Hacked: Timehop database breach exposed details of 21 million users

Timehop on mobile

Timehop -- the social network for those who like to reminisce -- has revealed that it fell victim to a security breach on Independence Day. The attacker managed to access an internal database stole the personal data of 21 million users from Timehop's Cloud Computing Environment.

The vast majority of those affected by the "security incident" (as Timehop refers to it) had their names and usernames exposed, but for nearly a quarter of them -- 4.7 million -- phone numbers were also exposed. The hacker also took access tokens which could be used to view users' posts.

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Seagate launches low-cost, consumer-grade BarraCuda SSD

Seagate BarraCuda SSD

Seagate is no stranger to the world of SSDs, but it has shied away from the consumer market in this area, choosing instead to focus on the enterprise market. Now that changes.

The company has launched a new consumer-grade SSD -- the BarraCuda SSD -- aimed squarely at the home consumer looking to give their PC or laptop a boost by making the switch to a solid-state drive. Starting at $75, pricing is highly enticing... but there is a slight catch.

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GIMP 2.10.4 adds Simple Horizon Straightening tool, improves font-loading process at startup

Popular open-source image-editing tool GIMP 2.10.4 has been released by the GIMP Development Team. The latest version of the popular cross-platform image editor adds a new Simple Horizon Straightening tool to its feature complement.

Performance is improved thanks to asynchronous loading of fonts on startup, while macOS users can rejoice: official builds for OS X have been restored.

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Twitter is suspending more suspicious accounts than ever -- over 70 million in the last two months

Twitter building logo

Twitter has revealed that in May and June it suspended more than 70 million accounts as it continues its battle against trolls, fake profiles, bots and abuse.

Closing down over a million accounts a day means that Twitter has more than doubled its rate of clamping down since October, and the suspension rate is continuing into this month. The company confirmed the figures to the Washington Post, but refused to comment on what this might mean for overall user numbers.

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People really want Microsoft to launch a Surface Phone

Surface Phone prototype

There has been a lot of talk about the possibility of a Surface Phone (or Project Andromeda), but so far rumors have amounted to very little. Recently, however, documents leaked that showed plans for a "pocketable folding Surface device" and levels of interest and excitement rose.

Now a petition has appeared online to try to show Microsoft just how much interested there is in a Surface Phone. The title of the petition -- "Show Microsoft the demand for the Surface Phone or Andromeda!" -- is self-explanatory, and it has gathered a great deal of support in a single day.

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Microsoft releases Windows 10 Redstone 5 Build 17711

It looks as if Microsoft is back on its weekly release schedule for Windows 10 Redstone 5 preview builds. Build 17711, for Insiders on the Fast and Skip Ahead rings, offers a number of improvements and changes.

These include Fluent Design tweaks, the usual raft of Edge additions, and improvements to display settings and the registry editor.

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Netflix is killing off user reviews, reducing ratings to thumbs up and thumbs down

Netflix on Samsung phone

Reviews are a handy way to gauge whether or not your going to like something -- be it a game, a piece of hardware, an app, or a movie. Netflix, however, seems to think differently, and has taken the decision to kill off the user reviews feature of its website.

As part of a staggered cull, Netflix will stop users from writing reviews at the end of July. By the middle of August, it will no longer be possible to read existing reviews. Moving forward, the only sort of feedback users will be able to give is a simple thumbs up or thumbs down.

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Grab your wallets, Twitch fans -- TwitchCon 2018 tickets on sale now!

Twitch started out as a platform that let users stream themselves playing video games. For the most part, that is still its main focus. Since Amazon bought it, however, Twitch has wisely embraced all video streaming -- even when no video games are involved. Slowly but surely, the service is becoming a big threat to YouTube, and Google should be worried.

There are so many passionate fans of Twitch, that every year, the company has an official conference. Called "TwitchCon," This 3-day event is dedicated to content creators and their fans. Today, tickets for the aforementioned conference go on sale.

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Gentoo Linux Github Organization repo hack was down to a series of security mistakes

Gentoo Linux

The team behind Gentoo Linux has revealed the reasons for the recent hack of its GitHub organization account. The short version: shoddy security.

It seems that the hackers were able to gain access to the GitHub organization account by using the password of one of the organization administrators. By the team's own admission, poor security meant that the password was easy to guess. As the Register points out, "only luck limited the damage", but the Gentoo Linux team is keen to let it be known that it has learned a lot from the incident.

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Apple Music just may have overtaken Spotify in the US

Apple Music on phone

A new report suggests that Apple may have succeeded in attracting more subscribers to Apple Music than have signed up to Spotify -- in the US, at least.

While this is far from official -- with the report being based on an anonymous source -- it is in keeping with the general feeling from earlier in the year when it was thought that Apple Music probably was going to overtake Spotify in the near future.

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Belkin unveils BOOST↑CHARGE Power Bank 10K with Apple-certified Lightning connector

USB power banks are a dime a dozen these days. Believe it or not, they are often given away at trade shows and conferences -- they have become a ubiquitous throwaway promotional item, much like the USB flash drive. Not to mention, sites like Amazon are littered with these USB battery packs at rock bottom prices. Of course, that's not to say all power banks are created equally. Just like with flash drives, power bank specifications matter. It is still worth investing in a quality unit.

With all of that said, it can be very hard for such a device to stand out. Belkin has managed to do so, however. How? By adding an Apple MFi-certified Lightning port to its latest USB battery pack. Called "BOOST↑CHARGE Power Bank 10K," it features two USB-A ports for charging devices, but to charge the bank itself, you use a Lightning cable. How cool is that?

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Happy 10th Birthday, Apple App Store!

People sometimes forget that when the first-ever iPhone launched in 2007, there was no App Store. Believe it or not, Apple's smartphone was limited to the apps with which it came -- hardly "smart." In fact, Steve Jobs famously didn't want third-party apps on the iPhone at all -- the man was a genius, but not always. Ultimately, the App Store was added in 2008 despite Jobs' initial push against it. This move changed the computer industry forever.

This month, the Apple App Store reaches an impressive milestone -- a 10th Birthday. This day is important for three groups -- Apple (of course), but more importantly, consumers and developers. Apple has made billions of dollars from the App Store, but third party developers have as well -- the company has literally transformed some devs into millionaires. Consumers have benefited from high-quality applications too. You may not remember, but before the iPhone came along, mobile apps were absolute garbage.

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Get 'Troubleshooting and Maintaining Your PC All-in-One For Dummies, 3rd Edition' ($16 value) FREE for a limited time

Need a PC problem fixed in a pinch? Troubleshooting & Maintaining Your PC All-in-One For Dummies offers 5 books in 1 and takes the pain out of wading through those incomprehensible manuals, or waiting for a high-priced geek to show up days or weeks after you need them.

There's nothing worse than firing up your PC only to discover it's inexplicably unresponsive. With this guide, you'll gain all the skills and insight you need to need to bring it back to life -- and to prevent it from ever leaving you in the lurch again.

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NetMarketShare's audited figures show Windows 10 closing in on Windows 7

NetMarketShare reports on the state of the desktop operating system market on the first day of each month, and it has long shown Windows 10 to be lagging behind Windows 7. This is in stark contrast to the figures from rival analyst firm StatCounter which famously had Windows 10 overtaking its predecessor way back in January.

This time around NetMarketShare took a few days extra to present its numbers for June, but after an audit, in which the figures changed considerably, they are finally available and make for interesting reading.

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The importance of cybersecurity training for business

training key

While businesses spend a lot of time and effort putting up technical defenses to protect their systems, often the weakest spot is the users.

Employees can do harm to the business by visiting infected websites, responding to phishing emails, using business email through public Wi-Fi and more. Spam filtering service EveryCloud has put together an infographic looking at why it’s therefore important for companies to offer cybersecurity training.

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