Considering a switch from Microsoft Windows 11? Check out SparkyLinux 7.3
For those of you considering a switch from Windows 11, the latest update from SparkyLinux might just be the ticket. Sparky 7.3 "Orion Belt," the third quarterly update of Sparky 7, has been released, and it's packed with features that make it an attractive alternative to Microsoft's offering.
Based on Debian 12 "Bookworm," Sparky 7.3 offers compatibility and stability. The update brings all packages up to date with the Debian and Sparky stable repositories as of March 13, 2024. It includes the Linux kernel PC 6.1.67 LTS, with other versions like 6.8.0, 6.6.21-LTS, and 5.15.151-LTS available in the Sparky repositories.
Dark web election posts up almost 400 percent
The number of new posts on dark web forums about elections surged by 394 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, research released this week by cybersecurity firm NordVPN reveals. And in the first two months of 2024 alone, users have already published almost half as many posts.
With more than 60 countries holding national elections in 2024, representing over half of the world's population, this is a significant year in history for global democracy so it's unsurprising that there's an increase in interest.
Get 'Multi-Cloud Strategy for Cloud Architects -- Second Edition' (worth $43.99) for FREE
Are you ready to unlock the full potential of your enterprise with the transformative power of multi-cloud adoption?
As a cloud architect, you understand the challenges of navigating the vast array of cloud services and moving data and applications to public clouds. But with Multi-Cloud Strategy for Cloud Architects, Second Edition, you'll gain the confidence to tackle these complexities head-on.
Logs, metrics and traces -- unlocking observability [Q&A]
Ensuring observability has always involved three pillars: logs, metrics and traces. However, the reality is that most organizations simply store this information in silos which are incapable of communicating with one another.
Jeremy Burton, CEO of Observe, believes organizations need to go beyond the three pillars of past failed solutions and instead view observability as purely a data problem. We talked to him to learn more.
Best Windows apps this week
Five-hundred-and-eighty-six in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.
Microsoft is rolling out improved versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11 to users in the European Economic Area. These give users more customization options, such as the ability to remove Microsoft Edge or Bing Web Search entirely from the operating system.
To get to AGI, we must first solve the AI challenges of today, not tomorrow
If the World Economic Forum in Davos was any indication, AI safety and security will be this year’s top priority for AI developers and enterprises alike. But first, we must overcome hype-driven distractions that siphon attention, research, and investment away from today’s most pressing AI challenges.
In Davos, leaders from across the technology industry gathered, previewing innovations, and prophesying what’s to come. The excitement was impossible to ignore, and whether it is deserved or not, the annual meeting has built a reputation for exacerbating technology hype cycles and serving as an echo chamber for technology optimists.
Proton Mail launches desktop app for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Today, Proton Mail has expanded its secure communication platform with the launch of a dedicated desktop app, which was previously released in beta. The new desktop app complements Proton Mail’s existing web and mobile applications, ensuring users can maintain their email privacy across all devices without being confined to a web browser.
Proton Mail aims to provide users with the ability to access their email in their preferred manner without compromising privacy. The new desktop app addresses the privacy concerns associated with using email services like Outlook, which shares data with numerous external partners, and the risks of accessing emails through browsers like Chrome, which can expose browsing history to advertisers or be exploited by malicious browser extensions.
Google Chrome gets enhanced security with real-time safe browsing and password checkup updates
Google has announced significant updates to its Chrome web browser aimed at bolstering cybersecurity for its users. In response to the ever-evolving nature of cyber threats, Chrome will now feature real-time Safe Browsing protections and enhanced password security measures, particularly for desktop and iOS users.
Traditionally, Chrome’s Safe Browsing feature relied on a periodically updated list to check if websites or files posed a potential danger. However, with malicious sites often fleeting, existing for less than 10 minutes on average, this method had its limitations. To address this, Chrome’s Standard protection mode will now verify sites against a real-time, server-side list of known malicious URLs. This shift is expected to increase the efficacy of phishing attack prevention by 25 percent.
How clean code can bridge the developer and security divide
Industry-agnostic software is now an organization’s most critical business asset, as its competitive edge often depends on it. Since companies become more technologically savvy and dependent upon their software to meet revenue goals and deliver products or services to customers, it cannot be afforded to underestimate the importance that secure and high-quality code plays.
The more this becomes evident, the greater the pressure on developers to deliver. Leaders expect their developer teams to work faster, ship more features, and write “better” code, but the technical debt accrued as a result of these escalating demands creates a slowdown effect as developers try to keep up. This technical debt can take a third of developers’ time to address, with refactoring later costing twice, or even three times as much as a proactive fix. While AI code generation tools can help manage the responsibility of creating large amounts of code and handling mundane tasks so developers can focus on collaborative or creative work, AI-generated code shouldn’t be trusted at face value. When code is not properly reviewed for maintainability, security, and reliability (i.e. Clean Code attributes), poor-quality code problems creep in.
Immutability: A boost to your security backup
As the volume of data continues to increase and the threat landscape continues to evolve, it is increasingly important for organizations to protect backup data from unwanted deletion. Threats today can take the form of a malicious insider deleting backup data or a targeted cyberattack on the backups themselves. Modern ransomware attacks often first seek out and destroy backups before moving on to encrypting production data. However, companies will benefit from implementing immutability, the act of making data writable but noneditable for a defined period of time, as part of their data protection arsenal to help avoid or recover from a loss of production data situation.
The rise in cyber incidents, which according to the Veeam Data Protection Trends Report 2023 is the leading cause of outages over the past three years, is bringing the need for immutability to the fore, particularly as most organizations reported having fallen victim to cyber incidents, on average, twice a year.
New solution offers faster response to MS365 compromises
Business email compromise (BEC) is one of the most common and expensive threats to organizations so they need to respond to attacks quickly and effectively.
To allow companies to investigate and respond to Microsoft 365 compromises such as BEC, account takeover (ATO) and insider threats, Cado Security is introducing a new feature to its platform so customers can automatically import the Microsoft 365 Unified Audit Log (UAL) by timeframe, user, IP, or workload.
System76 launches refreshed Adder WS Linux laptop with 14th Gen Intel CPU
System76, a prominent manufacturer of Linux-based computers, has announced yet another update to its laptop lineup. The company previously upgraded its Bonobo WS and Serval WS laptops with 14th generation Intel CPUs, and now the Adder WS laptop gets a new processor too.
The Adder WS is equipped with an HX-class Intel i9 CPU, now in its 14th Gen, and features NVIDIA 40 Series graphics, DDR5 RAM, and PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage. This powerful configuration is aimed at individuals who work with large data sets, complex animations, or enjoy a vast game library during breaks. The laptop can be configured with up to 12TB of storage across three drives, providing ample space for all types of projects and entertainment.
NETGEAR launches compact WBE750 Tri-Band PoE 10G Wi-Fi 7 Access Point
NETGEAR has launched the WBE750, which the company claims is the most compact Wi-Fi 7 access point on the market. Designed for businesses heavily reliant on wireless internet, the WBE750 offers a total Wi-Fi throughput of up to 18.4Gbps and is supported by a 10Gbps/Multi-Gigabit PoE++ port.
With the average person using three connected devices, network congestion can become a significant issue in workplaces with 50 or more employees, plus connected equipment. The Tri-Band PoE 10G Insight Manageable Wi-Fi 7 Access Point addresses these challenges by providing real-time responsiveness, low latency, and increased capacity. It supports up to 600 concurrent devices, making it one of the most advanced access points available.
Companies expose 35,000 sensitive SaaS assets each year
A new report from DoControl finds that companies are generating approximately 286,000 new SaaS assets, such as files or recordings, each week. However, it also found the public exposure of 35,000 sensitive assets at the average company, a significant lapse in data management and access controls.
The report finds a 182 percent increase in employees sharing company-owned assets via their personal email too. In 2023, findings show that the average company had one out of six employees share data with their personal email account (1.3 million assets).
Microsoft is finally unifying Teams chaos into a single app
A major frustration for users of Microsoft Teams has been the need to use different versions of the app for different accounts. It has not been possible, for instance, to use a personal account and a work account in the same app. But this is changing.
With the release of Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26080 to the Canary and Dev Channels, Microsoft has announced that a preview version of a unified Teams app is to be made available very soon. A single Teams app will be able to handle multiple accounts, including different types of account, and it will be possible to easily switch between them.
Most Commented Stories
© 1998-2024 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.