How much is your privacy at risk from wearable devices?
Wearable devices have brought us numerous benefits in recent years, allowing us to understand our health and fitness level better and encouraging a more active lifestyle. But are they also putting our privacy at risk?
A new report from vpnMentor takes a look into what information wearable devices are collecting. It also investigates how that data is being used, shared and, in some cases, monetized.
The passwords most likely to get you hacked
Even as we shift to other forms of authentication, passwords aren't going away anytime soon. New research from Peec AI has analyzed over 100 million leaked passwords to uncover the most common words and phrases used, which also of course are the ones most likely to get your account compromised.
There are some interesting findings. Names are still a popular choice with ‘Michael’ one of the most commonly used as a password, included in 107,678 of those analyzed. ‘Daniel’ is the second most used name, with a count of 99,399 passwords. Other popular choices include ‘Ashley’, ‘Jessica’, ‘Charlie’, ‘Jordan’ and ‘Michelle’.
Why the traditional SOC model needs to evolve [Q&A]
The security operations center (SOC) has long relied on traditional SOAR platforms to manage incidents, but today’s threat landscape is moving too fast for rigid, static approaches. As attackers use AI to evolve their tactics, security teams need smarter, more adaptive systems to keep up.
We spoke to Tom Findling, co-founder and CEO of Conifers.ai, about how AI-powered SOC platforms are helping organizations scale their defenses, improve threat detection, and move from reactive alert management to proactive risk reduction.
Alibaba launches new open-source tool that turns photos into video
Alibaba has released a new open-source speech-to-video model capable of generating animated digital humans from a single portrait and an audio clip. The tool is aimed at content creators and researchers who are looking for a way to produce lifelike avatars capable of speaking, singing, or performing.
The Wan2.2-S2V release builds on Alibaba’s Wan2.2 video generation series. By becoming open-source, the company is offering developers a system that can animate portraits across different perspectives including close-up, bust, and full-body shots.
Your Android phone will soon be able to auto-open apps when installation completes
When you install an app, the chances are that you’re going to want to fire up straight away. To help with this, Google is in the process of rolling out a handy auto-open feature to Android users.
If this sounds familiar, that is because it is something Google was spotted working on back in the second half of last year. You would have been forgiven for thinking that the company had forgotten about it, but the auto-open toggle is back.
Typepad is closing down, move fast to save your content!
Out of the blue, Typepad has announced that it is closing down. The stalwart blogging service says it was a "difficult decision to discontinue” operations, but does not give any details about the reasons behind it.
Users of Typepad have a little over a month until the service is gone forever, and anyone who would like to preserve their writing is urged to export their content.
Concealing cyberattacks risks penalties and harms trust
Last month Bitdefender revealed that 70 percent of UK CISO have faced pressure to conceal security incidents, cyberattacks and breaches.
But compliance training specialist Skillcast is warning that this could risk regulatory penalties and erode trust. The concern is heightened by escalating threats, with 612,000 UK businesses and 61,000 UK charities reporting a cyber breach or attack in the past year, with the average cost of the most disruptive breach reaching £3,550 ($4,790) for businesses and £8,690 ($11,730) for charities.
Tesla teams up with DeepSeek and ByteDance to introduce a new AI assistant in China
Gizmochina reports that Tesla has launched a new AI-powered voice assistant in China, in a bid to strengthen its position in the world’s largest electric vehicle market.
The feature, called “Hey Tesla,” was developed with local partners DeepSeek and ByteDance and gives drivers natural voice control over navigation, media, and cabin functions.
More than half of developers think AI codes better than humans
A survey of 800 senior developers has 75 percent of respondents saying they expect AI to significantly transform the industry within the next five years. What’s more 53 percent say they believe large language models can already code better than most humans.
The survey, from Clutch, reveals that AI has already become a daily tool for many software teams. 49 percent of senior developers and team leads say they use AI tools every day. Another 29 percent use them most days, meaning 78 percent rely on AI regularly.
Google Translate is ready to take on Duolingo with new language learning tools
When it comes to casual, mobile-based language learning, Duolingo reigns supreme. And now Google Translate is ready to take it on head-to-head.
Until now, Google Translate has been a multi-tool for travellers, holidaymakers, businesspersons and immigrants. It serves as an on-demand dictionary and translation tool for dozens and dozens of languages, and the next step sees it branching out into language lessons.
Samsung to launch Project Infinity XR headset in Korea in October, with global rollout to follow
According to Korean news site NewsWorks, Samsung Electronics will launch its XR headset Project Infinity in October, beginning in South Korea before rolling it out globally
The product will pit the company against Apple and Meta in the mixed reality market. Samsung sees the device as a stepping stone towards smart glasses, which it expects to have stronger consumer appeal next year. Project Infinity will be unveiled at an Unpacked event on September 29, with sales starting on October 13.
Proton introduces emergency access to accounts
Imagine the scenario, you’re suddenly hospitalized or incapacitated following an accident but access to important information like insurance details is locked up in your computer and online accounts which no one else can access.
For this and other emergency situations Proton is launching an Emergency Access feature so that passwords and logins, documents and files will be recoverable by trusted individuals in case of an emergency.
Microsoft now saves all Word files to the cloud by default
Anyone who has used Microsoft Word for a number of years will remember the times they have been saved by the autosave feature. The move to the cloud complicated things slightly meaning that many people lost files when Microsoft changed the way the feature worked.
Now the company has announced a significant change to Word that will help to dramatically reduce the risk of documents being lost by accident or because of something like a power outage or hardware failure. All Word documents are now saved to the cloud by default.
WhatsApp rolls out AI-powered Writing Help feature
WhatsApp is getting another injection of artificial intelligence in the form of Writing Help. As you would guess from the name, this is a tool designed to help you come up with the perfect message for different scenarios.
With Writing Help being billed as something that could be of assistance in all manner of communication, there will be understandable concerns about privacy. WhatsApp is one step ahead of worried users here, pointing out that Writing Help is built on top of Private Processing technology.
Microsoft previews tool to convert virtual machines from VMware to Hyper-V
Microsoft has launched a public preview of a new tool to convert virtual machines between VMware to Hyper-V formats. The VM Conversion tool is available free of charge via the Windows Admin Center, with Microsoft claiming that the conversion process takes just five minutes.
The company says that the aim of the tool is to provide a simple, supported path for organizations to streamline VM conversion to Hyper-V virtualization environments.
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