Ransomware attacks grew by 485 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. Attacks in the first and second quarters accounting for 64 percent of all attacks or 19 percent higher than the first two quarters of 2019.

This is one of the findings of the latest Consumer Threat Landscape report from Bitdefender. which also shows that IoT devices with proprietary operating systems were responsible for 96 percent of vulnerabilities even though they account for only 34 percent of consumer devices.

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You do have a Wi-Fi 6 router, don't you? No? Oh heavens. You may want to consider upgrading soon. Look, even if you don't have any Wi-Fi 6 devices yet, you can score such a router, like the TP-Link Archer AX10, for less than $100. Seriously, folks, at these prices it's time to upgrade your aging wireless networking gear already.

While the aforementioned Archer AX10 is a great basic Wi-Fi 6 router, you may want something a bit better than entry level. In that case, you ill want to check out TP-Link's all-new Archer AX73 router. Yeah, it costs more, but it is still very affordable at less than $200 -- especially when you consider its promised AX5400 performance. It even has a USB 3.0 port and an impressive six antennas!

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Smartphones are no longer exciting and they never will be again. You know what? That's fine. These devices are just tools in our day to day lives at this point. The good ol' days where people lined up overnight to get the newest models are long gone. Even the once-popular keynote event where companies highlighted their newest phones on a stage has fallen out of favor with consumers -- those events have largely become a joke at this point. An unintended parody of sorts.

And so, it is not surprising that a major smartphone maker has decided to exit the overcrowded and boring mobile market. Yes, folks, after many rumors, LG has finally decided to officially stop making smartphones and tablets.

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The use of Apple devices in business environments is growing. An IDC report last year showed macOS was the operating system for 23 percent of computers at US companies with over 1,000 employees in 2020, up from 17 percent in 2019.

This presents challenges for security teams which is why Mosyle is launching a new security product aimed at Apple-focused enterprises.

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Does anybody truly need a PCIe 4.0 solid state drive? Well, "need" is a tricky word. Nobody will die as a result of using a slower and cheaper PCIe 3.0 SSD, but at the same time, some people very strongly crave having the latest and greatest. Gamers in particular are constantly looking for an edge with better hardware, even if doesn't really end up helping with their gaming.

Today, ADATA launches an insanely fast solid state drive under its XPG gaming brand. Called "GAMMIX S70 BLADE," it is a PCIe Gen4x4 M.2 2280 SSD with read speeds up to 7,400MB/s and write speeds up to 6,400MB/s. Yeah, folks, that is extremely high performance and both gamers and enthusiasts are going to want it badly.

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QR Codes offer a simple way to do all sorts of things on your smartphone, from opening a web page in your browser or adding a new contact, to opening a map at a specific location.

Prolific software developer NirSoft has created new tool for Windows that lets you quickly generate a QR Code ready for scanning with your phone.

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Four-hundred-thirty-two in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Microsoft Store in the past seven days.

Microsoft released preview updates for Windows 10 this week that address a lot of issues. These updates will find their way into the April 2021 cumulative updates for Windows 10, which will be released on April 13, 2021.

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It seems like it has been a while since there was a new version of PowerToys for Windows 10, but Microsoft has now pushed out a new release in time for Easter.

We've now made it up to PowerToys v0.35.0, and while this is not a major upgrade from the previous version, it is still significant thanks not only to the number of bug fixes and improvements, but also the number of new features. FancyZones, PowerToys Run and Color Picker are among those gaining new options.

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The past year has seen many changes to the way businesses operate, including a stepping up of digital transformation and more interest in automating processes.

But many people still fear that greater automation could lead to a loss of jobs. We spoke to Yakaira (Kai) Nunez, senior director of research and insights at Salesforce to discover why she thinks enterprises can deploy automation to partner with rather than replace humans.

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Today is April 1, also known as "April Fool's Day," which is a holiday for pranks and jokes. On this day, it can be hard to know what news stories are real and which are fake. Some find April Fool's Day to be fun, while others see it as annoying.

Well, folks, I am happy to say that today, Ubuntu Linux 21.04 achieves final Beta status. And no, that isn't a joke -- it is the real deal! Code-named "Hirsute Hippo," the Beta can be had with your choice of several desktop environments, such as GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Xfce.

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If you love mini desktop computers as much as I do, you absolutely must check out Minisforum. This manufacturer produces unique NUC-like computers with beautiful designs and respectable performance. They can typically run both Windows 10 and Linux wonderfully. We recently tested out the Intel-powered Minisforum EliteMini H31G and came away very impressed.

As an AMD fan, however, I am extremely excited about the company's latest offering. Called "DESKMINI HM50," this miniature desktop computer is powered by a six-core AMD Ryzen 5 4500U processor and features Radeon graphics.

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Windows 7 and Windows 10 aren't terrible operating systems. In fact, they are both very good. With that said, the newest version of Windows 10 has many bugs. Unfortunately, since Windows 7 is no longer supported, its users have a very hard decision to make. They have to decide whether to use an unsupported Windows 7 or upgrade to Windows 10 that is full of telemetry and other "spying" that passes their information to Microsoft's servers. That is a very difficult decision.

Thankfully, there is an arguably better option -- just switch to Linux! Yes, modern Linux-based operating systems will be supported (unlike the now-obsolete Windows 7) and most will run great on aging hardware (unlike Windows 10). Linux Lite, which uses the Xfce desktop environment, is one of the best Linux distributions for Windows-switchers, as it is lightweight, modern, and familiar.

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Phishing attacks are getting more sophisticated and therefore harder to spot. However, there are still times when the phisherfolk don't do themselves any favors, making their attempts at deception amusingly obvious.

Email security company GreatHorn has launched a new blog series called Phishing Phails which looks at some of the less successful examples of phishing bait.

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When digital assistants are mentioned, it tends to be Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa that come to mind; it is only for real Microsoft diehards that Cortana features.

So it is little wonder that Microsoft has seen sense and decided to kill off some implementations of its own digital assistant. Cortana will still be found in Windows 10, but mobile users will find that it is no longer available for either iOS or Android.

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Consumers are exercising their privacy rights -- to access, delete or stop the sale of their data -- under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which came into force last year.

A new report from privacy platform DataGrail shows that consumers are increasingly concerned about their personal information and how it's used. It also reveals that the number of data subject requests (DSRs) companies receive varies wildly, depending on their privacy practices.

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