Latest Technology News

In a move that has drawn criticisms from privacy groups, the US government this week started to ask some foreign travelers arriving in the country to hand over their social media account details.

Since Tuesday, visitors to the US arriving under the visa waiver program have been asked if they will provide "information associated with your online presence". Travellers are prompted to provide their usernames for the likes of Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, and while the handing over of information is currently marked as "optional", it's not clear what the consequences of failing to provide it may be, or if there are plans to make it mandatory.

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Looking for that last minute gift? You're running out of time, and some things are simply just no longer available. Many of the hottest devices this shopping season have proven tough to come by -- not really a surprise, as it's been this way every time for years.

While Amazon is offering free shipping (for Prime customers) through today, some things simply are not there and you won't be getting them in time.

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Comodo Group has released Comodo Internet Security 10, Comodo Antivirus 10 and Comodo Firewall 10. Internet Security 10 Free now includes Comodo’s Secure Shopping, an isolated virtual environment which prevents malware intercepting any of your online transactions.

Secure Shopping can now be used to run regular non-internet applications, too -- anything you’ve installed on your PC. You’ll be warned if CIS detects and remote connections by the program, and screenshot protection stops malware taking captures of sensitive data.

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For all of the talk of it being a social network, Facebook can be a lonely and depressing place. Despite this, many people use the site as somewhere to 'lurk', something which research shows can be psychologically harmful.

A study by the University of Copenhagen found that emotions become more positive and life-satisfaction increased in a group of people who took a break from the site. The effects were more pronounced in heavy users of Facebook, in those who suffered from envy, and those who failed to interact with other users. The advice for some people is that they might want to "consider quitting Facebook for good".

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The DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency), which focuses on improving road safety in Britain by setting and enforcing the standards for vehicles, driving and motorcycling, is transforming its technology landscape from primarily outsourced contracts to in-sourced agile delivered services using a combination of vendors and employees. As part of this, the agency has deployed a technology service desk.

Known as the Technical Support Service, it supports the DVSA’s new MOT software application currently in use by thousands of MOT testers around the UK delivering around 150,000 MOT tests daily. Here I will explain the modernization journey and why it was vital to support the agency’s strategic direction.

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When Apple first announced the AirPods, I was intrigued. The technology looked incredible -- for those that own Apple devices, that is. Unfortunately, I sort of had a feeling that I would not like them as soon as I saw them. Why? They are the same shape as Apple's wired EarPods. This is a problem, as those headphones hurt my ears. I pretty much decided on day one that I would not buy them.

But then I went ahead and bought them anyway. Because they were delayed so often, and because stock was so limited, I bought them as soon as they went on sale as I knew they would sell out. Since Apple makes it easy to return products, I figured I'd buy them, try them, and make a decision. Well folks, I am returning them. Here's why.

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Smaller businesses are increasingly recognizing the importance of digital marketing and Facebook is their platform of choice for the holiday period.

This is among the findings of a report by marketing platform GetResponse which reveals that 60 percent of SMBs increased their digital marketing budget for this year’s holiday season.

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The web-enabled generation has become increasingly reliant on technology for everyday activities. Cloud services, social networks, web extensions, plug-ins and online games, are all growing in popularity and as such, are replacing desktop applications. This heightened use of mobile web-browsers has opened the back door to cybercriminals, who now have new channels to implement browser-based attacks, spread malware and maximize infection campaigns.

Traditional "man in the browser attacks" (MITB) have been given a new lease of life as a result of the latest types of malware, distribution models and special features. Cybercriminals are becoming ever more sophisticated, injecting JavaScript code into web pages to steal user credentials or hijack data, such as those used for online banking.

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Users of popular software programs are increasingly discovering that programs which are otherwise very useful are acting in a totally unacceptable manner. Note the following examples:

Adobe Reader can create 257 unique folders under c:\programdata\adobe\arm\reader_11.0.00\<username> each containing the exact same four executables:

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Microsoft has released ISO image files for Windows 10 Build 14986, giving anyone a chance to try out the forthcoming Creators Update.

While you can install it on a PC, it’s not wise to have it as your daily driver. One of the best ways of trying it out risk free, is to run it in a virtualized environment, using VirtualBox.

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The superb freeware image viewer IrfanView has hit version 4.44 with a pile of tweaks and additions. A much-improved histogram is now modeless, and offers curves, RGB and other viewing selections.

The Batch Scan dialog supports scanning multiple pages to PDF files.

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If you’re thinking of joining the Windows 10 Insider program, or you just want to do a clean install with the very latest version of Windows 10, the good news is Microsoft has released an up-to-date ISO image.

The image, for Build 14986, is available to all, and you can download it now, although there is a catch.

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Google search's autocomplete function is an interesting feature; as well as helping to save time, it can also be very revealing of the zeitgeist. The feature has been in the headlines recently for reasons that probably didn’t make Google particularly happy, but autocomplete can also be the source of some amusement.

Marketing company WebpageFX has come up with an entertaining lookback at the most popular searches in the US, broken down by state. This fairly simple piece of research shows that people are asking questions such as "does Idaho exist?", "does Florida have zika?", and "does Arizona have pee in it?" (yep... we're lost too...*). Some searches are serious, some silly, some weird. Here's how they break down.

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Facebook has released its Global Government Requests Report for H1 2016, and it shows that there has been a significant increase in the number of government requests for account data.

Compared to the first half of 2015, Facebook received 27 percent more requests globally. Most of these 59,229 requests came from the US government, and more than half of them (56 percent) included a gagging order preventing Facebook from notifying the affected users.

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According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales published this October by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS), the official crime rate all but doubled in the year ending June 2016 after the inclusion of online crime figures for the very first time. In fact, card fraud was cited as the most common crime in the UK. John Flatley, head of crime statistics and analysis at the ONS, stated that members of the public are now 20 times more likely to be a victim of fraud than of robbery.

The Numbers Are Soaring!

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