Latest Technology News

Security researchers from Kaspersky Lab are currently investigating the first Windows-based spreader for the Mirai malware, something that can have huge implications for companies that invested heavily in IoT.

The spreader was apparently built by someone with "more advanced skills" than those that had created the original Mirai malware. This, Kaspersky Lab says, has "worrying implications for the future use and targets of Mirai-based attacks."

Any website that allows contributions from visitors -- whether it is a platform such as Twitter or a site that has a comments section -- has to contend with the problem of abuse, swearing and harassment. Manually keeping on top of this sort of content can be a hellish task, but Google and fellow Alphabet subsidiary Jigsaw have launched a new technology called Perspective to help automate things.

The technology uses machine learning to identify what are being called "toxic comments" (defined as "a rude, disrespectful, or unreasonable comment that is likely to make you leave a discussion") so they can be dealt with appropriately.

Less than a fifth (17 percent) of customer relationship managers believe their CRM is generating revenue. This is according to a new report by marketing technology company Wiraya, based on a poll of 500 CRM managers.

Despite not having a great image, CRM is still perceived as a key business driver in a third of businesses. The problems, according to the report, lie in the fact that many lack a clear direction and customer insight to support their goals. Without these things, it’s hard to create direct business profitability.

Red Hat Product Security has published details of an "important" security vulnerability in the Linux kernel. The IPv6 implementation of the DCCP protocol means that it is possible for a local, unprivileged user to alter kernel memory and escalate their privileges.

Known as the "use-after-free" flaw, CVE-2017-6074 affects a number of Red Hat products including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and Red Hat Openshift Online v2. Mitigating factors include the requirement for a potential attacker to have access to a local account on a machine, and for IPV6 to be enabled, but it is still something that will be of concern to Linux users.

O&O Software GmbH has unveiled O&O AutoBackup 6.0, a major new version of its file-based backup and sync tool for Windows.

Version 6.0 adds support for advanced job management, restructures the user interface and backup process, plus includes further minor improvements to make backing up data easier and safer.

Samsung started manufacturing new mobile processors using the 10nm FinFET technology last year, but it is not only until today that we learn about its first product to take advantage of it. It's called Exynos 9 Series 8895, and it is the high-end chip likely to power its upcoming flagship, the Galaxy S8.

Being a flagship mobile processor, the Exynos 9 Series 8895 has all the bells and whistles and the performance credentials to match its status. The boost in performance can be attributed to the transition to the 10nm FinFET manufacturing technology, which made way for a 27 percent improvement in terms of performance and a 40 percent decrease in power consumption, compared to the 14nm FinFET process.

Dynamic Theme is a free Windows 10 app which enables using Bing or Windows Spotlight images as desktop wallpaper, on the Windows Lock Screen, and more.

Installation is simple, and entirely safe. Dynamic Theme doesn’t change any of your settings immediately, and so you’re not left wondering how to get everything back to normal.

I like to think that while I do certainly criticize technology products and technology companies for any failings -- Microsoft forcing Windows 10 on to customers against their will last year, for example -- I’m fair. I still get as excited about a new phone, or a new version of Windows, as I did in the past, and I don't deliberately look for negatives. The same is true for all other BetaNews writers.

However, a new study finds that tech reporting is generally more pessimistic now than in the past, and for two very different reasons.

When vulnerabilities are found in Microsoft products, collective breaths are held until the company releases security bulletins. But analysis of security issues by software manufacture Avecto shows that the overwhelming majority of these vulnerabilities can be mitigated against by simply removing administrator right from users.

Avecto CEO Mark Austin and CTO Marco Peretti say that organizations need to address the problem of "over privileged users". The duo say that this would help to avoid the security problems caused by 94 percent of critical vulnerabilities in Microsoft products. The research also found that Windows 10 had the highest proportion of vulnerabilities of any operating system.

The latest software vulnerability report from Secunia Research at Flexera Software reveals that the average US private PC user has 75 installed programs on their PC, 7.4 percent of which are no longer patched by the vendor.

More detailed analysis of the findings shows that 7.5 percent of users had unpatched Windows operating systems in the final quarter of 2016, up from 6.1 percent in Q3 of 2016 and down from 9.9 percent in Q4, 2015.

Microsoft is pushing out updates to the Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 10, introducing a number of new features including the Focused Inbox we've already seen in the mobile version of Outlook.

The new features come ahead of "architectural improvements" that will speed up performance, and Microsoft is seen borrowing ideas heavily from Google's Gmail and Calendar tools in a bid to make its own apps more useful and helpful.

Google's Gboard keyboard made its debut on iOS, and it was a few months before the company brought the app to its own Android platform. Today a major update to the iPhone version of the keyboard sees the arrival of voice typing, meaning that users will be able to dictate messages rather than typing by hand.

In addition, the update introduces new emoji, support for additional languages, as well as easy access to Google Doodles and information about them.

Almost half (47.48 percent) of all phishing attacks in 2016 were aimed at stealing victim's money, and the amount of financial phishing attacks increased by 13.14 percent according to a new report.

The study by Kaspersky Lab analyzed attacks registered in 2016 by the company's heuristic detection technologies.

As enterprises move to Windows 10, and take full advantage of the advanced security features offered in the operating system and in Microsoft Edge, cyber criminals will increasingly look towards the mobile ecosystem for exploits.

This is according to Fujitsu's latest report, which believes 2017 will see an even bigger increase in attacks against the mobile world.

A study by London University's Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) shows that journalists find it harder to protect their sources in the digital age, and suggests that whistleblowers should be afforded greater legal protection. The arrival of Donald Trump on the scene has created a greater sense of urgency.

The report, entitled "Protecting Sources and Whistleblowers in a Digital Age", says that monitoring of phone calls as well as online surveillance means it is now easier to identify sources that would otherwise have remained anonymous. People like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange have brought whistleblowing into the spotlight in recent years, and proposed changes to the UK's Official Secrets Act that would deny using "public interest" as a defense, coupled with the increased interest in surveillance mean that this is a hot topic once again.