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Earlier this year, I was shocked to learn that development of Opera for iOS was effectively dead. No, this was not just a rumor -- an Opera employee told me publicly on Twitter. And so, we here at BetaNews reported the unfortunate news. Luckily, the report of the browser's demise was short-lived -- the company later told me the employee was misinformed. I was dubious, so I took a wait-and-see approach to see just how alive development truly was.

Well, today, Opera supplied proof that its popular Mini browser is alive and kicking -- a new version! Apparently the company was just waiting for the iPhone 8 before updating the web browser. In a blog post highlighting the upcoming release of a new iPhone, the company shares that the user interface has been refreshed. For instance, there is more use of the "Opera red" color and trending news stories have been bumped to the top of the start page. New features have been added too, such as an enhanced search bar that can scan QR codes.

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Business Email Compromise (BEC) has become one of the most popular tactics deployed by fraudsters in recent years. A step up from the numerous but low-quality spam campaigns that clog most inboxes on a daily basis, BEC attacks involve a planned attack on a specific target, aided by the impersonation of a trusted contact.

The most commonly seen tactic is to take on the guise of the CEO and use their authority to trick a financial department into transferring funds, while variations include impersonating suppliers and business partners, and going after sensitive data rather than direct payment. In its most recent report, the FBI estimated that financial losses from these attacks is more than $5.3bn since October 2013.

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The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is set to launch on October 17, but a large portion of Windows 10 users are still waiting to be offered the Creators Update which was released back in April.

Windows 10 rollouts tend to be quite slow -- Microsoft only makes each upgrade available to systems it considers compatible -- but the pace of the Creators Update rollout has been positively glacial -- way slower than the Anniversary Update that preceded it.

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As the threat of invading malware increases (viruses, worms, Trojans, bots, just to name a few), companies, small and large, will continue to use technology as a means of defence. The antivirus industry is extremely large and continues to garner major investment. As with any technology niche, there is both good and bad within what’s called advanced endpoint security, but it will continue to be installed as a means to protect against modern malware and other possible threats.

It is interesting to me that the term virus has become the way most people understand how computers or enterprise systems become infected. I think it is because people understand the flu and the common cold. And they generally understand how to protect against catching the flu or catching a cold. The most important protection is information.

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Global analyst firm Gartner has predicted that by 2020 there will be more than 20 billion "things" connected to the Internet, sending data all over the world. These Internet of Things (IoT) devices could be anything from fish tanks and fidget spinners, to sunglasses, fridges and other home appliances. All these devices have the ability to send and receive data between one another, creating a network that can share valuable information.

When such devices are integrated into the infrastructure of our towns and cities, they have the potential to revolutionize the way we live our lives -- making our cities more accessible, safer and easier to navigate. For fleet and operations managers in particular, this presents a very enticing opportunity.

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Windows 10 S is a really great idea in theory. By limiting the operating system to applications from the Windows Store, it could make users safer. After all, it should limit the potential of malware since users can't download and install questionable things from the web. Of course, this will only be successful if there is a good library of apps, and I am sorry to say, the Windows Store is a failure in that regard. The biggest selling point for Windows is legacy program compatibility. Once you take that away, there isn't much left.

Thankfully, the company is giving complimentary upgrades from Windows 10 S to Windows 10 Pro until the end of 2017. This will allow a person or organization to easily recover from mistakenly buying into Windows 10 S if it doesn't meet their needs. Today, however, as a sign of weakness, Microsoft extends this deadline.

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Samson is a company that is known for making affordable audio equipment for both amateurs and professionals. For many podcasters, for instance, its microphones are a wonderful value and quite popular. The company has a very diverse portfolio of such products.

Today, Samson launches a new set of powered studio monitors. These pro-grade speakers should offer solid sound reproduction. While they are 2.0, meaning just left and right speakers, there is an output to add a dedicated subwoofer. If you do need added bass, but don't want to buy a sub, there is a bass-boost button too.

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Not content with amassing over a billion users, WhatsApp is branching out into new territory, testing out a new free WhatsApp Business app. The app will be free for small to medium-sized companies, but larger enterprises will be charged.

The announcement comes just days after it emerged that WhatsApp was introducing verified accounts for some business users. The new app is part of WhatsApp's drive to monetize the platform, and it will provide a line of communication between businesses and customers.

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Xiaomi has become one of the largest smartphone manufacturers thanks in part to its approach to customizing Android. MIUI, its distribution, is a significant departure from what is commonly referred to as "stock Android," which is the version that Google ships on its Pixel line of smartphones, packing lots of added features and a heavy theme.

Its new Mi A1 is different. This is Xiaomi's first smartphone running stock Android, and it is also its first entry in the Android One program. It is not, however, an entry-level device, as it features faster and better hardware than what we've seen so far in the Android One landscape.

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The founder of the Opera and Vivaldi web browsers, Jon von Tetzchner, has lashed out at Google in a vitriolic blog post in which he accuses the search giant of a "misuse of power." He says that Opera helped Google to grow and that it didn’t take long for the company to expose its dark side.

He complains that despite the fact that Vivaldi is based on Chromium, the web browser has to hide its real identity in order to work with Google Docs. He also suggests that his Google AdWords campaigns were suspended after he gave interviews in which he described Google as being a threat to democracy. von Tetzchner is not a happy man, and he has a simple message for Google: "it is time to return to not being evil."

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New research from research organization the SANS Institute reveals that frontline IT professionals consider ransomware to be the top overall threat to data availability.

Insider threats and denial of service are also considered top threats to sensitive data. While the majority of respondents indicate that they escaped actual compromise of sensitive data in the last year, enough respondents did lose data to provide valuable lessons from these events.

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Huawei has laid out its bid to kick-start the next generation of cloud computing.

At the Huawei Connect 2017 event in Shanghai today, rotating CEO Guo Ping pledged that the company is committed to building "one of the world's five clouds" to benefit enterprises around the world.

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A Romanian worker's "right to a private life" was breached when his employer read private messages sent using his work Yahoo Messenger account. The European Court of Human Rights agreed with Bogdan Bărbulescu that previous court hearings had failed to address the issue correctly.

A majority of 11 out of 17 judges said that Bărbulescu's right to a private life was infringed upon when his employer read through chat logs containing both private and professional content.

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Out of the blue, and without a proper explanation, Huawei has pulled EMUI images from its websites. Anyone looking for a ROM for their smartphone is now out of luck.

Although the Chinese company makes reference to wanting to give users a "more convenient and satisfactory update service," it's not really clear what this means in practice. The images could appear on a new dedicated site, but for the moment Huawei is remaining tight-lipped about what's going on.

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Senior figures in IT security see enticing staff from non-IT backgrounds and encouraging young people into the industry as vital to addressing the cyber security skills shortage.

A new study commissioned by MWR InfoSecurity and carried out by security discussion and networking group RANT shows respondents feel the core skills needed in cyber security are curiosity (46 percent) or on-the-job experience (34 percent), with no respondents saying a university IT degree is crucial.

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