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  1. Veteran anti-virus researcher Vesselin Bontchev has discovered that there are thousands of samples of malware available for download from the WikiLeaks website. The malware found by Bontchev is found in a large tranche of emails leaked from AKP, a Turkish political party. Bontchev writes: Since many of the AKP members have been recipients of malware sent by e-mail (most likely random spam but could have also been targeted attacks), the received malware in the e-mails is also present in the dump. As a result, the Wikileaks site is hosting malware. For the record, I consider this to be extremely irresponsible from the part of Wikileaks. Malware distribution is not …

  2. This past weekend my wife's Facebook page got spoofed. We learned what was happening as her phone started a constant stream of alerts from family and friends with messages saying they had just received new friend requests from her. While many thought she had been hacked, in other words someone accessing her Facebook account, it was actually a spoofing attempt which is quite common on Facebook unfortunately and it happens much to often. Here is what occurs: - A Spoofer grabs the profile header image and profile picture from a Facebook account via the web and of course the users name as it appears on the original Facebook profile page. - They then create a ne…

  3. DetoxCrypto comes in 2 variants: Pokemon-themed and Calipso A new ransomware variant appeared on the malware scene: it's called DetoxCrypto that has two active versions at the moment, with more likely to come in the near future. Security researcher MalwareHunterTeam discovered the first version, which uses Pokemon imagery for the wallpaper shown on the user's desktop. The second DetoxCrypto version came the following day and used a more generic ransom note, but also added the ability to take a screenshot of the user's desktop when it was first run. Intel Security researcher Marc Rivero López stumbled upon this version, called DetoxCrypto (Calipso version). …

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  4. Having some trouble with your webcam? You're not alone. If you're a Windows 10 user who recently installed Microsoft's big Anniversary Update for the operating system, the update has rendered a number of different webcams inoperable. Microsoft representatives have indicated that a fix should be coming in September, and clever Windows users who don't want to wait for Microsoft's update are already trying workarounds to get past the issue. "Windows 10 continues to have the highest customer satisfaction of any version of Windows. We have seen a small number of reports of unexpected behaviors following the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Engineering and customer support are…

  5. The Windows 10 free upgrade period has now closed, so how will Microsoft MSFT +0.00% get more Windows 7 and Windows 8 users to adopt it? Now we know: take away user control and make both operating systems behave like Windows 10… In a new blog post entitled ‘Further simplifying servicing models for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1’, Microsoft’s Senior Product Marketing Manager Nathan Mercer explained: “From October 2016 onwards, Windows will release a single Monthly Rollup that addresses both security issues and reliability issues in a single update. The Monthly Rollup will be published to Windows Update (WU), WSUS, SCCM, and the Microsoft Update Catalog. Each month’s rollu…

  6. Many other popular Android apps targeted as well The Android trojan known as Marcher has received an update which now allows it show fake login screens and steal credentials for various popular Android apps. Android Marcher appeared on the mobile malware scene in 2013 and initially had the capability of showing a fake screen on top of the Google Play Store app whenever the user started that application. This screen asked the user to enter his credit card details, which the malware collected and sent to a C&C server. Later in 2014, the crooks added the ability to phish for banking credentials, mostly from financial institutions in Australia, France, Ger…

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  7. It’s always a nerve-wracking moment when your payment card is declined — you know the feeling: your pulse races as images of negative account balances dance in front of your eyes. But one Burger King customer in the United Kingdom had to suffer through that feeling not because she couldn’t afford to pay for her meal, but because the cashier tried to overcharge her… by more than $12,000. The woman was with her son and daughter at London’s Luton Airport this week, and had ordered a Whopper Steakhouse burger, regular fries, regular soda, and two portions of chili bites, reports The Sun, for a total of £9.47 ($12.38 U.S. for those Americans playing at home) for the meal. …

  8. Guest Elana Pidgeon
    Started by Guest Elana Pidgeon,

    Welcome to This Week on Windows, where we’ll bring you the latest in Windows news, apps, and tips every Friday from experts here at Microsoft. To learn more about what’s mentioned in this week’s episode, head over here to read about building Minecraft on Oculus Rift or Windows Holographic. Check out what we shared earlier this week about the Surface Special Edition NFL type covers, and our blog posts on the new gaming devices announced by Lenovo and HP at gamescom. Get Steven Tyler’s album, “We’re All Somebody From Somewhere,” from the Windows Store for only 99 cents. And, if you missed it, check out this week’s Windows 10 Tip on getting started with Edge extensions. …

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  9. Guest Dona Sarkar
    Started by Guest Dona Sarkar,

    Hello Windows Insiders! Yesterday, we began rolling out the Windows 10 Anniversary Update for Windows 10 Mobile. Thank you to all of the Windows Insiders who downloaded the Cumulative Updates first and gave us feedback that helped us prepare for this release to our customers. Today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14905 for PC AND Mobile to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring! This is our first new Mobile build from our Development Branch after launching the Windows 10 Anniversary Update yesterday for Windows 10 phones. We know you all have been excited for Mobile builds to start up again as have we! Here’s what’s new in Build 14905 for …

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  10. Space on your Android phone is for sale, if you’re a Verizon customer, and according to ad agency executives who have worked on such deals. Verizon activates an estimated 20 million new Android phones every year, so even a small amount per installation could add up for the mobile company, assuming that customers would tolerate it. Would they? AdAge shared this information based on discussions with advertising executives, who weren’t identified for obvious reasons. Verizon reportedly began shopping the idea around in late 2015, but wouldn’t comment on whether any brands took them up on it. The price being offered was about $1 or $2 per customer, which is apparently a…

  11. For years, we here at Consumerist HQ have heard anecdotal claims that negotiating for a better rate from your cable provider is no longer as simple as it used to be. The discounts weren’t as deep, people would say, the offers were on the weak side, and in the wake of bad PR, companies have seemed more willing to call customers’ bluff and let them cancel service painlessly. Of course, anecdotes do not equal data, so we wanted to know: is this actually a thing? We asked, and you, our readers, answered — over 3,300 of you all told. (Thank you!) And the news, it turns out, is a lot rosier than we thought. Across the board, the majority of customers appear to stand a pretty…

  12. Guest Terry Myerson

    I’m at the Intel Developer Forum here in San Francisco this week. Intel has been such an incredible partner of Microsoft for so long, it was an honor to be on stage with Brian Krzanich to discuss our work together on mixed reality. I loved hearing about all the ways Intel is innovating in IoT, the cloud and new devices. Today, we built on our earlier mixed reality announcements at Computex, to announce two things: Intel and Microsoft are collaborating on a specification for mixed reality ready PCs and head mounted displays (HMDs). Our shared goal is to enable our hardware partners to build a broad range of devices for the mainstream consumer and business markets. W…

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  13. Guest Elana Pidgeon
    Started by Guest Elana Pidgeon,

    Today over at Xbox Wire, Rare shared their thoughts on designing Sea of Thieves for Windows 10 and Xbox One. Since it’s a shared world adventure game, Sea of Thieves immediately feels right at home on the PC. When you combine it with a world full of 24/7, player-driven stories, it’s a great opportunity to create an experience catered for the needs of each platform. Your hardware choice shouldn’t be a barrier. The team made some great decisions early on in development to adopt Unreal Engine 4, which natively supports the PC, and to develop the Windows 10 version of Sea of Thieves in parallel with the Xbox One version. With Xbox Play Anywhere, fans have the freedom t…

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  14. Guest Elana Pidgeon
    Started by Guest Elana Pidgeon,

    This year’s Gamescom marks three years since the ID@Xbox program was announced, which enables independent developers to self-publish games on Xbox One, and later Windows 10 with Xbox Live. The program started with a simple goal: make sure Xbox players have access to the broadest, most diverse array of games by making sure Xbox developers have the best development environment. Today, Chris Charla, director of ID@Xbox, shared the news over at Xbox Wire that Game Preview will be coming to Windows 10 later this year, with Everspace from our friends at Rockfish as the debut title. They’re excited to enable PC gamers to preview and purchase work-in-progress digital t…

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  15. The ‘Anniversary Update’ is the largest and most important Windows 10 upgrade so far. It is also compulsory, but as it began rolling out reports followed that the mega update is causing PCs to freeze. Now Microsoft MSFT +0.35% has confirmed one major issue and admitted it currently does not have a fix… Taking to its Microsoft Answers support site, the company has posted a new and self explanatory topic titled: ‘Windows 10 may freeze after installing the Anniversary Update’ and states there have been: “Microsoft has received a small number of reports of Windows 10 freezing after installing the Anniversary Update on systems with the operating system stored on a solid-…

  16. Guest Mollie Ruiz-Hopper
    Started by Guest Mollie Ruiz-Hopper,

    Today at gamescom, Lenovo unveiled two Windows 10 desktop PCs built for you to game and experience virtual reality anywhere you go: the IdeaCentre Y710 Cube and IdeaCentre AIO Y910. While many gamers dedicate rooms for their battle stations, about half are playing beyond the confines of a desk. The minimalist designs of both PCs, combined with Windows 10, give you top-of-the-line performance virtually anywhere. Let’s take a look at these new devices announced today: The IdeaCentre Y710 Cube with Windows 10 Click to view slideshow. Ideal for gamers who want to stay competitive no matter where they play, the IdeaCentre Y710 Cube comes with a built-in carry …

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  17. If you build it and it’s popular, they will come; it being an app, and they being cyber criminals. This time it’s Pokémon Go ransomware, which goes the extra mile by adding a hidden backdoor Windows admin account, spreading to other drives and creating network shares. Michael Gillespie discovered Hidden Tear ransomware disguised as a Pokémon Go app on a Windows Phone. But it’s not the standard ransomware. Bleeping Computer explained, “This developer has put in extra time to include features that are not found in many, if any, other ransomware variants.” For starters, the developer created a “Hack3r” backdoor user account in Windows; the account is added to the…

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  18. Guest Mike McGrath
    Started by Guest Mike McGrath,

    Welcome to Minecraft again… in VR! Last fall, we announced that we were working with our partners at Oculus to develop Minecraft for VR. Finally, we’re ready to have everyone experience Minecraft in a whole new way through virtual reality on Oculus Rift. Starting today, as a thank you to our community, we’ll be releasing a free update to Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta which will enable gameplay using Oculus Rift devices. We hope the VR experience in Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta will illuminate just how powerful, evocative, and utterly immersive VR can really be, whether you’re a new player or a Minecraft veteran. The Windows 10 DX11 performance has been …

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  19. Guest Elana Pidgeon
    Started by Guest Elana Pidgeon,

    Happy Monday, everyone! In our first Windows 10 Tip last week, we shared the dark theme personalization setting. Today, we’re going to show you how you can personalize your browsing experience with a great new feature in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update: Microsoft Edge extensions! Extensions are web add-ons you can use to customize your browser. Many popular extensions including AdBlock, Adblock Plus, Amazon Assistant, Evernote Web Clipper, Pinterest Save Button, Office Online and more are available in the Windows Store. Here’s how to get started with extensions: Start by opening Microsoft Edge and clicking on the Options Menu. Scroll down and click “Extension…

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  20. Guest Elana Pidgeon
    Started by Guest Elana Pidgeon,

    Last week, we celebrated the Windows 10 Anniversary Update by launching a new video series, This Week on Windows, where we’ll bring you the latest in Windows news, apps, and tips from experts here at Microsoft. Enjoy this week’s episode, and catch up on everything that’s new with Windows this week! Study and Play Collection Summer isn’t over, but we’re getting ready for fall so you’re all set when it arrives. Our Study and Play collection, now available in the Windows Store through August 15, is full of apps, games and entertainment for a successful, well-rounded new year in class. It includes learning and productivity apps including Dropbox and Duolingo, as …

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  21. From time to time, Netflix customers share their passwords with friends and family members, even some that may live in other countries. In those cases, it’s not unusual to see activity on your account from a device in, say the U.K., streaming the latest episode of Game of Thrones. But Consumerist reader Niki doesn’t know anyone in Ecuador, and she certainly didn’t give out her password to someone living there. Yet, she’s repeatedly seen activity in that country, despite changing passwords and email addresses associated with the account. Niki tells Consumerist that the issue began last week when she received an email from Netflix warning her of suspicious activity and …

  22. Guest Microsoft Windows Server
    Started by Guest Microsoft Windows Server,

    This post was authored by Amitabh Tamhane, Program Manager, Windows Server Introduction The primary goal of failover clustering in Windows Server is to provide a reliable infrastructure to make workloads highly available. Configuring quorum correctly for failover clusters is an important step in ensuring high availability for the cluster itself. This helps to make applications hosted on clusters to be highly available. With features like Dynamic Quorum, Dynamic Witness, and Node Vote Tiebreaker, the cluster automatically handles quorum vote calculations to provide the most optimal quorum configuration. When cluster quorum witness is specified, it gives an addition…

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  23. A new CryptFile2 variant is sending hundreds of thousands of emails that try to tricks targets into clicking on malicious URLs. A large-scale ransomware campaign is targeting US government agencies with hundreds of thousands of emails containing embedded malicious URLs, rather than the more common method of attaching infected files to the message. When it was first discovered by cybersecurity researchers in March, the CryptFile2 ransomware campaign behaved like other pieces of malware, spreading via exploit kits downloaded in infected files. But now Proofpoint researchers have observed that the ongoing campaign has adapted its techniques, delivering ransomwar…

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  24. Facebook — one of the world’s largest advertising companies — magnanimously acknowledges that in your life on the internet, you’ve probably encountered some bad ads. And you almost certainly have, because online advertising can be obtrusive, creepy, and irritating to say the least. But Facebook thinks that they are so far ahead of the pack that you will actually want to see their ads, and so they’re going to circumvent your ad-blocker for your own good. In a new blog post, Facebook is singing the praises of its own advertising, and how great, just great it is for you (the greatest!) because you’re about to see a lot more of it: Facebook is going to make your ad-blocker…

  25. Back in April, we shared the story of a couple who rented a farm not knowing that 600 million phantom roommates also lived there. Over the years, law enforcement, paramedics, private investigators, and other random strangers have showed up at their doorstep, looking for everyone from suicidal teens to identity thieves to the makers of pornographic movies. Thanks to technology that no one had foreseen back when the database was set up, much of the internet was purportedly in their house. They’ve now sued MaxMind, the company that originally created the locations database over a decade ago, for an unnamed amount in excess of $75,000. “The plaintiffs were repeatedly aw…