Mozilla's Paperstorm campaign calls for copyright reform to save the internet
Mozilla has teamed up with design studio Moniker and launched a new "digital advocacy tool" called Paperstorm with the aim of modernizing copyright laws in Europe. The tool makes it easy for ordinary internet users to carpet bomb European lawmakers with virtual leaflets demanding change.
The campaign is looking to drop millions of leaflets on cities around Europe to send a message to EU policymakers. The timing is important because copyright laws are due to undergo amendments, and proposals need to be in by the end of the year. Mozilla says that existing rules are outdated, and now is the time to make sure the laws are appropriate to modern needs.
Comodo launches free enterprise threat analysis
Data breaches not only cost businesses money in the short term, they can cause long term reputational damage as stolen details turn up for sale in dark corners of the internet.
Cyber security company Comodo is offering enterprises with more than 1,000 employees a free 'Company Threat Analysis' to determine if their sensitive information is for sale on the Dark Web and, if so, how to prevent compromises from happening again.
Open source password strength meter could help boost account security
It's no secret that most people are rubbish at choosing passwords -- it's something that's proved time and time again when the annual list of common passwords is released. To help overcome the problem, and hopefully increase the security of people's accounts, a team of researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Chicago have created an open source password meter that provides advice about how to strengthen a password.
While it's quite common to encounter online forms that require you to create passwords that meet certain criteria, it still does not necessarily mean they are secure. CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory (CUPS), in conjunction with the Institute for Software Research, has created a tool that provides real-time feedback that helps to explain why a password is insecure, and offers tips about how to strengthen it.
Share screenshots and images online with ImgurSniper
ImgurSniper is an open-source tool for sharing screenshots, desktop recordings and image files online via Imgur.
Simple tasks are very quick. Press a hotkey, draw a rectangle around an area and it’s instantly uploaded. A browser window opens at the Imgur URL, ready for sharing with anyone you like.
Microsoft fixes 'crazy bad' Windows vulnerability
Over the weekend, two of Google’s Project Zero security researchers announced that they had discovered a "crazy bad" Windows exploit, describing it as the "worst in recent memory."
Project Zero gives firms 90 days to fix such discoveries, but Microsoft swiftly jumped on this problem, and just two days later has come up with a fix.
Online daters receive explicit emails after Guardian Soulmates website suffers data breach
A number of people who were members of the dating website Guardian Soulmates had their email addresses exposed following a data breach. The exposure of usernames and email addresses led to some users receiving explicit emails.
Human error has been blamed for the breach, with site owner Guardian News and Media (GNM) saying that the problem stemmed from a third-party technology provider. The issues meant that private details were made available via users' public profiles.
Why premium loyalty programs succeed
With the gradual evolution of the internet and e-commerce over the past 15 years, consumers have been gifted with the power of choice. With so many websites to crawl through, consumers are no longer restricted by where they purchase an item, who they get their content from or by what time they choose to do some digital "window shopping."
With this new found freedom, these consumers are now constantly evaluating your brand to determine whether it’s worth their money, support, and most importantly -- their time. Historically, companies have tried to win over and keep these consumers with traditional loyalty models of transaction first, benefits later, but that is proving to be unsuccessful today. With the creation of premium loyalty programs like Amazon Prime and the changing tastes of consumers, the status-quo loyalty program just isn’t enough to keep the modern-day customer from browsing at your competitors.
What you can learn from tech stacks
Marc Andreessen wrote his famous Wall Street Journal essay "Why Software Is Eating the World" in 2011. Today, his prediction -- that software companies would take over large parts of the economy as various industries are disrupted by software -- has largely come to pass.
Software has indeed changed the game, with software and online-based services making it possible to build companies with very little infrastructure. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the tech stack -- a new term that refers to the suite of software tools that a company uses.
Saladin is a versatile dual-pane file manager for Windows
Veteran dual-pane Windows file manager Saladin has recently been updated to version 1.0, its first major release since 2014.
The program opens with two independent Explorer-type views on your file system. Double-clicking, right-clicking and drag-and-drop all work as you’d expect, allowing you to start using the program right away.
Google Project Zero security researchers discover 'crazy bad' Windows exploit
Google’s Project Zero identifies bugs and security flaws in commonly used software, and gives firms 90 days to patch them before going public. This is an approach which doesn’t always go down well -- a case in point being when Google recently released details of a Windows bug after Microsoft failed to patch it in time.
Now two Project Zero security researchers claim to have found a new critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Windows which they describe as the "worst in recent memory" and "crazy bad".
Google just made offline browsing a whole lot easier in Chrome for Android
Offline web browsing is a useful feature, particularly on a smartphone, so it was little surprise when Google added website downloading to the Android version of Chrome. Today the company launches a number of improvements to make the whole process even easier.
The latest update to the app introduces a couple of new ways to download pages for offline viewing. It also provides easier access to the content you have earmarked for offline reading, encouraging more people to make use of the feature.
How will driverless cars impact the insurance industry?
In the next decade or so, it’s predicted that our roads will be awash with driverless cars, with estimates that they will account for a quarter of global car sales by 2035. This will present either a huge opportunity for the insurance sector or a challenge that could lead to its downfall. Car insurance has long been a lucrative business, generating billions of dollars in annual revenue and supporting thousands of jobs. So the disruption promised by driverless cars is a genuine concern.
The primary challenge comes from the fact that 90 percent of road traffic accidents are caused by human error, a risk that driverless cars have the potential to eradicate, sparking a significant improvement in road safety. And while safer roads are always a welcome development, the knock-on effect would be to cause the need for third-party damage insurance to almost disappear. With fewer accidents and fewer claims, Forbes estimates that premiums will reduce by as much as 75 percent.
IBM: Remote working is awesome -- as long as we're talking about other companies
Judging by IBM's latest report on remote working, big blue seems to be a vocal advocate of the trend. However, when it comes to its very own employees it would rather they do their work in-house. How does that saying go? "Do as I say, not as I do?"
For the Making Telework, Work: Insights from SIOP 2017 report, IBM has used "perspectives from academia as well as public and private sectors" and found not only that "teleworking works" but also that "associated challenges can be managed with careful planning and communication."
Fraqtive is a fast fractal art generator
Fraqtive is an open-source generator of gorgeous Mandelbrot and Julia fractals. It’s a crowded area and there are a lot of similar programs around, but Fraqtive has enough interesting extras to justify the download.
Speed is a plus. Launch the program, a familiar Mandelbrot view appears, and you can quickly zoom in and out by moving your mouse cursor to an interesting area and spinning the mouse wheel.
Weird Microsoft Edge bug means the browser prints different numbers than it displays
Anyone using Microsoft Edge to "print to PDF" is advised to double-check their files after a strange bug was detected. The problem is reminiscent of a bug that afflicted Xerox photocopiers a couple of years ago, and sees the browser displaying one set of numbers and printing another.
Microsoft has confirmed the existence of the bug which has the potential to cause serious issues with mission-critical data. The person who originally reported the problem cites an example in which Windows 10's default web browser "displays 123456 in PDF but prints 114447."
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