Tech news

For most organizations, COVID-19 has been a literal transformative agent. Our organizations have almost overnight gone from environments where teleworking was an exception, to where it's the norm. As any student of human nature will tell you, people tend to view "the new" with reservation. There's a temptation when things are new to assume the worst about them. For security pros, this means we often view new things as riskier than things we're familiar with. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/3geP5hg

Twitter had a data security problem last week that might sound trivial. Email addresses, phone numbers, and the last four digits of the credit cards used to buy ads on Twitter were left in browser cache after the transaction, and that cache was not secured. This may seem trivial, but the consequences could be far more significant than you might think. Let's explore how. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2Zheost

Open Source Software is becoming much more commonplace within organizations, bringing a different set of risks and perceived challenges compared to closed source or proprietary software. The Information Security Forum has released a report to help security professionals recognize the benefits and perceived challenges of using Open Source Software. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/3dCc04o

With much of the office workforce conducting business from home to escape the pandemic, scammers have revved up their trickery to scare you into falling for their credential harvesting schemes. Two new reports lay bare the new twists digital scammers are putting on old approaches to get you to unwittingly give up login credentials. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2Vm89Cj

Nintendo seems to be uncomfortable with the dominant business model in the mobile-gaming market, which allows players to download and start playing a game for free, then entices them to spend money on the software through in-app purchases. Those tactics have come under the increased scrutiny of regulators, which also concerns Nintendo, a brand with a family-friendly image. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2CEegLZ

Twitter on Tuesday notified business clients that their personal information, including email addresses, phone numbers, and the last four digits of their credit card numbers may have been compromised. Self-serve advertisers that viewed billing information on ads.twitter.com or analytics.twitter.com were affected. The issue occurred prior to May 20, 2020. However, Twitter only notified customers about it on June 23. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/3fRH2qG

Apple's 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference will probably be known for two things: it was the first time the forum was staged virtually, and it's when Apple announced it would start making Macs based its own processor designs. "Now it's time for a huge leap forward for the Mac, because today is the day we're announcing that the Mac is transitioning to our own Apple silicon," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the virtual keynote presentation. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2BuPqxq

Cisco Live was last week, and this was their first large scale virtual event. What made this event very different from the other games was the amount of effort they put into socially responsible projects. Many of the customer projects they highlighted are dealing with a variety of world problems, be they related to the pandemic or not. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2B1skhU

Perhaps one of the most missed Linux desktop environments is Ubuntu Unity Desktop. It was either loved or hated by users otherwise endeared to the vastly popular Ubuntu Linux OS. An infant cottage industry of sorts has made a smattering of appearances and disappearances with replacement Unity integrations. That brings us to this week's Linux distro review of Ubuntu Unity Distro 20.04, developed by Rudra Saraswat. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/3hJwjAn

Welcome to the world of four Naperville North High School students in a western suburb of Chicago. Their entrepreneurial and technical skills earned them the Pete Conrad Scholar award for their invention of Airlyft, a versatile drone. TechNewsWorld recently met with these student innovators to discuss how they applied teamwork and persistence to overcome constant setbacks imposed by COVID-19. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/3dhQYba

Qualcomm has announced its Robotics RB5 platform, with 5G and 4G connectivity, on-device AI and machine learning. The platform's Qualcomm QRB5165 processor, which is customized for robotics applications, offers a heterogeneous computing architecture coupled with the 5th-generation Qualcomm AI Engine that delivers 15 Tera Trillion Operations Per Second (TOPS) of AI performance. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/3fH6crN

The next generation of Intel mobile processors will include malware protection built into the chip. The protection, provided by Intel's Control-Flow Enforcement Technology, will first be available in the company's "Tiger Lake" mobile processors. CET is designed to protect against the misuse of legitimate code through control-flow hijacking attacks, which is widely used in large classes of malware. Of the 1.097 vulnerabilities Trend Micro discovered through its Zero Day Initiative from 2019 to today, 63.2 percent were related to memory safety. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/3e8y7AN

Being locked up at home due to the pandemic can drive people a little nuts. Several technology products have been particularly helpful while sheltering in place, making this semi-forced timeout feel less like a punishment and more like something I could endure. The Atmoph Window 2, for example, looks like a picture on your wall, but inside the frame is a connected 27-inch 4K display that is tied to remote cameras providing real-time video feeds of remote locations. It may show Paris at times and then switch to China or Italy, for example. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2YB4Jwl

One of the great joys of constantly checking out new or obscure Linux operating systems is finding some insane innovations that stand out from the crowded collection of distros. The current release of PsychOS Linux, code-named "Insane," possibly might blow your mind. This distro is really an off-the-wall project with the potential to become a thing unto itself. PsychOS is a systemd-free, GNU/Linux operating system based on Devuan ASCII -- a fork of Debian Linux. PsychOS Linux is a strange duck in the Linux distro world. It is very retro-esque. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/3hp2e9a

There has been a lot of debate in the public sphere around the degree and kind of legal regulation a society should apply to online speech. While the dialogue has become more intense and urgent in the last few years, the effort to impose limits on Internet speech has been contentious from the start. At the present juncture, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is undergoing reconsideration. It's easy to take knee-jerk stances on Internet speech regulation, but they generally do not achieve satisfactory or sustainable end results. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2XVLj6f

Two separate teams of academic researchers have published papers describing flaws in Intel's Software Guard Extensions. SGX enhances application security by letting developers partition sensitive information into enclaves with hardware-assisted enhanced security protection. The aim is to protect application code and data from disclosure or modification. The recently uncovered flaws can prevent SGX from achieving its goal by compromising long-term storage, and by allowing attackers to control data leakage. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2AVYLhw

Apple plans to announce a new processor for its Mac computer line at its virtual World Wide Developers Conference later this month, according to a report. The company will begin using an ARM chip based on Apple's A14 processor, which will be featured in the next iPhone. The computers will continue to use macOS and not Apple's mobile operating system, iOS. ARM chips tested inside Apple reportedly have shown sizable improvements over Intel-powered versions, especially in graphics performance and artificial intelligence. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2UvSIay

The Linux Foundation is priming the pump to help software engineers get cloud technology-certified through a self-paced bootcamp and discount pricing. LF last week announced the availability of the Cloud Engineer Bootcamp, its first-ever training bootcamp. This new offering enables individuals to go from complete IT beginner to certified cloud engineer in only six months. At $599, the cost of the training program is far lower than similar bootcamps, which typically cost $999. The introductory price will be in effect through June 17. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/3dQhARL

A browser that has received plaudits for privacy protection has been exposed for redirecting Web searches to make money. Brave, a browser with some 15 million monthly users, has been redirecting searches for cryptocurrency companies to links that produce revenue for the browser's owners through advertising affiliate programs. Twitter user Yannick Eckl revealed that when he searched for Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, he was redirected to an affiliate version of the URL that profited Brave. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2XLI8xQ

In these trying times, kids have to deal with a lot of stuff they weren't prepared for: a significant loss of weeks of education, damaged GPAs, and no assurance they'll be going back in the fall. However, some schools were able to pivot because they already had implemented remote programs that were mature, easily implemented, and designed by teachers for teachers. That's because some school districts have a critical mass of students who are widely spread geographically, or for other reasons can't make it to school. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2AcSsWI

For understandable reasons, people feel worn down by the volume and composition of the media coming at them. This fatigue stems from a few compounding factors. There is a strong perception that the character of the information presented by the media is warped by highly polarized players. Nearly two-thirds of Americans across partisan affiliations believed that the existence of "too much bias in the reporting of news stories that are supposed to be objective" constituted "a major problem" in our media, based on a 2018 survey. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/3dDyfIe

Linuxfx 10 could provide businesses and consumers with a Windows 7-like experience that puts users on a smooth downhill path to Linux adoption. Distributions that tweak styles and desktop environment settings to create a Windows-clone type of familiar experience are now numerous, but they often fail to entice reluctant users to stay the course and remain with Linux. Linuxfx 10 is the closest pathway I have seen to transitioning from real Windows 7 or 10 to Linux with a convincing Windows overlay. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2Xwl9qs

Some 50 editors working for MSN, Microsoft's news operation, have learned their contracts won't be renewed and their jobs will be performed by artificial intelligence software, according to multiple news reports. The contractors hired through staffing agencies Aquent, IFG and MAQ consulting were notified May 27 that their services would not be needed beyond June 30. MSN will use AI to do the jobs of the editors, which include identifying trending news stories, rewriting headlines, and adding photos and slideshows to stories. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/3dyrMy7

Twitter has erased an account that claimed to be affiliated with the militant left-wing antifa movement but actually was operated by a white nationalist group. The group, Identity Evropa, began tweeting Sunday night, calling for violent action in the suburbs of cities where demonstrators were protesting the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while in the custody of police in Minneapolis. Twitter scotched the account because it violated the company's manipulation and spam policy. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2U5pgb9

I'm a member of what is likely a reasonably sizable informal group of people who trained to be a CEO but declined the job -- in my case, several times. So I don't envy the position that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is in as he tries to figure out a way to do the right thing concerning the spread of false information and defend his company against an attack by the designated leader of the free world. I've been receiving email and social media queries asking me to use my influence to get Jack to do the "right thing." There are two issues with this. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2Xo2eyg