Privacy’s a big thing nowadays, and with the US government in particular leaning on big businesses to make it easier for user’s private data to be shared, you’ve a right to feel uneasy. Whether you’re looking to encrypt files on your PC or even add another layer of encryption to files before uploading them to the cloud or sharing via email, a raft of free tools are emerging to help you do just that.

One of the latest to hit the market -- albeit in somewhat unfinished form -- is a free tool for Mac and PC called Secryptor Basic 1.0.

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Security breaches happen all the time but it's the biggest ones that hit the headlines and send ripples through the IT community. Security consultancy TSC Advantage has looked at the top ten breaches from the last five years and what effect they've had.

Top of the list is the Adobe hack of 2013, made possible by weak password requirements and affecting 152 million customers. In second place comes the recent eBay hack involving stolen employee credentials and affecting 145 million users.

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Mastering chess can be difficult. Very difficult. Even if you have time, patience and a gift for strategic thinking, you’ll still need to find plenty of challenging opponents to develop your skills.

Still, if you’re running short of real-life candidates then you could always turn to your computer, where there’s plenty of help for players of every level.

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Google gains some control over the distribution of Android updates by pushing new features and changes directly through Google Play, quickly reaching a significant part of the user base without getting manufacturers and mobile operators involved in the process.

This is how Google Play Services 5.0, announced late last month at the I/O 2014 conference, is also making its way to Android users. The upgrade, which is rolling out now, targets both end users and developers, introducing new tools, features and APIs.

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A computer nerd without a home office or "man-cave" is half a nerd. This is the exact predicament I am in. Without going into to much detail, my basement man-cave is out of commission for renovations. This means my test desktop, large monitor and computer desk are packed away for the time being. Thank God for the Surface Pro 3 -- it has enabled me to make any room my office, including the Starbucks I am in now.

However, not all people have a desire to be mobile. No, some without an office prefer to put a home computer in a small area of a kitchen or living room. This can be problematic however, as the desktop can be large and depending on the model, an eyesore. Even worse, the whirring of the fans may impede a desired silence for a movie or romantic dinner. Today, ECS announces a solution for geeks and nerds that are tight on space -- the LIVA mini-computer. At 118 x 70 x 56 mm and 190g, this thing is light and tiny.

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Utilities developer SecurityXploded has released Browser Password Remover, a free tool for managing stored passwords across a range of browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer [v7.x -- v10.x], Google Chrome, Google Chrome Canary/SXS, CoolNovo, Opera, Comodo Dragon, SeaMonkey, SRWare Iron, Flock).

The program can be used as a simple password viewer. Launch it, click Show Passwords, and you’ll see all stored credentials for every supported browser.

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Security company F-Secure has uncovered a new malware attack that blends together elements of two earlier threats in an attempt to compromise enterprise networks.

CosmicDuke includes elements from the MiniDuke advanced persistent threat (APT) Trojan combined with the info-stealing Cosmu family. MiniDuke first appeared last year and was used in attacks against NATO and some European government agencies.

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Last month, at its yearly I/O developer conference, Google introduced Android Wear, a version of the popular open-source operating system designed for wearables, like the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live smartwatches. Connecting such devices to Android handsets is, as usual, a companion app, that Google just launched.

The app, called Android Wear, gives users the ability to manage their wearables, allowing them to adjust the preferences for voice commands (which play a key role in the Android Wear user experience), tweak notification settings (which, again, is an important feature for the platform), and of course configure the devices from the comfort of their Android handsets.

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Consumers looking for a dual-SIM smartphone have many low-end and mid-range options to choose from, offered by dozens of manufacturers in a wide range of configurations. The high-end selection is, however, much more limited, as fewer players compete in this space where, arguably, the value benefit of dual SIMs does not go hand in hand with the premium pricing of such devices.

HTC is among the few top players in the business to launch dual-SIM versions of its Android flagships. The Taiwanese maker did so last year with One Dual SIM and, this year, it gives its critically acclaimed One (M8) the same treatment.

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Samsung’s Galaxy Gear has been handed a rotten assessment by Apple’s gadget-loving co-founder Steve Wozniak.

The man who started up the technology behemoth with Steve Jobs complained that the smartwatch doesn’t offer the convenience he was hoping and within half a day it was up on eBay ready to be sold at a bargain price.

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The US Marshals Service doesn’t normally make economic policy but this week they apparently did so by auctioning 30,000 Bitcoins, a crypto currency I have written about before. This auction effectively legitimizes Bitcoins as part of the world economy. Am I the only one to notice this?

My first column on this subject was a cautionary tale pointing out the two great areas of vulnerability for Bitcoin: 1) the US Government might declare Bitcoins illegal, and; 2) someone might gain control of a majority of Bitcoins in which case their value could be manipulated. While number two is still theoretically possible it becomes less likely every day. And number one seems to have been put to rest by the U.S. Marshals.

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The latest tablet from Samsung, the Galaxy Tab S, recently launched, and received considerable attention, as with many products the company does. Samsung also launched an advertising campaign to go along with its latest offering.

"The third installment in Samsung’s new tablet commercial series puts the Galaxy Tab S’s industry-leading display to the test, showing side-by-side comparisons of a wide range of images on the device’s Super AMOLED screen next to traditional LCD screens. These bring the extraordinary Super AMOLED technology to life, resulting in more immersive and breathtaking visual experience", the hardware maker claims.

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As much we like to believe that computers are helping the world to connect, and enabling people to learn, let's be honest -- people just want to game. We all convinced our parents at a young age that we needed a PC to write papers and access things like Encarta encyclopedia, but our true desire was Wolfenstein 3D.

It's not just computer users that want to get in on the gaming -- companies want to do it too. A good example is Microsoft. Sure, the company creates some amazing productivity software like Word, Excel and Access, but it also makes the Xbox. In other words, the company likes to work hard and play hard. Today, the company acquires SyntaxTree, which shows a commitment to gaming.

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At 5pm on Thursday 12th June 2014, I launched tinderus.com  --  a $50 Tinder Profile Consultancy Service.

I came up with the idea in London at 3pm that exact day and within two hours I had tinderus.com up and running. I chucked it on ProductHunt and within minutes received a wave of traffic, two $50 bookings and a whole host of comments, including a nice little comment from Tinder Co-Founder Jonathan Badeen.

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Today's workplace plays host to employees using a variety of cloud services side-by-side with corporate-sanctioned IT. This often results in incongruent information sourcing and storage, typically known as cloud sprawl. Whilst software as a service (SaaS) can boost smarter working and innovation in businesses, information disparity issues need to be addressed to sustain efficient working environments.

As businesses adoption and management of cloud services matures, some are still suffering organizational inefficiencies due to cloud sprawl. At the moment, different software is being selected for different solutions by different departments or even individual members of staff; there is a knowledge gap where businesses aren't fully informed about how cloud technology can respond to business challenges in a different way to on-premise solutions, and so the potential for better information management is not being realized.

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