John Lister

Google has made its case for less drastic measures to resolve its breach of antitrust laws. Not surprisingly, it rejects suggestions it should sell off the Chrome browser . A court has already ruled that Google held an unlawful monopoly in search ... engines and in selling search-related advertising. The argument now is about the remedies: ways of putting the situation right or punishing Google, depending on your viewpoint. The Department of Justice has called for wide ranging measures, including forcing Google to sell the Chrome browser, banning it from buying other search engines, and banning ... (view more)

Scammers are using bogus Google Calendar invites to distribute malicious links. Google has urged users to check a setting in their Calendar account. The campaign, spotted by security company Checkpoint, takes advantage of the way the Google Calendar ... lets users invite friends, family or other contacts to an event. An acceptance will add the event to the invitee's own Google Calendar and automatically update it with any changes of time, date or other details. Usually it's possible to invite somebody just by knowing their email address. The scam involves sending an email that's been manipulated ... (view more)

Google says it's created a processor that can complete a task in five minutes that would take existing supercomputers an effectively infinite time. But it will likely be five years before the processor is ready for commercial use and experts say ... Google's boasts are somewhat selective. The Willow chip is Google's attempt at quantum computing, which is likely to be the next major advance in computing technology. In very simple terms, most traditional computers work by storing and processing data as 0s or 1s, represented by something physical (usually an electronic "gate" in a circuit) that can ... (view more)

Travel site Booking.com says one customer getting access to another customer's bookings was not a security breach. The problem appears to be a system that was set up without considering the possibility of human error. Website Arstechnica.com ... reported the case of a customer identified only as "Alfie," who received a confirmation email for a trip he knew nothing about. He was surprised to login to his account and find the details of the booking. (Source: arstechnica.com ) Typo Trouble After Alfie made multiple enquiries to Booking.com's support staff, he received no useful response. ... (view more)

Microsoft is making two key changes to app stores in Windows 11. It's making it easier to update non-Microsoft apps, but withdrawing distribution of Android apps. The Microsoft Store is a Windows feature that works similarly to app stores on mobile ... phones and tablets. It means users can find and install apps from a central source rather than the "traditional" Windows system of downloading software direct from a developers website and running an installation program. The theory behind the Microsoft store is to improve security while making it easier for Windows to keep track of the different ... (view more)

The Supreme Court is to rule on a law that would effectively ban TikTok in the US. The timing of the hearing means there may be little room for nuance. The law follows ongoing debate about whether the Chinese-owned app poses a threat to US security. ... The app is already banned on devices owned by the US federal government and those in many states, though previous state laws that would have banned TikTok from app stores have been blocked. Critics of the app believe it accesses more customer data than is necessary for its stated purpose and that there's a risk the Chinese government may have or ... (view more)

Hackers have found a sneaky way to bypass antivirus software by intentionally corrupting documents. As always, human vigilance remains a key weapon against such tactics. Putting malware into file attachments and persuading people to open them ... remains one of the key ways attackers operate. Often such tactics involve taking advantage of known security flaws in popular software or in operating systems. The current attack is somewhat more targeted: the documents contain a QR code in the hope that either the user (manually) or the device (automatically) will scan them and open the associated ... (view more)

Microsoft has explicitly warned users that it's not responsible for damage caused by running Windows 11 on an "incompatible" computer. At the same time, it's making it slightly easier for people to try upgrading their machines to Windows 11 even ... though it's not officially supported. While previous new versions of Windows have largely only had minor changes to minimum specifications such as slightly higher RAM or hard drive space minimums, Windows 11 is much more demanding. It requires specific types of processors and a hardware security tool called Trusted Protection Module, otherwise known ... (view more)

Microsoft has denied it is using content from Word and Excel documents to train artificial intelligence models without permission. While there's some fear mongering, the problem seems to be a blanket declaration in its company-wide privacy ... statement. The controversy involves Connected Experiences, a long-standing Office feature that connects to the Internet for added functionality. This includes tools such as grammar checking, translation and audio transcription. It also allows downloads of templates and images, for example, to put into a PowerPoint presentation. The feature came to sudden ... (view more)

Google may soon warn users before they download a mediocre app. It's the first time the warnings will appear for matters of quality rather than security. The changes were spotted by Android Authority and are buried away in the code of the Play Store ... app. The code would make the app display one of three messages: This app is frequently uninstalled compared to similar apps on Play Play has limited user data about this app This app has few active users compared to others on Play Apps Not Blocked Based on the way the code is integrated, it doesn't appear this will be a high-profile warning such ... (view more)