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Ransomware is a persistent problem, with cybercriminals always looking for new ways to evade detection and infect systems. Attacks have increased 20 percent in the first half of this year.

Endpoint detection and response company Nyotron is launching a new, free online tool called Ransomwiz that allows allows security professionals to check their defenses by generating actual ransomware samples using a variety of real-world attack techniques.

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USB flash drives are "old hat" in 2020, right? Yes and no. True, they are no longer particularly interesting, but they are still quite necessary for some people. While cloud storage has largely made them irrelevant to the average consumer, there are still many cases where one is necessary. I like to use them for operating system installations, for instance -- I keep Windows and Linux install drives at the ready. Believe it or not, many businesses and education institutions still rely on USB flash drives too.

For whatever reason, I still have a big place in my heart for USB flash drives, so when a new  model is announced, I get interested. Transcend has released a new such drive, and while it looks fairly unremarkable, it is worth noticing for its impressive speed and build quality. Called "JetFlash 920," it uses the USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface, which is just a fancy way of saying USB 3.0. With that said, it can do up to 420MB/s read and 400MB/s write -- not bad at all. It also features an aluminum body for improved cooling and durability. Unfortunately, it does utilize a cap to protect the USB-A connector -- I prefer capless designs as there is no cap to lose. A cap is hardly the end of the world, however.

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If you don't have a Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) router, you are not living your life properly. Look, even if you don't have any Wi-Fi 6 devices yet, you can score such a router for as low as $79.99. Seriously, folks, its time to upgrade your aging wireless networking gear already.

For those of you hardcore gamers looking to upgrade to Wi-Fi 6, NETGEAR has a new router that is sure to tickle your fancy. The "Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR1000," as it is called, runs DumaOS 3.0 -- a gaming-optimized firmware and interface. Not only will you benefit from the power of 802.11ax, but DumaOS will allow you to tune things to best meet your online gaming needs.

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It won’t come as any surprise to most of you to hear that the next big feature update for Windows 10 is very nearly ready for release.

Microsoft believes that Build 19042.508 (KB4571756) is the final release for Windows 10 20H2 (October 2020 Update as it’s also known) and is going to begin rolling it out to those users on the Release Preview Channel from today.

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One of the side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a marked reduction in the use of cash as people have shifted to using cashless and contactless payment methods.

This has put increased pressure on financial institutions to offer digital services, but it’s also shone a spotlight on the measures needed to prevent fraud and on initiatives to integrate cryptocurrency into everyday transactions.

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More than 80 percent of government cyber security leaders think public-private collaboration would help them keep pace with cyber threats, according to a new report.

The study from Nominet of government agencies in the UK, US and the Middle East, also shows that 65 percent of respondents think their pace of change is too slow in comparison to enterprises and 81 percent believe that a slow pace of change can negatively impact national cyber defense.

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There was a time when I could figure something out, just plain figure it out of raw data, then blurt my conclusions out to the world through this rag just to see what would happen. And what would inevitably happen was a thousand experts would pipe up just to tell me to pipe down, saying that I was too frigging stupid to read, much less write. Except occasionally I got it right (pure luck) so, damn it, they had to keep reading my work. Well I’m back to try again and here it comes: When the history of autonomous cars is written, the winner will be Tesla. Heck, I think it’s already won.

Autonomous cars are like the graphical user interface, object-oriented programming, the Internet, or yet another K-pop boy band: you can know in advance they are coming and will define the future, you just can’t be quite certain when they will arrive or exactly what they will look like. We all now know there will come a time when most cars will be electric and they will be able to drive themselves. The only question is when will this finally happen?

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The GNOME 3 desktop environment was officially released in 2011, and in 2020 we are still on version 3.x. Yeah, despite many massive changes over the last (almost) decade, we have been stuck with point releases for GNOME 3. For instance, just yesterday, GNOME 3.38 was released. Historically, the stable releases all ended in even numbers, with pre-release versions ending odd. For fans of the DE, such as yours truly, we have simply learned to live with this odd versioning scheme.

Well, folks, with the next version of GNOME, the developers have finally decided to move on from version 3.x. You are probably thinking the new version will be 4.0, but you'd be very wrong. Actually, following GNOME 3.38 will be GNOME 40. Wait, what? Yes, the developers are actually moving from 3.x to 40.x! They are even ditching the even/odd aspect, as the next major stable version to come after 40 will be 41. Minor stable updates will be given incremental point designations (.1, .2, .3, etc.). During development, there will just be alpha, beta, and release candidates -- nice and simple. Understandably, this is going to be confusing for some Linux users that are used to the old versioning scheme.

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Cloudflare’s Always Online service caches a static version of any sites that use it. Should a site’s server get taken offline for any reason, such as a DDoS attack, visitors will still be able to view a recent version of it.

Today Cloudflare announces it is joining forces with the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to make the web more reliable.

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Although you may be old enough to have ceased believing in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny (if you're not we advise you to stop reading now), there are likely to be some things you think you know about about technology that are equally mythical.

According to a survey of 1,000 Americans from HighSpeedInternet.com 86 percent believe that 5G is going to completely replace 4G. In fact it's not, just as 4G hasn't replaced 3G, so you won't have to rush out to get a new phone as 5G comes in.

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All solid state drives are fast -- when compared to mechanical hard drives. With that said, not all SSDs are created equally. SATA based SSDs are the slowest amongst them, with PCIe-based drives being the fastest. Of course, there are different generations of PCIe that have gotten continually faster. Currently, consumers have access to some computers and motherboards with PCIe Gen 4.0.

For those of you with PCIe Gen 4.0 systems, there is a new solid state drive from ADATA that you should definitely check out. Called "GAMMIX S50 Lite," the PCIe Gen4 M.2 2280 SSD is being offered under the company's gamer/enthusiast "XPG" brand.

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Starting in March and continuing through most of the spring, there has been a significant increase in malicious emails utilizing various COVID-19 issues as a lure to manipulate users into exposing themselves to various email attacks and scams.

The latest Attack Landscape report from F-Secure shows COVID-related emails range from attempting to trick users into ordering face masks from phony websites to infecting themselves with malware by opening malicious attachments.

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Sony won the current generation of console wars, with PlayStation 4 far outselling Microsoft's Xbox One. And now, for the upcoming generation of gaming consoles, it looks like Sony will beat Microsoft once again -- in pricing at least. You see, today, we learned the PlayStation 5 starting price is $399 -- a shocking $100 less than Xbox Series X, which is $499. This is very significant, as parents doing Christmas shopping will be intrigued by the huge $100 savings.

True, Microsoft will also be selling a neutered console called Xbox Series S for $299, but that game system has lower specifications -- it cannot even do 4K gaming! By comparison, the $399 and $499 PlayStation 5 consoles are almost identical, with the only difference being the pricier model has a 4K Blu-ray disc drive. Both versions of Sony's console can handle 4K gaming. Clearly, Sony's approach will be much preferable to consumers.

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One of the best things about Linux-based desktop operating systems is having access to many wonderful desktop environments. While there are many great user interfaces available, only one can be the best. For many years now, GNOME has been the greatest DE, and that is still true today. What makes it so wonderful? Well, GNOME 3.x is ideal for productivity, allowing the user to focus on the task at hand. Not to mention, it is beautiful and simple -- it provides a no-nonsense computing experience. There's a reason both Ubuntu and Fedora use GNOME as their default environment.

Today, the best Linux desktop environment gets even better. You see, GNOME 3.38 "Orbis" is finally here, and it is chock-full of improvements. For instance, the default web browser, called "Web," now has improved privacy settings, including cross-site tracking. There is also a new app called "Tour" which introduces the user to GNOME features after installation. Retro gamers will be thrilled to learn that Nintendo 64 support has been added to the "Games" app. Orbis also provides support for varying refresh rates when using multiple monitors. Best of all, the developers have killed the "Frequent" and "All apps" views, replacing it with a single customizable grid with the ability to drag to reorder the icons.

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If you’ve wanted to embrace VR but have yet to be convinced by the headsets on offer -- or just as importantly the price of the headsets on offer -- then the Facebook-owned Oculus hopes you’ll give its next generation Oculus Quest a look. And you really should.

There’s a lot to like about the new Oculus Quest 2, which takes what was good about the original and improves on it significantly, while giving it a much more affordable starting price -- just $299. That’s $100 cheaper than its predecessor.

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