The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a rapid shift to home and hybrid working, a change which looks as though it could be here to stay according to new research from video conferencing specialist Poly.

The survey of over 7,000 hybrid workers across seven countries shows that 82 percent of respondents intend to spend at least one day a week working from home in the future, with 54 percent planning to split their time evenly between office and home.

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Today is October 5, which is particularly significant as it is the official Windows 11 release date. This is even more special as Microsoft's latest desktop operating system isn't just good... it's great. Yes, this is probably the best version of Windows ever, and if you are a Windows user, you should absolutely upgrade if your computer is compatible.

Unfortunately, that is a pretty big "if" this time around. You see, Microsoft is quite strict with the system requirements, meaning many computers will not be compatible or officially supported. Even though Windows 10 will continue to be supported for a while, understandably, some users will want to jump ship immediately knowing their PC has no future in Microsoft's eyes. Thankfully, these users have a wonderful alternative to Windows 11 -- Linux!

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The Covid-19 pandemic has meant that for the last 18 months or so, workers across the UK and Europe who previously worked in offices were compelled to work from home instead.

This huge shift to remote working was unprecedented in its speed and scale. It was made possible by technology such as high-speed broadband at home: mobile phones: video conferencing: and online fax services, which together reproduced the capabilities of being in the office.

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Microsoft started to roll out Windows 11 yesterday -- a day earlier than originally stated -- and many users chose to immediately jump on the new OS, installing it via either the Media Creation Tool or the Windows 11 Installation Assistant. The latter is the method I used to painlessly upgrade both my desktop and laptop PCs.

For some users however, the process has been far from painless, with a number of eager upgraders reporting the installation stalling with error code '0x8007007f', despite their having compatible hardware.

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Portable hardware authentication dongles are pretty darn cool -- they can be a great way to secure access to various devices, applications, and services using hardware. Google offers its own Titan security keys, for instance, but the search giant likely isn't the first company that comes to mind for these products. Actually, Yubico is probably the name most associated with authentication dongles.

Believe it or not, Yubico's popular YubiKey devices have not yet been offered with biometric support. Thankfully, this changes today. You see, the all-new YubiKey Bio features a fingerprint reader for an added level of security. Not only must you physically have possession of the YubiKey Bio to use it, but you must prove you are its owner by scanning your finger.

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As cloud-native applications and microservices become more complex, developer teams struggle to make the most out of their infrastructure. Observability can cut through cluttered architectures to connect key engineering decisions to business metrics.

Driven by a constant mission for faster performance, improved efficiency, and enhanced business outcomes, developer tools change rapidly to meet the increased pressures on engineering teams. While these tools move in the direction of progress, the pace of change means that dev teams sometimes miss the forest for the trees, and today, one of the industry’s most widely-deployed tools is also its most misunderstood.

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Global losses from cybercrime now total more than $1 trillion, recent figures indicate, meaning that every business now must implement an effective threat hunting program has to protect its data security -- and long-term future. Establishing a threat hunting program from scratch may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Like so many things in life, the hardest part is taking the first step.

Even on a tight budget, numerous tools -- with SIEM, logs, and analytics -- can help security professionals start a robust threat hunting program. Below are the three main steps involved:

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High volumes of threats and shortages of skilled staff can lead to security teams becoming overwhelmed and this has led many companies to turn to professional and managed services.

Network detection and response (NDR) specialist ExtraHop is launching an expansion of its expanded Reveal(x) Advisor service that provides threat detection and hunting capabilities alongside network assurance analysis.

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Ransomware continues to be a major issue, with the FBI recently reporting a 62 percent year-on-year increase for the period ending July 31.

Unpatched vulnerabilities, device misconfigurations, internet-facing assets and unauthorized software rank consistently among the top attack vectors, but how can businesses track them down?

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As the quantity of unstructured data generated globally continues to grow exponentially, the storage needed to cope with it needs to grow too and that adds to cost.

What's more much of this data will be 'cold' -- inactive data that must be stored, protected, and kept accessible for years or decades because of compliance requirements or the value it contains.

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After months of waiting, Windows 11 is finally here. Microsoft has started the roll-out of the latest version of its operating system to people whose computers make the grade, but if you were hoping for perfection you are going to be disappointed.

Despite all of the testing with beta and developer builds, Windows 11 is still shipping with a number of known issues. Microsoft has shared details of these so you can weigh up whether they will affect you and whether you would like to upgrade to Windows 11 now or wait until things improve.

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The latest research by IT Asset Management software company, Lansweeper, has revealed that 55 percent of workstations are not capable of being upgraded to Windows 11.

This will be an issue for enterprise IT teams looking at strategies to install the new operating system which begins its rollout from today.

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When Microsoft announced that Windows 11 would start to become available from October 5 it didn’t specify a time zone. That’s because its new operating system will be released in each country as the day begins.

That means, for some lucky users, Windows 11 is already available to install and users can start to buy new PCs with Windows 11 preinstalled on them from today.

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Tomorrow is a huge day for Microsoft as it’s when Windows 11 starts to roll out to the first batch of compatible systems.

Work continues apace on the new operating system though, and Microsoft today releases a new build to Insiders in the Dev Channel. Build 22471 is the lone build this week and comes with a large number of fixes.

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Remember mouse pads? If you are an older computer user you surely do, but younger folks may have never seen one before. You see, back in the day, mice had a little rubber ball in the bottom that made it work. A mouse pad was a piece of material that went on your desk (and then under your mouse) to make the ball roll better and possibly help keep it clean.

With the invent of optical and laser mice -- and the ultimate death of the aforementioned rubber ball -- mouse pads largely became unnecessary. After all, the new mice often worked perfectly fine on the surface of a desk without such a pad (except, maybe, for glass).

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