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As companies store ever larger amounts of data, the current solutions and services available to handle it become more and more costly and difficult to manage.

To address these challenges, Boston-based CHAOSSEARCH is launching a new platform that delivers rapid search and analytics through a managed service, based on simple, elastic storage.

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The Internet Society's Online Trust Alliance (OTA), which identifies and promotes online security and privacy best practices, announced today the results of its latest Online Trust Audit and Honor Roll.

The Audit finds that 70 percent of analyzed websites qualified for the Honor Roll, the highest proportion ever, and up from 52 percent in 2017, driven primarily by improvements in email authentication and session encryption.

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Critical infrastructure sites and energy distribution facilities are increasingly being targeted by cybercriminals. But many of the systems in use today were installed and built before 24/7 internet connections.

A new report from Finnish cybersecurity company F-Secure highlights the fact that cybersecurity was not a realistic threat when these systems were manufactured, and legacy protocols and systems never had the built-in security controls that we take for granted today. Connecting these systems to the internet has opened them up to attacks from myriad angles.

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UK watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has put forward new proposals it believes will help to improve the safety of children online. Among the recommendations is the suggestion that Facebook and other social media sites should disable "like" functionality for minors.

The ICO's "Age Appropriate Design" consultation document is a code of practice for online services, and includes proposals such as minimum age checks and an increase in privacy settings for minors. Another suggestion in the 16-point set of proposals is that social media firms limit the collection of personal data about under-18s.

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Hulu has bought back the minority share AT&T held in the streaming video firm. The two companies have come to an arrangement which sees Hulu purchasing AT&T's minority stake for $1.43 billion.

Buying the 9.5 percent stake at this price values Hulu at $15 billion. The deal gives even greater control to Walt Disney Co, which holds a 60 percent stake in Hulu as part of a joint venture.

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My everyday smartphone is an iPhone 8 Plus. It's a phenomenal device -- it has a big display, insanely long battery life, a great camera, wireless charging, and Touch ID -- not Apple's finicky face unlock nonsense found on its newer phones. Best of all, it uses the very secure iOS operating system. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Android -- quite the opposite. What I don't like, however, is not getting timely OS updates. That is what ultimately drove me from Google's mobile operating system to Apple's.

There is one new Android smartphone that is so exceptional, however, that I am tempted to leave iOS for it. That phone is the Huawei P30 Pro. This device is drop-dead gorgeous and full of top specifications. While Apple is largely known as the king of cameras, the P30 Pro's photo capabilities are supposedly on another level. If I was to buy the P30 Pro (or even the non-Pro P30), I would want to protect my investment with a rugged case. Thankfully, well-respected case-maker Urban Armor Gear has launched its popular Plasma Series case for both the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro!

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Following the popular trend, Facebook has now officially rolled out the much-requested dark mode option to Facebook Messenger on both iOS and Android.

The feature was available as a secret Easter egg from the start of last month, but now it is being rolled out on a global basis for everyone to enjoy. Dark mode can now be accessed as a regular setting without the need to jump through any special hoops.

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Apple is one of the most privacy-focused tech companies. It has consistently protected its users, going so far as to defy the US Government by refusing to unlock an iPhone for the FBI. Conversely, Google makes a lot of its money from advertising and tracking users, while Microsoft has extreme telemetry in Windows 10.

And that's why it is so surprising that Mozilla -- another privacy-focused organization -- is criticizing Apple. You see, the Firefox-maker is calling out Apple for allowing advertisers to track iPhone users. Mozilla is going so far as to launch a petition, hoping to get Apple to change an important iPhone default setting.

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With the big reveal of iOS 13 thought to be mere weeks away, leaks and rumors now abound. So, what can iPhone and iPad owners expect this time around? Well, it's looking as though 13 could be a lucky number as much sought after features are on the cards.

According to sources, the long-awaited dark mode is said to be arriving, along with new gestures. Apple is also said to be bringing improved multitasking and a lot more besides.

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The Kodi Foundation released Kodi 18 'Leia' three months ago, bringing a number of big new features to the hugely popular home theater software, including a new Games area, updated and improved PVR backend clients, and a redesigned Music section.

A month later, a bug fix release candidate -- Kodi 18.1 -- arrived, and today there’s another new release available to install.

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Well-known attacks and attack vectors remained successful because security personnel did not address vulnerabilities and apply patches according to a new report from cybersecurity and visibility business Ixia.

IT vendors created code or configurations that led to many successful security breaches in 2018, but IT operations and security personnel shared the blame due to ignorance of the latest patches and challenges in deploying patches in a timely manner.

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A zero-day exploit found in Internet Explorer means hackers could steal files from Windows users. What's particularly interesting about this security flaw is that you don't even need to be an Internet Explorer user to be vulnerable.

A security researcher has revealed details of an unpatched exploit in the way IE handles MHT files, and the problem affects Windows 7, Windows 10 and Windows Server 2012 R2. It leaves users vulnerable not only to having their files stolen by hackers, but also means they could be spied upon.

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Over the weekend we reported that hackers gained access to Microsoft's web-based email services for a period of three months. Microsoft tried to calm users' concerns by saying that only "your e-mail address, folder names, the subject lines of e-mails, and the names of other e-mail addresses you communicate with" had been accessed. But for some people, things were rather worse.

It transpires that some users have been sent a notification from Microsoft informing them that hackers were able to access the content of emails.

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Tonight is finally the night! After two years, Game of Thrones finally returns to the airwaves. Unfortunately, the Season 8 premier excitement is bittersweet, as it is the final season. Sadly, there are only six episodes remaining in the series. With that said it will be rewarding to finally find out who becomes the ruler of the world. My money is on Theon Greyjoy to end up sitting on the Iron Throne, but I digress.

Believe it or not, in the USA, you can watch the Game of Thrones Season 8 premier for free. How? Simply sign up for a seven-day trial of the HBO Now streaming service -- just cancel before the trial ends to avoid being charged. That isn't the only free thing that Game of Thrones fans can get today. You see, Sony has launched a really cool PlayStation 4 theme to celebrate tonight's premier.

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If you've had trouble accessing Facebook today, you're not alone. Users in the US, Europe and Asia struggled to access not only Facebook, but also the WhatsApp and Instagram services owned by the social media giant.

Facebook has said little about this incident which comes just a month after it suffered its worst outage ever, causing problems for users for over 24 hours. This weekend's outage led to #FacebookDown, #instagramdown, and #whatsappdown hashtags trending on Twitter, and numerous reports of problems were posted to Downdetector.

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