Equifax CEO to retire after massive data breach
Equifax chairman and chief executive Richard Smith has stepped down from his leadership role at the credit rating agency following the data breach that affected 143 million US consumers and 400,000 in the UK earlier this month.
Equifax has released a statement in which it said that Smith will vacate the company after working there for more than ten years and that its Asia-Pacific president, Paulino de Rego Barros will now serve as its new chief executive.
China's ICO ban will not derail the cryptocurrency movement
There is a boom in initial coin offerings (ICOs) in 2017, where firms are mainly offering in-app tokens for investors. These arrangements only work in a given ecosystem and represent companies that are trying hard to not offer "securities" due to the SEC, regulations, etc.
Many firms have taken in funds through ICOs that are far more than their true value and with such a supply of offerings, the quality of the typical ICO event has dropped precipitously. ICOs work as a crowdfunding tool where a percentage of the newly issued currency is provided to new investors in exchange for traditional money or a different cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. In response to this unregulated and seemingly out of control market, the Chinese authorities recently banned ICOs to slow down the market while regulations can be enacted.
Amazon unveils all-new Fire TV with 4K and HDR
I recently bought the Apple TV 4K, and I absolutely love it. What I don't love, however, is the price. The 64GB model that I purchased cost $200. While that was more than its competitor's 4K offerings, such as Amazon Fire TV, I was willing to open my wallet a bit wider for the compatibility with the Apple ecosystem, such as easily accessing my photos and videos in iCloud.
Today, Amazon unveils a new streaming TV box that features both 4K and HDR, but it is insanely affordable. This all-new Fire TV costs just $69.99! To make things even sweeter, for a limited time, Amazon will sell you an Echo Dot for $10 when you purchase the new Fire TV. Yes, you are reading that correctly -- for $79.99 you get a high-end 4K media box and a standalone Echo device.
Amazon unveils $99 next generation Echo, making Apple HomePod dead on arrival
Amazon's Echo and associated Alexa assistant have taken the world by storm. Despite being a big company, Amazon's success in this market was very unlikely. Companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple should be leading, but no, an online bookseller has been the true trailblazer in voice assistant technology.
Today, Amazon unveils the next generation Echo, and oh my, it looks amazing. Not only is it much shorter than its predecessor (still taller than Echo Dot), but it is wrapped in fabric, creating a more inviting experience in a home. It even has improved audio quality. Best of all? It is even less expensive at a mere $99. Unfortunately for Apple, this will essentially make its upcoming $349 Siri-powered HomePod dead on arrival.
Your analytics needs an adrenaline injection, but it can't come only from IT
Remember when you used to have to call a cab and wait fifteen minutes to get a ride? Or ask a librarian to find a copy of your favorite book, then meander around as they hunt down the tome?
In the last twenty years, the internet has completely changed the way we as consumers find information, obtain products, and interact with our favorite brands.
Kodi: Having problems with Exodus? Here's how to install and use its replacement
Kodi is in the news a lot at the moment, and not for the best reasons. Although using the software itself isn’t illegal, third-party add-ons that make it possible to stream copyrighted content have caught the attention of anti-piracy groups, resulting in lawsuits.
Inevitably, the threat of legal action, and possibly jail time, has spooked a lot of third-party add-on creators, and we’ve seen many of these disappear in recent months.
Most smartphone users don't rely on security solutions
British mobile users are putting their personal details at risk by keeping large amounts of information on unsecured mobile devices, new research has warned.
Security firm Bitdefender has revealed a report showing that almost half of users in the UK store their sensitive personal and private information on smartphones that are often neither updated or protected.
Cloudflare adds free DDoS protection tool
In an effort to protect its users from the effects of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, Cloudflare has announced that its customers will receive a new protection tool for free.
The Unmetered Mitigation feature, which will be available for both paying and non-paying users, will receive the new feature intended to protect against all DDoS attacks regardless of their scale. Company CEO Matthew Prince believes that is time for security firms to change the way they treat customers affected by an attack.
Microsoft says Surface Pro LTE goes on sale December 1
Speaking at the Ignite 2017 conference, Microsoft said that the LTE version of the Surface Pro will be available to purchase on December 1. This is not the first time we have heard about the cellular-enabled Surface Pro, but now we have a date to look forward to.
While the on-sale date is just over two months away, we may well learn more about the Surface Pro LTE at Future Decoded in London next month. Leaks from an online retailer have revealed what specifications will be available.
BullGuard rolls out its next generation anti-malware engine
The cyber security market doesn't stand still for long and there's a constant arms race between the good and bad guys.
Security company BullGuard is doing its bit to keep up by launching its next-generation anti-malware engine that's capable of detecting the latest zero-day threats. It will be rolled out across a range of BullGuard endpoint protection products.
Microsoft offers free Skype calls to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria devastation
The photos and videos coming out of Puerto Rico following the devastating Hurricane Maria have been heartbreaking. The little island has been destroyed -- the people have no electricity, but even worse, food and water are scarce, and tensions are running high, leading to very dangerous conditions.
Unfortunately, government aid has not been coming fast enough, with President Trump blaming the fact that Puerto Rico is an island for his poor performance in this regard -- seriously. Luckily, the private sector is stepping up to help their fellow US citizens. People and organizations are donating money, and today Microsoft announces that it is enabling free Skype calls to Puerto Rico area codes 787 and 939.
Transfer your data and installed applications with EaseUS Todo PC Trans
Go out and buy a brand new Windows 10 PC and it usually ships configured with a host of trial software, often sponsored by the software manufacturer, to encourage you to switch to an alternative office suite, security or photo management tool.
You could spend time migrating all your data manually. Out of the box, Windows makes it relatively easy to transfer your preferences across to your new machine. The problem starts when you have a host of installed applications and want to get these transferred and setup as quickly as possible.
Trump takes to Twitter to complain that Facebook is anti-Trump
Facebook is currently under investigation for displaying advertisements placed by Russia to try to influence the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton, but Donald Trump is convinced that the social network is against him.
In a tweet, the president set out a simple accusation: "Facebook was always anti-Trump." Dredging up his bugbear of "fake news" he also made the same claim of television networks and newspapers. More than this, he suggests that there may have been collusion between those he regards as being "anti-Trump."
Google introduces per-second billing for Compute Engine
Google Cloud Platform has introduced per-second billing for App Engine, Cloud Dataproc, Compute Engine and Container Engine users, following a similar announcement made by rival AWS last week.
However, while Amazon's cloud arm announced that the new pricing scheme, which involves a one-minute minimum, will apply to EC2 customers starting October 2, the per-second billing on Google Cloud Platform's aforementioned cloud services is live now. Previously, customers were billed by the minute.
Phishing attacks reduce but more companies are targeted
Threat detection company RiskIQ has released the latest of its quarterly reports into threat trends, this one looking at phishing.
It finds that in the second quarter of 2017 there were 39,320 unique phishing domains, down from 45,025 back in the first quarter. However, there were 316 targeted phishing brands in Q2 -- up 15.7 percent from the 273 brands targeted in Q1.
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