After trying to dismiss a lawsuit from HP customers angry at a firmware update (meaning that their HP printers wouldn’t work with third-party ink cartridges), we look at how HP is answering the arguments within the antitrust ink cartridge lawsuit and what the implications could......
In this insight, we look at the process of AI training, the potential pitfalls of misused data, and what measures can be taken to protect your personal and business data from being used to train AI. Data – For AI Training AI training, at its......
Following an initial report on AI Foundation Models (FMs) last year, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has expressed “real concerns” about it and is investigating the dominance of a small number of big tech firms at the centre of the FM market. Foundation Models ......
Researchers at Oxford University’s UK Quantum Computing and Simulation Hub claim to have made what could be an important breakthrough in quantum computing security. The Issue As things stand, if businesses want to use cloud-based quantum computing services, they face privacy and security issues when......
Apple has announced that beginning in the autumn with select iPhone models, customers and independent repair providers will be able to utilise used Apple components in the repair process. Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus, said: “With this latest expansion to our repair......
Apple has reported sending threat notifications to iPhone users in 92 countries, warning them that they may have been targeted by mercenary spyware attacks. These types of attacks use software designed to infiltrate and monitor computer systems or mobile devices and are typically “state-sponsored” and......
Following a decade of research, it’s thought that the recent decoding of the complex genome of sugarcane could pave the way for advanced breeding techniques, more agricultural sustainability, and perhaps for developing a cost-effective and sustainable aviation fuel. What Happened? Scientists from The University of Queensland,......
This week’s Social and AI news video-update explains how to pin WhatsApp messages for convenience, which is a handy feature you may wish to try. https://videovault.vip/videos/social/2024-Apr-Pinning-WhatsApp-Messages.mp4...
Following a fall in Tesla EV sales and profits, Tesla boss Elon Musk has announced that he’ll be unveiling a ‘Robotaxi’ on August 8 this year. May Swap Lower Cost EV For Robotaxi Reports initially indicated that Mr Musk’s Tesla company would be abandoning its......
In this insight, we look at what ‘digital mindfulness’ is, how it could help you and your business, and what challenges there are to introducing it. The ‘Digital Stress’ Problem Although the digital age has revolutionised work in terms of levels of productivity and connectivity,......
Google is reportedly considering charging for premium AI-powered Internet searches as the company fears that AI chatbots are undercutting its search engine. Advertising-Funded Google, up until now, has relied mainly on an advertising-funded business model (Google Ads) as a way to collect data and monetise......
Microsoft’s announcement that it will sell its chat and video app Teams separately from its Office product globally is likely to cause considerable headaches for IT departments and managed service providers. Why Unbundle? Teams is to be unbundled and sold separately globally (it’s been unbundled......
As part of its compliance with EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules, Apple has announced a change in its App Store rules to allow emulators for retro console games globally. The change allows an option for downloading the titles, but Apple has warned the developers......
A researcher from Swiss security firm, Pentagrid, has reported discovering that the self-service check-in terminal at a German Ibis budget hotel could be easily fooled into leaking hotel room keycodes. This has prompted fears that similar systems in hotels around Europe could be at risk.......
Space Solar’s plan is to be able to power more than a million homes by the 2030s using a mile-wide complex of mirrors and solar panels – a solar farm – orbiting 22,000 miles above Earth. Panels Must Rotate Towards The Sun For the space-based......
This week’s Social and AI news video-update explains how to stop those annoying messages where you’re included in a group mailing in Facebook. https://videovault.vip/videos/social/2024-Apr-Stopping-At-Everyone-Notifications.mp4...
As part of a deal to resolve a class action lawsuit in the US dating back to 2020, Google has said it will delete the incognito mode search data of millions of users. What Lawsuit? In June 2020 in the US, three Californians named Chasom......
With Google Maps now one of the most popular mapping services globally, used by millions of people every day, plus having new features regularly being added, here we look at a dozen top Google Maps (Android) tricks to help you on your way. Driving Since......
OpenAI has announced the preview of its (two years in the making) ‘Voice Engine’ voice cloning tool, although there’s no firm release date yet. What Can It Do? OpenAI says Voice Engine uses “text input and a single 15-second audio sample to generate natural-sounding speech that......
Amazon’s (Luxembourg-based) Polish e-commerce site, Amazon.pl (Amazon EU SARL) has been fined by Poland’s competition and consumer protection watchdog following customer complaints that their orders were being mysteriously cancelled. Massive Fine Following an investigation about the complaints, the President of Poland’s UOKiK consumer protection watchdog......
It’s been reported that some iPhone users have recently been targeted with an MFA bombing / multi-factor fatigue phishing attack. The attack (which uses a bug in Apple’s password reset feature) bombards the user’s phone with password reset requests and ‘Allow’ or ‘Disallow’ options. If......
A recent analysis by Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and Google Cloud’s Mandiant has suggested that government-backed threat actors are more likely to be behind most exploitations of zero-day vulnerabilities than money-motivated cyber criminals. In the report outlining the findings of the analysis, of the......
In a speech shared on LinkedIn, National Grid Chief Executive, John Pettigrew, highlighted how demand for electricity from commercial data centres will increase six-fold, within just ten years. Double The Demand On The Grid By 2050 Comparing today’s problem of grid network constraint to that......
https://videovault.vip/videos/social/2024-Apr-New-LinkedIn-Messaging-feature.mp4...
The US investment regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has dished out penalties totalling $400,000 to two investment companies who made misleading claims about how they used AI, a practice dubbed ‘AI Washing’. What Is AI Washing? The term ‘AI washing’ (as used by the......
In this tech insight, we look at what customer journey mapping is, its benefits, the challenges of using it, and also we look at some of the popular customer journey mapping software solutions available. What Is Customer Journey Mapping? Customer journey mapping refers to a......
It’s been reported that Glassdoor (the website that allows current employees to anonymously review their employer) posted users’ real names to their profiles without their consent. What Is Glassdoor? By allowing users to register anonymously, Glassdoor is a website that allows current and former employees......
A new study published in The Lancet shows how an AI tool called Foresight (which fully analyses patient health records and makes digital twins of patients) could be used to predict the future of your health. What Is Foresight? The Foresight tool is described by......
US researchers have reported discovering a hardware chip vulnerability inside Apple M1, M2, and M3 silicon chips. The unpatchable ‘GoFetch’ is a microarchitecture vulnerability and side-channel attack that reportedly affects all kinds of encryption algorithms, even the 2,048-bit keys that are hardened to protect against attacks from quantum computers. This......
Microsoft is making a security-focused policy change that will see RSA keys with lengths shorter than 2048 bits deprecated. RSA keys are algorithms used for secure data encryption and decryption in digital communications, i.e. to encrypt data for secure communications over an enterprise network. However,......
French data centre company, Data4, says its new project will create a world-first way of reusing data centre heat and captured CO2 to grow algae which can then be used to power other data centres and create bioproducts. Why? The R&D project, involving Data4 working......
Google has outlined how it will restrict the kinds of election-related questions that its Gemini AI chatbot will return responses to. Why? With 2024 being an election year for at least 64 countries (including the US, UK, India, and South Africa) the risk of AI......
In this third and final part of our series of ‘DMARC Diligence’ insights, we explore the detailed process of DMARC deployment, its monitoring, optimisation, and preparing businesses for future email security challenges. Last Week … Last week in part 2 of this series of ‘DMARC Diligence’......
A High Court judge has ruled that Australian computer scientist Dr Craig Wright is not the inventor of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, despite him claiming to be so since 2016. Real Bitcoin Inventor A Secret The challenge with trying to conclusively identify Bitcoin’s inventor is that,......
Google has announced the introduction of real-time, privacy-preserving URL protection to Google Safe Browsing for those using Chrome on desktop or iOS (and Android later this month). Why? Google says with attacks constantly evolving, and with the difference between successfully detecting a threat or not......
Following a class action lawsuit led by Norfolk County Council over the effect of an alleged cover-up by Apple’s boss about iPhone demand in China, Apple has agreed to pay £385m to settle the lawsuit. The lawsuit related to comments by Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, to......
Billionaire hedge-fund manager, Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management company has warned of the risks posed by recent Facebook ads impersonating Mr Ackman as part of an imposter fraud scam. Mr Ackman’s company says it has already discovered 90 different versions of the advert which......
Italian firm IronLev has claimed to have completed the first-ever magnetic levitation (maglev) test on an existing train track. Energy Saving Potential The use of maglev technology for trains is particularly valuable because, if scaled up, it has the potential to reduce costs and energy......
A recent US congressional vote means that TikTok and its parent company’s alleged ties with the Chinese Communist Party must be severed within six months or the popular TikTok app must be sold, thereby banning it in the US. The Vote The unanimous Energy......
In this second article of the “DMARC Diligence” series, we shift our focus towards securing non-sending or “forgotten” domains and outline a strategy for their protection through DMARC implementation. Recap Of Part 1 You may remember that in part one of this DMARC Due Diligence......
At its Annual Partner Conference 2024, HP announced the world’s first business PCs to protect firmware against quantum computer attacks. This Issue As highlighted by Global Risk Institute research, 27 per cent of experts think there is a 50 per cent likelihood of a cryptographically......
With the famously volatile Bitcoin cryptocurrency briefly hitting a new all-time high value of $69,000 recently, we look at the reasons why this happened and what could happen next. Why? This latest surge in the value of Bitcoin has been attributed to US finance giants......
In two recent blows to Apple, it’s just been fined £1.5bn for breaking EU competition laws over music streaming, while its latest iPhone update means allowing developers to offer their own ‘app stores’. The Fine Following a complaint by Swedish music streaming service Spotify, Apple......
Researchers from the University of Florida have reported how VoltSchemer, a set of attacks that exploit two commonly found features in commercial-off-the-shelf wireless chargers (COTS), can give attackers control over a phone then enable man-in-the middle attacks. VoltSchemer attacks work by exploiting voltage noises from......
ETH Zurich researchers have reported discovering an effective method for recovering gold from e-waste with the help of byproducts from the cheesemaking process. Protein Fibre Sponge The group of researchers, led by ETH Professor Mezzenga, have reported using a sponge made from a protein matrix......
Here we look at some of the latest WhatsApp updates and the value and benefits they deliver to users. Search Conversations By Date For Android The first of three new updates of significance for WhatsApp is the “search by date” function for individual and group......
In this, the first of a series of three articles explaining DMARC and email authentication, we look at why SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are the key pillars of email authentication. The Issue Businesses face numerous cyber threats, with email being one of the most common attack......
Microsoft has announced that its Windows 11 Copilot AI companion (that’s been embedded into 365’s popular apps) has received an upgrade in the form of new plugins and skills. Builds On The AI Key Microsoft says that the new features build upon the introduction of......
Brave, the privacy-focused browser, has announced the introduction of Leo, its privacy-preserving AI assistant built into the browser on all Android devices. Users Can Choose Which Model – The Mixtral LLM & Meta’s Llama 2 Brave says its new ‘Leo’ AI assistant is powered by......
It’s been reported that Apple has ceased work on its Autonomous Electric Vehicle known as “Project Titan”. The 2,000 employees who were working on the decade-long project (and who reportedly had a say in the decision to stop work on it) are reported to have......
Cyber Security Company, Guardio Labs, has reported uncovering a major “SubdoMailing” campaign which involves the hijacking of 8,000+ trusted domains to send millions of spam and malicious phishing emails daily. Brands whose subdomains are being exploited in the campaign include MSN, VMware, McAfee, The Economist,......
Tata Group’s global battery business ‘Agratas’ has confirmed previous announcements that it will invest £4bn in a brownfield site near Bridgwater in Somerset to make it the UK’s biggest electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing facility. Somerset To Be Centre Of UK’s Green Energy Revolution Somerset......
With some research indicating that ‘emotive prompts’ to generative AI chatbots can deliver better outputs, we look at whether ‘being nice’ to a chatbot really does improve its performance. Not Possible, Surely? Generative AI Chatbots, including advanced ones, don’t possess real ‘intelligence’ in the way......
In this tech-insight, we look at what e-signatures are, their benefits plus some of the main e-signature providers, as well as what to consider when choosing an e-signature service. Popularity of E-signatures The initial growth of e-signatures happened in the early 2000s, due to the......
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has ordered Serco Leisure to stop using facial recognition technology (FRT) and fingerprint scanning to monitor employee attendance. Not Necessary or Proportionate An ICO investigation found that public service provider Serco Leisure, Serco Jersey and seven associated community leisure......
Only a month after its launch, Google has paused its text-to-image AI tool following “inaccuracies” in some of the historical depictions of people produced by the model. ‘Woke’ … Overcorrecting For Diversity? An example of the inaccuracy issue (as highlighted by X user Patrick Ganley......
Apple says it’s rolling out an update to its iMessage texting platform that can defend against future encryption-breaking technologies such as decryption by quantum computers. Apple says its PQ3 “groundbreaking post-quantum cryptographic protocol” offers Level 3 security, i.e. it provides protocol protections that surpass those in all......
Just days after it was announced that the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the FBI, and Europol had taken down the Russian LockBit ransomware gang’s website, it’s been reported that LockBit ransomware is still being deployed via flaws in a popular remote access tool. Researchers......
The ‘gasification’ of waste tea prunings is being used to both provide free energy for factories in Kenya and to decarbonise the tea sector. Gasification UK-based waste-to-energy company Compact Syngas Solutions (CSS) has developed a ‘gasification’ process which can convert biomass and other feedstocks into......
After the Amazon-owned ‘Ring’ video doorbell company’s recent major subscription price hike across its range caused anger and made the news, we look at what customers have said and if there’s a way to beat the price hike. Ouch! Ring has angered customers and received......
In this tech-insight, we take a look at the world of virtual cards, who offers them, their benefits, and other secure payment alternatives. What Are Virtual Credit Card Numbers? Virtual credit cards and their card numbers (as the name suggests) only exist in the virtual......
OpenAI’s new ‘Sora’ AI-powered text-to-video tool is so good that its outputs could easily be mistaken for real videos, prompting deepfake fears in a year of important global elections. Sora Open AI says that its new Sora text-to-video model can generate realistic videos up to......
Google’s new “Talk to a Live Representative” feature will call a business for you, wait on hold for you, and call you when a human representative is available. Being Tested Similar to Google Pixel’s existing “Hold for Me” feature, “Talk to a Live Representative” is......
Meta has announced that it will be passing on Apple’s 30 per cent service charge (often referred to as the “Apple tax”) to advertisers who pay to boost posts on Facebook and Instagram through the iOS app. This move is a response to Apple’s in-app purchase fees,......
