• Article

The number of DDoS attacks during the first quarter of 2019 increased by 84 percent compared with the previous quarter according to a new report from Kaspersky Lab.

This reverses last year's trend of declining DDoS attacks as attackers shifted their attention to other sources of income, such as crypto-mining.

Continue reading →

Half of security professionals who adopt a more traditional or reactive approach to their data protection and security don't believe they will reach their digital transformation goals in the next five years.

This is among the findings of a report from data protection company TITUS which conversely finds that nine out of 10 security professionals deploying a strategic approach believe their current efforts will address digital transformation needs within five years and that their organization would achieve its digital transformation goals in the same timescale.

Continue reading →

There are plenty of applications you can use to view and print PDF files, including Microsoft Edge. Some of them offer editing features, but they are usually a bit limited.

PDF Shaper is a collection of tools which will let you merge and split PDF files, rotate and crop pages, extract text and images, edit metadata, add a page number watermark, and convert PDFs to images (and vice versa) or to text.

Continue reading →

As businesses move towards hybrid IT environments they increasingly face threats, gaps and investment challenges to keep their systems secure.

The study from secure access specialist Pulse Secure surveyed enterprises with 1000+ employees in the US, UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland and finds that while they are taking advantage of cloud computing, all enterprises have on-going data center dependencies.

Continue reading →

Mozilla has released Firefox Quantum 67.0 for Windows, Mac and Linux, along with Firefox for Android 67.0.

The new release is a major one, boasting several performance improvements, a significant number of new features and tighter security and privacy with the ability to block both cryptominers and fingerprinters

Continue reading →

New research from storage and data management company Portworx shows 87 percent of IT professionals are now running container technologies, with 90 percent of those running in production.

In addition seven out of 10 are running at least 40 percent of their application portfolio in containers -- an increase from two years ago, when just 67 percent of teams were running container technologies in production.

Continue reading →

With age verification checks for users of adult sites in the UK set to come into force this summer, cyber security company F-Secure says that the new rules could increase the risk of identity theft and other cyber crimes.

Under the new laws, British internet users will be required to verify their age in order to access adult content websites. This could be by sharing personal information such as passport, driving license, phone number or credit card details with third-party age verification platforms, or by buying a 'porn pass' at a store.

Continue reading →

Game of Thrones has never been a show to play things safe. Every time viewers thought they knew where things were going, the series would usually prove them wrong -- often with an unexpected death, or a twist hardly anyone saw coming.

The eighth and final season has just ended, and it’s fair to say -- like much of the eighth season (episode five, The Bells, in particular) -- the finale left viewers divided. I personally loved it (albeit not unreservedly), while my colleague Brian Fagioli hated it. Either way, people have been talking about it.

Continue reading →

If you’re a Windows 10 user then you might be interested in -- or even excited for -- the next generation of Microsoft’s Edge browser which is being built around Chromium.

If you’re a Mac user, then you likely couldn’t care less about it. Still, Microsoft is hoping it can change your mind and today it introduces the first preview build for macOS.

Continue reading →

Kingston has long been a popular brand with enthusiasts, as its flash memory products are often high quality and reliable without breaking the bank. This isn't just its USB flash drives and RAM, but its solid state drives too.

Today, it launches its newest such SSD. Called "KC2000," it is an NVMe PCIe variant, meaning it will be blazing fast. Pricing is pretty reasonable too, as it starts at just $62.40.

Continue reading →

If you're not in the habit of keeping up to date with the latest version of the Linux kernel, now might be a good time to think about doing so. Systems based on versions of the kernel older than 5.0.8 suffer from a severe flaw in the implementation of RDS over TCP.

Left unpatched, the flaw could enable an attacker to compromise a system. The National Vulnerability Database entry says: "There is a race condition leading to a use-after-free, related to net namespace cleanup".

Continue reading →

Windows 7 support will end in January of next year, and that is a huge problem for both business and home users that are still running the aging operating system. Can't these people just upgrade to Windows 10? Well, yeah, but many just don't want to. Windows 10 has extreme telemetry that many people consider to be spying. As a result, they simply don't trust Microsoft's latest operating system. Not to mention, for businesses and organizations with many computers, the upgrade to Windows 10 could prove to be a costly affair.

And now, as a result of the upcoming death of Windows 7 support, the South Korean government has reportedly decided to ditch Microsoft Windows entirely. According to The Korea Herald, the Asian country's government will switch from Windows 7 to a Linux-based operating system.

Continue reading →

Google's business relies on gathering information about its users and customers, so the company take every opportunity it can to reap as much data as possible. As such, it should surprise no one to learn that Google has been using Gmail to keep a record of things you have bought -- both online and offline.

A little-known page (it's not exactly secret, but nor is it made particularly obvious) of your Google account reveals years of purchases. Google insists that the data on the Purchases page can only be seen by individuals, and is not used to tailor ads, but the clandestine, opaque nature of the tracking -- coupled with the fact that the data is tricky to delete -- is unlikely to go down well with Gmail users with concerns about privacy.

Continue reading →

Ubuntu is a great operating system; that's why so many other Linux distributions are based on it. Hell, even Microsoft seems to be enamored with Ubuntu these days. What makes Ubuntu so good? The Linux distro is rock solid, has tons of compatible packages, and its online community can be very helpful (unlike snooty Arch users).

Today, a lesser-known (but very good) Ubuntu-based operating system reaches a new milestone. Called "Peppermint," version 10 is now available. Peppermint 10 should be particularly good for those with modest hardware, thanks to its use of the fairly lightweight Xfce desktop environment and available 32-bit variant. With that said, those with more powerful computers should have a positive experience with Peppermint 10 too.

Continue reading →

Grumpy Cat, the feline subject of many memes, has died at the age of 7.

The internet celebrity rose to fame because of her delightfully dour demeanour and a sour face that made the online world smile. An internet celebrity for seven years, Grumpy Cat (aka Tardar Sauce) shuffled off this mortal coil this week, leaving the web a sadder place.

Continue reading →