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Nik Collection, the erstwhile popular collection of filters and editing tools for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, which was acquired by Google in 2012 is rather facing a bleak future as Google has announced discontinuation of support for the software.

The photo editing tools compatible with Mac OS X 10.7 and above, Windows Vista, 7, 8; and Adobe Photoshop through CC 2015, comprises of seven applications: Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, Viveza, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro and Dfine.

While Google stated that it has no plans to update the Collection or add new features over time, users will still have access to it indefinitely.

Albeit, Nik Collection is staple in many photographers post workflow, and already had a strong and loyal following owing to Google’s decision to remove the price tag of $149.

Meanwhile, the mobile version, Snapseed, which was also acquired with the Nik Collection, will continue to offer a solid collection of photo-editing tools for Android and iOS devices, according to Google.

Why the Future looks bleak for Google's Nik Collection?



Google just added a new search feature dubbed "Personal tab", which will enable searchers to see own contents from email and photos, right on the main search page provided they're logged into their Google accounts.

The personal tab provides personalized search results from other Google Services that the user has subscribed to, like: Gmail, Google+, and Google Calendar.

While the private sources, includes emails and photos that a user might have taken in the past and uploaded to the cloud, which may mean revealing just too much, especially as accessible with a shared-PC or mobile device.

Even as skeptics have always questioned the level of users' privacy exposed in the background processing involved in most Google services.

Albeit, Google has stated that the personal search results don’t show up for everyone, and are limited to the user, it's still unclear right now whether the feature is limited to Gmail and Google Photos, or if it will also pull results from Google Drive and other Google services.

The Personal tab can be found behind the "More" menu on Google Search page, but the feature seems to be rolling out slowly to users worldwide.

How private is Google Search "Personal Tab" feature?



Microsoft's livestreaming service is all the rage now, with Beam, a game-streaming service it acquired last summer, which is integrated into both Windows 10 and the Xbox One game console, haven undergone unique transformation starting with a new name, Mixer.

While the name change isn't the big deal, the company touted it as resonant to its mission to expand into every major market around the world.

The revolutionary new live-streaming platform, Mixer is bundled with features that will unlock a whole new world of possibilities for social streaming, and help users easily find the content they’re looking for across the service.

Mixer assures not just the ability to watch streams live, but to also interact with streamers and play together in near real-time. As livestreaming that’s actually LIVE, users can actively participate in what’s happening on screen instead of just watching from the sidelines.

And viewers can influence everything from quest selection to tools to movement, mixing it up with their favorite streamers to create a new kind of gaming experience.

With Mixer service, the Guide on Xbox One and Game bar on Windows 10 is inbuilt, to make it super easy for anyone to start streaming their gameplay.

The co-streaming feature which is perhaps the first inbuilt cooperative streaming experience on a streaming platform, brings up to 4 streamers into a single viewer experience, and also enables multiple channel streams to be displayed on a single Mixer page.

While "Mixer Create" is a new mobile app that enables self-broadcasting, now available publicly on Android, and through invite on Apple’s TestFlight service.

The new Mixer page on the Xbox One dashboard will feature some of the most unique, and popular streams that are broadcast on Mixer, curated by a dedicated team according to the company.

What's new in Mixer (formerly Microsoft's Beam)?



Blockchain is rather becoming a hugely popular technical terminology, and lately, thanks to the growing adoption of the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, which it serves as a public ledger for all Bitcoin transactions.

While Blockchain is seen as the main technological innovation of Bitcoin, since it stands as proof of all the transactions on the network, but the first work on a cryptographically secured chain of blocks is dated back to 1991.

And the first Blockchain was conceptualized and implemented by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 as a core component of the digital currency Bitcoin, where it serves as the public ledger.

What is Blockchain Technology?

Blockchain is an open distributed database that maintains a continuously growing list of records, called a "block", secured against any form of alteration. The block is the ‘current’ part of a blockchain with records of recent transactions, which goes into the blockchain, once completed as permanent database.

The blockchain network lives in a state of consensus, and automatically checks in with itself every ten minutes, reconciling every transaction that happens in ten-minute intervals.

The ledger itself can also be programmed to trigger transactions automatically, with each block containing a timestamp and a link to a previous block.

What's the alternative implementations?

The Blockchain technology can be applied to not just a cyptocurrency like bitcoin, but also to any “asset” that can be stored or distributed such as software and physical goods, or even data.

It also has great potential for the financial services industry as well, as implementing a decentralized database or a public registry like blockchain to verify the identities of all parties to a transaction will mean settlement would be instantaneous since the transaction and settlement would happen simultaneously once the ledger is updated.

Albeit, the biggest use of blockchain technology is perhaps in identity management, as detailed in TED by Don Tapscott.

As online transactions are closely connected to the processes of identity verification, it's not hard to imagine that wallet applications will transform to include other types of identity management.

According to Don, blockchain technology represents nothing less than the second generation of the internet and holds the potential to transform money, business, government and society.

Jargon Buster: Blockchain Technology Explained



While using a media player to watch movies with subtitles, you’re probably at greater risk if you're prone to visiting numerous media sites that allow you to download subtitles for movies in various languages.

According to Check Point, an online security firm, hackers can take control of your PC, phone or streaming box through subtitles.

With subtitles repositories treated as trusted sources by media player; Check Point research has shown that the repositories can be manipulated, which results specific attacker’s malicious subtitles being served to users.

The attackers could also insert malicious code into the text files that facilitate the onscreen translations of your favorite foreign film.

And through the crafty malicious subtitle files, which are then downloaded by a victim’s media player, attackers can take complete control over any type of device via vulnerabilities found in many popular streaming platforms, including VLC, Kodi (XBMC), Popcorn-Time and strem.io.

Check Point, however stated that no known exploitation of the flaws has been detected in the wild; but had actually pulled off the hack as a proof of concept. Albeit, they’ve posted links and instructions to help developers to resolve the flaws in their apps.

How hackers can take control of PC, phone or streaming box via subtitles



For those hearing it for the first time, the term "Dark Web" often sends shivers down the spine, and conjures up memories of illegal or unethical activities - as the hidden, encrypted Internet has earned a reputation as an archaic rock under which lurks criminals and black hat hackers.

While devious activity does exist, the Dark Web is a bit more than just crawling with creepy criminals with intent on swiping and selling data, drugs, and other illicit goods.

Though, the Dark Web has become notoriously famous for hosting nefarious hacker forums and illegal markets, notwithstanding its infamous reputation, research by the security firm Terbium Labs proves the Dark Web isn't exclusively a haven for irrepressible criminals.

The dark web has often been confused with the "Deep web", which better refers to the parts of the web not indexed by search engines.

Accessible only by using a secure browser like Tor, the Dark Web's notorious reputation is well-earned, and the hidden internet is undeniably dangerous. And the biggest mistake any organization can make regarding the Dark Web is to pretend it doesn't exist.

Albeit, the Dark Web and .onion URLs, the top level domain designated for encrypted sites, are accessible only by using Tor and SSL, there isn't a 100% guarantee of privacy.

According to Terbium Labs analysis, Nearly 17.7% of the encrypted internet consists of dead websites. 12.3% of illegal Dark Web activity is related to illegal drug trafficking, and another 3.2% is diverted pharmaceutical trafficking. Fraud and hacking each consist of only 1.3% of Dark Web activity.

The report also found that although criminal activity is ever present, 54.5% of Dark Web content is legal traffic posted by tech companies like Facebook, the U.S. State Department and other government organizations, and journalists and activists.

There are plenty of reasons companies and individuals may want to access the Dark Web. While Organizations in particular may want to monitor Dark Web portals for stolen corporate account information.

Facebook's encrypted site, located at facebookcorewwwi.onion, is a feature-rich method of accessing the social network using end-to-end encryption.

However, Internet users should be cautious as the Dark Web is increasingly accessible, and the encrypted web is not necessarily safe, and there's high potential to encounter dubious or obviously illegal contents.

Demystifying the Dark Web: What underbelly of the Internet represents



Smart home involves the automation of lighting, heating (such as smart thermostats), ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), and security, as well as home appliances such as washer/dryers, ovens or refrigerators/freezers.

While there are still very little worldwide accepted industry standards, notwithstanding the smart home space is heavily fragmented, competition in the sector has been growing fiercely.

The Amazon Echo has suddenly become the hottest smart home product on the market, not only has Amazon built Alexa (digital assistant) into its products, but the company has also allowed third-party hardware makers to build Alexa into their own devices.

With Apple rumored to be preparing to launch a smart speaker soon, possibly at the company's annual conference in June; the speaker connects to the internet and users could talk to it through Apple's voice assistant, Siri.

Apple aiming for better speaker and microphone technology, with its smart speaker described as having excellent "acoustics performance," runs iOS and may include some sort of Beats technology, as well as support AirPlay.

Google Home, on the other hand, boasts of Google Assistant which is able to answer questions and carry out instructions. And with support for multiple users, it can differentiate one voice from another in the home so as to ensure a more personalized experience.

And Google recently pitched its smart home offering to keep up with your busy schedule, with the introduction of shopping with Google Assistant on Google Home.

There are a wide variety of technology platforms, or protocols, on which a smart home can be built.

Albeit, Smart Home suffers from lack of technical standards, a situation where the variety of home automation devices, in terms of both hardware variations and differences in the software running on them, makes the task of developing applications that work consistently between different inconsistent technology ecosystems difficult.

Analysts has projected the global home automation system market to reach USD 78.27 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 12.46% between 2016 and 2022.

Is it Google, Apple or Amazon who will rule the Smart Home?



Microsoft has clearly stated that Windows 10 S is targeted at the classroom, with enhanced educational tools to make learning even more fun. But then, Windows 10 S only run apps from within the Windows Store, with possible exceptions to apps without access to low level functions, like apps that explicitly write to hardware or modify the system registry.

While the instances of low-level apps that won't run on Windows 10 S machines include the Windows Console, Cmd/PowerShell, or Linux/Bash/WSL.

Which apps are paramount for tech savvy students to code, or hack, and without access to low-level functions there's obvious limitation on the device, and the restriction on certain Windows Stores apps may deepen the nerds' skepticism.

And Microsoft is actively blocking "command-line" apps that run outside the safe environment of Windows 10 S, such that it can't possibly run the new downloadable Linux apps, even though present in the store.

Though it can install just like every traditional Windows 10 Universal app, but like command-line tools outside the UWP (Universal Windows Platform) sandbox and the secure runtime infrastructure, it won't run.

If Windows 10 S indeed does take off in the classroom, it would be hard to encourage kids to code, let alone, hack.

Downside to Windows 10 S; Why Nerds won't budge



It's no secret that most popular websites have been circumventing users privacy settings by deliberately restoring previously deleted HTTP cookies using local storage outside the control of the browser. With Yahoo in 2013 openly admitting that it will no longer honor "Do Not Track" requests made by a user's browser.

And just recently, Twitter announced an update to its privacy policy, making it clear that it is no longer supporting Do Not Track, which users could enable in most browsers to stop advertisers from tracking their browsing history.

While every major ad-serving digital platforms are opting to ignore Do Not Track requests, citing the fact that an industry-standard approach to Do Not Track did not exist.

Albeit, the privacy icon "Do Not Track" has been slated to become an official recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) starting August 2017.

The argument in favor of web tracking had always been to further improve and personalize web services, and to connect users with the contents they care more about. And the way you get connected to such personalized experience is by allowing web companies to share more information with advertisers about you and your browsing habits.

Twitter's privacy policy changes don't take effect until next month but you can opt out now using the Twitter app or website.

And the company still offers options for people to disable ads targeting based on information collected off Twitter. Simply go to settings menu, select “Privacy and Safety,” then “Personalization and data,” and then toggle off “Personalize ads.”

Online Privacy: Whither "Do Not Track" is Dead?



Google at its I/O developer conference on Wednesday stated about a new program that's focused on software, rather than just smartphones - Android Go, with the goal of making Android better able to cater for users on entry-level phones.

Android Go is designed to run better on phones with limited hardware, starting off with Android O, which is the next iteration of the hugely popular mobile software.

It's rather a streamlined version of Android, featuring Google’s core apps like Play Store in a self-container, and enables Data Saving mode by default, especially beneficial for regions with costly and limited Internet connectivity.

Unlike the earlier program, Android One, which was to teach OEMs in emerging markets on how to make high-quality, and yet affordable, phones.

While hardware isn't the core issue anymore, the software has to be tuned up for the needs of a lower quality screen, with barely enough storage like less than 1GB of memory.

This means that regular apps like YouTube and Maps, as well as the Google Play store for downloading apps, will need to become more efficient in regards to data usage and spotty internet connections.

Android Go aims for people on the Go, with a special version of the Play store that will highlights apps data usage, for instance, apps with offline mode. And for Google, reaching the next 5 billion is crucial to making sure its businesses continue to grow.

How Google intends to get Android to run smoother on entry-level phones



Spanner is a globally distributed relational database developed by Google and has been in use internally for years to power Google Play and AdWords among others. The company on Tuesday announced that Spanner is now generally available for "so-called" mission-critical OLTP (online transaction processing) applications.

Often tagged as NewSQL platform, Spanner is employed internally within Google's infrastructure as part of the Google platform and also available as part of Google Cloud Platform.

Now, Google is offering Cloud Spanner as a fully-managed cloud database service, and promising enterprise-grade database features, including ANSI 2011 SQL support, ACID transactions, real-time availability, and uncompromising consistency.

It assures more accuracy, reliability, and performance in the form of a fully managed cloud database service.

While Microsoft had earlier introduced Azure Cosmos Database, a globally distributed database with 5 consistency choices available, Google is pitching its Cloud Platform ahead of I/O 2017 developer conference, as a possible challenger.

Google is also pushing its no-cost trial so that potential customers can "experience first-hand the value of a relational database service that offers strong consistency, mission-critical availability, and global scalability — with no infrastructure for you to deploy, scale, or manage".

The company has partnered with data integration firms Alooma, Informatica, and Xplenty to help companies with their migration processes.

Google's Cloud Database, Spanner out of beta; now generally available



Earlier in the month, there was a sophisticated attack that focused on stealing access to a user's Google account rather than just obtaining the username and password, by the abuse of the OAuth protocol, a means for internet services like Google, Twitter and Facebook to connect with third-party apps.

The attack was made possible because of error in the mechanism to prevent a third-party app registered to Google’s OAuth service from using the same name as one of Google’s own apps or the name of another legitimate app.

In response, Google's OAuth services is currently under review, so users will not be able to approve the data permissions, rather an error message will be displayed instead of the permissions consent page.

Google intends to strengthen its risk assessment for new apps and make some new changes to better detect such abuse in the future.

As a result developers might see error messages when registering new applications or modifying existing ones in the Google API Console, Firebase Console, or Apps Script editor.

Developers will be able to request a review during the application testing phase, and until the app is reviewed, they can only be able to continue testing their app using their own account, as well as to add additional testers.

And based on the results of the enhanced risk assessment, some web applications may need to undergo a manual review and approval process that could take several days to complete.

Google's identity services under review following OAuth exploit in Gmail attack



PVBLC is a specialized content curating cum social media platform, that enable users to publicly share content in topical collective pages. It allow users to search and follow topic of interests and receive content about topics they care about made by various content creators from around the world.

As a typical user-powered search engine, PVBLC is segmented by topics, which means that users can search for a topic and gain access to a wealth of contents ranging from images, videos and articles.

PVBLC strives to be the public library of the web, where contents are organized so that it is easily found. The users can categorize the content in tens, hundreds and even thousands of ways, making it more accessible than ever before.

While the conventional search services like Google and Bing.com have been grappling with inaccurate contents dominating the SERP, PVBLC on the other hand, has an edge as all its content creators have passed through rigorous audit to ensure the accuracy of their contents.

PVBLC's users have access to contents right on topic, altogether in one place and one destination for all content about the same topic.

It avail users more information about their topics of interest, with introduction to many different content creators, allowing them to expand their horizons and exposure to diverse opinions, ideas and styles.

Whether you're a big publisher or a regular person passionate about something, PVBLC gives you a way to share those contents publicly with everyone.

Featured: What is PVBLC & How does it Work?



Hackers exploited a piece of NSA code known as “Eternal Blue” that was released last month by a group known as the Shadow Brokers, to unleash global cyberattack that hit international shipper FedEx, disrupting Britain’s health system and infected computers in nearly 100 other multinationals.

Security firms had identified the attacks as “WannaCry” ransomware that had the ability to automatically spread across large networks by exploiting a known bug in Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

While the most disruptive attacks were reported in Britain, involving hospitals and clinics where most were forced to turn away patients after losing access to data on computers.

The Shadow Brokers released Eternal Blue as part of a set of hacking tools belonging to the U.S. spy agency as reported by WikiLeaks.

Albeit, extortion by means of a ransomeware has been on the rising, it had only affected small-to-mid sized organizations in the United States and Europe.

Microsoft, however, has pushed out automatic Windows updates to mitigate the effects of WannaCry. Adding that it had also issued a patch on March 14 to protect users against Eternal Blue.

How Hackers exploited NSA code “Eternal Blue” to wreck multinationals

Snapchat, the image messaging and multimedia application attained notoriety on its principal concept of Snaps (pictures and messages) availability for a short time and the self-destruct capabilities, allowing users to tease usual pics, which makes it perfect for sexting among other secretive communications.

While the overriding idea was to serve as a selfie application which allowed users to share images that were explicitly short-lived and self-deleting.

But, over the years Snapchat has continued to introduce a slew of new features to the messaging platform, including Snapchat stories which avail users a new way to share stuff with friends.

Find below all the new features in Snapchat's big update:

Limitless Snaps:



Snapchat has added a limitless button, which allows users to snap without time constraints. By selecting the “no limit” option, you can share photos or story with friends, and the snap will remain on the screen until the user skips to the next one or exits the app.

Magic Eraser feature:

It allows you to place more animation in a snap with a button that allows you to use any emoji as a brush, and you can remove any part of an image with the “magic eraser.”

Draw using Emojis:

It give the capability to select the color you want to draw with, as usual, with an emoji icon underneath. If you click on that, the menu will expand and you will be presented with a number of emojis from which you can select an emoji and draw as if it were the regular marker tool.

Loop videos:



Loop videos allow you to send videos on Snapchat, with the option to allow the recipient to view it on loop and for unlimited number of times before they close the snap.

And simply by clicking the "Loop" icon, and selecting whether you want the recipient to only see the video once, or whether it will play on a loop.

These new updates are available on the latest Snapchat app, and according to the company, as Snapchat evolves, it will introduce even more creative tools for making fun snaps.

Here's all the new features in Snapchat's biggest update



Opera Software's new browser, dubbed "Reborn" integrates messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram on a side window, allowing users to chat while working on the main browser.

Though, some other popular messaging apps like Viber and WeChat are not included in the support, the company has promised to make them available soon.

Opera Reborn also allows you to share photos online as well as pin supported messaging apps to the sidebar as shortcuts, and you can sign out of the messaging apps directly from the browser.

While the new update ensures users quest for never-ending multitasking on the desktop is taken to another level, which means no more having to toggle between tabs or windows, but how much of users privacy is involved?

Krystian Kolondra, Opera's Executive Vice President of Desktop, maintains that Opera does not have access to any information shared or transmitted via this service. And the Reborn Opera is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Opera "Reborn" integrates Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram



Google "Fuchsia", an operating system based on a new kernel called Magenta, running Dart, a general-purpose programming language originally developed by Google, is now beginning to take shape with a user interface, dubbed Armadillo, which features card-based design for managing multiple apps.

Fuchsia is Google's only OS running outside the Linux kernel, with the duo of Android and Chrome OS all based on the Linux kernel.

It's digression is perhaps because the operating system is specifically for embedded hardware, especially in the case of embedded devices like car dashboards or GPS units, as Linux kernel can impact performance and may cause some problems.

The new UI, which was originally developed by Kyle Bradshaw of Hotfixit.net, allows cards to be dragged around and used in a split-screen mode.

While Google has made the code public, Fuchsia is still shrouded in mystery as to its actual intent, and most developers are reluctant to devote the time in building, organizing, and compiling it.

Albeit, building a new mainstream operating system can be pretty hard, given that there will always be room for improvement in areas like security, responsiveness and battery consumption.

Google's Fuchsia gets card-based Interface for Managing Multiple Apps



Android is the dominant platform at the moment, and as such there are definitely lots of malicious activities targeting the mobile OS; with over 1.4 billion people who use an Android smartphone or tablet per day, and the fact that it’s open source, and therefore free for manufacturers to use makes it a big deal.

While the openness is partly the reason for the dominance, on the other hand, it has led to a situation whereby most Android phones are not regularly updated with the latest security patches.

Albeit, Google had been pretty serious with keeping Android secure over the years, with security updates being pushed out monthly, but still, not every smartphone and tablet receives these monthly security updates.

Even the Android security team had at one time admitted that roughly half of the devices in use at the end of 2016 had not received an update for at least 12 months.

As a result, tech-savvy consumers are forced to either buy a new phone in order to keep it secure, or rely on community developers to maintain and support the device with custom ROMs.

But, what's the future of Android malware really like? A new report from G DATA shows exactly how more pieces of malware are targeted at Android every single day, and the unfortunate state of Android security updates.

The research released at the end of last month that detailed their findings for the first quarter of 2017, disclosed over 750,000 new Android malware applications during the first quarter of the year.

According to the report, 2014 witnessed about 1.55 million pieces of Android malware, upped from 2013 estimate of 1.2 million, and 3.5 million instance of Android malware projected for the current year, but it could go even higher.

On the average, the stats equate a little under 8,400 instances of new Android malware discovered every single day.

Although the potential damage could be frightening, as the Android fragmentation problem is not easily solved, which may mean the question of Android security comes down to the device.

How Android future looks bleak with Malware challenge



Microsoft touted Windows 10 S as new experience in terms of modern classroom collaboration; with features in Minecraft and mixed reality to spark creativity; and a range of Windows 10 S PCs for K-12 classrooms; and the perfect Windows 10 S device, Surface Laptop for college students.

Windows 10 S applications are exclusively from the Windows Store, where they are first verified for security, and the anti-malware technology make apps to run in a safe “container”, to ensure consistent performance.

And as Windows 10 S powered devices boot-up in seconds, it makes for faster loading and consistent performance, enabling everyone in the classroom to start learning quickly, and stay focused without distraction.

With new features in Microsoft Edge like the new Tab Preview Bar which makes it easy for students to research and manage school projects, and the Windows Ink, students can easily make notes directly on a web page and share with a classmate.

To compliment all these, the Set Up School PC app in the Windows Store, will enable set up of entire classrooms devices with customized experiences using a USB stick, in as little as 30 seconds for each device.

While administrators can easily switch to Windows 10 Pro; which enable them to download any app from the Internet, as when a user is running Windows 10 Pro they can install anything.

And the Teams feature will help teachers to bring in rich and engaging content from the web, guest speakers, and solutions from education partners.

In the coming months, Microsoft promised offering a range of Windows 10 S devices — from powerful and affordable Windows Ink and touch PCs to beautiful premium devices through its partners.

How Windows 10 S empowers Students/Teachers for modern Classroom collaboration



The micro-blogging service, Twitter announced a deal with Bloomberg Media for a round-the-clock streaming television news service on the social networking platform. Now, that every social media platform seems to be getting on board the news service, what will Twitter do differently?

As the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia.org, has also ventured into online news collaboration tagged "Wikitribune", featuring professional and community-based journalists as contributors for creating fact-checked stories for the web.

While Twitter had made a push into streaming live sports on mobile devices earlier, this foray into actual news streaming means content will be created solely for the social network.

With a mix of Twitter user-generated breaking news video from locals, and verified by Bloomberg editors, along with live video and reporting from Bloomberg journalists around the world, delivered via the social network, fully interactive, and rich with social content and available on any device.

Justin Smith, Bloomberg Media CEO described the project, thus: "With this new TV network, we are setting out to reinvent the digital breaking news experience".

And given Twitter's global reach - immediacy and interactivity may perhaps result what would become the world's fastest and most credible modern news source online.

What's dope about Twitter's partnership for streaming TV News service?



Microsoft's latest Windows 10 preview, build 16188, includes a virtualization-based feature called Windows Defender Application Guard, that isolates the contents of a tab in Edge, the OS’s default browser, from the rest of the system.

While the anti-malware technology was announced in September, and had undergone limited testing, this is its first availability for all Insiders running Windows 10 Enterprise.

Just like sandboxing, the virtualization of a tab in Edge blocks viewed content and downloaded files from accessing the system.

In that way, malware in the virtualized “container” cannot access the user’s credentials, will not be able to access data or connect with other systems on the network.

And as the user closes the tab; on shutting down the browser, or logs out of the PC, any malware that managed to get into the container is thrown away as well.

For now, the Application Guard feature is available only in the U.S. English version of build 16188 for Windows 10 Enterprise, and requires a PC that supports Microsoft’s virtualization technology.

What's anti-exploit technology in Windows 10’s baked-in browser?



Microsoft unveiled its weapon to battle Google's domination of schools with Chromebooks in the form of Windows 10 S powered laptops; while Windows 10 S is essentially a lite version of Windows 10 designed expressly for educational usage.

The new operating system shares the same underlying architecture as the standard version of Windows 10, but with notable differences in some areas: like streamlined for simplicity and extra secure.

Also it run apps exclusively from Microsoft’s Windows Store; albeit traditional desktop applications will be supported only if its developer packages it as a Windows app in the Windows Store.

In the same exclusivity, Windows 10 S restrict users default browser to Microsoft Edge, and search engine to Bing.com.

And users can't change the default browser or search engine, however, they can always navigate away to other search engine, like Google.com on the browser, but all default search-commands will only point to Edge browser.

Well, its pertinent to note that major browsers like Chrome and Firefox are not available in the Windows Store anyway, so what's the argument?

Why Windows 10 S browser restriction to Edge isn't a moot point?



Industrial robot is a growing trend; with statistics pointing to over 1.2 million robots coming to factories globally by 2018. Now imagine the impact of a single, simple software vulnerability and what serious consequences that could result for manufacturers.

For the first time, a collaboration between Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) and the Trend Micro Forward-Looking Threat Research (FTR) Team, were able to analyze the impact of system-specific attacks and demonstrate attack scenarios on actual standard industrial robots.

While vulnerabilities in protocols and software running industrial robots are widely known, there has been no in-depth, hands-on research to demonstrate that actually the robots can be compromised.

The research team examined robots from ABB, Fanuc, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki and Yaskawa; mostly factories responsible for manufacturing phones, cars and planes, which depend primarily on machines to automatically put these devices together.

And a series of tests conducted by the team disclosed that the factory robots have weak network security.

According to the research, the systems mostly employed simple usernames and passwords that couldn't be changed, while others didn't even require any password.

The machines also have poor software protection, including outdated software, and exposed IP addresses which pose a higher risk of hackers getting easy access.

With the aforementioned security posture of the targeted smart factory, hackers could trigger attacks that would amount to massive financial lose to the company in question or at worst, even affect the critical product lines.

For instance, ABB robots were remotely programmed by reversely-engineering the RobotWare program and the RobotStudio software, allowing the researchers to hack the machine's network and switched it to draw a straight line.

These findings has raised concerns about more general automation in the future. Albeit ABB has since fixed the flaws in its robot's software.

Research: Even Industrial Robots can be Hacked!



There was a sneaky phishing attack targeting Google Docs users designed to trick them into giving up access to their Google accounts, reported on Tuesday, which circulated for about three hours before Google could halt it.

The sophistication of the attack is somewhat different from past attacks, as it focuses on stealing access to a user's account rather than just obtaining the username and password.

The scam utilized a rogue app made to look just like the Google Docs app, which unsuspecting victims would grant permission to access their account.

It forwards potential victims a link that appeared to be a Google Docs from someone they know and then directed them to Google's account selection screen, and the emails looked legit but addressed to "hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh@mailinator.com."

The scheme is to trick its victims to give it access, which it uses to send emails to that person's contact list, with the goal of targeting other victims.

The attacks were made possible by the abusing of the OAuth protocol, a means for internet services like Google, Twitter and Facebook to connect with third-party apps.

While the OAuth protocol doesn’t transfer any password information, but instead uses special access tokens that can access accounts, OAuth can be pretty dangerous if it falls in wrong hands.

Fortunately, Google was able to move quickly to mitigate the phishing attack, after a Reddit user reported about it.

How "rogue" app fooled Google Docs users to give up access to account



Finally, the rumored Microsoft experimental low-cost version of its hugely popular Windows operating system, focused for the classroom, has been unveiled as Windows 10 S - with striking resemblance to the rather disastrous Windows RT.

It is basically a more restricted version of Windows 10, and it’ll run on the same hardware specs as the full version. But like Windows RT, Windows 10 S, restricts users to Windows Store apps alone.

While the Windows Store boasts of less battery consuming apps and inherently more manageable than traditional desktop apps; which eat up the RAM through grimy processes, it's obviously in dearth of useful apps.

Unlike Windows RT, Windows 10 S can run traditional x86-based desktop software, however, the desktop software must have been repackaged as a Universal Windows app.

The Windows Intune Education tool allows for configuration of any system using a wizard, and slamming it on a USB key to install the customized version of Windows 10 S on any PC.

Microsoft is wooing on admins and teachers to hop on Windows 10 S laptops with free software support; including free one-year subscription to Minecraft: Education Edition with Windows 10 S laptops, and free Office 365 for Education.

Additionally, any current Windows 10 Pro PC being used by a school can be flashed to Windows 10 S for free within seconds.

Microsoft's mystery OS (Windows 10 Cloud), unveiled as Windows 10 S targets the classroom

While flash drives are convenient for transferring files between different computers, like all forms of digital storage, the media can become corrupt leading to lose of valuable information. And that's where a data recovery software comes in; Wondershare Data Recovery is a versatile tool that helps to recover files that were accidentally deleted or lost in this way or some other way.

The easy part is that Wondershare Data Recovery provide tons of options on how to recover lost or corrupted files and the types of search to apply, so you can streamline the process and get the results you're looking for quickly.



Albeit, it's important to understand what the flash media is and does exactly, and what can possibly damage it. As flash data recovery can be a really complicated process, so taking proper care of your flash media is the paramount priority.

But, if the inevitable happens, there's always a way out with Wondershare data recovery, as it features a variety of extra scan and preview options, as well as the ability to run partition or raw hard drive recovery.

It allow you to choose between using wizards or an advanced manual mode, making it easy for users with less computer skills.



Also, you can select the type or types of files you'd like to search for, the location you'd like to search, and whether or not you'd like to enable the Deep Scan feature of the program.

The "Deep Scan" option is particularly better for recovering formatted files, but it takes longer to complete.

And the best news is that Wondershare Data Recovery is available for both Windows and Mac, and supports over 550 file formats.

Wondershare Data Recovery: Flash Drive Data Recovery with Ease



Google has gone full-speed in its effort to push all websites to implement HTTPS encryption, as the company planned rolling out new warnings to flag HTTP connections as insecure in its Chrome browser starting in October.

While the number of websites supporting HTTPS over encrypted SSL/TLS connections have skyrocketed over the past year, with over 50 percent of web traffic now encrypted, both on computers and mobile devices.

The longstanding argument against HTTPS implementation is its perceived negative impact on server resources and page load times.

Also the cost of obtaining and renewing the digital certificates needed to deploy HTTPS has been a standing concern in the past, and many small businesses most likely stayed away from HTTPS for this very reason.

Fortunately, that should no longer be an issue, at least for websites that don’t require extended validation (EV) certificates, with the domain validation (DV) certificates provided for free by the nonprofit Let’s Encrypt certificate authority.

Again, many websites depend on external content for their functionality, like commenting systems, and web analytics; such mixed content issue has kept many of them from migrating to HTTPS, because retrieving external resources like images, videos and JavaScript code over non-encrypted connections into an HTTPS website will trigger security alerts in users’ browsers.

Now, why the rush on everybody to use HTTPS? Keeping in mind that HTTPS is not so easy to deploy, it can also be easily abused, so it’s important to educate users about what the technology truly offers and what it doesn’t.

What's the argument for implementing HTTPS for non-personal data entry Websites?

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