AlphaBay Market disappears from the dark web as blockchain records show huge Bitcoin withdrawals
Dark web users fear that AlphaBay Market may have disappeared for good after an unexplained period of downtime. The site -- described as a successor to Silk Road -- is a marketplace for a myriad of illegal wares including drugs and guns, and speculation is rife that the admins may have made off with users' money.
While maintenance-related downtime is not unusual, this time around there has been no word from admins, and suspicions have been further raised after Bitcoin worth around $3.8 million was withdrawn from numerous accounts. Some users are worried that admins may have "pulled an exit scam."
Plugins and social media links leave websites more open to compromise
Adding extra features like plugins and social media links makes websites more likely to be compromised according to a new report.
The study by website security company SiteLock finds that sites with between one and five plugins have 1.5 times more chance of being compromised than the average site.
Schools warn that Snapchat's Snap Map could be used to track children
The location-sharing Snap Map feature of SnapChat is leading schools to warn parents about the potential risks of the popular app. The feature allows users to share their location on a map with friends and it's been around for a couple of weeks now.
While many users are happy to be able to see where their friends are, others are concerned about potential privacy issues. Some schools have written to parents warnings that the app could be used to track their children and raises "serious safeguarding concerns." But while there are concerns about the safety of Snap Map, there are numerous mitigating factors to consider. So what's all the fuss about?
Microsoft says NTFS requirement for OneDrive is nothing new, but forgot to tell users
Yesterday we reported about Microsoft's sudden change to OneDrive that requires the use of NTFS drives. The change not only caught people off-guard when they discovered that they couldn’t access their files, but also caused a great deal of annoyance about the lack of communication.
While FAT32 has largely been replaced by NTFS, cross-compatibility with Linux and macOS is one of various reasons many people choose the format for SD cards and external drives. Despite the fact OneDrive users are now seeing warning messages about the need to format drives using NTFS, Microsoft insists that "nothing has changed" and it merely forgot to display a warning message until now.
July is 'Anime Month' in Microsoft's Windows Store -- get deals on TV, movies, and games
If you aren't familiar with Anime, please know that it is essentially just Japanese-originated animation. Not only are the videos offered in short form for television, but as full-length films too. If you don't understand Japanese language, do not worry -- they are offered with either English language dubs or subtitles. These cartoons are not just popular with children, but adults too. Heck, some people even dress up as their favorite Anime characters for things like Comic Con.
Today, Microsoft announces that July is "Anime Month" in the Windows Store. Not only is the company offering great deals on movies and TV shows, but video games based on them too. In fact, there are even some free offerings to be had.
Many IT projects failing in UK
A huge number of IT projects currently being undertaken in the UK are doomed to fail, new research has claimed.
Over three in ten of all IT projects in the country could fall short of expectations, according to a new Axelos report, based on a poll of 182 project managers.
Should your business embrace Bitcoin?
There’s been a lot of talk in recent months about cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin. While it may not yet be on the verge of toppling the pound, dollar, euro, or yen in your wallet, the digital cryptocurrency is steadily gaining adoption within mainstream society and, with its rise, has brought many questions among regulators, consumers and small business looking to get in on the action.
As consumers slowly grow more comfortable with using digital currencies that use complex algorithms to make secure person-to-person payments, the businesses they serve are also beginning to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment.
Linux is not as safe as you think
There is a notion by many people that Linux-based operating systems are impervious to malware and are 100 percent safe. While operating systems that use that kernel are rather secure, they are certainly not impenetrable. In fact, users are arguably less safe when they believe that stereotype, since they could be less vigilant.
Many of these same people view Windows as being Swiss cheese-like. With that said, would you be surprised if I told you that threat methods for Linux increased an astonishing 300 percent in 2016, while Microsoft's operating systems saw a decrease? Well, according to a new report, that is true.
How the iPhone transformed visual communication
Last week we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the first iPhone. Now, if Apple sticks to it usual schedule, we will all be anxiously awaiting the newest iPhone debut for the next 2 months.
It’s hard to imagine a world without iPhones. Today, most people wouldn’t even consider leaving home without it. Apple’s impact on the world we live in spans far beyond telecommunications. Over the past decade, the iPhone has grown to become Apple's biggest moneymaker and its influence on human behavior and interaction continues to inhabit our everyday life.
AI and Machine Learning: Not just for data scientists anymore
While industry thought leaders are predicting a surge in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning this year, much of that usage is still siloed in the hands of large technology enterprises such as Apple, Google, and Facebook. In fact, your smartphone has a lot more AI in it than your local call center operator terminal. In a recent Forrester survey among technology and business professionals, 58 percent responded that their organizations are researching AI technology; however, only 12 percent are now using AI systems at work.
Why the gap between interest and implementation? For many organizations, the bottleneck lies in machine learning platforms that are designed to maximize ease of use and value for data scientists and not day-to-day business users. As a result, predictions, recommendations, and any actionable insights end up siloed in the data and analytics departments or executive reports, denying business users the insights they need to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently. But that has begun to change.
Enterprise migrations to Microsoft Windows 10: Faster than previously projected
A recently completed Adaptiva survey on efforts to migrate enterprise desktop and laptop systems to Microsoft Windows 10 reveals that enterprises are completing their migrations faster than earlier surveys had projected. In a survey conducted in 2016, a significant majority of respondents (88 percent) indicated that they had barely begun to deploy Windows 10. That group was running Windows 10 on less than 5 percent of their systems. Only a small portion of the 2016 respondents (12 percent) had migrated more than 5 percent of their systems to Windows 10, and less than half of this small portion (representing a total of 4.8 percent of all respondents) indicated that their enterprises had migrated more than half of their systems to Windows 10.
So, with more than 88 percent of last year’s respondents indicating that they had not even migrated 5 percent of systems to Windows 10 -- and with more than 95 percent of respondents indicating that they had migrated less than 50 percent of their systems -- we were more than slightly surprised when more than 10 percent of respondents to this year’s survey indicated that they had already completed their migrations.
Ukraine police raid accounting software company as part of NotPetya investigation
Police in the Ukraine have seized the servers of Intellect Service, a company supplying accounting software, as part of their investigation into the NotPetya ransomware attack.
A malicious update to Intellect's MeDoc accounting package is believed to have been responsible for some of the initial NotPetya infections.
Payment processor Worldpay agrees to $10 billion acquisition offer from Vantiv
The UK's biggest payment processor, Worldpay Group, has agreed to the terms of an acquisition offer from US rival Vantiv. News of the $10 billion (£7.7 billion) deal sent Worldpay's share price tumbling; while the planned takeover values shares at 385p, they quickly dropped to 368p.
Just days ago, Worldpay revealed it had been approached with offers from Vantiv and JPMorgan, and the latter has now ruled itself out of making an official bid. Vantiv's takeover of Worldpay would see the US company spreading into Europe with its POS and online payment services.
How to create and use separate user profiles in Kodi
Kodi is a very flexible media center that you can use to watch local media, or stream content via third-party add-ons.
If you share Kodi with other family members you can set up user profiles for each person who uses the software. This will let you all keep what you watch separate and you can control what content your children have access to.
Xiaomi stocking up on patents, makes deal with Nokia
Xiaomi has made some steps towards an international expansion in recent years, like hiring former Google VP Hugo Barra to help it enter new markets but, so far, it has not really gotten out of its comfort zone in Asia. And it is not because the company lacks the financial resources to do it, or because its devices lack the appeal. No, what's stopping Xiaomi is the barrage of costly lawsuits that would most likely ensue.
However, Xiaomi has been slowly stocking up on patents from the big players in the tech industry to beef up its portfolio. For instance, it bought about 1,500 patents from Microsoft a year ago, and now it's made a deal with Nokia that involves "a multi-year patent agreement, including a cross license to each company's cellular standard essential patents. Xiaomi also acquired patent assets from Nokia as part of the transaction."
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