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In a brief but surprising announcement on icq.com, it was revealed that ICQ, one of the pioneers of instant messaging, will be shutting down next month. This news comes as a shock to the many users who have relied on the service for decades. The announcement on ICQ's official website was concise, stating simply that the service would stop working on June 26, 2024.

ICQ, which stands for "I Seek You," was launched in 1996 and quickly became a staple of online communication. It introduced millions to the concept of instant messaging, long before the advent of social media and modern messaging apps. Over the years, ICQ evolved to keep up with technological advancements, but its core functionality remained the same: connecting people in real-time.

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As Memorial Day weekend approaches, many people might be considering a fresh start with their tech. For those looking to switch to Linux, Ultramarine 40 (available here) offers a compelling option. With its new features and improvements, this release could be the perfect way to dive into the world of Linux during the long weekend.

Ultramarine 40 introduces a new codename scheme, aiming to bring a fresh and engaging approach to its releases. The core team will rotate the responsibility of choosing codenames. This release, named after "Lost Umbrella" by inabakumori, marks the first under this new system.

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Think you’ve been hit by a cyber-attack? You need to move fast, but what immediate actions should you take, or should you not take?  Here’s a Cyber Incident Responder’s guide to steer you through the turmoil. The actions your team takes -- or doesn’t take -- can greatly impact the overall duration of recovery, cost, and the potential to uncover vital evidence left by threat actors within your infrastructure.

Identifying a cyber security incident can be challenging. Many threat actors have mastered the art of quietly infiltrating IT systems and hiding their digital footprints. Not all cyber-attacks are as overt as encryption-based ransomware or mandate fraud. The rise of encryption-less ransomware and corporate and state-level espionage is concerning. These silent intruders can lead to data and intellectual property (IP) loss, diminished competitive edge or market share, potential regulatory fines, and reputational damage.  All of which can be just as devastating, if not more so, to an organization, its employees, and investors, than a single ransomware incident.

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When Google was founded in 1998, it ushered in a new era of access to information. The groundbreaking search engine wasn’t the first to debut (that was World Wide Web Wanderer in 1993), but it was the one that caught on. By 2004, Google was fielding over 200 million searches per day; by 2011, that number had exploded to about three billion daily searches. By that time, the word “Google” had morphed from just the name of the search engine to a verb that meant “to use an internet search engine.” Twenty years later, Google still dominates the market with an almost 84 percent share as of late 2023.

Though Google is still the most popular search engine, new technology has emerged that could threaten its supremacy -- LLMs. The use of this technology is growing at an astonishing rate. In fact, in February 2024, ChatGPT generated over 1.6 billion visits.

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A digital transformation strategy requires a focus on its business value and ability to support key company initiatives. These initiatives are often tied to transformative changes in the business that are connected to customer experience, operational efficiency, and productivity gains. Too often, digital transformation projects are technology driven and lack understanding of business objectives, and do not engage the right stakeholders or clearly detail the needed business / technology roadmap for strategy implementation over a multi-year period. 

There are several key actions that should take priority when implementing a digital transformation strategy. These are: 

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G.SKILL has unveiled the Trident Z5 Royal series DDR5 memory—a line so opulent it could adorn Trump Tower. With its gold or silver mirrored-finish heatspreaders and dazzling crystalline light bar, this gaudy yet powerful RAM is designed for those who want their PCs to sparkle with luxury.

Trident Z5 Royal marks the return of the popular luxury-class design to the new generation of DDR5 memory under the Trident Z5 design, inheriting from its DDR4 predecessor the lustrous mirrored-finish heatspreader in gold or silver color and a crystalline light bar design for a magnificent display of RGB lighting. Each heatspreader is CNC-cut from aluminum and electroplated for a stunning design befitting its Royal name.

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Learn all about the best application for emailing, scheduling, collaborating, and just plain getting stuff done.

Did you know that Microsoft Outlook can do everything, including cook your dinner? Okay, it can’t cook your dinner. But it can deliver your email, filter out the junk, help you organize your life, sync data to the cloud, integrate with iOS and Android, and about a zillion other things. Microsoft Outlook For Dummies shows you how to work all the basic and advanced features of the Office 2021 version. 

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Organizations have grappled with business threats posed by various automated bots and crawlers over the years. The latest flavor to take the spotlight is AI crawlers which source proprietary content to feed the AIs they serve.

We spoke to Eyal Benishti, CEO of IRONSCALES, to discuss AI crawlers and why it's important for security teams to establish boundaries for their use.

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Spotify's venture into the world of hardware with Car Thing has proved an unmitigated failure. Having ended production of the device just a few short months after launch, the product is set to be completely discontinued before the end of the year.

But the discontinuation of Car Thing means more than just the end of support and updates -- much more. Spotify says that the devices will be rendered non-functional, and the advice to users is to reset and recycle them.

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Streaming video services have clamped down on password sharing and have -- as Netflix has shown -- reaped the financial benefits. But while many companies are keen to stamp out the practice of sharing passwords, Google is actively embracing it.

A policy change that was talked about back in February is now rolling out, bringing a new password sharing option to Google Password Manager. The feature makes it possible to share a password in a secure way, without having to write it down.

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AiDot, known for its smart home technology, has launched the Linkind SL5 Smart Solar Spotlight. This product combines convenience, intelligence, and eco-friendliness in an easy-to-install device, making it a suitable option for any lawn or garden. Users can benefit from its smart features, solar technology, and straightforward installation along with adjustability and access to 16 million colors.

The SL5 is the first smart solar spotlight to offer group control functionality without the need for hubs or wires. Users can link multiple SL5s and control them simultaneously through the AiDot app, where they can manage color, temperature, brightness, and on-off timing. Additionally, the SL5 can synchronize with music, creating dynamic lighting effects for outdoor events.

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TUXEDO Computers has unveiled the 6th generation of its Stellaris line with the introduction of the TUXEDO Stellaris Slim 15, a fashionable thin and light gaming ultrabook that prioritizes high performance in a slim and stylish form. This ultrabook is the second of three new releases in the Stellaris Gen6 series.

Weighing just 2.1 kg and boasting a 15.3-inch format, the Stellaris Slim 15 features a high-quality aluminum chassis. Despite its compact footprint of 34.2 x 24.5 cm and a thickness of just 2.2 cm, this Linux laptop integrates upper-class to high-end tier processors from AMD or Intel, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 or 4070 GPUs, up to 64GB (Intel) or 96GB (AMD) of DDR5-5600 RAM, and a maximum capacity 99Wh battery.

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Deepfake attacks, including sophisticated synthetic voice clones, are rising, posing an estimated $5 billion fraud risk to US contact centers, according to the latest Pindrop Voice Intelligence and Security Report.

Contact center fraud has surged by 60 percent in the last two years, reaching the highest levels since 2019. By the end of this year, one in every 730 calls to a contact center is expected to be fraudulent.

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Almost three times as many phishing, malicious, deny-listed, and offensive links have been delivered to mobile devices than a year ago, according to a new report from Lookout.

The Lookout Mobile Threat Landscape Report is based on data derived from the Lookout Security Cloud that analyzes data from more than 220 million devices, 325 million apps and billions of web items.

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Design and use generative AI prompts that get helpful and practical results in this concise and quick start guide.

In The Quick Guide to Prompt Engineering, renowned technology futurist and AI thought leader Ian Khan delivers a practical and insightful resource for taking the first steps in understanding and learning how to use generative AI. You will learn how to design and use prompts to get the most out of Large Language Model generative AI applications like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Google’s Bard, and explore how to understand generative artificial intelligence and how to engineer prompts in a wide variety of industry use cases.

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