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When hackers hit Marriott's Starwood Hotel database last year, it was first thought that half a billion customers might be affected. This estimate was later downgraded to 383 million guests, but this is still a very large number, and it is understandable that many people are concerned that their data may have been accessed.

There was particular concern about whether passport numbers had been accessed, and this is what a new checking tool lets you check. Marriott has teamed up with security firm OneTrust to enable customers to check if their data was included in the security breach.

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The marriage between Linux and Windows is getting stronger. Having embraced Linux with WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), Microsoft is now doing what users have been begging for: Windows 10 April 2019 Update makes it possible to access Linux files from Windows.

As well as enabling you to open Linux files from within Explorer, Windows 10 version 1903 gives you the option of editing Linux files from Windows.

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Protecting your online privacy is important. There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about how to stay safe online, and an increasing number of people are turning to Virtual Private Networks to keep their browsing data hidden from advertisers and overzealous intelligence agencies.

However, your privacy could still be at risk even behind the protection of a VPN. There are three common vulnerabilities that can leak information about you online: WebRTC and DNS leaks which affect VPN users, and app data leaks which can affect anyone and everyone. Read on to find out more about these three types of data leak, and what steps you can take to prevent them.

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The following is an exclusive excerpt from Project to Product: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Digital Disruption with the Flow Framework by Dr. Mik Kersten:

Entering the BMW Group Leipzig plant in Germany is an awe-inspiring experience. My hosts are Rene Te-Strote and Frank Schäfer. Frank is a plant manager responsible for overall vehicle integration. The enormous Central Building was designed by architect Zaha Hadid, who designed some of the most unique buildings of our time. The unapologetically sci-fi architecture invokes the feeling of walking into the future. The most prominent sight upon entering is an elevated and exposed section of the production line that towers high above eye level. Car bodies move across a suspended conveyor and then slowly disappear out of view as they glide over a sea of desks. The production line is visible to anyone who enters the building and to all the staff, and the entire building is designed around it. Every part of the building has some practical aspect related to manufacturing and value delivery. Everything embodies the maturity and scale of one of the masters of the Age of Mass Production.

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Samsung may be on the verge of officially unveiling its Galaxy S10 range of phones, but ahead of this the company announces its Galaxy Tab S5e tablet.

Being thin and light, there's a strong focus on portability here, and the display makes it perfect for movie watching. This is a 10.5-inch Super AMOLED screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio, and the bezels have been stripped right back. The tablet is driven by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 processor, comes with up to 6GB of RAM, and pricing starts at $400 -- which compares well with Apple's iPad.

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With growing security threats and compliance being taken seriously, companies are more aware than ever of the need to protect their data.

This means hackers must work harder to try to steal information and contact centers are in the front line. We spoke to Ben Rafferty, chief innovation officer at security and compliance specialist Semafone to find out how contact centers are under threat and what can be done to protect them.

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As more and more people opt to work from home these days, videoconferencing is becoming increasingly important. Simply dialing into a voice-only conference call won't cut it -- actually seeing your coworkers (and them seeing you) is a far better experience. Of course, the downside is you will have to wear clothes!

Having a good webcam is an essential part of the videoconferencing experience. True, you can get by with the low-quality camera found on your laptop, but why torture people with grainy video? Instead, you should leverage a quality webcam that will impress and delight your coworkers. The Logitech C920 has long been such an option for both laptops and desktops, but today, the company announces an "s" refresh -- the C920s Pro HD Webcam.

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OpenAI -- a company backed by Elon Musk -- has created an artificial intelligence system called GPT2 that's capable of writing fake news. The system is also capable of generating works of fiction, and it has been described as being so dangerous that it may not be publicly released.

The stories written by GPT2 have been called "deepfakes for text" and can be generated by feeding the system just a few words. The style is far more sophisticated than most AI-generated text, and the news stories it can generate are so convincing that there are serious concerns about the potential for misuse.

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The battle Facebook wages against the spread of fake news and misinformation could be set to expand to include removing anti-vaccination content from the social network.

The anti-vaxxer movement has long been fairly vocal, and it has found a home on Facebook. The viral spread of anti-vaccine groups on the social network has been blamed -- at least partly -- for outbreaks of measles in the US. Facing pressure to block the spread of dangerously misleading information, Facebook has said that it could demote anti-vaxxer content and remove it from recommendations.

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Microsoft is currently hard at work finishing off the next big feature update for Windows 10, codenamed 19H1. This is due out in a couple of months’ time, and will be followed by 19H2, out in the Fall.

Insiders who opted into the Skip Ahead branch (if you missed your chance to join the ring before it closed, follow these instructions to gain access) are likely expecting to receive builds from the 19H2 branch, but surprisingly today Microsoft is rolling out Build 18836 from the future 20H1 development branch.

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Nowadays, many consumers put a premium on having a thin and light computer. This is understandable, as no one wants to lug around a big and heavy notebook. With that said, some people only care about raw power -- weight and size be damned. System76's Serval WS is one such laptop -- insanely powerful, but boy howdy, it is a biggun! The 15-inch model weighs 7.5 pounds, while the 17-inch variant tips the scales at 8.6!

Today, System76 launches a refreshed version of the Linux laptop. It features desktop-class 9th Generation Intel Core processors, which is cool, but arguably more intriguing is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-Series GPU options -- 2060, 2070, or 2080. Yeah, this refreshed Serval WS is an absolute beast!

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Website tags, small pieces of JavaScript code or small images, are often used to collect information about users. But they can add to load times and if misused can be a security risk too.

A new study from digital governance specialist Crownpeak reveals over 1,700 'dark web' tags found on websites belonging to companies in the Fortune 100, causing a total average website latency of 5.2 seconds.

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We won’t get a proper look at iOS 13 until Apple reveals it later in the year, but that isn’t going to stop people from coming up with some ideas of how the mobile operating system should look.

Just a couple of weeks ago we saw one iOS 13 concept video, and now another has surfaced. A collaboration between AppleiDesigner and Skyline News, this latest concept is packed with ideas to get excited about for iPhone and iPad users alike -- a redesigned status bar, system-wide dark mode, some great-looking wallpapers, and customizable lock screen elements.

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Popular cloud-based office suite Zoho is launching a new version of its software complete with AI-powered personal assistant.

Zoho Office is made up of four cloud-based productivity software applications -- Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, and Zoho Notebook. These are fully integrated with each other and with Zoho Mail the company’s messaging app Cliq.

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Chromebooks have fared far better than many people would have first thought when they first appeared on the market, and Google's Chrome OS is going from strength to strength. While not yet ready to topple either Windows or macOS, the operating system continues to gain features that make it increasingly appealing.

One addition that is on the horizon and likely to please many users and potential users alike is virtual desktops. This is something we have heard about before in relation to Chrome OS, but a recent commit to the Chromium Gerrit shows that "virtual desks" are being worked on -- and there's even a video showing off the feature.

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