Identify the ransomware that's encrypted your data
It’s no secret that the best way to deal with ransomware is to avoid getting infected in the first place, and tools like BDAntiRansomware, Malwarebytes Anti-Ransomware and WinAntiRansom can do a lot to keep you safe.
If your defenses are bypassed and some data lost, there may still be hope, as companies and individual researchers are producing recovery tools all the time.
UK startups receive less in VC funding
Venture capitalists have scaled back the size and amount of their deals across the world and UK-based startups received less funding during Q1 2016 than in Q4 2015 as a result.
A new report from the analytics company CB Insights and the advisory firm KPMG Enterprise has revealed that, between January and March, startups in the UK were able to raise $1.3 billion across 105 deals. Across Europe as a whole venture capitalist (VC) funding totaled $3.5 billion across 338 deals. Thirty-six percent of all VC funding in Europe went to companies in the UK.
Security threat or untapped potential? Dark data and Accounts Payable
Data, in whatever format it may take, is a vital part of every business. With phones tracking our every move, all aspects of customer interaction recorded, and new cars generating around of 350MB of data per second, there’s a lot of data to look at.
Billions of gigabytes of data are generated across the world every day; so much that it’s almost impossible to quantify. This data poses both a potential problem and a possible reward. With so much information in front of businesses, the vast majority is lost, disappearing into the dark and creating a possible security threat. But if it’s found and used effectively, it could actually be very profitable.
Stop using shortened URLs to share private content
Generating a shortened URL to share content may seem like a good idea, but it may also expose you to unnecessary security risks, a new research paper shows. Titled Gone in Six Characters: Short URLs Considered Harmful for Cloud Services, it explains how short URLs can be used by malicious players to plant malware, copy personal files, and retrieve all sorts of personal information, like your home address, among other things.
URL shorteners, as their name suggest, are meant to bring long links, that can contain dozens of characters, usually down to just a few letters and numbers. That has some clear benefits: shortened URLs suit SMS messages and tweets better, look nicer in conversations, and allow services to track the number of clicks for a specific link, among other things. But the fact that they only contain a handful of characters makes them susceptible to brute-force search.
Facebook video scam targets Chrome users
Researchers at security company ESET have released details of a new piece of malware that spreads disguised as video posts on Facebook.
Malicious links appear as a video post you were tagged in on a timeline, or as a message sent to you via Facebook Messenger by a friend. They use the titles, 'My first video', 'My video', 'Private video' or a string of randomly generated characters.
The Commodore 64 returns in computer and handheld versions
Old computer favorites never die, they just fade away for a bit and then reappear in a new form looking for funding on Indiegogo.
The ZX Spectrum was previously resurrected as Vega, and the handheld Vega+, and now there’s a new version of the Commodore 64 looking for funding. Called simply THE 64, this too will be available in desktop and handheld versions.
Microsoft releases Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 14322 to Fast Ring -- here's what's new
We may not have heard much about Windows 10 Mobile at Build 2016, but Microsoft is actively working on refining its smartphone operating system. Now, we have a new Insider Preview build, introduced to Fast Ring, which adds improvements and changes to Action Center, notifications, Cortana, Settings, emoji, Microsoft Edge, lockscreen, and more.
Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 14322, as it is formally known as, also comes with lots of bug fixes in tow, and a few known issues as well. Here is what you need to know about it.
For sufficient data protection, companies must do more than just mirroring
Many folks question all sorts of things within the IT world, one them being about backup and recovery solutions. Often questions arise that are compelling and need a good answer. One of the more popular queries is why someone would need to install a backup and recovery program when mirroring is already taking place. This is an excellent question, and comes up more often than you may think. Below you will find out why mirroring alone is not enough to ensure total protection regarding your data.
Though not entirely crazy, the stance of relying upon mirroring alone for data protection seems to come from an idea that is not fully informed regarding the potential problems that could arise. In fact, the truth of the matter is that issues will often spark during the restore process, and so individuals must be well-educated and prepared regarding why mirroring is not enough to grant the protection they may be looking for.
Xara Web Designer 365 launches
Xara Group has shipped Xara Web Designer 365, the first release under its new "365 Update Guarantee".
Buying a 365 product not only gets you a perpetual license, you’ll also get new features as they’re developed over the 365 days after purchase (no more waiting for the next version), and supporting services such as online hosting are also free over the same period.
Best Windows apps this week
One-hundred and seventy-six in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8.x and Windows 10 in the past seven days.
Microsoft released an online demo for Windows 10 this week which has been designed to persuade users to upgrade to Windows 10.
Chatbots, apps and the path to victory
This week, Facebook opened up its long awaited bot platform within Messenger following similar moves from LINE, Telegram and Kik. It almost seems as though bots have peaked on the "Hype cycle" in just a few short weeks since they entered mainstream discussion. This isn't a criticism of the concept, but rather of industry discourse. Chatbots certainly have potential, but where that lies is just as important as the eventual scale.
Facebook demonstrated quite a few bots during this week's F8 conference. Unfortunately, it appeared as though many of them were just apps built inside a messaging app (a concept that has yet to go mainstream outside of a few Asian countries). In fact, these demonstrated chatbots basically just substituted touch navigation with text messages, i.e. instead of tapping an icon/button to get to another page, you had to send a message to the bot. While this may just be a v1.0 issue, it seems an awful lot like a command line substitute to apps. Chatbots will have a hard time going mainstream if they increase, rather than decrease, friction in the smartphone navigation model.
British workers don't know their privacy rights
British workers are mostly unaware about their privacy rights at work, a new survey suggests. Security firm Comparitech.com has polled 1,000 employees living in the UK, and according to the poll, 53 percent don’t believe bosses should be allowed to read their private communications during working hours.
What’s more, 36 percent said bosses aren’t allowed, legally, to read such emails and texts, while 13 percent said they’d quit their job if they found out their bosses were reading their private communications.
If you have QuickTime for Windows you need to uninstall it NOW
Apple’s QuickTime was popular years ago, particularly for anyone wanting to watch movie trailers on the web, but its time has long since passed. There’s really very little need to have it installed on your system these days.
Because you no longer need it isn’t the only reason to uninstall it though. Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative has released two advisories (ZDI-16-241 and ZDI-16-242) which detail new, critical vulnerabilities affecting QuickTime for Windows, and these won’t be patched as Apple has reportedly deprecated the software.
Mozilla to make internet more inclusive
Years ago, personal computing and the internet was a hobby reserved for those with a lot of money. Unlike today where you can buy a Chromebook for under $200, a desktop could cost $3,000 or more -- preventing many from participating. In other words, even in many of the richest countries in the world, many people could not afford to surf the web.
Nowadays, however, the number of people owning internet-connected devices has exploded. Heck, many households have multiple such devices and Wi-Fi is ubiquitous. Sadly, not everyone in the world has internet access, and many folks are computer illiterate -- including oppressed women in some countries. Thankfully, Mozilla is looking to change this by making the internet more inclusive.
Privacy in the spotlight: Microsoft sues Department of Justice for not allowing transparency about data access requests
In light of Edward Snowden's surveillance revelations, regular transparency reports from technology companies about the requests they have received from governments about data requests have become very common. But despite the name, transparency reports are not very transparent -- there are great restrictions on what companies like Microsoft are able to report. The company believes this is unconstitutional.
The restrictions are so strict that it is not even possible to precisely report the number of requests for user data that have been received. Instead, this data must be conveyed in bands such as 0-499, 500-999, and so on. Now Microsoft has had enough. There are privacy concerns, of course, but most disturbing is that in half of cases of requests for customer data, Microsoft has been gagged from letting those affected know about the governmental interest. As a result, Microsoft has decided to sue the Department of Justice in a bid to be more transparent.
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