Miscellaneous Tech News
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UK to decide on Huawei 5G ban
The UK government is expected to decide on Tuesday whether to ban equipment made by Chinese technology giant Huawei from its 5G networks.
The US is lobbying the UK to exclude it on the grounds of national security. Huawei insists it would never take orders from the Chinese government. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is chairing a meeting of the National Security Council at which the decision will be made - although it may not be announced immediately. There is speculation Mr Johnson might choose to ban Huawei from the "core" parts of the networks only. The core carries out essential functions such as authenticating subscribers and sending voice and data between devices and is sometimes described as the "brains" or "heart" of a network. Speaking to reporters today Mr Johnson said he wanted a system that delivers "consumer benefits" without compromising national infrastructure, security or the UK's relationships with other intelligence agencies. -
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Microsoft to create one more fix for Windows 7
Windows 7 has one last update that's on its way to all systems running the older operating system (via The Verge). The update fixes a wallpaper bug that caused PC displays to appear black when a wallpaper is set to Stretch. At the moment, the workaround for the bug is to set your wallpaper to Fill, Fit, Tile, or Center, but Microsoft is working on a resolution for the issue.
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@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Maryland bill would outlaw ransomware, keep researchers from reporting bugs
Just a misdirection to confuse Maryland citizens into thinking something is being done by their inept state government.
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@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Maryland bill would outlaw ransomware, keep researchers from reporting bugs
Just a misdirection to confuse Maryland citizens into thinking something is being done by their inept state government.
That's the exact thing I thought!
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Huawei: What is 5G's core and why protect it?
After years of deliberation, the UK has finally confirmed Huawei will be allowed to be part of its 5G networks - but with restrictions.
One of those is that the Chinese firm's equipment must be limited to "non-core" parts of the system. A mobile phone network's core is sometimes likened to its heart or brain. It is where voice and other data is routed across various sub-networks and computer servers to ensure it gets to its desired destination. While once, a lot of this involved physical equipment known as routers and switches, in the 5G world much of this kit has been "virtualised". That means software rather than specialised hardware now takes care of much of the job. This opens the door to new capabilities such as "network slicing", in which operators can offer the emergency services and other priority clients dedicated bandwidth, for example, letting them avoid sluggish speeds during periods of peak demand. -
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Idiots are using video game to estimate coronavirus spread - guesses developers
NSA users quickly deleting their copies of game.
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Avast packaged detailed user data to be sold for millions of dollars
The data doesn't include personal information, but experts fear it could be 'de-anonymized.'
The popular antivirus program Avast has been selling users data to giant companies like Google, Home Depot, Microsoft and Pepsi, a joint investigation by Motherboard and PCMag found. Avast reportedly scraped data from its antivirus software and handed it off to its subsidiary Jumpshot, which repackaged the data and sold it, sometimes for millions of dollars. While Avast required users to opt-in to this data sharing, the investigation found that many were unaware that Jumpshot was selling their data. The investigation incriminates a lot of big name companies. We don't know for certain which are past, present or potential clients, but the list includes Expedia, Intuit, Keurig, Condé Nast, Loreal and more. Microsoft said it doesn't have a current relationship with the company. Yelp said Jumpshot was "engaged on a one-time basis," and Google did not respond to Microsoft and PGMag's request for comment. -
Microsoft issues second 'final' Windows 7 update
Microsoft has issued a fresh update for Windows 7, just days after it said it would provide no more patches for the ageing operating system.
It made the U-turn after it emerged there was a bug in its "final" patch. It caused "wallpaper issues" for users who configured their computers with the stretch option for their background desktop, causing a plain black screen to be shown when Windows was restarted. And users took to Reddit and Microsoft own support forums demanding a fix. Security consultant Graham Cluley tweeted: "That didn't take long. Microsoft backs down on 'no more updates for Windows 7' in order to fix stretched wallpaper bug." Initially, Microsoft said it would issue the new fix only to those who subscribed to its extended security updates (ESU) program. -
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Facebook settles facial recognition dispute
Facebook has settled a long-running legal dispute about the way it scans and tags people's photos.
It will pay $550m (£421m) to a group of users in Illinois, who argued that its facial recognition tool was in violation of the state's privacy laws. The case has been ongoing since 2015, and the settlement was announced in its quarterly earnings. It comes as facial recognition use by the police, and in public spaces, comes under intense scrutiny. The lawsuit against Facebook was given the go-ahead in 2018 when a federal judge ruled it could be heard as a class action (group) case. The appeals court disagreed with Facebook's attempts to stop this, and in January the Supreme Court also declined to review its appeal. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Facebook settles facial recognition dispute
Facebook has settled a long-running legal dispute about the way it scans and tags people's photos.
It will pay $550m (£421m) to a group of users in Illinois, who argued that its facial recognition tool was in violation of the state's privacy laws. The case has been ongoing since 2015, and the settlement was announced in its quarterly earnings. It comes as facial recognition use by the police, and in public spaces, comes under intense scrutiny. The lawsuit against Facebook was given the go-ahead in 2018 when a federal judge ruled it could be heard as a class action (group) case. The appeals court disagreed with Facebook's attempts to stop this, and in January the Supreme Court also declined to review its appeal.seems like such a drop in the bucket, especially considering this damned thing dragged on for 4 years.
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WhatsApp to stop working on millions of phones
Messaging service WhatsApp will no longer work on millions of smartphones from 1 February.
Android and iPhone devices which only support outdated operating systems will no longer be able to run the Facebook-owned app. WhatsApp said the move was necessary in order to protect the security of its users. Smartphones using Android 2.3.7 and older, and iPhone iOS 8 or older, are those affected by the update. The operating systems that WhatsApp is dropping support for are legacy operating systems, which are no longer updated or installed on new devices. Most users will simply be able to update their operating systems in order to continue using the messaging service. -
Microsoft Teams is down for us. Hundreds impacted here.
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@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Microsoft Teams is down for us. Hundreds impacted here.
OK I was wondering if it was having an issue - I couldn't get logged in.
