#BetaNews20 Giveaway: System76 Linux computer seller swag kit

Today is July 1, meaning BetaNews' month-long birthday celebration is officially over. We still have some active giveaways, however -- be sure to use the below links to enter them.

We want to thank all of our readers for visiting our site over the last two decades. We look forward to serving you all for another 20 years! To close out the celebration, we are launching one final giveaway today. Linux fans in particular will love this one -- we have three System76 "swag kits" to give away.

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The NSA is deleting all of its call records since 2015 because of privacy issues

NSA logo

The NSA -- not exactly a bastion of privacy -- has announced that it is deleting hundreds of millions of call and text records because of "technical irregularities".

The agency says that back in May this year is started to delete all of the calls records it collected since 2015. While full details of the reasons for the deletion are not given, the NSA notes that it collected data it was not authorized to collect.

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#BetaNews20 Giveaway: Logitech Keys-To-Go portable wireless keyboard

Nowadays, people are quite good at typing on touchscreens. Let's be honest though -- using a bigger physical keyboard will almost always be preferable. With that said, no one is going to walk around with a giant full-sized keyboard from their desk -- that would not be convenient.

Thankfully, Logitech created a product that manages to find a nice balance. The Keys-To-Go, as it is called, is a thin and light Bluetooth keyboard that you can throw in a bag and use with your iPhone, iPad, Android, or Windows device. It is even compatible with Apple TV, making it a great tool when searching for movies on Netflix. To celebrate BetaNews' 20th birthday, we are giving two away!

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aLTEr: Hackers can spy on your 4G browsing sessions thanks to LTE flaws

3D LTE logo

Vulnerabilities have been discovered in LTE that would make it possible for an attacker to tap into 4G networks for the purposes of spying on and hijacking 4G browsing sessions.

Security researchers from Ruhr-Universität, Bochum and New York University, Abu Dhabi show how three different attacks can be launched on the second layer of LTE -- also known as the data link layer. Two passive attacks allow for identity mapping and website fingerprinting, while the active cryptographic aLTEr attack allows for DNS spoofing and network connection redirection.

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Leaked Microsoft documents reveal 'pocketable' folding Surface device

Folding Surface prototype

Microsoft's Surface range could one day include a folding, dual-screen device. Codenamed Andromeda, the device has been in the works for a couple of years and appears to neatly straddle the laptop and mobile categories -- seemingly trying to make up for Windows Phone.

Leaked internal documents have come to light that reveal Microsoft's plans for "a new pocketable Surface device form factor that brings together innovative new hardware and software experiences to create a truly personal and versatile computing experience".

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Sticker shock: Managing cloud costs for high availability and high performance

Public cloud services can be affordable for many enterprise applications. But achieving the same service levels that the enterprise data center delivers for high availability and high performance for mission-critical applications can be quite costly. The reason is: high availability and high performance, especially for database applications, both consume more resources and that costs more money -- sometimes considerably more.

Is there a way to make public cloud services equally, if not more, cost-effective than a high availability, high performance private cloud? Yes, but that requires carefully managing how the public cloud services are utilized by each application.

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Opera 54 adds Update and Recovery page, introduces news to Speed Dial

Opera Software has released Opera 54.0, the latest version of its Chromium-based browser for Windows, Mac and Linux.

The new release adds two new features: the first allows users to set up customized news feeds on the main Speed Dial page. The second makes it possible to recover the browser and settings more easily thanks to a visible new Update & Recovery menu section.

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Adidas data breach may have exposed personal data of American customers

Adidas shopping bag

Sportswear company Adidas has warned US customers about a security breach that took place earlier this week.

The firm says that on Tuesday it was made aware that "an unauthorized party claims to have acquired limited data associated with certain Adidas consumers". Two days later, the company started to notify its customers that personal data -- including contact information and usernames -- may have been compromised.

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In iOS 12 Apple is completely rebuilding Maps from the ground up

Map on iPad

When it comes to navigation apps, there's no denying that Google Maps is king -- but Apple is trying to change that. With the impending release of iOS 12 is also coming a complete redesign of the company's own Maps app.

Apple is not only rebuilding the app from the ground up, but it is doing so with a combination of "first-party" data gathered by its own camera cars as well as data from iPhone users. The changes are going to start to appear in the next beta version of iOS 12.

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Linux Mint 19 'Tara' now available for download with Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce

Things have been quite exciting lately for fans of Linux Mint. The much anticipated MintBox Mini 2 is available for purchase, and we learned Linux Mint Debian Edition 3 should be available next month in Beta.

Of course, what fans of Linux Mint have really been looking forward to is the release of Tara -- version 19 of the operating system. It was supposed to be released by the end of June, and today, it just makes it in under the wire. Yes, Linux fans, you can download Linux Mint 19 "Tara" immediately. You can choose between three desktop environments -- Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce.

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Debian-based Raspbian Linux distribution for Raspberry Pi gets major update

Computer hardware is useless without software. As cool as the diminutive Raspberry Pi computers are, for instance, they are just paperweights until you install an operating system. The little computers can run many OSes -- including an IoT variant of Windows 10 -- but really, Linux makes it shine.

One of the most popular Linux-based operating systems for Raspberry Pi is the Debian-based Raspbian. This is the "official" distribution for the Pi hardware, and today, it gets a major update. The Chromium web browser gets bumped up to version 65, while a new and faster PDF viewer, called qpdfView, replaces Xpdf. More importantly, the operating system gets two big additions -- a new setup wizard and recommended software program.

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Over 90 percent of endpoint security incidents involve legitimate binaries

unknown threat

Cybercriminals use a variety of tactics to cloak their activity and that includes using trusted tools, like PowerShell, to retrieve and execute malicious code from remote sources.

A new report from eSentire reveals that 91 percent of endpoint incidents detected in Q1 2018 involved known, legitimate binaries.

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Gentoo Linux Github Organization hacked and repo code compromised

Gentoo Linux

A hacker managed to take control of the Github account for Gentoo Linux, going as far as inserting malicious code into the distros. The malware was designed to delete user data.

Although the situation is now under control, an investigation is underway to determine what happened. Anyone who has downloaded a Gentoo distro or other files recently, is warned to "refrain from using code from the Gentoo Github Organization" for the time being.

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Win a 2TB diskAshur PRO2 hardware encrypted hard drive #BetaNews20

Throughout June, to celebrate BetaNews’ 20th birthday, we have been giving away some incredible prizes and while the month is drawing to a close now, we still have more giveaways for you enter.

The diskAshur Pro 2 range of portable USB hard drives from iStorage makes it easy to keep your personal files and folders private thanks to the integrated PIN authenticated XTS-AES 256-bit hardware encryption. Unlocking the drive is just a matter of tapping your PIN into the keypad and pressing the unlock button. To secure it again, just press the lock button, or eject the drive.

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OnePlus is looking to come to the US as it promises two years of software updates and a 5G phone

OnePlus 6 and box

At Mobile World Congress Shanghai, OnePlus CEO and founder Pete Lau said that his company is determined to make a proper entry into the North American market and is working with US carriers to make it happen.

OnePlus has also said that it is looking to produce a 5G phone in 2019, and it will take advantage of its relationship with Qualcomm to make this happen. For current and future OnePlus owners, the company also made commitments about software and security updates.

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