Windows 11's first big update released today adds Android apps, taskbar improvements, and more

WIndows-11

Although Windows 11 isn’t a bad operating system, it does lack polish and it’s missing general functionality we expect to see. People are still waiting for features that were touted when the OS was first announced -- native support for Android apps, for example.

Today, Microsoft is starting to make new experiences for Windows 11 available via a new update, and this includes an Amazon Appstore preview, Taskbar improvements and redesigned versions of Media Player and Notepad.

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First new Kali Linux release of 2022 includes visual improvements and more

Kali

The Debian-derived Kali Linux is a distro used primarily for digital forensics and penetration testing and comes with wide range of tools to help in investigations and incident responses.

Users of the distribution will be pleased to know that its developer, Offensive Security, has just pushed out the first new release of 2022, and this brings with it various visual updates and tweaks to existing features.

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When is the best time to buy a new smartphone?

smartphone man buying

The trouble with buying any technology is that whatever you lay down your hard-earned cash for today you can guarantee that something faster, cheaper and with more features is going to be along soon.

But the longer you wait the more you risk being left behind. UK-based reseller Buymobiles is looking to help break this vicious circle by doing some research into when is the best time to take the plunge and get a new handset.

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Windows Package Manager (Winget) update adds new experimental features

excitedwindowsnerd

The Windows Package Manager -- also known as Winget -- is an open source tool designed to make it easier to install software on Windows 10 and Windows 11, by automating and speeding up the process. If you’ve used a package manager in a Linux distro you’ll know what to expect.

Microsoft has now released a new preview build with a number of a fixes and improvements. It has also enabled a raft of experimental features in the build.

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Over 80 percent of employees admit accessing a previous employer's data

Business login

New research from multi-factor authentication specialist Beyond Identity finds that 83 percent of employees admit to maintaining continued access to accounts from a previous employer.

More worrying is that over half of these employees (56 percent) say they have used this continued digital access with the specific intent of harming their former employer. This figure jumps to 70 percent among those who had been dismissed.

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Internet Society members' data exposed in breach

data breach

The Internet Society (ISOC) is one of the oldest and most important international non-profit organizations related to the internet, but that doesn't make it immune to problems and it's revealed today that ISOC members' details have been exposed in a data security breach

Independent cybersecurity researcher Bob Diachenko, in collaboration with cybersecurity company Clario, discovered an open and unprotected Microsoft Azure blob repository containing millions of files with personal and login details of ISOC members.

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My correct Wordle answer is probably different to yours today

Confused

Ever since the New York Times bought Wordle there’s been talk that the game has been made harder. Yesterday, The Verge looked into the claim and found that nothing has changed because the solutions have been preset since the game first launched.

And I’d agree that was the case, except today when I did the popular puzzle game, my correct answer was different from my wife’s correct answer, and it seems most of the world. Why?

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New adversaries add to already crowded threat landscape

Threat landscape

The 2021 threat landscape has become more crowded as new adversaries emerge according to the 2022 Global Threat Report released today by CrowdStrike.

CrowdStrike Intelligence is now tracking more than 170 adversaries in total with 21 added last year. Financially motivated eCrime activity continues to dominate with intrusions attributed to eCrime accounting for 49 percent of all observed activity.

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GitHub adds native support for JavaScript-based diagramming tool, Mermaid

Mermaid

Developers reportedly see a 50 percent productivity boost when documentation is detailed and available in different formats, but previously if you wanted to include pictures and/or diagrams in Markdown files on GitHub, you had to do so by embedding an image.

From today, however, developers can now include diagrams and flowcharts generated using the popular markdown-like language Mermaid.

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From digital revolution to evolution: How IT leaders can implement small-scale change for long-term benefits

Businessman working with a Cloud Computing diagram

The popularity of cloud is self-evident. A recent IDC report showed that spending on shared cloud infrastructure reached $13B in Q3 2021, an increase of 3.6 percent from Q3 2020. Additionally, according to IDC projections, cloud spending in 2021 is expected to have increase by 8.3 percent in 2021 compared to 2020. Cloud adoption of is no longer a competitive differentiator, particularly in the wake of the pandemic rush to digitization. 

Business success is in the details. Large transformation initiatives such as cloud may be appealing, but in today’s climate of digital parity, these projects may not deliver the return on cost and time invested which leaders desire. To stand out amongst competitors, business leaders need to shift their focus from complete digital transformation to smaller, more incremental evolution.

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IBM helps enterprises move mainframe apps to the cloud

IBM logo

Many large enterprises have legacy systems running on IBM Z-series mainframe platforms. In order to help digital transformation efforts and modernize apps across hybrid environments, Big Blue is announcing a series of new capabilities.

Plans include delivering IBM Z as-a-service on IBM Cloud for development and test, as well as introducing additional tools for developing hybrid applications.

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Companies are only aware of 17 percent of their open source components

code

A new report based on data from more than 100 open source audit projects conducted in 2021 finds that companies are only aware of 17 percent of the open source components they use, an increase of just four percent in the past year.

The 2022 State of the Software Supply Chain Report from Revenera also shows that risks are increasing.

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Record number of vulnerabilities disclosed in 2021

server vulnerability unlock

Risk Based Security (RBS) has today released its 2021 Year End Vulnerability QuickView Report showing that a total of 28,695 vulnerabilities were disclosed last year.

This the highest number recorded to date. Now that the vulnerability disclosure landscape has moved past the COVID-19 pandemic, RBS predicts that the number of vulnerabilities disclosed will continue to rise year-on-year in future.

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Controlling the costs of cloud deployment [Q&A]

cloud cost

Enterprises often turn to the cloud as a way of reducing their IT costs. But using the cloud by itself doesn't necessarily lead to savings, especially if there are no adequate controls in place.

We talked to Lenley Hensarling, chief strategy officer at real-time data platform Aerospike, to discover how the right management strategies can help rein in costs for public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud deployments.

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Do we need a condom emoji?

condom-keyboard

Condoms are a great way to minimize the risk of both pregnancy and some sexually transmitted diseases. In fact, condoms have proven to be a solid defense against the spread of HIV -- the virus that leads to AIDS.

The question, however, is does the world need a condom emoji? According to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the answer is yes. You see, today, the AHF has chosen to launch a campaign to try and convince the The Unicode Consortium to add a proper condom emoji -- not just using the balloon ? emoji in conjunction with an eggplant ? or banana ?. Why launch the campaign today, though? Because February 13 is International Condom Day!

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