for crypto mining. What Is Crypto Mining? Crypto mining, such as Bitcoin mining, uses specialised computers that are constantly......
In this article, we take a brief look at the relative merits of Office 365 compared to Google Workspace and how Google’s recent introduction of features and greater integration have been aimed at challenging Microsoft 365’s dominant position. Google Workspace Many of us are likely......
Cybernews researchers have warned that many popular child-monitoring Android mobile apps may also be leaking the parents’ data to potentially malicious third parties via the third-party trackers in the apps. The researchers have also warned that the insecurely implemented Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate handling......
The new Privacy Auditing feature in Windows 11 allows users to see a list of which apps have accessed their microphone or camera recently, plus details of any other suspicious activity. See Which Apps Have Accessed Your Microphone and Camera David Weston, Microsoft’s VP for......
Social media app Instagram has announced that it is testing new methods for age verification of users, including the use of a video selfie. What Are The Issues? This latest announcement by Meta’s (Facebook) Instagram is an extension of an age verification program which the......
