Microsoft initially had grand ambitions where smartphones were concerned.
The company invested billions in their quest to create a phone that ran on Windows 8 (and later, Windows 8.1). That was all in a bid to carve a niche for itself in a market dominated by iOS and Android.
If you spend any time at all on social media, you've probably seen the latest craze: People posting photos of themselves aged, so they look like they're in their sixties, seventies, or even older than that. FaceApp, the program behind the face-aging magic has actually been available for a few years, but it has only recently gained the attention of the masses, suddenly and inexplicably going viral after enjoying a quiet existence early on.
Are you a Firefox user? If so, you'll want to update to version 67.0.4 as soon as possible. Just last week, Mozilla released Firefox 67.0.3 to address a critical remote code execution vulnerability that was being used in the wild to selectively target vulnerable systems.
How many apps do you have on your phone?If you're like most people, you've likely got dozens or more. Considering how much storage is available on mobile devices these days, people tend to install apps and when they no longer want them, they don't bother to uninstall them.
Not even NASA is immune to hacking. Recently, the American space agency announced that they traced a breach back to April of 2018.
That was when a group described as an APT (Advanced, Persistent Threat) breached the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's network via a 'Raspberry-Pi' device that was improperly connected to the network.
Did you get your Google Nest Security Camera system used or second hand? If you did, be sure your cameras are running the latest firmware.
Recently, the tech review site Wirecutter reported that some older Nest cams allowed their former owners to access camera feeds, even after the devices had been reset to factory settings.
The city of Riviera Beach, Florida is the latest high-profile victim of a ransomware attack.
Recently, the city council voted to pay more than $600,000 to a hacking group to regain access to data that had been locked and encrypted via ransomware nearly a month ago.
Microsoft is continuing to push quietly into new frontiers on the accessibility front. Their most recent effort? The release of four free "Eyes First" games that people who have speech and mobility-related disabilities can play using nothing but eye movements.
Be advised, according to a recently published Microsoft support document, certain Bluetooth devices may experience pairing and connectivity issues after installing the latest Windows 10 update.
The bulletin reads in part, as follows:
"These security updates address a security vulnerability by intentionally preventing connections from Windows to unsecure Bluetooth devices.
The hacker who calls himself 'Gnosticplayers' has been busy and prolific. Over the years, he's sold more than one billion user accounts on the Dark Web. His most recent product is more than ten million user records for the social planning and e-invitations service, Evite.
