115,000 customers of the of Canadian digital platform Quadriga are believed to be owed C$250 million, but C$180 ($137.21 million) in cryptocurrencies have been frozen after the platform’s founder, who was the only person with the password to the platform’s stored funds, died in December 2018. What Is Quadriga? QuadrigaCX is a Canadian cryptocurrency exchange/platform, which allows the trading of Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum.  QuadrigaCX, was founded by Gerald Cotten and was Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange until 2019 and has 363,000 registered users. Cold Storage As part of QuadrigaCX’s security measures, ‘Cold Storage’ was used for most of the Bitcoins [...]

A massive 45% growth in the revenue of Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) in the fourth quarter has been fuelled by big profits in Amazon’s public cloud arm. Beats Microsoft & Google In Cloud Infrastructure The $7.4 billion cloud revenue, which is a jump 45% compared to the previous year, means that AWS is beating competitors Microsoft and Google in the market for cloud infrastructure.  These are the services that businesses and organisations use to outsource their computing and data storage needs. To give some idea of the scale of the jump in revenue for AWS, these figures mean that it [...]

Starting with the April 2019 update, Microsoft will be adding “Learn more” links to its error code messages in a bid to enable users to see what the code means, plus the chance to fix the error on the spot. Resolved During Installation The “Learn More” links will be there to help if there is an error during the upgrade (or installation) of Windows 10.  As well as explaining what the error is, Microsoft will also be giving users the chance to resolve the error messages themselves within the installer and will offer suggestions on how to update any problematic [...]

If you need to send a file online, but that file is too big to send by email, there are several simple, effective and secure alternatives.  Here are some suggestions: - Use file compression to shrink the file size anyway before sending/transferring. For example, try RAR compression instead of ZIP.  Open source 7-Zip provides effective file compression. - Upload your file to a cloud-based storage service and share / retrieve from there.  For example, Google Drive (offers up to 15GB of free storage), Dropbox (offers 2GB of free storage space and a variety of sharing options.), Microsoft’s OneDrive (offers 5 [...]

Apple Inc has found itself at the centre of a security alert after a bug in group-calling of its FaceTime video-calling feature has been found to allow eavesdropping of a call’s recipient to take place prior to the call being taken. Sound, Video & Broadcasting As well as allowing the caller to hear audio from the recipient’s phone even if the recipient has not yet picked up the call, if the recipient has pressed the power button on the side of the iPhone e.g. to silence/ignore the incoming call, the same bug was also found to have allowed callers to [...]

Research by consumer Group Which? has revealed that hundreds of popular models of car are vulnerable to “keyless theft”. Keyless Car Theft Keyless car entry systems enable owners to unlock the doors of their car with the brush of a hand if the key fob is nearby. If the car has keyless start-stop, once inside the car, the keyless system allows the user to simply press a button to start and stop the engine. These systems work by using an identity chip in the fob that constantly listens out for radio signals broadcast by the car. These radio signals can [...]

The UK government is urging organisations that benefit from European Union (EU) research funding to sign-up to a UK-led replacement scheme now in order to guarantee that their Horizon 2020 project funding can continue after Brexit. What Is Horizon 2020? Dating back to 2014, Horizon 2020 from the EU, is the largest ever European funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of 79 billion euros and is set to run until 2020.  It is aimed at improving Europe’s global competitiveness in research and innovation.  Applications for the funding are open to registered businesses, charities, partnerships or research organisations [...]

The fact that the voiceprints of more than 2 million people have been added to HMRC’s Voice ID scheme since June 2018, to add to the 5 million plus other voiceprints already collected, has led to complaints and challenges to the lawfulness of the system by privacy campaigners. What HMRC Biometric Database System? 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 [...]

Psychologists from the University of Calgary have published a study in the JAMA journal of Paediatrics, which found that 2-5 years olds who engaged in more screen time received worse scores in developmental screening tests. The Study The toddlers in the study were from 2,500 Alberta homes between 2011 and 2016.  Their families or caregivers were asked to report on how much time the toddlers spent in front of screens. The toddlers were reported to be averaging 2-3 hours per day screen time, and their families/caregivers filled out standard questionnaires about the basic motor and communication skills of the toddlers.  [...]

In Windows 10, the Tasks experience in Outlook.com (powered by 'To-Do') means that when looking at your inbox, you can save time and create tasks by dragging and dropping an email to your task list. You can also easily schedule items by dragging a task to your calendar. Your tasks then travel with you on the To-Do app. You can see how it’s done on the Windows Blog here: Go to https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/12/16/windows-10-tip-schedule-items-by-dragging-a-task-to-your-calendar/#WX3WrBWATdGxSk48.97