John Lister

The new record for fastest Internet connection is quick enough to download everything on Netflix in under a second. It's safe to say the average home user won't see such speeds, but the techniques used to achieve the speeds could benefit everyone. ... The transfer was done over a fiber-optic cable between computers 25 miles apart. It reached a peak speed of 178 terabits per second. That's around 20 percent faster than the previous record and five times the speed of the fastest connections currently in regular use, namely cables running between machines in data centers. University College London, ... (view more)

Windows 8.1 users should make sure to install an emergency patch just released by Microsoft. The company rates the risk as critical based more on the potential consequences than the risk of exploitation. The bug is patched with a security update ... that has the reference KB4578013. It affects all versions of Windows 8.1 along with Windows Server 2012. The bug doesn't affect Windows 10. In theory it could affect Windows 7 and earlier, but Microsoft no longer patches those systems as they are no longer supported. (Source: microsoft.com ) The fix comes in an "out of band security update", commonly ... (view more)

Google is experimenting with a way to make Chrome use less power when a laptop battery is starting to run out. But it will rely on website owners to make it happen. The test is of a "Battery-Savings Meta Tag" which can be added to a website's code ... and will include battery saving recommendations specific to that site. These would then kick in whenever the computer is at a particular battery level. The idea is to avoid having Chrome itself simply take blanket measures that might not be appropriate for all websites. Video Frame Rate Lowered One of the examples Google gives is for a tag to say ... (view more)

An independent test found tools from most leading security software companies failed to detect all threats - though it was one of the best set of overall results ever. The SE Labs test used simulated attacks based on real threats that are particular ... problems right now. The tests ran between April and June this year and involves anti-malware products aimed at the general public from 14 companies. Though SE Labs runs such tests regularly, it changes the simulated threats each time to reflect what's actually happening in the cyber security world. (Source: selabs.uk ) In many cases, the simulated ... (view more)

Google is testing a new way of showing a web page address in the browser. It hopes that simply showing the domain name will make it easier for users to spot phishing scams - as already happens with some rival browsers. At the moment most browsers ... will show the entire web page address (URL) in the address bar. That's the box near the top of the screen that has a dual purpose in most browsers: it shows the current page address but is also where users type in both addresses and search terms. A study for Google looked at ways scammers can take advantage of the browser bar. One example was the ... (view more)

Security researchers spotted a major flaw in a processor that's in more than a billion Android phones. It's been fixed now, but highlights the importance of a couple of key security measures users should take. Researchers at Check Point say they ... spotted the errors on a processor from Qualcomm that's used on more than 40 percent of cellphones. The processor is known as a "system on a chip" (SoC) because it combines hardware and software in a single unit. The processor controls some key functions on a phone including charging, video and audio. Because it's a system on a chip, it runs partially ... (view more)

Users who regularly cut and paste in Windows may appreciate a forthcoming improvement. Windows 10 is getting an enhanced clipboard that makes it easier to find items other than text. The clipboard feature isn't widely publicized, but is already ... useful before the update. While pressing CTRL + V pastes text, pressing the Windows key + V opens the clipboard. This lets users quickly access the last 25 things they pasted, something that's particularly useful when working on multiple documents or heavily editing. However, the clipboard only stores items once the user switches on permission for it ... (view more)

Microsoft has confirmed there will be no option to uninstall the Edge browser once the new version is on a Windows 10 computer. There is a workaround, but it's not worth the trouble for most users. The two versions of Edge are known by Microsoft as ... the "legacy version" and the "new version." The legacy version ran on Microsoft's own code, while the new version is based on Chromium, which is open source software that is also the basis of Google's Chrome browser. One big reason for the switch is to make it easier for both website and browser extension developers to make something that works ... (view more)

Microsoft has revealed it paid more than $13 million in bounties to people who reported security bugs in the past 12 months. It's three times the amount for the previous year, raising questions about Microsoft's attitude to security. Like many tech ... firms, Microsoft has a series of programs that pay rewards for reports of vulnerabilities. It's not so much meant as a way to compete against the potential earnings of would-be cyber criminals. Instead, it's meant as an incentive for legitimate independent security researchers to put their efforts into a particular application, device or platform. ... (view more)

Average broadband speeds have dipped during 2020, almost certainly because people spent more time streaming video. It's a reversal of normal trends but could have been a lot worse. The figures come from cable.co.uk, which includes a speed testing ... feature. It says normally the global average figures measured by such tests will rise by at least 20 percent each year, which is largely because of improved infrastructure. However, across tests in 114 countries, speeds are actually down 6.31 percent from the beginning of the year. Only two regions (the Baltics and Carribbean) had an average rise, ... (view more)