Two-hundred-and-fifteen in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on Windows Store in the past seven days.

Another week, another Insider Build. Build 15014 introduces an ebook store, and ebook reading capabilities in Microsoft Edge among other things.

Continue reading →

The last year has seen fewer of the large scale breaches that made the headlines in 2014 and 2015, but that doesn’t mean the problem has gone away.

A new report from CyberScout and the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has found a 40 percent increase in the US with a total of 1,093 data breaches in 2016, up from 780 in 2015.

Continue reading →

Over time your hard drive can get clogged up with leftover junk, including temporary files, cookies, cached internet data and file fragments. You can remove this clutter manually, use a tool like CCleaner, or make use of the built-in Windows Disk Clean-up tool.

In the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft is introducing a new feature called Storage Sense which can automatically free up disk space. You don’t need to wait for the Creators Update to try it though.

Continue reading →

Carbanak, a powerful cyber-crime group, is using certain Google services as command and control for its malware and other malicious elements. The news was released by cybersecurity firm Forcepoint this week.

Forcepoint uncovered a trojanized RTF document, which, once ran, will "send and receive commands to and from Google Apps Script, Google Sheets, and Google Forms services."

Continue reading →

There has been a sudden craze for freaky-looking photos created using the Chinese app Meitu. The images the app creates are either cutesy or horrific, depending on your point of view, but it's what's going on in the background that has people concerned.

While Meitu has been popular in China for several years --amassing a huge following -- it has only just caught on over here. What many users are unaware of is that while they are busy applying virtual makeup to their face in the app, data such as a phone's IMEI, Mac address, users' precise location and much more is being gathered and shared. The advice? Ditch the app if you're concerned about your privacy.

Continue reading →

Microsoft is aiming for April for the Windows 10 Creators Update, so is rushing out new builds for Insiders to try. Last week we got not one but two new releases on the Fast ring -- Build 15002, which introduced a wealth of changes and new features, and Build 15007, which also introduced a fair amount of new functionality.

The latest release, Build 15014 fixes a ton of issues from the previous two builds, but also introduces some exciting new features.

Continue reading →

With the holidays out of the way, you’re probably looking to save some money, or at the very least avoid spending too much.

Courtesy of our partners at TechBargains we have a selection of fantastic deals with huge savings to tempt you. Offers include $30 off the price of the new Google Daydream View VR headset, an Alienware Gaming desktop for $899.99 (instead of the usual $1025), and great deals on SSDs, keyboards, laptops, HDTVs, and more.

Continue reading →

MComix is a configurable, cross-platform comic and image viewer. The open-source program is a fork of the old Comix project, and has been under development since 2010.

The core of the viewer is much like any other. Point it at your target files or folders, or drag and drop them onto the MComix window, and image thumbnails appear in a left-hand sidebar.

Continue reading →

If you are like most people, you are beginning to wonder if anyone has even a tenth of a clue about how to protect email. We all watched, for example, as reams of stolen political correspondence from a major email provider were posted each day leading up to the recent election, more than likely influencing the outcome.

And we all watched as another major email provider lost 500 million accounts to hackers who seemed to barely break a sweat in doing so. And, as if that’s not bad enough, the criminal underground put these swiped email goods up for sale at about a millionth of a cent per user account. Sadly, that’s just how trivial the bad guys think it has now become to break into our email. Criminal theft of email has officially become commoditized. The old Pony Express was safer.

Continue reading →

It is now normal for technology companies, media and telecom companies to be victims of either fraud or cyber-attacks, a new Kroll report says.

Almost four-fifths (79 percent) of companies were victims of fraud in the last year, with physical assets or stock being most sought after (35 percent). Cyber-attacks were no less dangerous, with 77 percent claiming to have been victims. These attacks are mostly virus or worm infections.

Continue reading →

Open source ideology is changing the world. What was once (wrongfully) viewed as something just for hobbyists, is now a billion dollar industry. In other words, closed source is not the only way to make profits. Open source code is found in many places, including mainstream consumer electronics -- look no further than Android smartphones.

Speaking of Android, its creator -- Google -- is a huge proponent of open source. In fact, every summer, the search giant holds its "Summer of Code" program. This initiative partners inspiring developers (in college, age 18+) with organizations as a way to further the open source movement. Today, Google announces that organizations can begin applying for the program.

Continue reading →

According to a new report from security awareness training company Wombat Security, people are starting to get the message on phishing.

When asked, 'What is phishing?', 65 percent of those surveyed in the US answered correctly. Ransomware remains a bit of a mystery for many, however, 52 percent were not even able to hazard a guess in response to 'what is ransomware?'

Continue reading →

The use of the cloud and as-a-service software models is having a big impact on the way businesses operate, but just how is this shift playing out?

Identity management specialist Okta has collected anonymized data from its customers' networks around the world to create the third edition of its Businesses @ Work report looking at how organizations and the people who work for and with them get work done.

Continue reading →

At the end of last week, Microsoft Germany published a post waving an early goodbye to Windows 7, and stating that the aging OS can "no longer keep up with the increased security requirements", and sticking with it could prove costly for users and businesses.

The software giant’s solution for Windows 7 users worried about security was, naturally, to switch to Windows 10. But, having faced an inevitable backlash from Windows 7 users and security experts, the company has pulled the post.

Continue reading →

Facebook has started to roll out the Messenger.com interface as a replacement for the longstanding message inbox on the web. The latest design should feel much more familiar to folks who use the chat service on their smartphones, as it closely resembles the Android and iOS apps.

There is no official announcement yet, but you should start seeing the new interface soon on your account. It debuted nearly two years ago as a standalone website and alternative to the message inbox for folks who do not want to visit Facebook (or wish to create an account with the social network, for that matter).

Continue reading →