Monero miner Coinhive is closing down because of the cryptocurrency 'crash'
Coinhive -- the controversial Monero mining service -- has announced that it is closing down.
The decision to shut up shop has been partly blamed on the dramatic drop in the value of the cryptocurrency. A huge slump in Monero's value, coupled with an impending hard fork of the cryptocurrency and an update to the mining algorithm, means that the service is no longer economically viable.
Best Windows 10 apps this week
Three-hundred-and-twenty in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days.
Most Windows 10 devices have not been upgraded to the October 2018 Update yet; considering that the next feature upgrade is just about two months away, it seems as if many administrators plan to skip version 1809 entirely.
Latest AV-Test October 2018 report rates Malwarebytes as the poorest performing security suite
The entire point of purchasing a security suite is so you know it has your back. You want it to be assured the company has invested heavily in development to make sure it can counter the latest threats.
German-based independent security institute AV-Test regularly tests the latest security suites, pushing them through a range of measures including performance against the latest threats, plus how they impact your system. You don’t want a security suite to slow your PC.
Communication and data breaches: How to get it right
"Data breaches have become the leading risk to data and privacy in the last ten years, and there’s no sign of an end." States the Avast Business Threat Landscape Report for 2018, and isn’t hard to believe. Over the course of 2017 there were more than 2.6 billion instances of records and data being compromised or stolen online, but in the first half of 2018 alone, data breaches exposed over 4.5 billion records.
Clearly, this is a very real threat. But while many businesses are increasing their preventative measures, the important step of creating an incident response plan is often overlooked. While any business can hope that their cyber security is enough to keep company and client data safe, it’s important not to simply assume that this will be the case.
CCleaner updating itself against users’ wishes [Updated]
It’s fair to say CCleaner has lost a lot of fans since Avast took over Piriform last year. We’ve seen problems with malware, bundled software, and pop-up ads, and then most recently Avast made a number of unwelcome privacy changes to the popular system cleaner, and removed the ability to quit the software.
It eventually pulled the most recent problematic update, and released a replacement, CCleaner 5.46, without the privacy issues, but it turns out that this release has problems of its own.
CCleaner update offers improved privacy controls, renames elements to stop users freaking out, adds bundleware
It’s fair to say, CCleaner has experienced a lot of problems since Avast acquired it last year. We’ve seen issues with malware, bundled software, and popup ads, and most recently the company was embroiled in a privacy controversy, which led to it pulling the last update.
Today, Avast rolls out a new update to CCleaner which adds a number of privacy settings, and sees certain monitoring features being renamed. Avast also takes the opportunity to once again try to install its antivirus software on your PC. Yes, seriously.
Best Windows 10 apps this week
Warning: DO NOT install the latest version of CCleaner [Updated]
A month ago, I wrote about how I felt Avast was ruining CCleaner, the excellent system cleaning software it took over when it acquired Piriform last year.
In Avast's short tenure, we've already seen CCleaner suffer from malware, bundled software, and pop-up ads. In my article headline I asked "what’s next?" Well, with a new version of CCleaner available to download, we now have the answer. Inevitably, it's not good.
Microsoft wants you to know Windows 10 is faster and more reliable than ever
Windows 10 has long had a reputation for being a rather problematic operating system. Part of this is down to early versions famously spying on users, and Microsoft shoving it onto systems against the owners' wishes didn’t help either.
Rolling out major feature updates twice a year has led to numerous complaints and problems as well, with one of our most searched-for articles here being how to rollback an update.
Microsoft using AI and Machine Learning to manage the Windows 10 April 2018 Update rollout
As recently noted by AdDuplex, the Windows 10 1803 rollout is progressing much more smoothly than all previous feature updates. AdDuplex’s figures suggest over 50 percent of Windows 10 users have already been offered the update, while Microsoft’s own numbers say 250 million machines have it. With close to 700 million Windows 10 systems, that’s just over 35 percent.
It’s certainly been a huge improvement over the famously slow and problematic Creators Update last year, and part of the reason this rollout has been so successful is down to Microsoft’s use of AI and Machine Learning.
You can now remotely install apps from the Microsoft Store to your Windows 10 devices
There is a new remote installation feature available in the Microsoft Store on the web, making it possible to install apps on Windows 10 devices even if you are not currently using them.
Working much like the option found in Google Play that lets Android users push apps to any of the devices they have associated with their Google account, the new feature from Microsoft provides a similar ability with Windows 10 apps.
Windows 10 April 2018 Update breaks SMBv1
It is no secret that Microsoft would like people to move away from the decades-old SMBv1 protocol -- the same protocol that was exploited by Wannacry. The company has been trying to encourage users to seek out an alternative or move to a more recent version for some time.
Now people are starting to discover that upgrading to Windows 10 April 2018 Update kills the protocol. Users have taken to forums to complain that the latest Windows 10 update disables SMBv1, and even goes as far as blocking it from being re-enabled.
Best Windows 10 apps this week
Two-hundred-and-eighty-six in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days.
As always, if I've missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email.
Microsoft releases Windows 10 Redstone 5 Build 17677 to the Fast ring
Microsoft has been rolling out new Windows 10 RS5 builds on a weekly basis, but it looked as if we weren’t going to get one this week due to what appeared to be a roll-back bug. However, it turns out the problem was actually a deployment issue which Microsoft was able to fix server side.
The just-released Build 17677, for Fast ring and Skip Ahead Insiders, has a number of additions.
Microsoft, Facebook and Symantec are among 34 companies pledging not to help governments launch cyberattacks
More than 30 technology companies have signed the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, making a number of pledges relating to cyberattacks. Microsoft, Facebook, Dell, HP and LinkedIn are just a few of the companies signing on the dotted line, promising -- among other things -- never to help a government launch cyberattacks against innocent citizens and enterprises.
The overall aim of the accord is to protect customers against malicious attacks by cybercriminal enterprises and nation-states. It is described as a "watershed agreement", and it sees a number of very big names coming together -- although there are a few notable exceptions.
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