Best Windows apps this week
One-hundred and ninety-one in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 8.x and Windows 10 in the past seven days.
The Anniversary Update will be out in a couple of days bringing exciting new features to Windows 10.
New platform detects mobile threats at the app level
Increased reliance on mobile devices opens enterprises up to a new range of threats. While mobile management solutions can do a good job of protecting the device, it's harder to guard against attacks on individual apps.
Mobile security company Appmobi is launching a new solution that detects and resolves attacks at the app level.
WhatsApp doesn't properly delete 'deleted' chats
A security researcher is warning WhatsApp users that their chats can be retrieved even after they have been deleted, cleared, or archived. Jonathan Zdziarski says that even using the 'Clear All Chats' option leaves behind a 'forensic trace'.
He warns that the only way to be certain that your chat history is deleted, is to get rid of the app entirely. The problem appears to stem from WhatsApp's use of SQLite which fails to overwrite deleted data by default, rendering it recoverable.
Cybersecurity at the election has been less than spectacular
At a time when computer security has been front and center in the Election news, given the Clinton private server scandal and the DNC hack, not to mention one candidate calling on a foreign nation to hack our systems -- something he later walked back on, saying it was sarcasm -- this is a bad time to put additional questionable practices on display.
Now that things are wrapped up and we have two official nominees, we also have a report of the major failures that were on display (not just politically).
EU wants to create a database of Bitcoin users
The end of anonymity for Bitcoin users may be fast approaching as the EU has put forth a proposal that would require anyone using the cryptocurrency in the member states to register on a database.
The European Commission (EC) is behind the push to take away anonymity from Bitcoin and other virtual currencies with the hope that this could help prevent a number of crimes that use digital wallets as a means of avoiding a paper trail. The proposal would require all users of the cryptocurrency to register using their real-world identity and to provide the addresses of the virtual wallets containing their funds.
Microsoft celebrates the 20th anniversary of Windows Server
With strange serendipitous timing, just as the free upgrade period for Windows 10 is coming to an end, Microsoft is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of Windows Server. Way back in 1996, the company unleashed Windows NT 4.0 Server onto an unsuspecting world. The rest, as they say, is history.
Described as the operating system that would 'knock the socks of Unix' Windows NT 4.0 Server stuck around for four years before being replaced by the enterprise-specific Windows 2000 Server. With laughably low system requirements -- 133 MHz CPU, 32 MB RAM and 1 GB of disk space -- this was the start of a journey incorporating centralization and security.
Google brings add-ons to Docs and Sheets on Android
With a desktop word processor and spreadsheet, you have great power to create a range of documents. The move to the cloud and mobile means that popular Office suites have been ported to mobile platforms, and this usually means missing out on key features -- like add-ons.
Today, this changes as Google has announced that Android add-ons for Docs and Sheets are now available. This means that Google's mobile office tools can be extended with add-ons like DocuSign, Scanbot and Zoho CRM.
Financial services need to beef up crime protection and prevention
Financial services need to rethink crime protection and prevention because the current measures are simply not cutting it, according to PwC. In the company’s new paper, it examines the industry to find out to what extent it is complying with the latest rules and regulations, whether it is investing heavily in protection and prevention, and what are the results.
Basically, financial institutions have always been, and it seems as they will continue to be, cyber-criminals’ most wanted target. They are under intense scrutiny by regulators, and they are investing heavily in both protection and prevention.
Creating a security-aware mobile culture
Historically hackers have pursued and targeted individuals more frequently than they have targeted businesses as they are typically the path of least resistance. However, the number of organizations worldwide falling victim to major cyber attacks is dramatically rising. More and more, hackers are infiltrating businesses of all sizes -- and not just through traditional system hacks, but now increasingly through social engineering.
Tricking people to access money or sensitive information on the Internet is by no means a new concept -- these cleverly disguised emails were behind the infamous ‘Celebgate’ hacking case, which exposed nude photos of celebrities. Except now, fraudsters are doing their homework to perfect their technique.
Windows 10 Anniversary Update stops Pro users from disabling annoying features and blocking ads
If there are certain aspects of Windows 10 you don’t like you may be able to change them using a registry hack or adjusting settings in the Group Policy Editor. The Group Policy Editor is available in all professional editions of the operating system, but not Home.
It’s a great tool, and lets you bypass annoyances like Microsoft making Cortana 'unkillable'. Unfortunately, in the Anniversary Update Microsoft has restricted what policies are available to Windows 10 Professional users, and blocked the corresponding registry keys so you can’t make the changes that way either.
Businesses are less high tech than they think they are
Here’s an interesting prospect: the majority of companies that consider themselves high-tech have not invested nearly enough to become digital businesses.
That is according to a report just released by Accenture, a global professional services and consulting company. Titled Accelerating Digital Performance in High-Tech, it says that just nine percent, out of 55 companies surveyed, are "digital high performers".
How to print to PDF directly in Windows 10 -- no software required
PDF is a great file format because it shows a document exactly how it’s intended to look. There’s no shortage of tools you can use to create your own PDFs, and if you have Microsoft Office installed you can even save documents and spreadsheets in that format via the Save As menu.
Windows 10 cleverly offers native PDF printing, so you can turn almost any document or image into a PDF without needing to install anything.
Yahoo Messenger is not dead -- new Windows and Mac apps are available now
You may be surprised to read this, but, yes, Yahoo Messenger is still up and running. In fact, the longstanding service seems to be here to stay as it just received new desktop apps that should make Windows and Mac users happy.
Yahoo has launched the new clients to replace the "legacy" programs, which will no longer work after August 5. What you now get is a fresh design and a number of really nice features that add up to a user experience closer to Android, iOS, and the web.
How IT teams of the future will look
IT teams will look completely different in the next five years, according to professional IT resourcing company Experis.
The company has released a new report, titled Tomorrow’s Tech Teams, in which it polled 1,000 IT workers and 200 senior IT managers. Six in ten (59 percent) believe the traditional IT department doesn’t exist in modern business.
New solution helps enterprises guard against chat-based phishing
Slack is the largest enterprise chat platform in the world with more than 2.7 million daily active users who spend an average of 140 minutes per day using it.
Not surprising then that alert attackers see it as an opportunity to expand their social engineering campaigns. The fact than many people use Slack without the IT team's knowledge creates a further security issue.
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