Google launches 'Change the Game' design challenge to encourage female coders and gamers
Google has teamed up with Girls Make Games and ESA Foundation to launch a new initiative called Change the Game. It is designed to encourage more women to get involved in playing and creating mobile games, and there's a $10,000 college scholarship and a $15,000 technology donation up for grabs.
The company is seeking game ideas from US teenagers who are invited to share details of their designs. Google asks for details of game mechanics, storylines and asks "what emotions could the player experience or feel while playing the game?"
Instagram is tweaking its feed to make it a little more chronological
Following quite a vocal backlash from users, Instragram is making changes to its feed to move away slightly from the algorithm-driven, non-chronological form it takes at the moment.
Instagram -- like social media stable-mate Facebook -- has eschewed the chronological ordering of feeds, but now seems to have come to the realization that it is what people expect and prefer. The platform is also making changes to the automatic feed refresh function.
Cryptocurrency industry hit hard by DDoS attacks
Although it's relatively new, the cryptocurrency industry was the fifth most attacked by DDoS in the final quarter of 2017.
Imperva's latest Global DDoS Threat Landscape Report finds the spike in cryptocurrency prices has attracted the attention of attackers. Also the number of exchanges has increased to 190, up from 70 in Q3.
YouTube steps further into the political arena by introducing further restrictions on firearms videos
YouTube has stepped further into the debate surrounding gun control by introducing new restrictions on weapon-related videos on its platform.
The move sees Google nailing its political colors to the mast, and it's a move that's likely to anger Republicans and the NRA, and lead to further allegations of a liberal bias. Under the new policies, videos that promote or link to sites selling firearms and accessories are banned, as well as those that show how to make weapons at home.
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Satechi launches Aluminum USB Type-C Multimedia Adapter for Windows and Mac
If you own a laptop with USB-C ports, and you like to sometimes connect to a monitor when working, I highly recommend investing in a home docking station. This will allow you to easily connect multiple accessories to your computer with a single cable. This is especially beneficial if your laptop supports charging over USB-C.
If you don’t do a lot of work with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, a pricey home dock might be overkill. Instead, an affordable portable multi-port adapter/dongle could be a better option. This can be an essential purchase if your laptop only has USB-C ports. Today, Satechi unveils its latest such adapter, and it looks incredible.
Huawei doesn't stand a chance in the US
Here's the thing. As happy as smartphone makers are about selling a ton of devices across the globe, they would all like to make it big in the US. It's a huge market where lots of consumers buy premium handsets -- which offer the biggest margins. However, it's not easy to gain ground here.
The US is unlike the vast majority of markets in the sense that iOS and Android share a similarly-sized slice of the pie. Making things even more difficult is the fact that Samsung pretty much wipes the floor with the competition in its corner of the market. And then there is the matter of perception. Huawei probably knows best about it, as it's been taking hits left and right over its ties to China.
Legacy defenses can't keep pace with new cyber threats
Attacks such as ransomware are able to bypass legacy security solutions because organizations are neglecting to patch, update, or replace their current products according to a new report.
The study from cyber security company Webroot also shows cryptojacking gaining ground, with over 5,000 websites being compromised with JavaScript cryptocurrency miner CoinHive to mine Monero since September 2017.
Lack of investment in security training adds to skills gap
Cyber security is seen as one of the biggest threats to business. Yet employees are not being supported by their organizations when it comes to investing in their continued education and career development.
Crowd sourced IT and security training solution Cybrary, along with cyber security research body the Cyentia Institute, have produced a report looking at the cyber skills gap.
Opera 52 launches faster ad-blocking tool, adds support for multiple tab selection
Opera Software has released Opera 52.0, the latest version of its Chromium-based browser for Windows, Mac and Linux.
The main highlight in this new release is the unveiling of a faster ad-blocker tool. In addition, users gain the ability to select multiple tabs with a variety of related actions, including a brand new option for copying Web URLs. There are also new animations to accompany error and warning messages.
Malicious mobile apps decrease in final quarter of 2017
A new report from digital threat management company RiskIQ states malicious mobile apps declined at the end of 2017.
To reach these findings the firm analyzed 120 mobile app stores and it puts the decline down largely to a decrease in the inventory of AndroidAPKDescargar, the most prolific dealer of blacklisted apps.
Vivaldi collaborates with DuckDuckGo to improve browser privacy
Vivaldi Technology has announced a new collaboration with the privacy-centric search engine DuckDuckGo. In coming together, DuckDuckGo will be made the default search engine in a Private Window.
The aim is to further increase the privacy offered by the Vivaldi web browser, helping to ensure that searches that are conducted in a Private Window really are private.
Mozilla pulls advertising from Facebook
Mozilla is not happy with Facebook. Not happy at all. Having already started a petition to try to force the social network to do more about user privacy, the company has now decided to withdraw its advertising from the platform.
The organization is voting with its money following the misuse of user data by Cambridge Analytica, as it tries to force Facebook into taking privacy more seriously.
Mainframes become more important to enterprises but staff shortages pose problems
The mainframe is becoming more important to large enterprises, with the percentage of organizations running at least half their business-critical applications on these platforms expected to increase next year.
But the loss of skilled mainframe staff, and the failure to subsequently fill these positions, poses significant threats to application quality, velocity and efficiency.
Facebook reveals the steps it will take to avoid the next big data breach
After it was revealed that private data belonging to 50 million Facebook users was shared with data analytics company Cambridge Analytica, there has been much talk about what went wrong and how something similar can be avoided in the future. Mark Zuckerberg issued a non-apology, but Facebook has also indicated some of the things it will be doing in the wake of the fiasco.
Zuckerberg says that back in 2014, steps were taken to restrict the access apps have to data, and the social network also plans -- in the name of transparency -- to inform everyone who has been, or may have been, affected by the data breach. New tools are also on the way to give users greater control over apps, and to prevent abuse of Facebook and the data it holds.
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