A single character from ancient English could crash a Windows 10 PC, thanks to an odd security glitch. It's been patched in the most recent Windows updates, making it an important fix for those who download updates manually. The bug appears to work ... in most major browsers and involves the Æ symbol. If that isn't clear on your device, it's the symbol that looks like a capital A in italics squashed into a capital E. The symbol, sometimes called "ash" in English, has been used to designate specific sounds in several language over the past few thousand years. In old English it was a sound ...<a href="/news/10902/single-character-could-crash-windows-pc" class="more-link">view more
Featured Articles
If you use Chrome, you need to make sure it's up to date. The browser has been hit by a dreaded zero-day flaw . In this case, hackers are aware of the bug and are actively exploiting it before Google has a chance to issue a security patch. The name ... comes from the fact that Google has "zero days" head start in getting the patches out. Google confirmed that it "is aware of reports that an exploit for CVE-2021-21166 [the bug in question] exists in the wild." (Source: googleblog.com ) High Severity Flaw The security flaw is rated as "high severity" on Google's rankings of how much ... (view more)
A federal judge says California can begin enacting a controversial law on net neutrality. Broadband companies who are suing to have the law thrown out had argued it should be put on hold until that case is complete. Net neutrality is a broad ... principle that all Internet traffic should be treated in the same way. Translated into practical effects that could mean barring broadband carriers from blocking otherwise legal content or charging extra to access specific services (such as Netflix). Federal rules on net neutrality have been a particularly contentious issue. At the moment that Federal ... (view more)
Apple says it has dealt with the risk from a newly-discovered piece of malware affecting macOS. It's a reminder that macOS isn't completely immune from malware - which may have been the point of the attack. Security company Red Canary discovered the ... malware and dubbed it Silver Sparrow. It says data from Malwarebytes showed it was present on 29,139 computers. (Source: redcanary.com ) It appeared to target computers which have the M1 chip. That's an Apple produced processor designed specifically for Macs. It's combines multiple functions on a single chip, the idea being to increase efficiency ... (view more)
A proposed US law would ban states and local governments from offering broadband services. Supporters of the bill say "municipal broadband" crowds out commercial providers, while critics say such services only exist to fill the gap left by the ... commercial market. If passed, the bill would become law as the CONNECT (Communities Overregulating Networks Need Economic Competition Today) Act. It would ban any state or political subdivision (such as a city) from starting to provide "retail or wholesale broadband Internet access service." (Source: house.gov ) This would apply whether it was provided ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Peter T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a friend who recently met someone on Facebook. What started out as simple flirting soon became a romantic relationship online, though they have never met in person. For sake of argument I'll ... refer to my friend as Bob and his romantic interest as Tina. In a moment of weakness, Bob sent a few pictures and a video of himself in a compromising way, and Tina is now blackmailing on Facebook . She is demanding a lump sum payment ( in gift cards ), or says she will send the compromising video to all of Bob's friends and family on Facebook. ... (view more)
Two thirds of emails contain a "spy pixel" according to one provider. The invisible pixel could let companies discover where people live and what devices they own. At the very least, it will report back to spammers that the email has been opened, ... which then validates your email address and will result in additional spam. The figures comes from "Hey," an email provider that offers a paid service rather than scanning emails to get information for targeted advertising. That means it's possible its user base isn't reflective of the general public, though that shouldn't distort the ... (view more)
A research group says the number of people using mobile video calling rose 50 percent last year. It forecasts that will continue to rise rapidly even when life returns to a post-pandemic normal. Juniper Research estimates 1.8 billion mobile service ... customers used a mobile video calling service in 2020 compared with 1.2 billion the previous year. That's almost certainly a direct result of more people working remotely and/or making social video calls, rather than meeting friends in person. (Source: techradar.com ) Handheld Video Calls Convenient For Some It might seem ironic that more people ... (view more)
Canon has launched an app that automatically picks out poor quality photos that you've taken, ready for deletion. Sadly for those who remember physical prints, it doesn't add a quality control sticker to the image. The Photo Culling app is based on ... the fact that, unlike with prints, there's no real cost to a user taking hundreds of digital shots except for eating up storage space. That can be an issue given modern smartphones often have very high resolution cameras and in turn large file sizes. (Source: 9to5mac.com ) The idea of the app, which is currently only available on iPhone, is for ... (view more)
Microsoft has described three Windows security fixes as an "essential" install even among users who normally take their time or pick and choose updates. It's one of 56 fixes in the latest monthly security update sometimes dubbed Patch Tuesday. Two ... of the fixes are rated "Critical" and the other "Important". Those ratings are based on a combination of how likely the flaw is to be exploited and how serious the resulting damage could be. Remote Code Execution Risk The two critical fixes (codenamed CVE-2021-24074 and CVE-2021-24094) both create a risk of remote code execution. That's arguably the ... (view more)
Indonesia is a complex country. Something that is perhaps accentuated by the fact that it is spread across more than 17,000 islands, 6,000 of which are inhabited. 270 million people live in the world's third-largest democracy, which is fast becoming ... an economic powerhouse and is now Southeast Asia's biggest economy. Indonesia is also home to the highest percentage of VPN users in the world - 61% as of 2020 (all usage stats taken from GlobalWebIndex reports) of the world's fifth-biggest population are estimated to use VPNs. It's a huge figure: three times as much as most North American and ... (view more)
A hacker tried to poison a city's water supply using software designed to remotely control computers. Officials in Oldsmar, Florida say that even if the attack hadn't been spotted, it would have been unsuccessful. The attacker struck a system that ... treats the water supplied to around 15,000 people. Last Friday, they gained access to a control computer for around three to five minutes through TeamViewer, which appears to have been in place to allow remote work. (Source: independent.co.uk ) 100-Fold Lye Increase The computer controlled the levels of some chemicals in the water including ... (view more)
Canadian privacy regulators say a company that used online photos to train artificial intelligence tools breached privacy rules. They said Clearview had used "the mass collection of biometric information from billions of people, without express ... consent." US company Clearview offers services to law enforcement agencies and private businesses trying to identify people from a photo. It maintains a database of more than three billion images which it uses to try to find a match using artificial intelligence. Clearview gathered most of these pictures by "scraping" online sites such as Flickr. That ... (view more)
Facebook is to tell Apple users that it needs to track them to benefit businesses. It's a response to new Apple rules that mean users must opt-in to some forms of tracking. The messages, currently being tested, will pop up when users access Facebook ... on an iPhone or iPad. According to copies seen by CNBC, it reads as follows: Allow Facebook to use your app and website activity? Get ads that are more personalized Support businesses that rely on ads to reach customers To provide a better ads experience, we need permission to use future activity that other apps and websites send us from this ... (view more)
Apple is to let iPhone owners unlock their phone using Face ID even while wearing a face mask. But the setting is only available to people who also use an Apple watch. Facial recognition is now the primary way to unlock an iPhone rather than use a ... fingerprint or typing in a code. That's proven problematic in a time when people are increasingly wearing face masks in public places as a measure to reduce the risk of transmitting diseases. Unlocked Watch Allows Masked Match It was technically possible for Apple's system, Face ID, to "recognize a face" using a combination of the exposed top half ... (view more)
Long-time Hotmail and Outlook users may face a choice between seeing old messages deleted or paying $70 a year. Microsoft is legitimately enforcing storage limits but critics say it didn't do enough to remind users they were approaching those ... limits. The policy affects users of Outlook.com, with those most likely to be affected being Hotmail users that migrated over back in 2013 when Hotmail closed. As part of the move, users could keep their old Hotmail address, but were subject to a 15GB storage limit as with all other Outlook users. That includes both sent and received messages and file ... (view more)
Twitter is asking volunteers to add notes explaining why posts are misleading. It calls it a "community-driven approach to help address misleading information on Twitter." The company appears to believe that using volunteers will make it easier to ... address quickly-spreading misinformation rather than rely on paid staff. It says the project, dubbed Birdwatch, won't involve labeling posts as "true" or "false". It also won't involving hiding or removing any posts as already happens after staff review reports of users breaching the site's guidelines. Volunteers Will Reach Consensus Birdwatch will ... (view more)
Google believes it's found a way to replace privacy-breaching cookies while still letting advertisers find success. It's testing a way to effectively combine data from thousands of users to target ads. Cookies fall into two main types: first and ... third party. First-party cookies are generally uncontroversial as they simply identify a user on a website, including any previous activity such as website preferences. For example, a premium website could let somebody log in to an account and then use cookies so they don't have to log in again for a set period such as a week. Third-party cookies are ... (view more)
Ransomware infections used to be about forcing victims to pay to regain access to their files. Now it appears more and more scammers are treating it as an exercise in blackmail. A new cybersecurity report says 18 known ransomware gangs have switched ... their focus to threatening to publish stolen data unless the victim pays up. That's led to some businesses paying the ransom even though they had access to backups in order to restore their files. Traditionally ransomware has been about file encryptions. Scammers get access to a victim's computer or network through malware, then the infection " ... (view more)
Mysterious algorithms could harm online shoppers by aiding collusion according to a newly-published paper. Because the effects are personalized, it could be tricky to prove wrongdoing. The claims come in a researched paper published by the United ... Kingdom's Competition ... (view more)
A dating app has removed – and then replaced – a filter for political views among potential partners. Bumble discovered some users were taking advantage of the filter to "entrap" people involved in the recent breach of the US Capitol. Bumble is a dat ...ing app that works like several others in that it shows users potential matches in their geographic area. If two users both indicate an interest in each other's profile, they can begin communication. However, unlike most such services, with a male-female match, only the woman can initiate contact and begin an exchange of messages. Users can filter ...ref="/news/10884/dating-app-politics-filter-turned-against-rioters" class="more-link">view more)
Google and Facebook could have to pay a fee to show content from Australian news organizations. The proposed laws have upset not just the tech giants, but the United States government. The Australian proposals follow a government investigation that ... concludes the two companies have too much control in the media market. It pointed to several regional newspapers closing and advertising revenue falling for publications at the same time Google and Facebook benefit from using news extracts on Google News and in Facebook posts. No Surprise Algorithm Changes Under the laws, Google and Facebook would ... (view more)
World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee wants to rethink the way people control online data. He says his "pods" proposal would bring the online world closer to his original vision of the web. Berners-Lee has launched an open-source project and ... associated business to try to counter what he sees as the web's biggest problem: major companies collecting user data and exploiting it as a core part of their business. His new idea is "pods", or personal online data store. This would involve users having a space on a server that acted like a digital safe and contained a range of data. This could be ... (view more)
Samsung wants to turn old phones into home gadgets. Its evolving its Galaxy Upcycling program to make it easier to convert handsets. The program launched in 2017 as a largely internal project where Samsung staff tried to find ways to use old phones ... for new purposes. This often involved taking advantage of the various sensors in a phone even if its specifications were now too low to run the latest operating systems and apps. Baby Monitor Among New Use Ideas At that point the project appeared to be more about creativity than solving significant problems. For example, one design used a motion ... (view more)
As many as 100 million PCs could still be running Windows 7 according to a newly-published estimate. That's despite Microsoft withdrawing support for the 11-year old system last year. The estimate comes from Ed Bott of ZDNet and is based on data ... published at analytics.usa.gov. That brings together site visitor data from most US government agencies. It means the figures will primarily represent visitors from the United States. (Source: zdnet.com ) Bott notes that across the agencies, 8.5 per cent of visitors in the past 90 days were running Windows 7 and 3.4 percent running Windows 8 or 8.1. ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Paulette J. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently switched from Firefox to Chrome based on your advice in a previous article. I am used to Chrome's interface, however, one thing that really irks me is the constant Chrome notification ... asking me to ' Sign into somesite.com with Google ' near the top right of the screen. It goes on to read 'To create your account, Google will share your name, email address and profile picture with somesite.com'. I can reproduce this notification appearing by visiting Reddit.com. Frankly speaking, I don't want to share my information with every ... (view more)
Google Chrome will now look for a secure version of a website first by default. It could mean a tiny delay accessing some sites, but should nudge more sites to increase security. The change to the browser involves how it handles cases where users ... simply type in the domain (such as infopackets.com) rather than the full website address (such as http://www.infopackets.com or https://www.infopackets.com ). The browser being able to convert one to the other makes it much quicker to type website addresses and allows browsers to use a single space for users to input both website addresses and search ... (view more)
Ticketmaster will pay a $10 million fine for computer fraud and hacking. The company admitted responsibility for hacking an unnamed rival with the help of an employee who had previously worked there. The $10 million figure is calculated as the ... maximum $500,000 penalty for each of 20 cases of breaking the law through "unauthorized access of a protected computer." The fine is through a "deferred prosecution agreement" in which prosecutors hold off pursuing the case through the courts. As part of the agreement, Ticketmaster admitted breaking the law and must cooperate with prosecutors ... (view more)
Chrome and Edge are to get a fix for a problem with saving bookmarks and other files. The glitch is the result of an incompatibility with some anti-virus software. The problem involved security tools which were set to scan files on a computer in ... real-time. Often this involves "freezing" a file immediately as it's written to disk so the security software can check for threats and neutralize them before they have an effect. Unfortunately the way this works means it didn't always go smoothly with Chrome, resulting in the browser "freezing", then simply giving up on saving the file. This caused ... (view more)
A free Microsoft offer to upgrade to Windows 10 was supposed to expire in 2016. However, it appears the upgrade still works, with claims the deadline was simply a marketing ploy. With Windows 10 released in the middle of 2015, the free upgrade offer ... was advertised as running for a year. It was available for Windows 7 and 8.1 users, with most getting an upgrade to the Windows 10 Home edition. Those running Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 8.1 Pro could upgrade to the Windows 10 Pro edition. As most people either upgraded in the first year or decided to give Windows 10 a ... (view more)
Do you need Tech Support?
I can help! Send me a message on the bottom left of the screen (using the Zopim Chat button), or click my picture to read more about how I can fix your computer over the Internet. Optionally you can read all about my credentials, here.
I can help! Send me a message on the bottom left of the screen (using the Zopim Chat button), or click my picture to read more about how I can fix your computer over the Internet. Optionally you can read all about my credentials, here.
Most popular articles
- Which Processor is Better: Intel or AMD? - Explained
- How to Prevent Ransomware in 2018 - 10 Steps
- 5 Best Anti Ransomware Software Free
- How to Fix: Computer / Network Infected with Ransomware (10 Steps)
- How to Fix: Your Computer is Infected, Call This Number (Scam)
- Scammed by Informatico Experts? Here's What to Do
- Scammed by Smart PC Experts? Here's What to Do
- Scammed by Right PC Experts? Here's What to Do
- Scammed by PC / Web Network Experts? Here's What to Do
- How to Fix: Windows Update Won't Update
- Explained: Do I need a VPN? Are VPNs Safe for Online Banking?
- Explained: VPN vs Proxy; What's the Difference?
- Explained: Difference Between VPN Server and VPN (Service)
- Forgot Password? How to: Reset Any Password: Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10
- How to: Use a Firewall to Block Full Screen Ads on Android
- Explained: Absolute Best way to Limit Data on Android
- Explained: Difference Between Dark Web, Deep Net, Darknet and More
- Explained: If I Reset Windows 10 will it Remove Malware?
Free Guide
