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June 4, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Great news for the legions of Windows 10 users around the world. Version 2004 comes with a significant WiFi update that includes Wi-Fi6 and WPA3 support, which will give users better wireless performance and increased security. That’s great news, but of course, there’s a catch. In order to make use of WiFi 6, you’ll need […]
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June 3, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Thanks to the pandemic, tens of millions of people are working from home. Even before then, the Cloud was experiencing a tremendous amount of growth, but since shelter in place orders were issued by many governments around the world, growth has absolutely skyrocketed. This has drawn the attention of a number of hacking groups, which […]
June 2, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Google recently announced a change to Gmail that will make it easier for the service’s 2 billion+ users to experiment with different themes, layouts and settings. Even better, users can see the results of their changes before actually applying them. To make use of the new feature, all you have to do is click the […]
June 1, 2020 by Vertical Axion
The hacking group calling themselves ‘The Shiny Hunters’ has been busy. Recently, they put databases containing user records from eleven different companies up for sale on the Dark Web, including a massive database containing some 40 million records belonging to the popular Wishbone app. Wishbone is a social media platform that’s especially popular among children. […]
May 30, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you’re like many business owners, you may have recently applied for a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) which was one of the COVID-19 relief funds established by the Federal government in response to the global pandemic. If you applied for that loan through Bank of America, be advised that the company recently […]
May 29, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Be advised that Microsoft has announced it will begin phasing out support of the 32-bit version of Windows 10, beginning with OEM’s. The change is effective as of the May 2020 release. Microsoft had this to say about the recent change: “Beginning with Windows 10, version 2004, all new Windows 10 systems will be required […]
May 28, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you a Home Chef customer? If so, be advised that the company recently announced a data breach. It was discovered after the hackers who broke in sold more than 8 million user records on the Dark Web. The group, calling themselves “The Shiny Hunters” has been busy of late. They’ve been selling databases containing […]
May 27, 2020 by Vertical Axion
The latest release of iOS and iPadOS (13.5) is out, and contains the usual variety of bug fixes and modest improvements. In addition to the usual fare though, it also makes an important change to the way FaceID works for users wearing a mask. Also, it contains an important new COVID-19 Contact Tracing feature. Some […]
May 26, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Recently, Google announced a change that should be a welcome relief to many users, especially those who surf primarily on laptops or handhelds. Beginning in late August, the browser will automatically unload ad iframes that soak up an excessive amount of computing resources. Advertising is, of course, ubiquitous on the web. There’s little you can […]
May 25, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Do you use SiteOrigin’s Pagebuilder plugin for WordPress? If so, you’ve got plenty of company. The intuitive, widget-based plugin has been installed more than a million times and is used by webmasters all over the world to create responsive grid pages for websites. Unfortunately, a pair of security flaws in the plugin’s code recently came […]
May 23, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Some Windows 10 updates are big. Most of them range in size from 200-500MB, but some are even larger. This month’s, for example (May 2020), is more than 2GB in size, which is big enough that downloading and installing it can hog all the bandwidth you’ve got. That can easily bring your system to a […]
May 22, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Family safety features have been a part of the Windows 10 experience since its release, and those tools were made available on the Xbox in tandem with the release of Windows 10. You may, in fact, already be using them on your home computer and your Xbox. Unfortunately, similar protections were simply unavailable from Microsoft […]
May 21, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Hackers who use ransomware to conduct their attacks have a new trick up their sleeves. A ransomware family has begun employing the tactic of not only demanding payment to unlock infected systems, but also demanding an additional payment. They’re demanding an extra payment to keep them from publishing copies of the files they stole before […]
May 20, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Google Meet is a video conferencing tool the company originally designed for Enterprise users. There are serious security issues with some of the more popular free or low-cost options available for the masses. So, Google made the decision to make Meet free to anyone with an email address. The rollout took two weeks to complete, […]
May 19, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Facebook recently released an intriguing research paper called “The Hateful Memes Challenge: Detecting Hate Speech in Multimodal Memes.” It’s well worth the read and a closer look at the database developed over the course of the research. The idea is simple: Use machine learning to help identify ‘mean’ and hateful memes. If such a tool […]
May 18, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Do you have a Chinese-made Xiaomi phone? If so, you should be aware that there is a security issue. According to research conducted by Forbes, the Mi Browser that comes built into the phone sends your internet searches to Xiaomi servers located in both Russia and Singapore. Worse, it sends search data associated with incognito […]
May 16, 2020 by Vertical Axion
A great many companies selling antivirus software have affiliate programs that help them expand their reach. Each time an affiliate sells a copy of the software, they get a cut. It’s a good business model used in a wide range of industries, and antivirus software companies have strict rules governing how their affiliates can market. […]
May 15, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you one of the million-plus website owners making use of Ninja Forms for WordPress? If so, be aware that the company has recently patched a serious security flaw that allowed hackers to inject malicious code and take over websites. The attack is accomplished via a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) that leads to a Stored […]
May 14, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you use Twitter on a regular basis, then you probably saw the official tweet from the company. Effective immediately, they’ve shut down the functionality that allowed users to tweet via SMS, something that has been a part of the platform since its earliest days. For the time being, the company is keeping SMS-based two-factor […]
May 13, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft is working hard to improve its Edge browser, and the latest beta build (Dev version 84.0.495.2) has a lot to be excited about. Most of the benefits are aimed at security and remote employees. There are three new updates, and they involve a security improvement, ease with profile switching, and a few miscellaneous improvements. […]
May 12, 2020 by Vertical Axion
According to Microsoft, its machine learning threat detection models have helped its research teams uncover multiple mal-spam campaigns. These campaigns have been tied together by the common theme of incorporating poisoned disk image files used as attachments. Each campaign has been aimed at a different target population, but all use some variant of COVID-19 in […]
May 11, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you working from home right now? If so, you’re certainly not alone. Tens of millions of people are doing the same, and there are untold millions around the world doing likewise. Working from home presents a host of new challenges, not the least of which is finding ways of communicating face to face without […]
May 9, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you’re like a lot of people stuck at home during the pandemic, you probably ran out of Netflix titles to watch a couple of weeks ago. As a result, researchers have noted a huge surge in traffic to torrent sites as more and more people are drawn to downloading movies illegally in search of […]
May 8, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you’re like a lot of people, right now, you’re doing what work you can from home. If that’s the case, you’ve probably noticed that your home WiFi network is struggling. The current signal spectrum is getting awfully crowded, and its beginning to impact performance. That’s exactly why the FCC recently approved a new connection […]
