New Software Keeps The Ballot Box Honest

No government issue in global history has possibly been as hotly contested as elections, and more than a little fraud has happened at the ballot box. Governments around the world have tried a variety of measures, from armed soldiers at the polling places to voting by smartphone app, to help ensure that the process goes smoothly and fairly.

But every system has its flaws, and that only becomes even more true when technology comes into play. Whether it’s through bugs in the software that runs the actual voting or intentional hacking and counterproductive measures that guarantee a corrupt outcome, the computerized systems have caused many people to become skeptical of the process.

A new software in development for voting in Pakistan addresses a different kind of fraud, though. Instead of multitudes of people voting for only a handful of people, in the case of plot balloting, many people are voting to be selected for only a few pieces of property. The balloting of plots of land has been rife with corruption in a place where premium real estate is as sought-after as winning an election.

According to The Express Tribune, when plots become available in high-dollar neighborhood developments in Pakistan, there’s an application process that hopeful homeowners must go through. Once the applications are in, what amounts to basically drawing names from a hat to see who gets the new opportunity ensues. It’s not only a very inefficient system, it’s also far too easy to rig it in someone’s favor once money changes hands.

That’s why the country’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) will install new software that offers full transparency of the voting process, with the final results posted online. “During the demonstration of the software, the technical capabilities and working of the software were examined. The software would be used in future balloting of plots to ensure transparency in the process,” a spokesperson said.

While it’s certainly no guarantee that the right hacker with the right skill set still couldn’t rig the outcome for a price, it is a step in the right direction towards helping ensure a fair ballot.

The post New Software Keeps The Ballot Box Honest appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1SqCA47

Hibernate ORM

Most of the time you have to pay for really good specialist software, and sometimes like when you use Hibernate, it’s open source and it’s free.

When it comes to framework selection with Java developers, you can be pretty sure the overwhelming response will, 9 times out of 10, be Hibernate, Hibernate, Hibernate.  And that’s the real question these days.  It’s not ‘why should I use Hibernate?’ It’s ‘why would I use anything other than Hibernate to get the job done?’

Like it or not, Hibernate has become the default standard and the de facto first choice when it comes to frameworks.  Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why it’s so popular with developers. Certainly it has over the years come to dominate the ORM framework world. This is not to say that Hibernate is better than any of the other framework solutions available, but it is a lot more popular.

So here’s the question.  Just what is Hibernate ORM. 

The world and technology keep moving forward.  New technology replaces old standards and the new standards don’t work with the new technology.  When it comes to data, this can be a real issue.

But that’s where ORM or Object-Relational Mapping proves to be very useful. ORM is basically part of a programming technique that can match and convert data between what should be completely incompatible systems, and in effect be used to create a ‘virtual object database.’

Basically when you upgrade from one application or software package to the next one, Hibernate ORM will help attain persistence, and outlive the original application’s process. There are both free and commercial packages available out there, but lots of developers opt for Hibernate. And not just because it’s free. Some of the most notable highlights of Hibernate include:

Scalable

One of the best features of Hibernate is the sheer flexibility it offers in scalability.  Whatever the environment, Hibernate can scale to purpose, and can be used drive an in-house Intranet that serves hundreds, or to deliver mission critical updates to hundreds of thousands, Hibernate can do the job.

Lightweight, and Opensource:

It doesn’t need a supercomputer to run, and it’s Opensource.  As well as that, if you ever come across a problem, there’s a chance someone else has as well, and Google is awash with answers.

Reliable 

It’s one of Hibernates major strengths. Even critics acknowledge the excellent stability and quality. Of course, that’s maybe the reason tens of thousands of Java developers use it as a preference.

JPA Provider

Hibernate may come with its own “native” API as standard, but as part of the Java Persistence API it can also be easily used in any environment that supports JPA, including Java SE apps, Java EE application servers, Enterprise OSGi containers etc.

Hibernate v 5.5.2 can be downloaded via FileHippo.com here.

The post Hibernate ORM appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1PcU65N

Can iPad Beat The Chromebook In Classrooms?

There’s some big news out there today in educational software, although to outsiders it might seem like just another business day. While it’s true that Apple buys smaller tech companies from time to time–so much that their standard company answer to journalists is “we buy tech companies all the time, it doesn’t mean anything”–the recently announced Cupertino acquisition of San Francisco-based startup LearnSprout is actually much bigger news than many people realize.

LearnSprout, a three-year-old company which has already reached K-12 school districts in 42 states with its trackable, outcome-based software–is just great enough that it might be the key to Apple’s further penetration into the edtech industry. For those who haven’t had to sit in a public school for a while, here’s the breakdown: iPads are awesome learning tools, but they’re also pretty much a Wild West of available apps and platforms. The lack of consistency is actually beneficial, as teachers are able to root around through the App Store and find the tools they need for their specific students. Unfortunately, it also means a disconnectedness in which one teacher uses this platform, another teacher requires this app, and so on.

There’s also an inherent reluctance on the part of administrators to unleash these too-powerful tablets in their teachers’ classrooms. There’s no government control over what content the teachers use when they allow tablets, and if there’s anything state and local governments love about their school districts, it’s absolute control over the content and curricula.

With Apple seemingly venturing into the educational software sphere, it could mean a serious run-for-the-money when it comes to beating out the ever-popular Chromebook, which lets system administrators and politicians control what software is installed. As TechCrunch has reported,US school systems buy around one million Chromebooks every quarter, and they now account for half of all devices used in American classrooms. It’s a shame, given that tablets (regardless of manufacturer) are typically better suited to most public school environments in terms of battery life, portability, instant power up, and durability. Hopefully Apple’s acquisition can bring the more functional tool back into one of its most ideally designed roles.

The post Can iPad Beat The Chromebook In Classrooms? appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1UDgVTV

Microsoft Cloud Grows Bigger But Still Not The Biggest

Microsoft missed the industry bandwagon shift to mobile, and its latest forecast has seen its profit margin fall by 15%, but strong growth and a relentless push toward Cloud services has seen the Redstone based company share price soar.

 

Microsoft’s cloud business, which includes products such as its Azure cloud infrastructure and Office 365, is set to top $9 billion in annual revenue according chief executive Satya Nadella. One analyst told the BBC that:

“People who think Microsoft is sliding into irrelevancy really need to re-evaluate how they see the company. They are a software-first company in a world that is increasingly about software.”

While revenue from Windows OEM decreased despite the widely acknowledged success of Windows 10 over the last 7 months or so, the number of Office 365 users increased to 20.6 million users, and Azure grew by over 140%. A statement from Microsoft pointed out that over one third of Fortune 500 companies now use Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility solutions.

“Businesses everywhere are using the Microsoft Cloud as their digital platform to drive their ambitious transformation agendas,” said Nadella. “Businesses are also piloting Windows 10, which will drive deployments beyond 200 million active devices.”

The growth in cloud based computing, the rise of Web Apps, and the idea of “Content as a Service” is proving to be a major factor in the way the tech industry has focused its efforts in recent times.  Cisco have estimated that 83% of all its data center traffic will come via the cloud by 2019.

Despite Microsoft’s positive numbers, Amazon Web Services, which started as long shot experiment back in 2006, is furthest ahead in the digital fight for cloud users.  It has 27.2% of the market to Microsoft’s 16.2%, while Google surprisingly sits on a lowly 3.6%.

Kevin Turner, COO at Microsoft said:

 “It was a strong holiday season for Microsoft, highlighted by Surface and Xbox. Our commercial business executed well, as our sales teams and partners helped customers realize the value of Microsoft’s cloud technologies across Azure, Office 365 and CRM Online.”

The post Microsoft Cloud Grows Bigger But Still Not The Biggest appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1VBDc4H

The Best Gets Better: CCleaner’s Latest Update

There are a few applications that every tech user–from the IT expert down to those who do little more than email and Solitaire–needs to have in the arsenal. A strong, updated antivirus and anti-malware package is vital, a really powerful, updated browser is a must, and a highly-functional but “runs in the background” cleaner is important.

Did we mention “updated?”

One of the biggest mistakes novice computer users make is installing a suite of protective software and then never thinking about it again, meaning they skip out on the latest upgrades and updates. One of the most popular and powerful tools, CCleaner, has released an update that users have got to see for themselves.

CCleaner, as the name suggests, is quite possibly the world’s most popular freeware tool for clearing the junk, skeletons, and shadows of old files out of your hard drive. Once installed, it will even give you periodic but unobtrusive alerts as to how much disk space you’ve got that’s being chewed up by unused code. The recent update includes a number of corrections or enhancements, including:

• New Browser Plugins section for browser start up management.
• Improved Google Chrome and Opera session cleaning.
• Improved Disk Analyzer file scanning process.
• Improved TeamViewer and PDF Creator cleaning.
• Updated exception handling and reporting architecture.
• Updated various translations.
• Minor GUI improvements.
• Minor bug fixes.

But CCleaner doesn’t just keep your system running smoothly and running faster. One of the chief benefits to running a clean like this is that it helps protect your anonymity and your privacy by stripping away all the little markers that your browser and internet use have left behind. In this Wild West of computer privacy that we live in, a little bit more protection around our identities and our behaviors is definitely a good thing.

The post The Best Gets Better: CCleaner’s Latest Update appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1nT1fkX

Firefox 44 Gets Official Release And Some New Features

The latest version of Firefox has been officially released, and users should be prepared some new features.

According to the changelog Mozilla released for Firefox version 44 everyone’s favorite fox based web browser now has Web Push notifications.  This latest added trick should save users on battery power, and time.

Web Push Notifications

Enabling the Web Push notification option will, with a user’s permission, allow websites to send messages directly to the desktop, even when the website in question isn’t open. This should prove to be a useful tool, especially for those people who don’t want to ever miss a message or notification from the likes of Gmail, Twitter, and Facebook The best thing about this new addition however is that if  Web Pushes aren’t your thing, they can easily be disabled from within the options menu.

Web Push notifications will allow users to close Firefox tabs that aren’t needed, which will save unnecessary CPU time, memory usage, and help prolong battery life.

Mozilla are adamant as well that as with webcams and geolocation, websites will have to ask users to grant access specifically if they want to send notifications. Websites will also be limited by how many push notifications they can send to any one user. Sites that exceed their given quota will have their push abilities disabled automatically.

Improved Warnings And Faster Loading

Firefox has also boosted its security measures for untrusted connections and certificate errors, improving the warning message pages’ users see when they stray close to the edge.  As well as this this Fox 44 has added support for the Google created “Brotli” algorithm which will allow data downloaded by Firefox to be up to 25% faster. The Brotli algorithm compresses files so users should see web pages loading faster. This will also help reduce bandwidth which will be handy for those people worried about download limits.

Enhanced Codec Support

Other changes in Firefox 44 are that H.264 is now enabled if the decoder is already on users’ systems, and that WebM/VP9 will be automatically enabled by default if the former isn’t available.

Issues Solved

As usual with each new Firefox release, several critical updates have been issued, and vulnerabilities have been addressed. These fixes include an issue with unsafe memory manipulation,  some memory safety bugs, a buffer overflow issue with WebGL, and flaws related to some cryptographic protocols.

Blast From The Past

And finally, while Windows XP and Windows Vista may have been long abandoned by Microsoft, Mozilla haven’t forgotten and have fixed the bug that disabled screensavers when watching videos.

Anyone who wants to get their hands on the new and improved Firefox 44 an download it here from FileHippo.com

 

 

The post Firefox 44 Gets Official Release And Some New Features appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/20xiE0z

200 Wikipedia Editors Back Vote Of No Confidence

Nearly 200 Wikipedia editors have taken an unheard of move and have called for a new member of the Wikimedia Foundation board of directors to be tossed out, by publicly backing a vote of no confidence in the new trustee.

With so many Wikipedia editors disgruntled at the apparent lack of foresight of the board, one editor claimed to be “appalled” by Arnon Geshuri’s appointment to the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees this month. Another editor also called Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Whales judgement into question.

Geshuri’s appointment has provoked a storm of righteous indignation from the Wikipedia community of volunteer editors.

As news of the appointment spread last week, an editor called for, and got a vote of no confidence in the former Google head of Human Relations.

The Wikimedia Foundation is the governing body of the massive Wikipedia online encyclopedia and related projects.

The no confidence call was accompanied by a statement, which indicated that an open letter had already been sent to the chairman of Wikimedia’s board, but at the time of writing, had received no official response by either Whales, or Geshuri, a silence which has further angered the already irate band of editors.

The online encyclopedia’s editors have objected mainly due to Geshuri’s alleged involvement in a high level no poaching deal amongst technologies big hitters, back in 2007.

As part of the anti-poaching talent deal, companies agreed not to “cold call” each other’s’ workers with a view to not enticing employees to jump ship to another company.

In 2010, the Department of Justice said the companies involved, namely Google, Apple, Adobe, Intuit, Intel, and Pixar clearly violated antitrust law.

The involved companies reached a settlement with the government in which they agreed to avoid such deals in the future, but crucially none of them admitted guilt or were forced to pay any financial penalty. Instead, a class-action suit brought on behalf of affected employees resulted in a multimillion payout deal.

The Wikipedia editors statement highlights the fact that Geshuri had been “widely known for having played a significant role in the anticompetitive agreements scandal at Google”.

One editor unhappy about the appointment wrote: “I’m appalled: Why this kind of person, with this kind of background, at all?”

The post 200 Wikipedia Editors Back Vote Of No Confidence appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/20vc1fd

Police Bodycams Infected With Conficker

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, there is no question that law enforcement officers have a difficult job. They’re rarely called unless something horrible is going down, they’re the butt of universal jokes, and even worse, a few high-profile bad apples have painted all officers with the same corrupt, power-mongering brush. Add to that the fact that their entire reason for wearing a uniform is based on someone trying to do something illegal and even violent, and it’s a wonder people still sign on for this career.

One of the recent innovations that is changing that job for the better is the advent of body cameras. First viewed as a way to “keep tabs” on the officers, the perception surrounding the wearable devices quickly shifted. Now it is the officers who clamor for them as they (along with dash cams in their vehicles) provide much-needed evidence that the officer was following protocol and adhering to his unit’s policies during an altercation. A number of officers have now said they couldn’t do their jobs properly without their bodycams and the footage they provide.

Unfortunately, a Florida-based research firm, iPower, has been working on developing a cloud-based system for storing and using footage from police cams; when they received a shipment of Martel Frontline cameras in order to work on the project, they found the units to be infected with Conficker B, a notorious self-propagating virus that has infected more than 15 million Windows PCs since its discovery in 2008. Connecting a camera to iPower’s computer caused it to try to install the virus, and when the researchers allowed it to go ahead and infect, it immediately reached out to other computers on the network to attempt to spread.

iPower’s attempts to get to the bottom of this led to no acknowledgement from the manufacturer, so the security company has gone public in order to warn law enforcement agencies and local governments of the vulnerability. Given the type of virus, it’s very hard to believe that this is an accidental issue, or at worst a sub-par quality control issue. The legal ramifications of having a compromised bodycam are unfathomable, and could even lead to a complete dismissal of charges in court. Even worse, the worm behavior of Conficker means any officer who connected his camera to his unit’s network could potentially infect not only the entire police station’s network, but any state or federal computer that the local unit’s network communicated with.

The post Police Bodycams Infected With Conficker appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/2071OZt

US Military To Create Real Life Cyborg Soldiers

The US military Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have announced the formation of a new research program that will eventually create “cyborg” soldiers capable of connecting and communicating directly with computers.

The Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) project will be tasked with designing a human computer interface that will literally join man and machine together.

Not that the premise of creating human “cyborgs” is a new phenomenon. Technological advances from the last 25 years mean that Scientists and researchers have been mixing up biology with machines for more than 2 decades.  The problem with true “Cyborg” interconnectivity is that current human to computer interfaces can only handle connecting to 100 – 1000 neurons at a time.

DARPA said it wants to improve the technology so that soldiers will be able to use a system that can communicate clearly and individually with any of up to one million neurons in a specific region of the brain.

The NESD project aims to allow computers to connect directly to these individual neurons, which would increase speed and provide finer control. The proposed implantable neural interface hopes to leapfrog over current attempts at human implantable neural interface that will establish a direct means of communication between human and machine.

“Today’s best brain-computer interface systems are like two supercomputers trying to talk to each other using an old 300-baud modem,” said Phillip Alvelda, the NESD program manager. “Imagine what will become possible when we upgrade our tools to really open the channel between the human brain and modern electronics.”

The goal is to achieve this communications link in a biocompatible device no larger than one cubic centimeter in size, roughly the volume of two nickels stacked back to back.

DARPA anticipates investing up to $60 million in the NESD program over four years.

While the concept of cyborg soldiers immediately brings to mind some quite bad films starring Jean Claude van Damme, and one good RoboCop film, the technology will have uses outside of the military field, not least the replacement of lost limbs, restoration of sight and other senses, as well as the control of disease.

The post US Military To Create Real Life Cyborg Soldiers appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1UqIIH1

Shodan Browser Lets You Spy On Unsecured IoT Devices

Forget the saga of accidentally leaking your webcam to the internet, or that one school where the students’ laptops had a low-jack feature that let the administration spy on them in their bedrooms. Those incidents are mere child’s play compared to the privacy breach that many IoT users are causing. If ever there was a wake-up call for the current fascination with connected devices, this was it.

The search engine Shodan is specifically an Internet of Things finder, and its new paid feature lets anyone view the camera feeds from unsecured setups. Some of the resulting images pulled for a story in ArsTechnica already include a baby asleep in a crib, a classroom full of children, and what appears to be a man sitting in his doctor’s exam room.

No privacy issues there, eh?

Of course, it’s easy to dismiss this as the work of highly-motivated hackers, but you’d be wrong. While Shodan does automatically scour the internet in search of unprotected RTSP camera feeds and then sells that access to interested customers, no hacking is actually taking place. The real issue is these are unsecured feeds that consumers have set up themselves.

There are three culpable scenarios here, and really, the consumers are at the heart of them. The first is that there’s now a generation of tech users who enjoys the latest shiny object to come to market without really knowing how it works; they’ve basically said security is the manufacturer’s problem now give me my smarthouse. The second culprit is from those consumers who do actually realize the implications of putting your child’s bedroom camera feed online (presumably so they can monitor the baby even while the child is with a sitter), but blithely believe they are too inconsequential for hackers or physical criminals to notice. Finally, the last contributor to the problem is still the manufacturer, the one who knowingly sells an easily-compromised, unsecured product to a user who lacks the tech know-how to protect himself, but does it to keep shareholders happy and competitors on edge.

Fortunately, government oversight agencies like the FTC take a stance against the companies when there are provable actions, but that’s little comfort after a pedophile has video footage from your security camera of your child playing in your backyard.

The post Shodan Browser Lets You Spy On Unsecured IoT Devices appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1PjB4Ov

Google Paid $1 Billion To Be Apple default iOS Search Engine

Court transcripts leaked to the web last week have revealed that Google allegedly paid Apple $1 billion to become the default search engine of choice for the mobile version of Apple’s Safari browser.

The figure relates to the amount of money Google handed over in 2014 to gain the search engine preference on millions of iPads and iPhones.  Despite being rivals in the bigger technology sphere of competition, money it seems, talks.

The information was disclosed as part of Google’s lawsuit with Oracle, one the larger ‘giants of Silicon Valley.’  The Oracle corporation alleges that the search engine giant has deliberately infringed on existing Oracle held patents surrounding the Java programming language, and Google’s use of it within its Android operating system.

During the course of court proceedings, Oracle’s legal team apparently revealed that Apple and Google had an additional deal in place where revenue generated from iOS advert conversions was shared between the two technology behemoths.  Oracle claim that at one stage the amount was as high as 34% though no details were released as to just how much either company received.

Where is this transcript now?

That’s a good question.  The much quoted transcript that has appeared in several tech news stories has been removed from the web.  According to Bloomberg;

“The transcript vanished without a trace from electronic court records…”

How come I already knew about this $1 billion Google/Apple deal?

The $1 billion figure quoted was originally ‘suggested’ in 2013 by the Morgan Stanley group,’ but this figure was never verified independently by either company.  So while there were rumors, this is as close as anyone’s ever come to proving it.

Not so sweet a deal now.

2 years is a long time in technology.  Apple has markedly been reducing its dependence upon Google for search queries in recent times.  Microsoft’s Bing is now the default search engine for Siri alongside Spotlight search.  With the last iOS.9 software updates, Safari has also started accumulating search results from Spotlight as well

The lawsuit between Oracle and Google has been ongoing since 2010, with Oracle claiming that Android mobile used parts of the Java software language that Google never paid for.

The Android mobile operating system has generated over $31 billion in revenue since Google acquired it back in 2005.

The post Google Paid $1 Billion To Be Apple default iOS Search Engine appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1PjB4Or

Novabench Takes The Guess Work Out Of Tech

One of the hardest things for any hands-off tech user to know–whether a private consumer or a corporate client–is if their equipment is up to snuff. There’s a lot of wasted money out there in upgrading components or entire systems, and the result is often a storage closet overflowing with old computers that really weren’t past their prime.

One US-based company actually went bankrupt due to its tech upgrade woes. Sometime just before the Y2K brouhaha, they hired a consulting team to analyze their systems and tell them where their tech strengths and weaknesses were. This team insisted on all new components in order to be “Y2K compliant,” which also came with a whole new expensive software system that no one in the company had been fully trained to use. The end result was that Y2K actually did strike them, hitting them right in the company payroll and in client order fulfillment. Airplanes may not have fallen out of the sky, but the new computer system crashed and no one could fix it. The end result was the company’s employees didn’t get paid, resulting in bounced checks, late fees on mortgage payments, and more, while their customers’ orders weren’t fulfilled. By the time the company covered the extraneous costs associated with upgrading to this new system, they’d lost everything.

Fortunately, there is an easier way to find out if your tech is making the grade without having to pay professionals to come tell you that it’s not. Novabench’s free benchmark software runs multiple tests on your system, provides you with all of the details about your CPU, your RAM speed, and more, then gives you a side-by-side comparison to how other systems have tested. That way, you can look at exactly how your computer is operating and making an informed decision before buying into an expensive upgrade. Too often, users make the mistake of checking the age of their tech (as if computers had a stamped expiration date on the side, like a jug of milk) and using that as the determining factor in their upgrade process, rather than looking at function and performance to make that decision.

Even better, Novabench provides users with a test score following the brief scan, which lets you know the general strength of your tech. That score is even shareable on your company’s social media networks and on your website, letting your customers know that you take your components (and their business) very seriously.

The post Novabench Takes The Guess Work Out Of Tech appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1UqIL5t

Hacking The Fortress Of Antivirus Software

As any good 13th century Viking horde knows, you can’t pillage the town without breaking through the village’s defenses, which often started with a giant stone wall and a massive gate. Wall and gate technology actually made serious technological advances throughout history (hello? burning oil from the top of the parapets?) as pillaging raids evolved. But what if the enemy had secretly replaced your village’s wall with massive stone-like blocks made from styrofoam? It would be a whole lot easier to conduct that raid. That’s the scenario that techxperts are predicting for millions of computers protected with some top names in antivirus software.

In true crime-fiction fashion, can we envision a situation in which software programmers and the researchers behind commercial antivirus titles are held hostage for their security information? Depending on the fish that hackers are hoping to catch, having a little reluctant inside help could come in very handy.

But as one tech reporter has stated, what if that inside help isn’t so reluctant? Internal data breaches are increasing in occurrence, thanks to the potential payoffs involved. Rick Robinson for SecurityIntelligence.com brought up an interesting point: your antivirus is only as good as the developer who wants to keep your content safe:

“But who will guard the guards themselves? As this Latin proverb suggests, the security challenges of safeguarding protective systems are not new. In fact, they are inherent in the nature of security measures.

“Security guards need passkeys, which means that one way for the bad guys to get hold of those keys is to steal them from a guard. In the same way, security software needs to have access to high-level permissions. In fact, most of the familiar Hollywood tricks for getting past the guards have their cyber equivalents, from simply taking out a guard (disabling the software) to dressing up in a guard uniform and issuing fake instructions (abusing the software’s system permissions).”

That’s why Robinson and other techxperts are looking for alternatives to the way we currently protect our computers and networks from attack. Unfortunately, we’re still in a climate where convincing users to even have those antivirus protections in place is still a problem, so getting them install updates, patches, and other bug fixes may be even harder.

The post Hacking The Fortress Of Antivirus Software appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1nuaFn8

Ex Firefox Boss Releases Open Source Ad-Blocking Web Browser In Brave Move.

Brendan Eich, the former CEO of Mozilla, and also the inventor of JavaScript has unleashed his new brainchild on the internet; an ad-free web browser that automatically blocks tracking cookies, and promises a faster, privacy respecting online experience.

The new Brave browser is, according, to Eich, 1.5 to 4 times faster than its competitors because it  gets rid of adverts and crucially, all the embedded tracking code that is found in vast quantities on most ad supported websites.

Brave has been built on the base layer of Chromium , another open source browser that Google itself uses as the basis for its own Chrome browser.

“Up to a whopping 60 per cent of page load time is caused by the underlying ad technology that loads into various places each time you hit a page on your favorite news site,” says the Brave website. “And 20 per cent of this is time spent on loading things that are trying to learn more about you.”

EIch himself, in a blog post thinks that the Web is in dire trouble:

“You use a browser to find and contribute information, but you generally do not pay for the websites who host that information. Across billions of people, for most sites in most countries, it isn’t realistic to expect anything but a free Web. And as Ben Thompson points out, “free” means ad-supported in the main. Yes, successful sites and apps may convert you to a paying customer, but most won’t.”

Well that’s great, an ad free browser, go Eich!

Not quite.  There is a catch. The question is, is it a catch you can live with.  You see, Brave isn’t itself ad-free.

“The new Brave browser blocks all the greed and ugliness on  the Web that slows you down and invades your privacy. Then we put clean ads back, to fund website owners and Brave users alike. Users can spend their funds to go ad-free  on their favorite sites.”

Instead of simply being a catch all ad blocker, Brave will actually still display ads. The difference, apparently, is that Brave is taking a different approach to its competitors.

“The idea is that advertisers will still be able to reach users but they won’t have the same depth of information on an individual user. Nor will Brave. The result, in theory, is greater control over privacy and none of those ads for products you recently looked at that make you feel as though you are being watched, the Register has repoorted.”

For this who might be interested in trying Brave out, you can sign up for the ongoing Beta, currently at 0.7, here.

 

 

 

Well that’s great

 

 

The post Ex Firefox Boss Releases Open Source Ad-Blocking Web Browser In Brave Move. appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1WJs4Um

Cyber Activists Write Open Letter Against Software Backdoors

Cyber activists from 42 separate countries have issued an open letter demanding an end to the global government efforts for software developers to deliberately insert software flaws into their programs and create so called ‘backdoors.’

Nearly 200 members of advocacy groups, experts, and tech companies have voiced their concerns in an effort to defend encryption against what they see as multiple world governments attempts to continually attempt to undermine secure encryption protocols by inserting software backdoors and thus weakening individual’s rights to secure encryption and privacy.

The letter was released into the public domain this week, only 3 days after President Obama’s officials publicly strived to forge a stronger relationship with industry giants in Silicon Valley.

“Users should have the option to use – and companies the option to provide – the strongest encryption available, including end-to-end encryption, without fear that governments will compel access to the content, metadata, or encryption keys without due process and respect for human rights.” 

The open letter is an initiative Access Now, an affiliate of the digital rights group SecureTheInternet.org, is urging world governments to consider the implications of creating backdoors, encouraging them to instead ‘support the safety and security of users, companies, and governments by strengthening the integrity of communications and systems.’

The letter starts by asking governments to reject new laws and policies pursuing clandestine mandates and practices, especially the creation of secretive agreements with companies, that in turn will limit access to or undermine current and future encryption and other secure communications technologies, by creating backdoors that government can access at will.

‘Strong encryption and the secure tools and systems that rely on it are critical to improving cybersecurity, fostering the digital economy, and protecting users. Our continued ability to leverage the internet for global growth and prosperity and as a tool for organizers and activists requires the ability and the right to communicate privately and securely through trustworthy networks.’

The full letter can be read here, and is still accepting signatures on behalf of both individuals and/or companies and interested organisations.

The post Cyber Activists Write Open Letter Against Software Backdoors appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1WJs3zJ

Twitter Update Leads To Shutdown

You just don’t know how important something is until it’s gone… at least that’s the sentiment from a number of Twitter users who experienced the third shutdown of the social media site in a week’s time. The widely popular site has become such a mainstay of 21st century social and business lives that its absence can pose actual problems for people who rely on tweets for everything from the latest joke to actual news headlines.

The outage was caused by a software update, although the company isn’t going into detail. An error in the code forced Twitter’s team to revert back to the previous software version in order to get the site up and running again. The lack of capability lasted about six hours, affecting some users in parts of Europe and the US.

The curtain of silence surrounding the issue could very well be because there’s nothing to say: software glitches happen all the time, especially in the widespread roll-out of a version that was only beta tested on a much smaller scale. And it’s not like seeing a Fail Whale is life altering; it’s not exactly up there with waking up to find your Nest thermostat had died during the night due to its latest software update, something that happened to millions of Google product users. iPhone users have also reported huge bugs in the latest iOS update, including a battery meter that tells you the device has plenty of juice, even as the thing phone in your hand.

However, there is some speculation that Twitter’s team is scrambling to prove how viable they still are in this social media climate, and that the intended software update was supposed to give them a leg up towards monetizing the service on a much bigger scale. Stock reports have shown that the company’s standing has been steadily falling from its highest point almost a year ago, and that investors want to see some better numbers soon. Issues like the outages this past week certainly won’t help them out there.

The post Twitter Update Leads To Shutdown appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1VdiDew

Organized Criminals Now Have Productivity Software

Don’t you just hate it when your crime spree numbers are down due to lack of organization among your team members? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a desktop application or mobile app to help streamline your productivity when it comes to hurting others and destroying lives?

If only the reality was actually a laughing matter. Instead, investigators in the UK have uncovered criminal plots to kill police officers and civilians; what’s worse, the suspects’ computers contained Skype messages from insurgents in other countries, along with instructions on downloading and using a software title that allows jihadists to communicate with each other.

According to a report by the BBC, one specific case involving four suspected terrorists resulted in discovering numerous electronic and online tools that most everyday people use for work or social connections. Instead, the four were using them to secure firearms, learn how to cover their tracks, and how to establish aliases in order to avoid suspicion.

This kind of tech-based activity is hardly new, unfortunately. In the wake of the Paris attacks, hacktivist group Anonymous began systematically shutting down tens of thousands of Twitter accounts that were used to spread messages among members of ISIS and other jihadist groups. In the US, the terrorists who are still in a standoff after seizing control of a federal building in Oregon have used Facebook and YouTube to reach out to their supporters, and have even requested donations of money and supply runs from their sympathizers.

One thing about software is true: there will always be a nefarious purpose for any new title, concept, or platform. It will be up to law enforcement to do a better job of recognizing the threats that any new tech can provide, and staying on top of the technology before it can be used for harm.

The post Organized Criminals Now Have Productivity Software appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1ZQWWaQ

The Worst Passwords Of 2015 Revealed: People Still Using 123456!

And so here we are fresh into 2016, almost a fifth of the way into the 21^st Century.

The internet and the world wide web are a part of everyday life.

We can land a robot on a comet, and we can talk on Skype with someone speaking a completely different language and have it translated in real time. It just goes to show that as a species we’ve come a long way since we were beating ourselves over the head with clubs.

 

And yet despite all the glorious technological achievements of the last few years, as a species, the most common password still in use for 2015 was 123456. The second most popular password, was, well, password.  On a personal level, I now fear for the future of the human race. 

So yes, in spite of all the big news stories last year of the rise of cybercrime, and the exponential growth in hacking, people it seems are still ridiculously bad at picking an even semi-decent password.

Making a splash with the stats

That is at least according to Password Management Firm Splash Data’s analysis.  Splash Data went out there and did the research, compiling a list of over 2 million passwords that were leaked over the course of 2015.

Variations of 123456 helped keep the top 10 rounded up with numerals, with 12345678 leapfrogging qwerty to 3^rd and 4^th place respectively. 1qaz2wsx made a surprise new entrance at number 15 on the list. (look at your keyboard. Took me a while to get anyway.)  Dragon made a new appearance at 16 as the Game of Thrones franchise seeped ever further into popular culture.

Change your passwords today

Here’s the full list below. If anyone has a password that bears even a fleeting resemblance to what follows, it’s probably a really good idea to go and change it now…

• 1 – 123456 (unchanged from 2014)
• 2 – password (unchanged)
• 3 – 12345678 (Up 1)
• 4 – qwerty (Up 1)
• 5 – 12345 (Down 2)
• 6 – 123456789 (Unchanged)
• 7 – football (Up 3)
• 8 – 1234 (Down 1)
• 9 – 1234567 (Up 2)
• 10 – baseball (Down 2)
• 11 – welcome (New)
• 12 – 1234567890 (New)
• 13 – abc123 (Up 1)
• 14 – 111111 (Up 1)
• 15 – 1qaz2wsx (New)
• 16 – dragon (Down 7)
• 17 – master (Up 2)
• 18 – monkey (Down 6)
• 19 – letmein (Down 6)
• 20 – login (New)
• 21 – princess (New)
• 22 – qwertyuiop (New)
• 23 – solo (New)
• 24 – passw0rd (New)
• 25 – starwars (New)

Morgan Slain, CEO of Splash Data says:

“We have seen an effort by many people to be more secure by adding characters to passwords, but if these longer passwords are based on simple patterns they will put you in just as much risk of having your identity stolen by hackers…As we see on the list, using common sports and pop culture terms is also a bad idea. We hope that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will take steps to strengthen their passwords and, most importantly, use different passwords for different websites.”

You can view the original list and analysis in a lot more detail here.

The post The Worst Passwords Of 2015 Revealed: People Still Using 123456! appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1WyD7jg

Skype Translator Can Now Translate In 7 Different Languages

Microsoft promised that Skype would soon deliver a real time translation service. Now it has.

The downside? It’s only available in Windows, for now anyway.

Yes, that’s right. Skype Translator has been officially released to the public.  Users of Skype on Windows can now hold voice-to-voice conversations with another person and hear the spoken words translated in real time.

The Skype team claim that voice-to-voice translation is now available in 7 languages:

Chinese Mandarin, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. So far as well, the new Microsoft service seems to have been a hit, with the Skype blog team claiming:

• French to English is the most popular language pair
• The number of calls per day has increased 400% since launch
• The top international Skype Translator calling corridor is Germany to Ghana

Microsoft are keen also to let everyone know they are working on increasing the number of languages and platforms, and integrating Translator into various different apps. Currently, the Skype text-to-text translation service can write in over 50 instant message languages.

“This is just the beginning of a journey that will transform the way we communicate with people around the world. Our long-term goal for speech translation is to translate as many languages as possible on as many platforms as possible and deliver the best Skype Translator experience on each individual platform for our more than 300 million connected users,” said Gurdeep Pall when the preview version of Translator was released back in December.

Star Trek universal translator?

Not yet. Skype does rely on machine learning. This means while Skype Translator is an impressive tool, it’s not perfect. It uses a method of ‘Deep Learning’ in order to teach itself all the different nuances and be able to recognize all the tricks and ahs and umms of everyday conversation. As Skype Translator evolves, the accuracy with which it translates is set to only improve.

This in turn does highlight the limitations of how even the ‘smartest’ computer can have trouble detecting all the variables in human speech. That said, what Skype Translator can do, is impressive and if nothing else is worth a look.

If you want to try out Skype Translator, Skype for Windows customers can click on the globe in the upper right corner of the app.

If you don’t have Skype, you can download it here from FileHippo.com now.

 

 

The post Skype Translator Can Now Translate In 7 Different Languages appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1n98TXL

iOS Glitch Lies About Your Phone’s Dead Battery

What is it with software bugs and our battery life? Can’t we just have unlimited power–not the “take over the world” kind, but at least the “make my phone work” kind?

Much like the previous Google Nest announcement that a software bug in the recent December update caused Nest thermostats to run out of power, leaving users in the cold, a glitch in a recent iOS update leaves users without battery life, despite the indicator on the screen showing users their phones are still charged.

This isn’t your typical iOS update that causes your battery to drain a little faster. Longtime users may have noticed–and even become accustomed to–having to go into the Settings and change a few things in order to keep some of their battery life. That’s because some of the updates over the years have caused new features to run in the background, soaking up your precious power. Some of the typical fixes for poor battery efficiency include switching over to the new Low Battery Mode or switching to Airplane Mode if you spot an issue, but those are hardly the settings users want to resort to after buying an expensive phone.

Instead, this is an actual bug that causes the battery display to not be telling the whole truth. It’s already left users with a dead battery despite a screen display that says they should be good to go. Typically, though, it is a bigger problem for people who cross time zones or if you’d gone into the phone’s clock for some reason and changed the time yourself. Apple is already working on it for (you guessed it) the next round of updates, but if you want to be sure you’re seeing the whole truth when it comes to your battery life, do a hard restart of your phone then go to Settings>General>Date & Time and see if Set Automatically is turned on.

The post iOS Glitch Lies About Your Phone’s Dead Battery appeared first on TechBeat.

via TechBeat http://ift.tt/1Pgn4qA