It has been reported that it was a surveillance attack on Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging app that caused the company to urge all of its 1.5bn users to update their apps as an extra precaution recently. What Kind of Attack? Technical commentators have identified the attack on WhatsApp as a ‘zero-day’ exploit that is used to load spyware onto the victim’s phone.  Once the victim’s WhatsApp has been hijacked and the spyware loaded onto the phone, it can, for example, access encrypted chats, access photos, contacts and other information, as well as being able to eavesdrop on calls, and even turn [...]

Later this month, Google will be rolling out 3D Augmented Reality (AR) in its search results, a change which could allow retailers to show their products online in a way that enables customers to a virtually ‘try’ those products and see them in situ before buying them. Shown At Phone Launch Google showed how 3D AR could work in search results to attendees of the launch of its Pixel 3 smartphone at its annual developer’s conference. At the phone launch, Google’s Vice President, Aparna Chennapragada, used a superimposed animation of a shark and a 3D exploration of a pair of New [...]

Digital Minister Margot James has proposed the introduction of legislation that could make internet-connected gadgets less vulnerable to attacks by hackers. What’s The Problem? Gartner predicts that there will be 14.2 billion ‘smart’, internet-connected devices in use worldwide by the end of 2019.  These devices include connected TVs, smart speakers and home appliances. In business settings, IoT devices can include elevators, doors, or whole heating and fire safety systems in office buildings. The main security issue of many of these devices is that they have pre-set, default unchangeable passwords, and once these passwords have been discovered by cybercriminals the IoT [...]

The G7 nations will be holding a simulated cyber-attack this month to test the possible effects of a serious malware infection on the financial sector. France The attack simulation was organised by the French central bank under France’s presidency of the Group of Seven nations (G7).  The three-day exercise will be aimed at demonstrating the cross-border effects of such an attack and will involve 24 financial authorities from the seven countries, comprising central banks, market authorities and finance ministries.  It has been reported that representatives of the private sector in France, Italy Germany and Japan will also participate in the [...]

The findings of Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report have reminded companies that let customer information go astray that they could be facing big fines, and damaging publicity. The Report The annual Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) draws upon information gained from more than 2,000 confirmed breaches that hit organisations worldwide, and information about more than 40,000 incidents such as spam and malware campaigns and web attacks. Big Fines The report reminds companies that although personal data can be stolen in seconds, the effects can be serious and can last for a long time. In addition to the problems [...]

If you’d like an app that enables you to create and collaborate, publish and broadcast presentations from any device, quickly and easily, Zoho Show free online presentation software may be for you. It offers many different themes and has a contextual user-focused interface that guides you through authoring slides, and it has animations and transitions to help set the tone of your presentation for your particular audience. Zoho Show is available for Apple and Android and is compatible with PowerPoint.  Find more information online here https://www.zoho.com/show/ or download Show from iTunes or the Google Play store.

The new ‘Ideas’ feature, an AI-powered editor in the cloud for Microsoft Word is intended to provide intelligent suggestions to make your writing more concise, readable, and inclusive. Ideas The new ‘Ideas’ feature, which is already being used with PowerPoint and Excel, is likely to be a value-adding improvement on traditional grammar and spelling checks because it is designed to help with the reading and writing of (online) Word documents. The feature announced at Microsoft 2019 and scheduled for testing in June, will be able to follow along as you write, offer familiar fixes for spelling and grammatical errors, suggest [...]

Google is joining tech giants Facebook and Microsoft by offering users greater privacy of their data which for Google will give its users the option to automatically delete their search and location history after three or eighteen months. What’s The Problem? According to Google, feedback has shown that users want simpler ways to manage or delete their data, and web users have been more concerned about matters of their data privacy after several high profile data breaches, most notably that of Facebook sharing 50 million profiles of its users data with analytics company, Cambridge Analytica back in 2014. The Change [...]

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has concluded that HMRC has breached GDPR in the way that it collected the biometric voice records of users and now must delete five million biometric voice files. What Voice Files? Back in January 2017, HMRC introduced a system whereby customers calling the tax credits and Self-Assessment helpline could enrol for voice identification (Voice ID) as a means of speeding up the security steps. The system uses 100 different characteristics to recognise the voice of an individual and can create a voiceprint that is unique to that individual. When customers call HMRC for the first [...]

In a recent interview with CBNC, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President and Chief Information Officer Bret Arsenault signalled the corporation’s move away from passwords on their own as a means of authentication towards (biometrics) and a “passwordless future”. Passwords – Not Enough On Their Own Many of us are now used to two-factor authentication e.g. receiving a code via text or using apps such as Google Authenticator as a more secure way of using passwords.  Mr Arsenault also notes that hacking methods such as “password spraying”, where attackers attempt to access large numbers of accounts at once using some of the most [...]