Latest Technology News

It is very nearly Halloween and we are preparing ourselves to encounter a host of terrifying creatures and monsters, all who are patiently waiting to make their appearances this year. However, while those beings are terrifying in their own right, it's the monsters lurking in the  shadows of the digital world that seem to strike more fear.

Malicious actors and menacing threats feel ever present in the news. As the adoption of cloud and on-demand computing services increases, malicious actors are waiting to make their move when enterprises lose control of their data security. Enterprises and their leaders are kept awake wondering where their data is, who has access to it, how it is being used and whether it’s safe. This piece will explore how to mitigate some of the most scary monsters that are haunting organizations the holiday season and beyond.

Mozilla has today launched a Firefox Nightly .deb package, making life much easier for folks using Debian-based Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint.

The big deal about this update is the new APT repository, which allows users to install Firefox Nightly as a .deb package. This is a significant change for those who were using the traditional binaries distributed as .tar.bz2 archives. With Mozilla’s APT repository, now you can install and update Firefox just like any other application on your system.

"Are we secure?" For most security leaders, this is one of the most daunting questions they can be asked. While it may seem like a basic inquiry for those in leadership positions, for those on the ‘cybersecurity front line’, thinking in these terms is far too vague and oversimplifies a complex and ever-evolving threat landscape.

Instead, management and IT teams need to shift their thinking to a far more appropriate measure of security:  "Are we adversary aligned?" But what does adversary alignment really mean?

A new survey of over 300 cybersecurity professionals from SlashNext looks at cybercriminal behavior and activity on the Dark Web particularly as it relates to leveraging Generative AI tools and chatbots and finds a startling 1,265 percent increase in malicious phishing emails since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.

It also shows a 967 percent increase in credential phishing in particular and that 68 percent of all phishing emails are text-based Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks.

Over the last two years, the average organization's cybersecurity program was prepared to preventively defend against, or block, just 57 percent of the cyberattacks it encountered. This means 43 percent of attacks launched are successful and need to be remediated after the fact.

This is among the findings of a new report from Tenable, based on a survey of over 800 IT and cybersecurity leaders carried out by Forrester Consulting.

The shift to remote and hybrid working has led to many problems for IT teams, not least that it offers an expanded attack surface. Add in the threat from cybercriminals looking to capitalize on advanced AI capabilities to create malware and you have some major challenges.

We spoke to Doug Kersten, CISO of enterprise collaboration specialist Appfire, to discuss the key security challenges product and DevOps teams face today and how to overcome them.

In a world saturated with messaging apps, there are few companies without something to offer; many, like Microsoft, have more than one app to choose from. Microsoft Teams is a popular choice in work environments, but stalwart Skype endures.

There are many words that are associated with Skype. Beautiful is not one of them. But this is changing. With its latest beta version released to Insiders, Microsoft is introducing a number of important aesthetic improvements -- as well as bug fixes -- which will eventually filter down to all users.

Nearly 87 percent of Android and 60 percent of iOS apps request access to device functions unrelated to their performance, according to new research by NordVPN.

Researchers analyzed the most popular mobile apps globally in 18 categories. They found that up to 14 percent of apps collect more unnecessary than necessary data for the apps' performance and only eight percent collect no unnecessary data. On average, every fifth requested permission was not actually needed for the app’s functionality.

With computing power increasing exponentially and costs decreasing at the same time, there is no better time to learn machine learning using Python. Machine learning tasks that once required enormous processing power are now possible on desktop machines. However, machine learning is not for the faint of heart -- it requires a good foundation in statistics, as well as programming knowledge.

Python Machine Learning will help coders of all levels master one of the most in-demand programming skillsets in use today.

This week Malwarebytes has launched a new identity theft protection solution aimed at individuals, helping them secure their digital identities and defend against identity and online threats.

Called -- imagine how many meetings it must have taken! -- Identity Theft Protection, it includes real-time identity monitoring and alerts, robust credit protection and reporting and live agent-supported identity recovery and resolution services, all backed by up to a $2 million identity theft insurance policy.

Five-hundred-and-sixty-six in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

It is still unclear when Windows 11 version 23H2, the next Windows 11 feature update, will be released. Eagle-eyed users have now spotted Windows 11 23H2 ISOs on Microsoft servers.

Citing concerns about making millions of Windows 10 PCs unsupported and obsolete, the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) is calling on Microsoft to extend support for the operating system. Environmental concerns are also highlighted.

Windows 10 is set to be dropped from Microsoft's support list in 2025, meaning there will be no more security updates for the millions of people still using this version of Windows. PIRG points out that many PCs simply cannot be upgraded to Window 11, and large numbers of people cannot afford to upgrade their hardware. This is why the network of organizations is petitioning Microsoft to rethink its decision.

It is only a couple of weeks since the debut of the Microsoft AI Bounty Program, and now Google has launched its own bug bounty program specific to generative AI.

Google has announced the expansion of its existing Vulnerability Rewards Program to reward for attack scenarios that relates to generative AI. The company says that it wants to incentivize research around AI safety and security, highlight potential issues, and make artificial intelligence safer for everyone.

One of the effects of the pandemic and the shift to remote and hybrid working has been that organizations have become increasingly reliant on messaging tools like Teams and Slack.

But new research from CybSafe shows that 47 percent of workers have received no training in the use of these platforms and could be putting themselves and their employers at risk.

The time has finally come for Microsoft to unleash all of the new features of the Moment 4 update for Windows 11 to a wider audience with the release of the KB5031455 update.

Users are being treated to what is the biggest and most significant upgrade to Windows 11 since it was launched. Available for Windows 11 22H2, the KB5031455 update is a preview of the update that will be released for everyone next month and it includes all of the Moment 4 features -- such as Copilot, the new System Components section of Settings, and more -- enabled by default. There are also numerous bug fixes.