Newsletter Archives
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You’ll be amazed to learn how Microsoft really makes dough
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
If you think the sale of Windows software is Microsoft’s primary source of revenue, you’re in for a big surprise when you see the way the Redmond corporate giant actually earns money.
As of the fiscal quarter ending March 31, 2024, more than 56% of the company’s revenue — easily a majority — is generated by Microsoft’s cloud services, including Azure Server, Office cloud services, and other online income streams.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.27.0, 2024-07-01).
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Google is declaring war on clickbait — but who’s winning?
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
Faced with an onslaught of AI-generated websites that invent hundreds of articles out of whole cloth each day, Google says it’s imposed new rules requiring sites to provide original and genuinely helpful information.
The Mountain View search giant announced recently that changes to its algorithms had reduced “spammy, low-quality content” by 45%.
It’s admirable that Google is actively trying to eliminate the junk that’s being generated en masse by artificial-intelligence bots. But the search engine’s accomplishment so far is like a naval commander saying, “The ship is sinking from numerous breaches in the hull, but the good news is that we’ve patched 45% of the holes.”
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.26.0, 2024-06-24).
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Your ‘free’ VPN may actually be a malware bot
ISSUE 21.24 • 2024-06-10 PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
Law-enforcement authorities, coordinating the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and similar agencies in Germany, Singapore, and Thailand, have arrested the leaders of a worldwide botnet that relied on people downloading and installing software to create “free” virtual private networks (VPNs).
Before the arrests were announced on May 29, 2024, more than 19 million infected computers in some 190 countries were being used by hackers for credit-card fraud, Dark Web operations, and a lot else. Jailing the so-called 911 S5 organizers and shutting them down dismantled what FBI director Christopher Wray described as “likely the world’s largest botnet ever.”
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.24.0, 2024-06-10).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
Depositors lose access to cash in bankruptcy of fintech Synapse
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
Hundreds of thousands of consumers have lost access to their checking accounts, debit cards, and credit cards due to a shutdown by Synapse, a financial-technology startup that offered “banking as a service.”
Synapse acted as a middleman between true banks — including Evolve Bank & Trust, Lineage Bank, American Bank, and AMG Trust — and smaller entities.
The four banks are not in any financial danger. But they say they’ve been forced to suspend depositors’ access to their funds because on May 11, 2024, Synapse turned off its online “dashboard.” Without the live data, banks can’t verify customers’ balances, as required by law.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.23.0, 2024-06-03).
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Crooks can take over your video doorbell by pushing a button
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
High-tech doorbells with video cameras sound like a great way to monitor who’s currently on your front porch and who came by while you were away. But cheap models are ridiculously easy for common thieves to take over by merely holding down a button.
No sophisticated electronic equipment is necessary to give a crook control over your video camera — and possibly your other computer equipment that’s using the same Wi-Fi network. All that’s required is a typical smartphone and an index finger to hold down the doorbell’s button for as little as eight seconds.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.22.0, 2024-05-27).
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Quantum computing is coming to you soon
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
A breakthrough by researchers at Oxford University makes it likely that you’ll be able to access the power of a quantum computing center — remotely from your home or office — sooner than experts previously thought.
“Quantum computing” is an entirely different animal from “digital computing.” A quantum server harnesses the capabilities of quantum states, weird behaviors that exist only at a subatomic level. In theory, quantum computing can operate much faster than even the speediest processors available today.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.20.0, 2024-05-13).
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Did hackers buy Roku devices — using your credit card?
ISSUE 21.18 • 2024-04-29 PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
In a pair of serious security breaches in the past two months, hackers tried username-password combinations found on the Dark Web. They attempted to log on to more than half a million accounts at Roku.
Hundreds of users who had unwisely stored their full credit-card numbers with Roku were exploited by the hackers. The victims’ credit-card numbers on file enabled the perps to buy anything in the Roku store.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.18.0, 2024-04-29).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
Apple turns on ‘Discoverable by Others.’ Should you worry?
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
The blogosphere has been going nuts lately after learning that Apple quietly turned on by default an iPhone setting known as “Discoverable by Others.”
Despite your initial shock after hearing this — or seeing it for yourself on your phone — being discoverable may or may not be something you need to be concerned about.
I’ll explain today what the setting does and why you might want to leave it on — or turn it off immediately.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.16.0, 2024-04-15).
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Can you detect AI deepfake images with your own eyes?
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
Artificial-intelligence image generators now produce such lifelike output — and the AI apps are improving their accuracy every day — that we’re seeing an increasing number of surprising, enraging, and manipulative videos and stills. All this forces us to ask, “Is it real, or is it AI?”
The answers will be crucial to us, as AI bots unstoppably expand into all aspects of our day-to-day lives. Phony images — often called deepfakes or fauxtography — are scrambling free elections around the world. And AI-generated videos that overlay women’s faces onto the nude bodies of porn stars can ruin the mortified victims’ lives and even cause suicides.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.15.0, 2024-04-08).
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Must your password manager be multiuser or just single-user?
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
So many websites these days require usernames and passwords of varying lengths and strengths that installing a secure password manager to keep track of them all is almost a necessity.
But there are big differences between versions of password managers that are designed for a single user (for example, you) and versions that can securely inform multiple users about all the credentials your home or business has created.
Today’s column is the final piece of my four-part analysis of password managers.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.12.0, 2024-03-18).
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Store your passwords locally or in the cloud?
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
Do you create a different username-password combination for every website where you register? This can prevent a data breach at one site from revealing to a hacker how you sign in at other sites. But it almost demands that you install a password-manager app to remember every combo.
All password managers, however, do not keep your secrets equally secure.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.10.0, 2024-03-04).
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Can you use a free password manager, or must you pay?
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
We all face security threats on the Internet. A common recommendation by tech pundits is this: at each website where you register, enter a different username-password combination.
Remembering all those combos — especially if you make up random strings, such as 6!p#o&a0%9b — almost forces you to install software called a password manager. But do you really have to?
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.08.0, 2024-02-19).