Cara Dillon's first online concert: Thursday 13th August at 8pm BST on YouTube and Facebook.

From Cara Dillon: Hi Everyone, I have very exciting news! It's been an interesting few months...ups and downs indeed, but thankfully staying safe and sound throughout. Many of you know already that my concerts have all been cancelled due to COVID-19, but rather than dwell too much longer on the disappointment this has brought for all of us, Sam and I have thrown ourselves whole heartedly into recording a very special concert as a gift for all my fans... that means YOU! 

For my first online concert, and with the support of a small and extremely talented crew, I wanted to recreate the experience of a proper performance setting and try as much as possible to capture the essence of one of our more intimate duo concerts: the atmosphere, the sound of the room and the staging and lighting. We've gone to great lengths to capture the concert in the highest quality available for all of you to watch from the comfort and safety of your homes, maybe with a glass of wine and your smartphone on silent and escape the turmoil outside for short while and lose yourselves in the spirit of a live concert.

The concert location is the beautiful Cooper Hall which is the same space we recorded much of "Wanderer" and "Upon a Winter's Night" in and this is no ordinary Lockdown gig; it's a 5 camera shoot with a crew that includes Grammy nominated audio engineer Dom Monks who recorded recent online concerts for Laura Marling and Nick Cave and also filmmakers Simon Whitehead and Brendan Lines.

We hope you'll join us for this special online event “Live at Cooper Hall” on Thursday 13th August at 8pm BST on YouTube and Facebook.

www.caradillon.co.uk

Own a Netgear router? Check if it's on this list: vulnerable to exploit & won't be patched! Time to replace...

Netgear has quietly decided not to patch more than 40 home routers to plug a remote code execution vulnerability – despite security researchers having published proof-of-concept exploit code.

The vulnerability was revealed publicly in June by Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) following six months spent chivvying Netgear behind the scenes to take it seriously.

Netgear's advisory page for the patches shows 45 devices' fix status as "none; outside security support period".

Concerned if or how this affects you? Contact Donline for support.

www.theregister.com

The MotoCompo could be about to get a 21st century makeover as Honda Patents the Motocompacto name

The MotoCompo was a suitcase-sized petrol-powered scooter that was launched in 1981 going on to be produced until 1983. It was designed to fit around Honda’s small cars of the age, namely the Honda Today and City, both of which had luggage compartments that could accommodate the folding motorcycle. Despite only being on sale for a fleeting couple of years, the MotoCompo sold well with over 50,000 hitting the streets. It also gained a kind of cult status among petrolheads that is normally reserved for much more powerful motorcycles.

As with most quirky trends from years gone by, the concept looks like it could be about to get a refresh as the trademark Motocompacto has been filed and a concept bike, looking like a modern-day MotoCompo has been around for some time now. While that concept, shown here, is an idea of how the machine will look, it’ll likely be toned down considerably for the actual machine.

www.visordown.com

Office 2010 end of support imminent! 13th October 2020

Office 2010 will reach its end of support on October 13, 2020. If you haven't already begun to upgrade your Office 2010 environment, we recommend you start now.

Also, support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020. Even though Office 2010 is still supported until October, Windows 7 will no longer receive security updates after January 2020, unless you purchase Extended Security Updates (ESU). Without ESU, Windows 7 is vulnerable to security threats. 

www.microsoft.com

The Isle of Wight to host a new motorcycle road race in 2021

The Diamond Races is set to take place on a 12.4 mile-long course in the south of the Isle of Wight. Shining a spotlight on the Island’s natural beauty, the road-race boasts a course through the villages of Chale, Kingston, Shorwell and Brighstone as well as a fast five-mile coastal stretch along the Military Road.

The new race meeting will be run under the strict event regulations stipulated by the sports’ governing body, the ACU (Auto Cycle Union), through which all UK motorcycle sport is administered.

With road safety at the heart of the Diamond Races, the organisers will strive to highlight the paramount importance of safe road use, with attention paid to the safety of riders, spectators and officials, whilst incorporating a strategy to promote road safety.

This event has been developed in lockstep with the local Isle of Wight council and experts from the motorcycle racing fraternity, and both the Diamond Races team and the Isle of Wight council are excited to confirm the planned road race event will take place from in October 2021, with two practice days on Wednesday and Thursday, followed by the time-trial feature races staged on a Saturday.

The exact event date will be announced after the 2021 British Superbike calendar is published.

www.iwradio.co.uk

Have a QNAP NAS? Make sure the firmware is up-to-date to safeguard against Qsnatch malware!

The number of QNAP network-attached storage (NAS) boxes infected with the data-stealing QSnatch malware has reached 62,000, the US and UK governments warned today.

A joint statement from America's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said the software nasty, first spotted in October, has increased its infection count from 7,000 devices that month to tens of thousands by mid-June, 2020, with "a particularly high number of infections in North America and Europe." It is estimated 7,600 hijacked QNAP boxes were in America, and 3,900 in the UK.

The situation is particularly messy because Taiwan-based QNAP has not, to the best of our knowledge, disclosed exactly how the malware breaks into vulnerable boxes, advising simply that owners should ensure the latest firmware is installed to prevent future infection. Judging from conversations people have had with the manufacturer's support desk, it appears there was a remotely exploitable hole in the firmware, perhaps down to the operating system level, which was fixed in November.

www.theregister.com

Garmin recovering their online services - post ransomware attack

Garmin Ltd. was the victim of a cyber attack that encrypted some of our systems on July 23, 2020. As a result, many of our online services were interrupted including website functions, customer support, customer facing applications, and company communications. We immediately began to assess the nature of the attack and started remediation.

We have no indication that any customer data, including payment information from Garmin Pay, was accessed, lost or stolen. Additionally, the functionality of Garmin products was not affected, other than the ability to access online services. Affected systems are being restored and we expect to return to normal operation over the next few days.

As our affected systems are restored, we expect some delays as the backlog of information is being processed. We are grateful for our customers’ patience and understanding during this incident and look forward to continuing to provide the exceptional customer service and support that has been our hallmark and tradition.

www.garmin.com

Send a postcard to space & back - with Blue Origin

Earth is finite. To protect our gem of a planet and enable a future of abundance and growth, Earth needs space. Space gives Earth room to grow, new resources, more frontiers to explore, and a way forward that unites us all. We just need you to help visualise this future.

Why do you think Earth needs space? Write or draw your vision on a postcard. The Club will launch it to space and back on a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket, and mail it to you with a 'Flown to Space' stamp.

SPACE IS A GIFT FOR EARTH: Space resources and energy are abundant. By exploring space we could reduce the use of Earth's resources. The sun offers unlimited energy, and asteroids can provide metals and water. How would you use these materials to help humans living in space or those on Earth?

ROOM FOR HUMANITY TO GROW: The solar system could support a trillion humans. If you lived in space, what would your home look like? How would you travel between neighbourhoods? What businesses would you build? What would cities look like?

THE GIFT OF THE MOON: The Moon has abundant resources. It also has low gravity compared to Earth, making it a great destination to live or a pit stop to other places in the solar system. What would your future Moon colony look like? How would you build an inclusive community? How would you govern and design a new society?

EXPLORATION: Since the beginning of time, humanity has always explored new frontiers. Exploration changes our perspective. With more access to space, there's no limit to where we could go next. Where would you go?

www.clubforfuture.org

"Loud bikes save lives" - discuss...

Loud pipes and their effect on the public’s perception of motorbikes is an issue that’s been brewing for decades, but the combination of a lockdown, empty roads and an early summer has brought it screaming back into the political limelight.

And the issue has started to appear in the mainstream media, too. An article from The Times on July 8 says, "it’s time the decibels were reduced" and brands motorcycles as "unnecessarily loud".

Nick Broomhall of the Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) is well aware of the damage illegal exhausts can do to the reputation of bikers. "Unfortunately, for many government officials, the word ‘motorcycle’ instantly creates an image of a vehicle that is noisy and dangerous and is therefore something that has no place in their plans, a view that is reinforced every time an illegal exhaust is heard," he said.

"Loud pipes don’t save lives, they turn ambivalent citizens into powered two-wheeler-haters and help those who would like to see bike use restricted or outlawed."

www.motorcyclenews.com

Apple being sued for refusing to help iTunes gift card scam victims

An 11-count Class Action has been filed against Apple and Apple Value Services by seven Apple customers that are listed on the court docket graphic here. 

The group claims that Apple knowingly or recklessly enabled an iTunes gift card scam. All those listed as bringing the Class Action forward were victims of the iTunes gift card scam. 

The Plaintiffs state that Apple falsely tells victims that 100% of their money lost in the scam is irretrievable and this isn't true. 

Further, the lawsuit claims that Apple has retained hundreds of millions of dollars in commissions in this scam that should be paid back to those who were victims in this highly sophisticated iTunes Gift Card Scam.

www.patentlyapple.com

Love your bike, keep it safe: Lock, Chain Cover!

Over 9,000 scooters, motorcycles and mopeds were stolen in London in the last year. It takes a matter of seconds for a thief to steal a moped, scooter or motorcycle, especially if they are left either unsecured or with inadequate security. Lock, chain, cover - Reduce your risk of becoming a victim by taking steps to layer your security.

Lock

Use a disc lock to help secure the front brake disc, or a grip lock to secure the brake and throttle controls. You could also use a D lock on the front wheel to stop it being wheeled away.

Chain

Thieves often steal a bike by breaking the steering lock and wheeling it away. Use a chain lock through the back wheel (the front wheel can be removed). Secure your bike, with the lock taut to an immovable object such as a ground anchor or street furniture. This will stop thieves from cutting a lock trailing on the ground using an angle grinder. If this isn’t possible, thread the chain through your bike frame and back wheel.

Cover

Thieves often ‘shop’ for particular bike models. Using a cover instantly makes it less attractive to them. A cover also provides another time consuming obstacle for the thief.

Unfortunately security measures can’t guarantee your bike won’t be stolen but, by using multiple security measures, you can make it harder and less attractive for thieves.

www.met.police.uk

How should Christians respond to cancel culture?

Cancel culture is the modern social attitude that controversial speech or behavior must be punished through public shaming, silencing, boycotting, firing, bankrupting, deplatforming, etc. The result is that the offender’s influence, presence, and/or reputation is “cancelled out.”

It’s proper for whistle-blowers to reveal corruption and illegality or for abused women to come forward, confront their abuser, and make sure he is held accountable. But cancel culture goes far beyond that, setting out new rules to retaliate against speech, behavior, or even thought that has been pre-judged as “offensive” or even simply controversial. In cancel culture, people can be ostracized, their reputations smeared, and their careers ruined although they have broken no laws or engaged in any malicious behavior.

Cancel culture is the outgrowth of two other, equally dangerous things: political correctness and postmodernism. Political correctness is the attempt to minimize social and institutional offense through policing speech (and therefore thought), forcing the use of certain words and banning other words. Postmodernism asserts that all truth claims are subjective. Truth becomes a matter of preference, and “tolerance” is promoted as a supreme value. However, the more “tolerant” a culture becomes, the more intolerant it is of anyone it perceives as intolerant. People deemed “intolerant” or potentially giving offence must be silenced - and cancel culture is the result.

Read more here:

www.gotquestions.org

Got a Chinese made DJI drone? You know what's coming next...

Drones are currently one of the most dynamic products, with multiple use cases across sectors such as personal and commercial videography, farming and land surveying, law enforcement and national security, and more. One of the market leaders, China-based Daijiang Innovations (DJI), is often in the news for suspected cybersecurity and data privacy issues.

Security concerns on the DJI GO 4 application are likely founded, especially given the lack of transparency around the application capabilities. The analysis of DJI GO 4 shows similar result to other Chinese applications: obfuscation for hiding functionalities, information gathering including information on the phone, cellular network ID and GPS location of the user or the drone and execution of code without the control of the user (forced updates). Thus, the application should not be used for sensitive purpose.

Read the full analysis by:

www.synacktiv.com

blog.grimm-co.com

Support the National Motorcycle Museum - buy a ticket to for the chance to win an amazing classic motorcycle!

Many visitors will not realise that the National Motorcycle Museum receives no external funding whatsoever. This means that, not only do we rely on visitors to the museum, but mainly on the income from our conference business and two sister hotels.

Everyone knows that hospitality and leisure has been one of the worst hit sectors, and we don’t know when our National Conference Centre,  Manor Hotel Meriden, and Windmill Village Hotel Coventry will be able to reopen fully, let alone trade profitably.

Museum Director James Hewing explains further: “Without the income from our three sister businesses, there is little likelihood of the museum opening, and then remaining open, until they return to normal trading.

The museum itself requires a surplus of around £500,000 per year just to break even. Without making this appeal, we may have to sell some of our reserve collection of bikes, the last thing we would ever have wanted to do.

Unfortunately, all of our business activities are in one of the hardest hit sectors, and we simply don’t know how long they will take to recover”.

Therefore, the museum is launching an appeal which gives people the chance to help us raise the £500,000 required in two different ways:

1) On Friday 17/07/20 we will be launching a special Covid-19 Museum appeal raffle with the chance to win the following fantastic classic motorcycles, one new/old stock and two which have been restored in the museums workshop's! This special appeal raffle will be extra to our normal summer & winter raffles which will operate as usual.
1st Prize: New/Old Stock 1977 Norton Commando 850cc motorcycle.
2nd Prize: 1948 Ariel NG 350cc Motorcycle.
3rd Prize: 1959 BSA B31 350cc Motorcycle.

2) By visiting our website www.thenmm.co.uk  and donating to our reopening appeal fund. From 17/07/20, you will find a link to the appeal fund donation page and can be assured that any amount donated will be used to help us reopen/remain open until normal trading resumes. Not only this, but you will be helping to preserve as much of our reserve collection as possible.

www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk

Over 1,200 Christians killed in Nigeria in first half of 2020

Over 1,200 Christians were slaughtered in Nigeria in the first six months of 2020, according to a human rights group based there.

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law said the killing of Christians had reached "genocidal" levels, the Nigerian Voice reports.

The perpetrators are Islamist militants and members of the predominantly Muslim Fulani group. 

The report attributes 390 of the deaths to radical Islamist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, both of which are linked to ISIS. 

Some 812 deaths were attributed to Fulani herdsmen who have targeted Christian farming communities.

What we have here is an largely unreported genocide against our Christian brothers & sisters in Nigeria. Please pray for these men, women & children in their distress, & for justice & peace in their land.

www.christiantoday.com

A five minute, one-liner challenge featuring: Milton Jones, Tim Vine and 25 other comedians. Brilliant!

The primary source of income for every comedian in the UK has been stripped away due to the impact of the Coronavirus - shutting down venues and cancelling live events. If you value live comedy as much as we do at NextUp and respect the performers who dedicate their lives to bringing us laughter - let’s band together and #hecklethevirus. If you enjoyed the video, and can afford to please donate here: HeckleTheVirus

Thanks to every who took part, in order of appearance: Mark Simmons, Milton Jones, Tony Cowards, Adam Bloom, Joe Bor, Adam Bloom, Masai Graham, Adele Cliffe, Dan Evans, Josh Pugh, Olaf Falafel, Luvdev Barpaga, Bec Hill, Paul F Taylor, El Baldinhio, Noel James, Jack Gleadow, Peter Brush, Robert White, Darren Walsh, Julian Deane, Jenny Collier, Chris Turner, Alf, Gareth Richards, Stephen Grant, Tim Vine & Danny Ward.

www.youtube.com

New material that cannot be cut would make the ultimate bike lock

A new artificial material effectively cannot be cut, holding out the promise of lightweight but cut-proof bike locks, security doors and protective clothing.

Its inventors embedded ceramic spheres in aluminium foam to create a material that couldn’t be cut with angle grinders, power drills or water jet cutters. They dubbed it Proteus after the shape-shifting Greek god, for the way the material metamorphosised in different ways to defend against attacks.

“It’s pretty amazing,” says Miranda Anderson at the University of Stirling, who worked on the project. Rather than just being a hard surface that resists external pressure, the material turns the force of the drill or cutting mechanism back on itself, as the ceramic spheres create vibrations that disrupt the external force. “It actually destroys the cutting blade through the sideways jerky vibrations that it creates, or it widens the water jet’s spray,” says Anderson.

www.newscientist.com

Reading for today: Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice!

The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express that same delight in God which made David dance. I am not saying that this is so pure or profound a thing as the love of God reached by the greatest Christian saints and mystics. But I am not comparing it with that, I am comparing it with the merely dutiful ‘church-going’ and laborious ‘saying our prayers’ to which most of us are, thank God not always, but often, reduced. Against that it stands out as something astonishingly robust, virile, and spontaneous; something we may regard with an innocent envy and may hope to be infected by as we read.

By: C.S. Lewis

From: Reflections on the Psalms

Bitcoin = Greed. Loads of "marks" fall for obvious Twitter scam netting bad guys over $100k in minutes!

Twitter accounts, owned by politicians, celebrities, and large organisations suddenly started tweeting messages to their many millions of followers, at the behest of hackers. Here is a typical one which appeared on the account of rapper, songwriter, and optimistic Presidential candidate Kanye West and was distributed to his almost 30 million followers:

Similar messages appeared on the accounts of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Mike Bloomberg, Uber, Apple, Coinbase, Binance, and many other verified accounts.

This, obviously, is a scam. We’ve seen cryptocurrency scams use a similar lure in the past, albeit never on this scale before. Potential victims are told that all they have to do is send X number of Bitcoin to a wallet in order to receive more Bitcoin in return. Sadly, some people fall for such confidence tricks.

At the moment the suspicion is that a hacker managed to gain access to Twitter’s administration panel - a section of Twitter’s infrastructure that is supposed to be restricted to a small number of Twitter staff, helping them to troubleshoot problems with users’ accounts. Twitter is investigating whether one of its employees was responsible for the hack or might have granted hackers access to the internal administration tool. From the administration panel, a malicious user could reset the email address associated with a Twitter account (thus granting someone else access to it), and disable two-factor authentication.

www.tripwire.com

Openreach Formally Launch “Naked Broadband” via SOGEA

Openreach (BT) has stated that the full commercial launch of their new “stand-alone broadband” product for UK ISPs - Single Order Generic Ethernet Access (SOGEA) - has officially started, which they said “marks the beginning of the end” for the old analogue telephone network (known to most as the “landline” phone service).

ISP Review been reporting on SOGEA for the past few years and so our regular readers should now be familiar with it, but for those who aren’t we’ll do a little recap. At present most consumers on Openreach’s national copper based network must buy their phone service alongside analogue line rental and then broadband is optionally added on top (most ISPs today will seamlessly bundle these two together by default).

By comparison SOGEA changes this approach by enabling internet providers to sell a physical line just for broadband (i.e. not everybody needs a fixed voice line today), with the voice service thus moving to a VoIP based solution as an optional product from your ISP.

The adoption of SOGEA is thus an important stepping stone toward the plan to switch-off the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and adopt an “All IP” (Internet Protocol) network by 2025. Likewise this will help with the transition for FTTP “full fibre” networks, which have no choice but to use an IP based voice solution as optical fibre cannot carry analogue electrical signals (they carry laser light).

www.ispreview.co.uk

Is your business ready for the 2025 ISDN switch off?

Five years may seem like a long time, and while there’s no need to panic, it’s something businesses need to start thinking about sooner rather than later. Watch the webinar where Zen Internet's product experts talk about the switch off and what your business can do to prepare. 

How to prepare for the ISDN switch off: Careful consideration of your business communications strategy, your employees, customers, home workers and more will present a number of possibilities. And whether you ultimately choose to transition your ISDN lines over to SIP trunks or adopt a more holistic cloud communications solution, this webinar will set you on the journey to determining the right strategy for your business.

Join Zen senior product managers Lee Houston and Andy Sayle as they discuss:

* The key milestones you need to be aware of between now and 2025

* Why you need to start thinking about your strategy today

* The evolution of business communication

* The various options and opportunities available

* Why this change is happening

Covering the above and more, Lee and Andy will provide the insight you need to start planning for the future of your business communications.

Register to view this informative webinar here.

www.zen.co.uk

Missing church during these days of COVID isolation? Worship with All Saints Denmead - Online!

This Summer at All Saints Denmead there will be a whole range of services so you can worship either @Home or @Church. 

Please see this poster and then if you have any questions please do get in touch.

www.allsaintsdenmead.org.uk

And now for something completely different! Crosstourer to CB1000R+

I bought Holly our Honda Crosstourer Highlander back in 2014. Kim & I have loved our trips out on her - many local, but also Ireland, Wales & our Camino. However to every thing there is a season, and I felt that it was now time for something different...

As you may have noticed, I like to test bikes from the various dealerships around us, and came to a shortlist of two models: Indian FTR1200 and Honda CB1000R+. Although the Indian was a fab ride, I decided that the Honda was the bike for me. The CB1000R is (sort of) a naked FireBlade - which makes it a "cheeky little number"! The "+" is a special tricked out edition with a quickshifter, heated grips, rear seat cowl & some added aluminium bling. Usually "+" bikes are only available in black, I have one of the only CB1000R+ bikes in stunning metallic "candy chromosphere red".

Discussions were had with four Honda dealerships, and Paul Styles at Doble Honda came up with the best package. So on a distinctly wet Wednesday (8th July) morning I rode up to Coulsdon & traded in our lovely Holly for a very shiny CB1000R+ in red! The ride back was also wet, which (literally) took the shine off my lovely new bike. 1st thing I did when I got home was hose down the bike & dry her off!

I managed to get out for a spin at the weekend - on a sunny, warm Sunday afternoon - and enjoyed every second. Of course this is a hugely different motorcycle from the Crosstourer: over 60Kg lighter, faster, lower centre of gravity, sticky sport tyres, etc. What a blast!

Kim & I are going to miss the comfort of the Crosstourer (and the ability to do big distances), but ironically, getting a faster sportbike might save my license! Wind protection is much better on adventure bikes, gearing is much higher, so it is very easy to end up going "quickly" without realising it. On a naked sportbike, any speed feels quick - which oddly enough tends to slow one down!

Holly's new owner will hopefully enjoy her as much as we have: ~19k miles of wonderful, trouble free riding (of course - it's a Honda!). Over my ~6 years of ownership, I tweaked her significantly from original spec - so Holly's next owner should be able to enjoy adventures as soon as they can turn the key!

I've Christened the new bike "Ariel", and have so far added ASV C5 clutch & brake levers a Givi tank bag (that allows my phone to double as a SatNav), more farkles to follow! Watch this space...

www.honda.co.uk

BBC Chain Reaction: Tim Vine Interviews Sir Ken Dodd

In this edition (originally released: 27 March 2017), Tim Vine turns interviewer and invites his chosen guest Sir Ken Dodd into the Chain Reaction hot seat.

Chain Reaction is the talk show with a twist where one week's interviewee becomes the next week's interviewer. John Cleese was first in the hot seat back in 1991 and since then, a procession of big names from the world of comedy and entertainment including Jennifer Saunders, Jarvis Cocker and Eddie Izzard have helped continue the chain.

Tim Vine is best known for his frenetic stage shows, rammed full of rapid one liners, songs and props. He previously starred in BBC1s Not Going Out, ITV1s The Sketch Show and hosted the seminal Channel 5 quiz show Whittle.

Revered as one of Britain's funniest comedians, Ken Dodd has enjoyed a professional career spanning over 60 years during which he has received numerous awards and accolades. Ken Dodd was made Sir Ken in the 2017 New Year's Honours List; and is a comedian of legendary status who has been entertaining audiences for a lifetime of happiness and laughter.

Recorded at the Bluecoat in Liverpool, Tim talks to Ken about his long career, the length of his live shows, and performs a Liverpudlian version of Hamlet...

www.bbc.co.uk

One out of every 142 passwords is '123456'

In one of the biggest password re-use studies of its kind, an analysis of more than one billion leaked credentials has discovered that one out of every 142 passwords is the classic "123456" string.

The study, carried out last month by computer engineering student Ata Hakçıl, analyzed username and password combinations that leaked online after data breaches at various companies.

These "data dumps" have been around for more than half a decade, and have been piling up as new companies are getting hacked. The data dumps are easily available online, on sites like GitHub or GitLab, or freely distributed via hacking forums and file-sharing portals.

Over the years, tech companies have been collecting these data dumps. For example, Google, Microsoft, and Apple, have collected leaked credentials to create in-house alert systems that warn users when they're utilizing a "weak" or "common" password.

Furthermore, the Have I Been Pwned online service also works on top of these leaked data dumps and credentials.

Please dear reader - take security seriously. Here are five things to know to hep you pick a good password.

www.zdnet.com

Unacceptable, where is my privacy?

Voice assistants in smart speakers analyse every sound in their environment for their wake word, e.g., «Alexa» or «Hey Siri», before uploading the audio stream to the cloud. This supports users' privacy by only capturing the necessary audio and not recording anything else. The sensitivity of the wake word detection tries to strike a balance between data protection and technical optimisation, but can be tricked using similar words or sounds that result in an accidental trigger.

Well this makes an interesting read... My SONOS One triggers to the word "Unacceptable" - which is pretty odd as it doesn't sound at all like "Alexa"!

unacceptable-privacy.github.io

Michael Nazir-Ali: Why can’t Britain’s foreign aid be used to help Christians too?

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali writes: For years now, the British government has prided itself on how much money it gives away in foreign aid. But of course it’s not just the amount that matters - it’s how effective it is. Now that the Prime Minister is to wrap the Department for International Development back into the Foreign Office, it’s a chance for us to ask again: who are we as a country? What are our values? And how can we ensure that taxpayers’ money is well spent?

It can be difficult to ensure that a recipient of aid is legitimate and worthy. That’s why there’s been a tendency for the UK and aid agencies to rely on giving to foreign governments and their bureaucracies... 

Read the rest of this thought provoking article here.

www.michaelnazirali.com

Recover lost files on Windows 10 - using the new Windows File Recovery App

Accidentally deleted an important file? Wiped clean your hard drive? Unsure of what to do with corrupted data? Windows File Recovery can help recover your personal data.

For photos, documents, videos and more, Windows File Recovery supports many file types to help ensure that your data is not permanently lost.

Recovering from a camera or SD card? Try Signature mode, which expands beyond NTFS recovery and caters to your storage device needs. Let this app be your first choice for helping to find what you need from your hard drive, SSD (*limited by TRIM), USB drive, or memory cards.

Visit aka.ms/winfrhelp for the user guide.

This app requires Windows 10 v2004.

NB: If you want to increase your chances of recovering a file, minimize or avoid using your computer. In the Windows file system, the space used by a deleted file is marked as free space, which means the file data can still exist and be recovered. But any use of your computer can create files, which may over-write this free space at any time. 

www.microsoft.com

The psychology of social engineering - the “soft” side of cybercrime

Forty-eight percent of people will exchange their password for a piece of chocolate, 91 percent of cyberattacks begin with a simple phish, and two out of three people have experienced a tech support scam in the past 12 months. What do all of these have in common? They make use of social engineering: when an attacker preys on our human nature in order to defraud. Also in common, these small, very human actions have led to billions of dollars of loss to global business.

People are by nature social. Our decision making is highly influenced by others. We are also overloaded with information and look to shortcuts to save time. This is why social engineering is so effective. In this blog, I’ll share the psychology behind Cialdini’s Six Principles of Persuasion to show how they help lure employees and customers into social engineering hacks. In this article, we'll provide some tips for using those principles to create a social engineering resistant culture.

www.microsoft.com