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Image: Getty The level of reported ransomware incidents doesn’t paint an accurate picture of what’s really going on, as many victims remain unwilling to talk about what happened, the European Union’s cybersecurity agency has warned. Following an analysis of 623 ransomware incidents between May 2021 and June 2022, the ENISA threat landscape report for ransomware […] More
Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto Seventeen malicious apps designed to infect Google Android users with banking malware have been removed from the Play Store. The malware campaign has been detailed by cybersecurity researchers at Trend Micro who’ve dubbed it DawDropper and say it delivers four types of banking trojan – TeaBot, Octo, Hydra and Ermac – in […] More
Getty Samsung has created a new mode for Galaxy smartphones that should prevent phone repair technicians from accessing customers’ private data during repairs. Samsung announced the new Repair Mode on its Korean press release page, which was spotted by SamMobile. This is a potentially very useful privacy feature for those times when customers […] More
Jaco Beukman, Getty Images/iStockphoto Are you suffering from slow internet speeds at home? After 2020, many of us found ourselves spending a substantial amount of time at home. Especially when multiple people are in the same property, the fight for capacity can lead to a host of connectivity issues. Connectivity drops, bottlenecks, lagged content streaming […] More
So voice control is a huge deal in home automation. You want to feel like a high baller when you walk in and have a robot assistant waiting on you 24/7, right? Well, 2022 isn’t there yet so the current smart assistants on the market are the next best thing. Having tried Google, Alexa, and Siri, I can tell you that for voice control fans, the right voice assistant can make or break your smart home. Personally, I find Alexa to be the most accurate in her responses and understanding my commands, Google is probably middle of the road, and Siri still plays Sweet Caroline when I ask her to turn on the downstairs lights.Now, Alexa isn’t perfect, we know that. But she is a favorite for smart homes and going the Amazon Alexa route ensures vast compatibility, as it’s the most popular voice assistant out there.Setting up the Amazon Alexa app is pretty easy, the platform is built around Alexa, and you can easily add devices and customize your home. And with Amazon’s Frustration-Free Setup, setting up new devices will become even easier with fewer steps. I do wish that some things like routines and your devices were more easily accessible on the Alexa App. Though they are both available on the app’s home, I find myself getting distracted by all of Alexa’s suggestions. And, to be honest, the app just isn’t the easiest to navigate in the beginning. You get used to it, however, and learn to easily make your way around it, but it shouldn’t have to take as long as it does to reach that point.Connectivity and automationsAlexa is available on multiple Amazon devices, like the Echo speakers and Fire TV devices. It works through Wifi, Bluetooth, Zigbee (on Echo 4th Gen, Echo Show except 1st Gen, and Echo Studio) and, more recently, Matter.The Alexa app has some pretty good automation power. Amazon is set on making America’s voice assistant out of Alexa, so they’ve put quite a lot of effort in making sure she helps optimize productivity, routines, shopping, your access to information and current events, and how you cook and enjoy your music. An Echo device, either a speaker or display, will give you access to thousands of skills and dozens of available routines to make the most of all your smart devices. You can set your Echo to detect a barking dog and have Alexa either play soothing music or let you drop in to soothe them. Alexa can even turn off a light when it hears snoring in the room, how creepy is that? Cool, I meant cool.There are countless ways to take advantage of Alexa’s automation power and, with popularity still pretty high, more are turning up every day. Pros:Alexa is responsive and smarter than othersEverything works with AlexaCons:App isn’t as user-friendly More
A man looking at his laptop with concern. Image: Getty/Deagreez A sneaky new phishing attack attempts to manipulate victims into entering their username and password by claiming their account will be deleted if they don’t – and it uses a countdown timer to pile on the pressure. Detailed by cybersecurity researchers at Cofense, this phishing […] More
Image: Getty/MoMo Productions So, your employer issued you a laptop for work, but they won’t let you do anything personal on it. They also insist that you are not allowed to do any work-related tasks on your personal PC, and switching between the two laptops is a pain. Is there an easier way? More how-tos […] More
Image: Getty There’s good and bad news about Microsoft’s recent crackdowns on untrusted Office macros. The good is that it has curtailed the use of Office macros in emailed attachments or links. The bad is that attackers have just changed tactics, ramping up their use of .LNK Windows shortcut links. According to security firm […] More
