Recent market analysis and reports are suggesting that more people are starting businesses of their own right now than ever before. This rise in the number of small startups around the world in the last few years is a direct result of growth in the online sector.

Young and successful entrepreneurs like Sam Ovens have inspired and paved the way for thousands of potential business ideas to come into fruition by using the internet and all it has to offer. Taking a deeper look into the reports that the analysts have conjured up regarding online businesses, it is possible to trace out a few root causes behind both the rise of ecommerce, as well as its recent success.

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Security researchers from Context IS have uncovered serious vulnerabilities in a number of premium Samsung Galaxy phones which allow attackers to crash devices using a single SMS message and initiate ransomware attacks.

The report is part of a series which aims to show "how, even in 2017, SMS-based attacks on Android phones are still viable". As longtime readers might recall, iOS too was vulnerable to such attacks -- but that was nearly two years ago. While the report focuses on Samsung's Android handsets, the researchers suggest that the vulnerabilities could be found in other vendors' smartphones as well.

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Starbucks coffee fuels the days of many people. While the company's beverages are a bit expensive compared to, say, McDonalds or 7-11, they are chock full of caffeine and very tasty. Quite frankly, I drink Starbucks coffee or tea pretty much every day, as I often work in its locations -- they have clean tables and free Wi-Fi.

The company has often embraced technology within its stores -- it offers a nice mobile app with Spotify integration, and many of its tables offer wireless smartphone charging. Today, the company rolls out voice ordering through its own mobile iOS app or Amazon Alexa. Unfortunately, the iOS feature will be limited to 1,000 beta testers at first.

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USB flash drives are great for storing personal files on, so you can have easy access to them wherever you go. But what happens if you lose a drive or it gets stolen? All of your personal data could be at risk.

While there are ways to secure the contents of a flash drive using software, you need to remember to do so every time. The datAshur PRO, from iStorage, offers a hardware solution that’s simple to use and will protect your data with military grade XTS-AES 256-bit encryption.

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Buy an iPhone -- or any other phone -- from somewhere other than an official reseller, and you run the risk of getting your hands on a stolen device. Apple has a tool that allows would be buyers to check whether the phone they are planning to buy is secured with Activation Lock. Until very recently, that is; the tool has now disappeared.

The Activation Lock status checker was available on iCloud.com, and by simply entering the IMEI or serial number of a phone it was possible to perform a quick check to see if it is already locked to another user. But no more!

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The way people access the internet is changing, with a shift towards portable devices, and that in turn has led to a shift in the software they use.

Independent testing company AV-Comparatives has conducted its annual survey focusing on which security products (free and paid) are employed by users, along with their OS and browser usage.

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Here we are, at the end of the first month of a new year and where are we? Well, I guess that very much depends on who you are. If you're a hacker, then things are looking good for you. If you're a consumer, the evidence suggests you won't be fooled twice, but is that good enough? And if you're a business, you've got the same security problems as last year but with enhanced threats from hackers and careless employees as well as enhanced expectations from consumers.

So, exactly what is happening in today's security world and what does it mean for you?

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New vulnerabilities discovered in 31 models of NETGEAR router are reckoned to leave at least 10,000 devices at risk and could affect many more.

Cyber security company Trustwave has released details of the vulnerabilities which allow an attacker to discover or completely bypass any password on a NETGEAR router, giving them complete control of the router, including the ability to change configuration, turn infected routers into botnets or even upload entirely new firmware.

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The proliferation of cloud services and diverse platforms in modern enterprises makes guarding against risk and protecting data a major challenge.

Cyber risk assurance company TechDemocracy is addressing this problem with the launch of a new platform to analyze the effectiveness of existing cyber risk and compliance solutions and offers a consolidated view of enterprise risk posture.

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Pingo is a free PNG and JPEG optimizer which supports both lossless and lossy compression. There are plenty of similar tools around, but pingo stands out from the competition in several ways -- some good, some not.

The program is a compact 521KB download, unpacking to a single executable which you must run from the command line.

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Facebook-owned WhatsApp was in the headlines recently because of concerns over the way it implemented end-to-end-encryption. Analysis of a beta version of the chat app showed that there seem to be plans to introduce message editing and deletion options, and new reports suggest that real-time location tracking could also be on the cards.

As reported by the Independent, version 2.16.399 of WhatsApp for Android and version 2.17.3.28 for iOS include a feature called Live Location Tracking. It's an option designed to make it easier to meet up in the flesh, but it's also something that will be of concern for privacy advocates.

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Winstep Software Technologies has updated its flagship products, Winstep Xtreme and Winstep Nexus, to version 17.10.

Winstep Xtreme, the company’s powerful set of desktop applications, gains a new Moon Phases module which shows you how the moon will appear on any day of the month.

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Tech giant Cisco has announced that it is buying AppDynamics, a privately-held application intelligence software company headquartered in San Francisco.

The deal is worth $3.7 billion, and will be completed in cash and assumed equity awards.

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Technology tends to creep up on us and before we know it is an essential part of our lives. In the home we're already seeing increasing numbers of smart devices like thermostats and light bulbs, but what else is on the horizon?

Electronics company RS Components has produced an interactive graphic showing some of the things we can look forward too.

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Last month we wrote about DevDocs for Chrome, a free extension which gives access to API documentation for around 200 programming languages and technologies.

Now an unofficial Electron-based applet, DevDocs, brings the service specifically to the desktop, with downloads available for Windows, Linux and Mac.

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