Latest Technology News

Most of us have adapted quickly -- perhaps seamlessly -- to increased reliance on digital devices for the day-to-day processes of life and business. For many people with disabilities however, it’s a very different picture.

Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day, so for a few minutes let’s put ourselves in the place of a person with a visual, hearing, motor or cognitive disability. With many physical places of business now closed, essential activities like banking, shopping and working must be solely conducted online or at great personal peril.

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It’s been three months since the Kodi Foundation last released a new version of its hugely popular home theater software.

After spending some time in the pre-release section, Kodi 18.7 is now finally ready for all.

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Last week, security researchers Alex Ionescu and Yarden Shafir published an analysis of a new Windows vulnerability that they named PrintDemon. The analysis included a proof-of-concept demonstration that worked on Windows 7 and newer versions of Windows.

PrintDemon, in a nutshell, is an elevation of privilege vulnerability that "allows arbitrary writing to the file system" upon successful exploitation.

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Suffering a data breach is bad enough, but arguably worse is not knowing how much of your organization's data has been exposed as a result.

Now you can find out thanks to ImmuniWeb launching a free online service to check how bad a company/organisation's exposure is on the Dark Web and hacking resources.

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New research from DevOps automation specialist Sonatype has discovered that software development activity in the UK decreased by 28 percent since February.

However, the UK position contrasts with some other countries where development activity has continued to grow in the midst of the pandemic. Notably, this includes the United States with a six percent increase and Germany with a 12 percent increase since January 2020.

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Have you ever seen someone with a dashcam in their vehicle and wondered why they have such a thing? No, they are not just obsessed with recording every aspect of their life -- a dashcam has actual benefits. For instance, if you are in a car accident, or someone with road-rage attacks you (it happens), the recording could provide evidence to show to the police or an insurance company. It's one of those things that you don't think you need -- until you do.

Today, Transcend launches a new dashcam that is chock-full of features and nice specifications. Called "DrivePro 10," it features a small and attractive body that should look quite stylish in your car, truck, or SUV. It comes with an adhesive mount for your windshield and is powered by micro USB -- a "lighter" adapter is included in the box. If you prefer, an optional accessory allows you to hardwire it directly to your vehicle's fuse box for power.

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For around two decades now, hackers have exploited the design of the memory management system used by Linux programs in order to take control of a target's computer.

Now though researchers at Check Point have introduced a new security mechanism for Linux users called 'safe-linking' which means attackers will need more than one vulnerability in order to take over the program.

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With more and more people expressing concern about privacy and security online, companies have had to start to take notice and deliver tools to help. This is particularly noticeable in the browser market, and with the latest version of Chrome, Google has doubled down on security.

Having tested DNS over HTTPS (DoH) for some time, Google has added enhanced support for DNS lookups over an encrypted HTTPS connection to Chrome 83.  In the Windows, macOS and Linux versions of the browser, Google's implementation of the security feature is called Secure DNS; here's how to use it.

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There is no shortage of news about solid state drives these days, with many new models being announced from popular manufacturers like ADATA, Samsung, and Kingston, to name a few. This includes both SATA and PCIe-based internal SSDs, plus external models that interface by USB and Thunderbolt 3.

Today, Lexar unveils an all-new solid state drive for professionals, although home consumers can obviously use it as well. Called “NM700,” it is an M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe SSD with impressive performance.

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The headlines still haunt me.

May 7, 2020 marked "World Password Day," the kitschy, but pertinent annual reminder to clean up the logins that control access to our modern lives. For days, titles like "Time to Prioritize Passwords" and "Tips for Managing Your Passwords" popped up in newsfeeds and tips from experts flooded in. "Vigilantly change your passwords" and "use a different password for each account" they said, as if new configurations of characters and symbols were cures rather than curbs to cyberattacks. The problem is passwords don’t protect us anymore. Gartner predicts that by 2022, 60 percent of large businesses and nearly all medium-sized companies will have cut their dependence on passwords by half. But with COVID-19 requiring many of us to work from home in insecure environments, 60 percent is not enough, and 2022 is too late. 

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One of my favorite films is World War Z. It is a very flawed movie, but I still enjoy it. In the film, Brad Pitt's character utilizes a satellite phone, which I just find to be extremely interesting. I am sure such a thing is expensive -- particularly the service contract -- but how cool is it to be able to communicate without the need of cellular?

And so, today, a new product caught my eye -- the SPOT X Jeep Edition 2-Way Satellite Messenger. While not a phone, it can send and receive text messages via satellite, which is rather neat. I expected such a product to be very expensive, and carry a high monthly service cost, but actually, it is surprisingly affordable. Not to mention, it looks to be quite rugged, and the Jeep branding -- while gimmicky -- actually looks pretty cool.

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A new report finds that more than 88 percent of organizations use cloud infrastructure in one form or another, and 45 percent expect to move three quarters or more of their applications to the cloud over the next twelve months.

The study from O'Reilly surveyed 1,283 software engineers, technical leads, and decision-makers from around the globe and finds that 21 percent of organizations are hosting all their applications in a cloud context.

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We've already seen that Dark Web marketplaces are seeking to cash in on the COVID-19 pandemic, but new research from Positive Technologies also shows a lot of interest in accessing corporate networks.

In the first quarter of this year the number of postings advertising access to these networks increased by 69 percent compared to the previous quarter. This is likely to pose a significant risk to corporate infrastructure, especially now that many employees are working remotely.

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Email compromise via spoofed domains or compromised accounts is a major problem. But a new cloud platform from Abnormal Security tracks the reputations of an organization's vendors and customers, and improves detection accuracy of advanced social engineering attacks.

VendorBase is a global database that gives organizations the ability to see detailed views of all vendors, including profile information, the VendorBase risk assessment score, explanations on risk scores, a timeline view of relevant email communication and security activity for that vendor.

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With the current pandemic continuing to grow in some areas, and unemployment rising even faster than food prices, we need problem solvers. Help at this time comes mostly from doctors and scientists, but can also come from other surprising areas.

If you've recently taken an AncestryDNA test, Ancestry.com is inviting you to supply some information that could assist in the fight against COVID-19.

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