TalkTalk fined £400,000 for security breach
UK ISP TalkTalk hit the headlines last year for a data breach that resulted in the theft of personal data relating to over 150,000 customers.
Today the Information Commissioner's Office announced that it has issued the company with a record £400,000 (around $510,000) fine for what it called a failure to implement basic security measures.
Everyone now has access to Facebook's Secret Conversations, so take control of your privacy
Facebook has been testing its privacy-focused Secret Conversations feature with a select, and then wider, group of users for a little while now. Today the end-to-end encrypted messaging system rolls out to everyone. If you're concerned about your privacy (firstly, why are you using Facebook?), it's your duty to use it.
Secret Conversations remains an opt-in feature, and once enabled it means that only the sender and recipient are able to see messages -- there is no scope for interception by Facebook or any other third party. There's also an important self-destructing messaging option, but there's one glaring problem.
Google's new Pixel phones spell the end of the Nexus line
Now that Google has its own line of smartphones developed completely in-house, you may be wondering what sort of impact will it have on the beloved Nexus brand? The Pixel and Pixel XL are not direct replacements for the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, targeting shoppers in the premium segment. Could there be something just around the corner to fill in the gaps?
Traditionally speaking, the Nexus brand has featured at least one affordable smartphone in the line -- last year, it was the Nexus 5X -- so it would make sense for Google to launch something similar. However, if we are to believe Android head Hiroshi Lockheimer, you should not get your hopes up.
Amazon Prime subscribers now have free ebooks, magazines and more with Prime Reading
If you have been looking for one more reason to become an Amazon Prime subscriber, the newly launched Prime Reading feature could just be the clincher.
Prime Reading gives US subscribers access to a library of free Kindle ebooks, magazines, comics and other publications completely free of charge. At the moment Amazon is proclaiming there are "over a thousand popular books", but there is also the promise of exclusive content.
SaaS makes our jobs more difficult say IT pros
There is a perception in the IT business that adopting software-as-a-service models will make life easier for tech teams and end users alike.
But a new study by cloud specialist BetterCloud suggests that in fact SaaS is making IT jobs harder. According to the survey of over 900 IT professionals, 56 percent of Google Apps and 62 percent of Office 365 IT pros believe their jobs are becoming more difficult due to rising SaaS adoption.
How to extract images from just about any file type
Extracting images from documents makes it much easier to reuse them elsewhere, and there’s a lot of freeware around to get the job done. Which is best for you? That depends on the file formats you want to use.
Weeny Free PDF Extractor provides a simple way to extract the contents of one or multiple PDF files. And not just images: it gives you embedded fonts and TXT files of any text content, too.
New study by Kaspersky shows computer risks to those over 55
It's probably no great secret that today's older generation has a flock of followers online that they largely do not want, who are trying to con them out of their money. Trying to take advantage of this generation is nothing new. In the past it was done door to door with scams such as "roofers" and "driveway repairmen".
Security company Kaspersky has done a study of internet users aged 55 and older and the results, while unsurprising, aren't particularly good.
Open Whisper Systems defeats government subpoena of Signal data with encryption
If you think you and your data are safe on the internet, think again. As we increasingly entrust companies with our data and information, many of these entities end up letting us down. For instance, in a bombshell reveal, we recently learned that Yahoo was scanning user email for the US government. Yes, the company violated the trust that users gave it.
Earlier this year, Open Whisper Systems was served with a subpoena from the Eastern District of Virginia asking it to turn over Signal messaging user information for a federal grand jury investigation. While this sounds like the beginning of a sad story for users of the service, it is actually a beautiful tale with a very happy ending. You see, thanks to the company's focus on encryption and smart design, it was unable to turn over any meaningful data. In other words, the service was created in such a way that the desired information couldn't be presented even if the company wanted to. Too bad that Yahoo didn't design its services in the same way, eh?
Intel Security launches new McAfee lineup harnessing the power of the cloud
As we use more devices to access the internet protecting all of them from the latest threats becomes something of a chore.
Intel Security is addressing this with the launch of a new 2017 range of McAfee security products at the heart of which is a next-generation anti-malware engine that offers more efficient and effective threat detection by offloading analysis to the cloud.
ungoogled-chromium is a completely Google-free browser
If you’re a Chrome user concerned about web privacy then you might have tried turning off telemetry settings, maybe switching to Chromium to lose all that Google code.
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Even Chromium uses pre-built Google binaries and communicates with Google servers to provide various features.
How ransomware threatens government agencies [Q&A]
Ransomware is an increasingly severe threat to all organizations and government agencies are not exempt. The Federal Trade Commission recently labeled ransomware as "among the most troubling cyberthreats".
But why are government agencies such an attractive target and what can they do to combat the threat? We spoke to Andrew Hay, chief information security officer of data security specialist DataGravity to find out.
Yahoo secretly scanned emails for the NSA and FBI -- Apple, Google and Microsoft did not
Yahoo has been having something of a rough time of late, and things are not getting any easier. It has emerged that the company created a custom tool to search customers' emails for specific terms as directed by the NSA and FBI.
Reuters shares the story of two former Yahoo employees who say the company complied with a government directive to search through all incoming emails. In response to the revelations, Apple, Google and Microsoft have all denied engaging in similar activity.
Salesforce integrates Quip in its core products
Salesforce has released new updates for its core products that allow users to use the work collaboration app Quip right from within its own service.
The company purchased Quip for $750 million in August for its collaborative word processing and spreadsheet apps that also include messaging features similar to those offered by Slack.
Watch Tim Kaine and Mike Pence VP debate live on YouTube in English or Spanish here
While the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton presidential debate broke a YouTube record, tonight's vice presidential debate isn't likely to garner the same audience. That's not to say that Senator Tim Kaine (Democrat) and Governor Mike Pence (Republican) aren't formidable debaters, its just that VP is a less exciting position than president. With that said, fans of politics and unsure voters will likely tune in to learn more about both men.
If you want to watch the debate but do not have a television, do not panic. Networks are live-streaming the debate on Google's YouTube, meaning if you have a computer or mobile device, you can watch it over the internet. To make things easier, we here at BetaNews have embedded some of the streams below. If you prefer Spanish, that is an option too. You can even tell us who you think won in the comments.
Watch the Vice Presidential debate tonight on Roku
Tonight at 9pm ET the two vice presidential candidates square off in their one and only debate. Unlike the top of the ticket, this pair doesn't get three tries at it. Mike Pence and Tim Kaine, perhaps the most two ordinary candidates in an extraordinary year, will get the chance to give their views and defend their tickets.
If you have cable or satellite then you should have no problem catching the action, depending on your package. But if you no longer have that option it doesn't mean you're out of luck. There are other ways to catch the big debate.
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