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The Vault 7 leaks continue to flow thick and fast from WikiLeaks, shedding more and more light on the hacking and infiltration capabilities of the CIA. The latest batch details the OutlawCountry project which finds the CIA targeting Linux systems.

With Linux-based operating systems usually lauded for their impenetrability, news of a possible chink in the armour will undoubtedly cause concern. With OutlawCountry, it seems the CIA was able to redirect network traffic from a target machine to an agency-controlled machine for infiltration.

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Slightly over half (53 percent) of local authorities in the UK are ready to take on a cyber-attack, according to a new report by PwC.

When it comes to local authority leaders, 35 percent are confident their staff are well equipped to deal with such an attack. Three quarters (76 percent) of UK CEOs are concerned about cyber threats, and almost all (97 percent) said they’re currently addressing cyber breaches that are affecting business information or critical systems.

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When it comes to mobile marketing, there is a lot of room for growth among UK businesses, according to a new report from Textlocal.

The report, based on a poll of 1,000 users, says Britain has roughly 80 million active mobile users, but just 50 percent of businesses are using SMS for marketing.

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Businesses have been warned that they may be hit for damages in multiple ways after being affected by a cyber-attack.

A new report by Lloyd's of London says there are two different costs linked to a cyber-attack: a one-off cost, and a "slow-burn" effect. The one-off cost is the visible one -- notifying customers, paying ransom, paying for public relation expenses, things like that.

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Comcast's Xfinity cable service is used by many people in America. Not only does it offer television, home telephone, and internet, but cellular service too -- Xfinity Mobile. No, Comcast hasn't rolled out its own network, it is using Verizon's towers plus its own Wi-Fi hotspots to create a comprehensive nationwide offering.

Xfinity Mobile has a new smartphone by LG that is quite interesting. Called "X Charge," the Android device has a massive 4500mAh battery, meaning it should offer all-day usage. It has a respectable 5.5-inch display and is running the Nougat operating system. Best of all, it is very affordable.

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Microsoft came very close to launching a smaller version of its Surface slate three years ago. The Surface Mini, as it was rumored to be called, was expected to see the light of day alongside the Surface Pro 3, but mysteriously there was no sign of it at the software giant’s launch event in New York.

During the company's earnings report a few months after the launch event, Microsoft admitted it had been working on the diminutive device, but had decided "to not ship a new form factor" after all, although it didn’t give a reason. Due to the late cancellation, we never got to see what a Surface Mini would have looked like, but today details and images of it have finally surfaced (pun intended).

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AMD has unveiled its plans to topple Intel’s dominance of the commercial and enterprise PC market with the reveal of a new family of super-powerful processors.

The company’s new Ryzen Pro family of processors will be its most advanced to date, including a new Ryzen Pro 7 that will look to take on Intel’s top-of-the-pine vPro products, which power many of the top desktop and laptop PCs around today.

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A report by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) says that more than a third of British teenagers are "extreme internet users." This does not (necessarily) mean they are accessing the darker, more extreme recesses of the internet, rather that they are just using it a hell of a lot.

Of the 34 OECD member countries -- which includes the US, Australia and much of Europe -- only Brazilian teens were more extreme. But with 37.3 percent of British teenagers indulging in "extreme internet use," there is a warning that this is not an accolade to be proud of.

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The OnePlus 5 may have received positive reviews, but the launch has not gone as smoothly as OnePlus might have hoped. The new flagship killer was found to boost performance in benchmarks to get higher scores, and, most recently, users have reported a strange scrolling issue as well.

This does not appear to affect all OnePlus 5 units, but some users say that they have noticed what is commonly referred to as "jelly" scrolling. OnePlus calls this a "subtle visual effect," but it says that this kind of behavior is perfectly normal for the AMOLED display that it uses.

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There has been tons of Ubuntu news lately, with the death of Unity continuing to be felt in the Linux community. Just yesterday, a company that is one of Ubuntu's biggest proponents -- System76 -- announced it was creating its own operating system using that distribution as a base. While some might see that as bad news for Canonical's distro, I do not -- some of System76's contributions should find their way into Ubuntu upstream.

Today, we get some more positive news, as Ubuntu Linux 17.10 'Artful Aardvark' has officially achieved Alpha status. While details about changes and such are virtually non-existent, you can download Alpha 1 for testing. The Artful Aardvark operating system is only available in four flavors for now -- Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Kylin, and Lubuntu Next. Not familiar with that last one? That is because it is a new experimental version of Lubuntu that uses LXQt instead of LXDE.

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There have been lots of complaints about invasion of privacy since the release of Windows 10. Microsoft's telemetry lead to several lawsuits, including one from France's National Data Protection Commission which said Windows 10 was collecting "excessive personal data" about users.

But now the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) has decided to drop its case against Microsoft. The commission is happy that sufficient steps have been taken to reduce the amount of data that is collected and users are now informed about data collection.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to provide a major boost to the UK’s GDP over the next decade, new research has claimed.

A new report by PwC says that by 2030, the country’s GDP could see a boost of around 10 percent thanks to AI -- equivalent to around £232 billion.

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Every second office worker in the UK (48 percent) is optimistic about what automation technologies will do to their workplace in the future. The only problems are that it’s expensive and infrastructure is lacking.

This is according to a new report by Capgemini, based on a poll of more than 1,000 UK office workers.

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Apple will not officially release macOS High Sierra until later this year, but, in the meantime, Mac users who want to check out the new features early can enroll in the public beta program to install preview builds of the new operating system.

The first public beta build lands today, coinciding with the release of a revised second beta for developers. Apple typically gives developers the option to sample a new Mac operating system early, so that casual testers can enjoy a more stable experience.

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On this day in history, all the way back in 2007, a device that not only revolutionized an industry but changed the way everyone thought about all industries, was unleashed on the world.

Okay, okay, before I go any further, I know what you're thinking. "Oh, great, another one of those flowery, rose-colored articles about the nostalgia of all things Apple and how the iPhone changed cell phones forever. Kill me now." No, that's not what this is. It's a much broader reflection of how the landscape has changed around media, consumer culture, and communications of all forms, and the fact that mobile technology has been there every step of the way.

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