Edward Snowden might be holed up in Russia, but that's not going to stop him from criticizing the country. While accepting the Norwegian Academy of Literature and Freedom of Expression’s Bjornson prize, the former NSA contractor used a speech to call Russia's attitude to internet freedom and homosexuality as "fundamentally wrong".

The US government has indicated that it has no intention of pardoning Snowden so he remains in exile -- for now, this is in Russia. Not shy to court controversy -- and possibly biting the hand that feeds -- he has hit out at the Russian government saying that its control and restrictions it places on the web are a "mistake in policy".

Continue reading →

A post has appeared on Microsoft's TechNet that suggests the company could be on the verge of combining Skype for Business and the consumer version of Skype into a single product known as Skype Central.

The move would echo that taken with OneDrive, and would help to streamline things a little for developers. The post is written by Microsoft's Tony Eversole and is designed as a placeholder so developers have a central point to exchange news and information.

Continue reading →

If you've been wondering what LG's new Nexus 5 -- expected to be launched at an event 29 September -- looks like, wonder no more. We've already seen one leaked image purporting to show the device, and now we have another one to add to the pot.

This one is a particularly clear shot, and its quality means it's hard not to think that this is an official photo. Of course, this has not come from Google or LG -- at least neither have said as much -- but Android site AndroidPIT has obtained an image from a trusted source.

Continue reading →

Spybot developer Safer Networking has released Spybot Anti-Beacon, a portable free tool which makes it easy to disable a host of Windows 10 tracking technologies.

Just launching the program displays the current status of 10 "problem" areas: Telemetry Hosts/ Services/ Group Policy, Consumer Experience Improvement Program Group Policy/ Scheduled Tasks, Application Impact Telemetry, Steps Recorder, WiFi Sense, "Apps use advertising ID" and P2P Windows Updates.

Continue reading →

The 'keylogger' that's built into Windows 10 has gained something of a bad reputation -- but it's really a bit of a misnomer. Yes, there is a component that -- technically speaking -- tracks what you input using the keyboard, screen, mouse, voice, and stylus... but it's a bit more complicated than that. It is not really a keylogger in the sense that the malware term usually implies.

Microsoft openly admits that "when you interact with your Windows device by speaking, writing (handwriting), or typing, Microsoft collects speech, inking, and typing information". It's done with the intention of improving the accuracy of suggestions, providing a personalized experience, and so on. But we live in an age where privacy matters. If you are concerned about the privacy implications of this component of Windows 10, you can disable it. Here's how.

Continue reading →

Cybercriminals are a motivated bunch that continually change up their approaches to evade traditional detection-based security. Rather than continuing the insane circle of identify and respond security, it’s time to flip your cyber script and focus on gaining situational awareness of the real risks your organization actually faces.

Once you know what hackers are after and how they are getting in, you can shift your defenses accordingly. To that end, let’s take a look back on the first half of 2015.

Continue reading →

We worry about our children, or at least we should. Stranger danger is everywhere in today's world, unlike the one we grew up in. You may have wondered around town on your own, rode in a car with no seatbelt and probably asked the question "what's a bike helmet?"

Well, things are not that safe anymore, and in fact they can be downright scary. Websites and apps are trying to sell things to kids (it will be your money that they spend). But worse, predators lurk in the shadows looking for information for potential targets.

Continue reading →

Windows gadgets made their first appearance in Vista as a convenient way to install tiny desktop tools like clocks, system monitors or weather applets.

The technology was retired in 2012 due to security vulnerabilities, but these days any danger is minimal, and if you were a fan then 8GadgetPack provides an easy way to run more than 50 gadgets on Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 PCs.

Continue reading →

Download a large dataset from just about anywhere and there’s a good chance it’ll available as a CSV file, which you can then open in just about any spreadsheet or database.

And if you don’t have access to any heavy-duty data processing packages right now, you could always try CSVed, a tiny free Windows tool for browsing, editing and generally processing CSV files.

Continue reading →

Over the past couple of years, the volume and frequency of new malware and its variants has exploded. But it takes considerable time, effort and expertise to sift through data and transform it into pertinent information. So out with old and in with the new. To alter traditional approaches, threat intelligence emerged as a way to gather data about vulnerabilities and alter approaches based off that intel.

Threat intelligence has drastically transformed the industry. In fact, it's hard to go to a security conference without hearing about threat intelligence. However, recent articles have turned threat intelligence into quite the controversial debate and many touting that threat intelligence will do very little to improve cybersecurity. Well no offense to those individuals, but the fact of the matter is threat intelligence is not going away anytime soon.

Continue reading →

Following an initial strong performance out of the gate, Apple Watch sales have been widely regarded as on the slump according to several pieces of analysis we’ve seen -- although the latest snippet concerning the Chinese market is more optimistic.

As you may be aware, the iPhone 6 models have been doing very well over in China, and Apple’s smartwatch has also shifted a considerable amount of units.

Continue reading →

AMD is on fire lately. The company's latest family of 300 series graphics cards have the gaming community excited. The Fury X is a top-of-the-line card, while the R9 Nano is a diminutive marvel of engineering.

Today, PowerColor announces an AMD-powered card that is so insane the company has given it the 'Devil 13' moniker. This demonic masterpiece is essentially dual R9 390 cards in a 3-PCI case slot configuration. It only utilizes a single pci-e 16x card slot, however. Not only is it a powerhouse, but it looks beautifully evil too.

Continue reading →

Google Calendar is used by many people to track (seemingly) their every activity. That's a good thing, as it keeps users organized and calendars can be shared with family and co-workers so they also know what's going on. But what about its security? It doesn't seem a huge issue, given the nature of the service -- it isn't your bank, after all.

Google is ever vigilant, however, and has been thinking this part through and is now making some changes. The update brings a new URL, but it's really about security.

Continue reading →

Whether it’s news feeds, online shopping, or navigation systems, the variety of new cloud, mobile and internet of things (IoT) solutions are changing how we work, play and shop. Businesses also benefit from increased visibility and productivity, as well as from new opportunities to lower costs and streamline operations. It’s no wonder companies in every industry are rushing to participate by "opening" their applications (news feeds, laboratory results, manufacturing lines, etc.) to allow other systems to interact with them.

There’s just one problem. If organizations don’t adequately manage how they open their systems, the interactions will eventually fail, wreaking havoc on the hybrid solutions they create. The technology enabling this interaction is the application programming interface (API). One use of an API is to help developers build larger applications, including the inputs, outputs and basic operations. Very simply, if a health management system (HMS) wants to be able to pull the results from a laboratory application, the HMS needs to understand how to connect to the laboratory application, input a medical record number, request a test result, and receive the output. The API tells the HMS how to do these things.

Continue reading →

What the frak? Is it because of the presumed, imminent launch of Apple's successor to iPhone 6 or 6 Plus? Are rumors about Google launching new Nexus devices near month's end true -- and it's better to clear out excess inventory now? Or is Amazon being Labor Day weekend Amazon?

Motorola-made, Google-branded Nexus 6 is on big sale today from the retailer's U.S. store. Last night, I oogled at the phablet for $499.99, which already was a hefty discount. This morning I rolled out of bed to see $349.99. Both prices are for the 32GB model. Double the memory and pay $399.99. Yesterday: $549.99. Surely the price and supply can't last. That's helluva good deal -- and for both colors: Cloud White and Midnight Blue.

Continue reading →