Microsoft is testing an in-browser ‘sandbox’ security extension for Chrome and Firefox that lets users access untrusted pages, safely. Windows Defender Application Guard The new browser extension, Windows Defender Application Guard, is already part of Microsoft’s Edge browser and will be rolled out as part of the next Windows 10 update 'April 2019' or 19H1 in the Spring.  It is currently being tested among Windows Insiders and will be available to Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise users when it goes live. How Do You Use It? When installed, users see a Windows Defender Application Guard landing page when they open [...]

TNG and Furhat Robotics in Sweden have developed a social, unbiased recruitment robot called “Tengai” that can be used to conduct job interviews with human candidates. Existing Robot, Modified The robot, ‘Furhat’, was developed several years ago by Stockholm based start-up Furhat Robotics. The Furhat robot, which looks like an internally projected human face on a white head sitting on top of a speaker (with camera and microphone built-in) is made with pre-built expressions and gestures as part of a pre-loaded OS which can be further customized to fit any character. In conjunction with Swedish recruitment company TNG, the Furhat [...]

A new smart drawing app that uses deep learning can convert simple sketches and doodles into photo-realistic landscape artworks in the style of famous artists. GauGAN The “GauGAN” app from Nvidia, which is a play on the name of French post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin, is described as a “smart paintbrush” that works through the interplay of two generative adversarial networks, a generator and a discriminator, powered by deep learning. How Does It Work? When running the app, users can draw a simple sketch/doodle outline of a landscape in an on-screen grid/segmentation map. Users can label each segment (e.g. with sea, [...]

It was back in March 1989, 30 years ago, that the World Wide Web as we know it was created by a computer scientist at the CERN particle physics lab near Geneva, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. From Proposal To Reality Sir Tim Berners-Lee wrote a proposal in March 1989, entitled "Information Management: A Proposal" which was based upon his vision of having a unifying structure for multiple computers, which by 1991 had developed into the World Wide Web. The proposal, which was mainly focused on how information could be easily stored, shared, and accessed by CERN staff (and scientists, universities and institutions) [...]

If you’d like to be able to get a report about how you or your family members use your Apple devices, apps, and websites, how much time is spent on them, and (for example) set limits on your child's device, there’s an app in the new iOS 12 to help you do it.  Here’s how : - Turn on the ‘Screen Time’ app: on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > Screen Time. - Select ‘Turn On Screen Time’. - Select ‘Continue’. - Select This is My [device] or This is My Child's [device]. You can now [...]

A new report has concluded that with the recent steep fall in the use of cash, particularly by young people, the government and regulators need to step in to ensure that cash remains a viable method of payment in the future. The ‘Independent’ Research The independent research called 'Access to Cash Review' was authored by Natalie Ceeney (a former financial ombudsman) and financed by cash machine network operator Link and used evidence from nearly 100 businesses and charities in the UK to reach its conclusions. What’s The Problem? The use of cash has been in decline while the use of [...]

RBS is reportedly about to hold trials of a new, more secure biometric bank card where customers can use their fingerprint instead of a PIN to verify purchases. April The trial, which will involve some 200 RBS and NatWest UK-based customers, is due to begin in April this year and will and last for three months. Although this is the first time this kind of advanced card technology has been trialled in the UK, a similar trial has already taken place in Cyprus. Partners RBS is working on the biometric fingerprint-verified card project in partnership with digital security company Gemalto, Visa, [...]

An FoI request to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has revealed cause for concern over whether businesses on the run up to the implementation of GDPR were preventing, detecting and responding to security threats and breaches in a good and compliant way. Delay In Identifying and Reporting An FoI request to the ICO by threat detection and response firm Redscan found that, in the year leading up to the implementation of GDPR on 25th of May, many UK businesses appeared to be routinely delaying data breach disclosure to the ICO. The data revealed in the request indicated that companies took an [...]

Google has warned those who are still using Windows 7 that they are at risk of hackers being able to take over their computer by exploiting the combination of a flaw in the Window 7 OS and Google’s Chrome Browser. Google Alert The threat to Windows 7 comes from combined flaws in its OS, and a flaw in Google Chrome.  It was Google that announced the discovery of the zero-day vulnerability CVE-2019-5786 in Chrome. A zero-day vulnerability is one that gives Google, for example, zero days to find a fix because it is already being exploited.  In this case, Clement [...]

Lancaster University has announced that it has launched a chatbot “companion” for students which allows them to ask almost any question about their university experience, from student life, and welfare, to academic studies and more. Ask L.U. The chatbot service, called ‘Ask L.U.’, was built on Amazon Web Services (voice) and delivers a voice interface that interacts with users. The chatbot companion was designed and built by Lancaster University’s Information Systems Services (ISS) and enhances the existing iLancaster mobile app with a range of student-focused voice services. The chatbot project also includes special facilities for disabled students, developed in conjunction [...]