Ukraine police raid accounting software company as part of NotPetya investigation

Server room

Police in the Ukraine have seized the servers of Intellect Service, a company supplying accounting software, as part of their investigation into the NotPetya ransomware attack.

A malicious update to Intellect's MeDoc accounting package is believed to have been responsible for some of the initial NotPetya infections.

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Payment processor Worldpay agrees to $10 billion acquisition offer from Vantiv

The UK's biggest payment processor, Worldpay Group, has agreed to the terms of an acquisition offer from US rival Vantiv. News of the $10 billion (£7.7 billion) deal sent Worldpay's share price tumbling; while the planned takeover values shares at 385p, they quickly dropped to 368p.

Just days ago, Worldpay revealed it had been approached with offers from Vantiv and JPMorgan, and the latter has now ruled itself out of making an official bid. Vantiv's takeover of Worldpay would see the US company spreading into Europe with its POS and online payment services.

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How to create and use separate user profiles in Kodi

Kodi is a very flexible media center that you can use to watch local media, or stream content via third-party add-ons.

If you share Kodi with other family members you can set up user profiles for each person who uses the software. This will let you all keep what you watch separate and you can control what content your children have access to.

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Xiaomi stocking up on patents, makes deal with Nokia

Xiaomi has made some steps towards an international expansion in recent years, like hiring former Google VP Hugo Barra to help it enter new markets but, so far, it has not really gotten out of its comfort zone in Asia. And it is not because the company lacks the financial resources to do it, or because its devices lack the appeal. No, what's stopping Xiaomi is the barrage of costly lawsuits that would most likely ensue.

However, Xiaomi has been slowly stocking up on patents from the big players in the tech industry to beef up its portfolio. For instance, it bought about 1,500 patents from Microsoft a year ago, and now it's made a deal with Nokia that involves "a multi-year patent agreement, including a cross license to each company's cellular standard essential patents. Xiaomi also acquired patent assets from Nokia as part of the transaction."

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Auditors to check all audiovisual content uploaded to Chinese sites to ensure 'core socialist values'

China's control of the internet is no secret, and the Chinese government has just introduced new regulations that require all audio and video content to be vetted by officials before it can be posted online.

The aim is to check that content adheres to the government's "core socialist values" and don’t stray into out-of-bounds topics such as homosexuality and drug-taking. The new regulations take immediate effect, and bloggers, media outlets, and filmmakers are concerned that they will be either censored or shut down.

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AOC unveils beautiful 1080p Porsche-designed PDS241 and PDS271 monitors

While many consumers are going gaga over high-resolution monitors, let's be honest -- 1080p is still great. For those that want to save money and don't need the latest-and-greatest, a Full-HD offering can be a great way to stay on budget. For gamers in particular, a lower-resolution can allow you to squeeze more performance from a meager graphics card.

Today, AOC unveils a beautiful 1080p monitor designed by Studio F. A. Porsche. It offers 250 cd/m2 brightness in a choice of two sizes -- 24-inch (PDS241) and 27-inch (PDS271). It features a beautifully designed stand and extremely thin bezels. What really makes it stand out, however, is the breakout box that houses the HDMI (no DisplayPort) and power ports; there are no connection options on the monitor body itself.

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OneDrive users furious as Microsoft kills access to their external storage without warning

Microsoft has made a change to its cloud synchronization and storage service OneDrive that requires users to use NTFS formatted drives.

The change came out of the blue, with no announcement from Microsoft, meaning that anyone using a non-NTFS drive, such as an SD card, suddenly found themselves unable to use their OneDrive shares, and as you might expect they aren’t too happy about that.

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Major cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb gets hacked

hacker laptop

Thanks to its rapidly growing value, relative anonymity, and easy trading opportunities, the cryptocurrency market is a highly attractive target for hackers. Making things even more interesting, the major exchanges deal with significant volumes throughout the day, making them a prime target for cryptocurrency thefts.

Bithumb is among the biggest targets, being the fourth-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume and the largest in South Korea. And last week it got hacked, with users estimated to have lost billions of won as a result. I say estimated because Bithumb hasn't gone public yet with an accurate figure -- or any figure for that matter.

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Should Microsoft rethink its Windows 10 feature update plans?

Over on Ghacks, Martin Brinkmann posted his thoughts on Microsoft’s Windows 10 feature updates schedule. The software giant is committed to rolling out two major updates to Windows 10 every year. In April we had the Creators Update, and in a few months' time the Fall Creators Update will begin to roll out.

Martin asks if this rapid release schedule is such a wise idea, and he has a good point.

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UK companies reluctant to embrace public clouds

The UK is lagging behind much of Europe when it comes to seeing the real benefits of cloud services, new research has claimed.

Despite businesses on the continent fully embracing the cloud, companies in the UK appear more reluctant to make the move, meaning they are potentially missing out on some major advantages, according to a report from Barracuda.

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Microsoft shutters Windows App Studio

Microsoft is killing Windows App Studio, its web-based app development tool. The news was announced late last week by the Windows Apps Team. However, don't be too alarmed -- the Redmond giant has already prepared a replacement.

Windows App Studio has long been the go-to place when it comes to the first steps in app development. Starting as a Windows phone app, it transformed over the years and became available for desktop operating systems, including Windows 10.

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Thermaltake releases Toughpower iRGB PLUS 1250W Titanium TT Premium Edition PSU

While you should never buy any low-quality components for a computer build, I can't stress enough how important it is to never get a cheap no-name power supply unit. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with saving money, but a chintzy PSU has the potential to not only cause instability, but it could even fry your other components. Heck, it could even cause a fire. Please stick with well-known PSU brands, folks.

One such company that offers quality power supply units is Thermaltake. Today, that manufacturer unveils an absolutely beautiful such offering. Called "Toughpower iRGB PLUS 1250W Titanium TT Premium Edition," it features Japanese capacitors, and as the name indicates, it offers an impressive 1,250 watts of power. The 80 PLUS Titanium certified PSU is fully modular, meaning you only need to connect the cables you need -- good for both appearance and cooling. Its RGB fan has 16.8 million colors, which Thermaltake claims is the first ever on a PSU. It even has a mobile app that can alert you to fan failure -- very cool.

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Speccy 1.31 improves Creators Update compatibility, provides system information for Windows PCs

Piriform has released Speccy 1.31 and Speccy Portable 1.31, an updated version of its system information tool for Windows PCs. Version 1.31 comes with the promised of improved compatibility with the recent Creators Update release of Windows 10, and provides users with the ability to get detailed stats about their computer for diagnostic or sharing purposes.

Speccy 1.31 also improves the 32-build version’s architecture and comes with updated GPU information and sensor tracking along with the usual minor tweaks: improved localization and languages support, minor GUI improvements and minor bug fixes.

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Samsung Electronics to invest $26 billion in its South Korean memory chip manufacturing business

Samsung logo building

Samsung is to invest more than KRW 37 trillion ($32 billion) in its global production facilities. Of this, KRW 30 trillion ($26 billion) will be pumped into its latest semiconductor factory in Pyeongtaek to further expand its production capacity.

The South Korean company says that the new facility has started to produce its 64-layer, fourth-generation V-NAND chips, and it wants to push more off the production line.

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Microsoft structural changes could lead to thousands of layoffs

Black Microsoft shop logo

Microsoft is set for a major reorganization as it moves to focus more on selling cloud services, and less on selling traditional software, according to new reports.

A report by the The Wall Street Journal, claims that the Redmond giant has kicked off "structural changes" first proposed in 2014, when Satya Nadella took over the company.

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