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Businesses are embracing the Internet of Things (IoT) faster than ever before, with 2017 marking a landmark year in terms of adoption.

That’s according to the fifth annual Vodafone IoT Barometer Report, which reveals a huge uptake in terms of IoT projects being undertaken across the world.

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Next month, Ubuntu 17.10 will be released. Even after that release, version 16.04 will remain the most recent LTS version. If you aren't familiar, LTS stands for "Long Term Support," which quite literally means it is supported by Canonical for a longer period of time. For instance, Ubuntu 16.04 will be supported until 2021, while the newer 17.04 is only supported until 2018.

Today, Canonical announces that Samsung has selected version 16.04 LTS of the operating system as the primary Linux distro for some of the ARTIK internet of things modules. This is a smart choice by Samsung, because long support is preferable to bleeding edge for an IoT device.

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Just a year after the Mirai malware infected connected devices to create the first IoT botnet, new research from Norton shows that global botnets have continued to grow and spread as a result of unaware users inadvertently infecting others.

According to Norton, the top three countries responsible for hosting the highest number of bots in Europe are Germany at just over eight percent, Italy at 10 percent and Russia at almost 14 percent.

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As the cost of dealing with the aftermath of a security breach has risen significantly in the past year alone, new research has revealed that staff training can greatly help reduce the risk of cyber attacks.

A new survey from Accenture found that 55 percent of workers in the UK could not recall ever receiving training regarding cyber threats, meaning many of them are often unsure what to do in order to prevent, identify or respond to a cyber attack.

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After a period of beta testing, Google's new parental control system for Android and iOS -- Family Link -- has been launched to the public. Google says that the feature makes "Android better for kids and families," and it places parents in control of what their kids can do.

The feature is available to everyone in the US without the need for an invite (the beta period was invite-only), and Google describes the tools as being a way to bring kids and their parents into the Android ecosystem. It can be used from an Android phone or an iPhone to control kids' use of an Android device.

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Android users have been slowly discovering that Google has killed off NFC Smart Unlock. The feature, which makes it possible to unlock a phone with an NFC device such as a ring or bracelet, has been discontinued without explanation.

Earlier in the month, Android users started to post messages on Google's Issue Tracker website, indicating that the feature was no longer available to them. Three weeks later, Google has finally responded, indicating that NFC Smart Unlock has been deprecated.

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There are few smartphones that attract as much attention as a new OnePlus flagship. And it is easy to understand why. You get pretty much everything that you expect from a flagship device, but at a fraction of the cost. That recipe has not changed with this year's OnePlus 5.

Though it has not changed dramatically on the outside, the new "flagship killer" is more powerful and exciting than ever. It's also more expensive, which brings up an interesting question: Is the OnePlus 5 still special in today's crowded market?

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Anthony Levandowski -- a former Googler famous for building the company's self-driving car -- has set up a non-profit religious corporation called Way of the Future. The founding of the "church" has just been unearthed by Wired through state filings in California.

The purpose of the Way of the Future is to "develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence and through understanding and worship of the Godhead contribute to the betterment of society."

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Splunk has revealed plans to boost the power of its enterprise software offerings thanks to the power of machine learning.

Speaking at the opening keynote of the company’s conf2017 event in Washington, Splunk chief product officer Richard Campione highlighted how machine learning could help the company’s customers get even more insight out of their data.

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Next month, a new era of Ubuntu begins. Unity is dead, and GNOME 3 takes over as the default desktop environment. While this change was for the best, it was still shocking for many. For a company like System76, for instance, that sells computers pre-loaded with Ubuntu, this was problematic. Why? Well, the company essentially lost control of the overall user experience by relying on vanilla Ubuntu. It was being forced to follow Canonical's path.

To solve this, and regain some control, System76 has been developing its own operating system called "Pop!_OS." No, it is not reinventing the wheel here -- it will still use Ubuntu as a base, and GNOME will be the desktop environment. The company is customizing the operating system, however, with things like fonts, themes, and icons, to create something truly unique. This could lead to an improved user experience. Today, the first official beta of the operating system becomes available for download.

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Poor management of user accounts is leaving organizations open to security and compliance risks according to a new report.

Identity and access management specialist One Identity surveyed over 900 IT security professionals, in conjunction with Dimensional Research, and finds that what should be security best practices -- such as swift removal of access to corporate data and applications, dormant account identification, and role administration -- continue to be a challenge for many enterprises.

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In the wake of the recent breach at credit agency Equifax it's only natural that people are keeping a close eye on their bank statements and credit reports.

Of course the bad guys know this too and a new report by Barracuda Networks looks at an email attack that is impersonating a 'secure message' from financial institutions.

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A bug has been uncovered in Internet Explorer which makes it possible for websites to view anything that is typed in to the address bar. This means that web addresses and search terms could be accessed by a hacker or malicious website.

The vulnerability was discovered in the very latest version of Internet Explorer, and Microsoft is yet to release a patch for it. Discovered by security researcher Manuel Caballero, the attack can be made completely invisible to a victim.

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DevOps is a popular choice with companies looking to streamline software delivery, but it often encounters a road block when changes to databases are needed.

In businesses databases are often historically developed and need to be managed differently due to their complexity and their sometimes sensitive nature. Systems management and security company Quest Software is launching a new toolkit to help organizations automate database changes within their existing DevOps processes.

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Apple has launched a revamped privacy page proclaiming that its products are "designed to protect your privacy." Describing privacy as "a fundamental human right," the page explains the privacy functions of apps, Siri, Apple Pay and Touch ID.

The company describes not only how it protects personal data with encryption, but also how it responds to government and legal requests for data. Apple has additionally published a paper which goes into some detail about how the Face ID feature of the iPhone X works -- and reveals its limitations.

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