Microsoft recently found itself on the receiving end of more than a little user rage when they made significant changes to Skype, with the release of version 8. The company's original plan was to model Skype 8 after several different social media services, but the users found the new interface to be both annoying and frustrating. On the face of it, Skype 8 boasts a number of impressive enhancements, enabling users to screenshare inside calls, connecting with up to 24 users simultaneously and … Read more
Reddit Users Advised To Reset Their Passwords
If you're a Reddit user, it's time to change your password. According to the company, they recently discovered evidence of a hack that exposed all company data from the site's launch (2005) to 2007, including user emails and account credentials. The company also reported that all public messages from that time period were downloaded, as well as an unknown number of private conversations. In addition to that, the hacker was apparently able to access the logs containing the email digests … Read more
Click Rates For Spam Emails Are Increasing
F-Secure recently published a new report, and their findings are disturbing. The click rates on spam emails increased to 14.2 percent for the second half of 2017, up from 13.4 percent reported in the first half of 2017. The increase seems to be driven by two factors. First, more intense targeting of smartphone users, who are typically more distracted and not paying as much attention when opening and reading emails. Second, a slight increase in sophistication. For instance, an email … Read more
The Internet May Be Hurting Your Sleep
Can you imagine life without the always-on internet? If you're like most people today, it's a simply indispensable tool, and the thought of suddenly being without it makes you shudder and brings images of the Dark Ages to mind. It's glorious, no doubt, and it really is a remarkable tool, but unfortunately, it's not all upside. A recent study funded by the European Research Council has concluded that access to broadband internet access costs you as much as 25 minutes of lost sleep every … Read more
New Tools Help You Limit Your Social Media Time
Facebook and Instagram are rolling out new tools designed to help manage how much time you're spending on those two social media platforms. On Facebook, the new feature is called "your time on Facebook," and on Instagram, it's called "Your Activity," but both features do essentially the same thing. They monitor and report on how much time you're spending on the platform and can be fine-tuned by users to temporarily mute your push notifications. The changes are being rolled out in an … Read more
New Scam Targets Apple Users
There's a new, surprisingly elaborate phishing scam targeting iPhone users. The scam starts with an email informing users that their phones have been locked due to "illegal activity" and instructing them to call "Apple Care" to get the problem fixed. Of course, there is no such company as Apple Care, but it's an official enough sounding name that it's luring a surprising percentage of victims into calling. In fact, opening the email will open a call dialog box, making connecting to "help" a … Read more
Lifelock Customers At Risk Of Email Information Exposure
A dark day for Lifelock, the Identity Theft Protection company. It has recently come to light that the company may have accidentally exposed their customers to additional attacks. They recently fixed a vulnerability on their website that allowed anyone with a browser to index email addresses associated with their entire customer database. The vulnerability can even unsubscribe users from company communications designed to keep them safe and keep them apprised of changes they need to be aware … Read more
Automatic Mobile Picture Sync Coming To Windows 10
Microsoft has made numerous ventures into the smartphone ecosystem, but so far, they've only been met with limited success. This time, they're trying something a little different. Instead of making their own Windows-based phones, they've created a "Your Phone" app that syncs your phone with your PC. The app is still in testing and is slated to be released sometime in October. At present, while there are two versions (Android and iOS), the Android version is currently more limited than … Read more
Connecting To Aiport Wi-Fi Puts Your Data At Risk
File this away under things you already knew. Coronet recently released a report entitled "Attention All Passengers: Airport Networks Are Putting Your Devices & Cloud Apps At Severe Risk," and the news is about what you'd expect. The report was more than five months in the making. The analysts poured over oceans of data on device vulnerabilities and Wi-Fi network risks from more than a quarter of a million consumer and corporate endpoints that passed through the 45 busiest airports in … Read more
Twitter Is Getting Tough On Apps
Twitter has long had a reputation for being at the mercy of bots that have been used to sway public discourse and opinion. Often, these bots are controlled via Twitter API apps that allow the authors to automate most of their actions, such as tweets, follows, and likes. In the face of Facebook's recent grilling before congress, Twitter has decided to take a more proactive stance, and has recently announced major changes to their policies. The first part of the company's statement to … Read more
