Grand National goes virtual to give fans their racing fix
The Grand National is a highlight of the British sporting calendar. An event that prompts people who never normally bet on a horse race to venture a few pounds at the bookies or take part in a workplace sweepstake.
With this year's race canceled due to the coronavirus it looked like they might miss out, but virtual reality is coming to the rescue.
Events tracking tool helps track and guard against phishing and spam campaigns
It's not unusual for phishing attacks to focus their efforts on major events. The end of the tax year is always popular as are major sporting occasions. The latest lure of course is the current COVID-19 pandemic.
The problem for IT admins is how to protect against a sudden deluge of threats and spam messages while ensuring that important legitimate communications aren't accidentally blocked.
Poor audio quality on calls can lead to lost productivity
On average end-users are losing almost half an hour of productivity each week due to poor sound quality on voice calls, time spent double checking information via follow-up emails or calls.
Research from Danish audio brand EPOS shows 87 percent of end-users surveyed have experienced at least one pain point due to poor sound quality on calls, whether in the office or working from home.
Zoom issues an apology for privacy and security issues, will enact a feature freeze to focus on fixes
Zoom has been in the headlines a lot recently -- and not always for the reasons the company might have wanted. Thrust into the spotlight due to massively increased usage during the coronavirus pandemic, Zoom has been plagued with numerous security and privacy issues.
Now company CEO Eric S Yuan has issued a lengthy statement to Zoom users, apologizing for "unforeseen issues" and promising to improve things. For now, Zoom will get no new features as the company is focusing on fixing what is wrong, and regaining customer trust.
Cloudflare launches DNS-based parental control service 1.1.1.1 for Families
Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver has been around for a couple of years now, helping to cater for those looking for a more private and secure internet connection. Now the company has announced a new version of the product, this time with extra protective layers.
1.1.1.1 for Families is essentially a parental control filter, automatically blocking access to "bad sites". This means not only sites that deliver malware, but also adult sites that might not be suitable for younger internet users. But while parents may welcome this automated filtering, 1.1.1.1 for Families has already come in for criticism for incorrectly blocking sites.
Cloudflare announces free VPN tool WARP for Windows and macOS, with Linux to follow
If you're in the market for a free VPN for your desktop PC or laptop, Cloudflare will soon have a new offering.
Following on from the success of its free VPN for mobile devices, the company that's also behind the 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver is now bringing WARP to Windows and macOS -- and there is a Linux version in the works. Cloudflare's WARP is currently available in beta, but not everyone will be able to get access to it straight away.
Slack launches new integrations for Microsoft Teams and more
The problem with messaging and video conferencing platforms is that there are just too many of them. You and your work colleagues might be happily working away in Slack, but need to communicate with another team using Microsoft Teams.
To help get around this issue -- and to save you from having to switch allegiances -- Slack is launching new integration options via a new add-on app. This means it is possible to place a Teams call from Slack, and there are many more integrations to come.
Manjaro Linux and TUXEDO Computers launch custom InfinityBook laptop
TUXEDO Computers is a pretty cool company that not only sells machines running Linux, but partners with Linux distribution developers for officially licensed branded laptops too. For instance, Tuxedo partnered with Kubuntu on the official Focus laptop. It's a great way for Linux users to represent their favorite Linux-based operating system while also financially supporting the developers.
Today, Manjaro Linux and TUXEDO Computers launch the InfinityBook Manjaro laptop. This is Tuxedo's 15.6-inch InfinityBook, customized with Manjaro branding and that Linux-based operating system pre-installed.
Integrated deployment approach plugs the gap between data science and production
While data is essential to businesses it increasingly seems that there is a gap between creating data science and actually using the information in production.
Open source analytics company KNIME is aiming to eliminate this gap with the launch of Integrated Deployment.
Wipe entire drives quickly, safely and easily with O&O DiskErase
Berlin developer O&O Software has launched O&O DiskErase, a brand new tool for securely wiping entire partitions and drives on Windows PCs.
The program, spun off from the company’s SafeErase, focuses on providing users with a reliable, safe and simple way of erasing hard disks and even entire PCs before passing them on or disposing of them.
How Malicious Azure apps can be used to target Office 365
Infected mail attachments and malicious links are common ways for hackers to try to infiltrate organizations.
Researchers at cybersecurity company Varonis have uncovered at new attack route in the form of malicious Azure apps. Azure apps don't require approval from Microsoft and, more importantly, they don't require code execution on the user's machine, making it easy to evade endpoint detection and antivirus systems.
Ubuntu Linux publisher Canonical launches Managed Apps for enterprise DevOps teams
Ubuntu creator Canonical is launching a new Managed Apps platform, allowing enterprises to have their apps deployed and operated by Canonical as a fully managed service.
At launch the service will cover ten widely used cloud-native database and LMA (logging, monitoring and alerting) apps on multi-cloud Kubernetes but also on virtual machines across bare-metal, public and private cloud.
Zoom claims to offer end-to-end encryption -- even though that's not strictly true
Security is a serious concern for anyone using the internet, but it most certainly is for businesses. In seeking a video conferencing tool to see them through the home-working coronavirus has forced many people into, Zoom has proved to be an incredibly popular choice, and its proclamation of offering end-to-end encryption very probably swayed a few decisions.
An investigation carried out by the Intercept found that, despite Zoom's claims, the service does not really support end-to-end encryption for video and audio content. In reality, all it offers is TLS, but Zoom has chosen to refer to this as being end-to-end encryption.
Zoom security vulnerability can be used to steal Windows login credentials
Zoom's popularity has accelerated in recent weeks thanks to the number of people now forced to work from home and conduct meetings online. Now security researchers have discovered a worrying vulnerability in the software that could be used to steal Windows login credentials.
The vulnerability steams from the fact that Zoom converts URLs that are sent in messages into clickable links. The same is true for UNC paths, and if such a link is clicked, it is possible to grab a user's login name and their NTLM password hash and decrypt it.
Keep a remote eye on your Windows PCs for free with O&O Syspectr
Great news for both sysadmins or anyone looking to keep a remote eye on multiple Windows PCs -- O&O Syspectr is now completely free for both commercial and personal use.
The software, a mere 6MB download, installs as an invisible service on each client PC and sits unobtrusively in the background. Users can then log onto their Syspectr accounts online to access a wide range of monitoring, maintenance and management tools.
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