Latest IT Articles

Firefox 21 has been released as an update today, and not only addresses 8 security vulnerabilities but also contains an advanced health check feature that reports back to the user on the performance of the browser. 3 of the security patches address issues surrounding memory safety and corruption, and use-after-free weaknesses. All critical patches will address vulnerabilities which if exploited could potentially lead to remote code execution. Version 21 of the 3rd most popular browser also sees the addition of a ‘health report’ feature. The system logs basic health data from your browser, including the number of crashes, time to…

A study by the Office of National Statistics has shown that more than 7 million Britons have never used the internet, that’s 14% of the entire UK population. The statistics show that London has the highest rate of internet users, with 90% of inhabitants regularly using the internet for either work or personal use. The highest use age bracket was 16-24 years olds, where only 1% of this group don’t use the internet. The other great thing that this study has shown is that more than a million and a half elderly people have embraced the net since the same…

Blackberry has announced that it is to open up its Blackberry Messenger service (BBM) to other platforms. The free messaging app has until now been exclusive to Blackberry users, but with the increase in free chat applications such as WhatsApp and Skype the competition is heating up. The benefit of these alternative apps is the availability over various platforms, meaning an Android phone can connect with an iOS phone, BBM was restricted to Blackberry to Blackberry messaging only. From the summer BBM will be available for both iOS and Android devices, connecting all 3 of the most popular mobile OS…

A US company has started offering a camera add on to the Pi community for just £16 (US$25). The stamp sized 5 megapixel camera allows users to take photographs and capture videos, once they’ve worked out how to programme and use it! As expected no instructions were supplied with the camera module, so it’s down to the user to figure out how to get the minute camera working. A few Pi bloggers have provided some guidance for those who want it, instructing users to open a terminal window and type command: /opt/vc/bin/raspicam -o mypicture.jpg in order to get snapping. Once…

Microsoft has announced at a conference in Boston today that from June 26th a preview version of the operating system that will replace the ‘failed’ Windows 8 will become available. Named Windows 8.1, the operating system will be deployed as a free update for all Windows 8 users via the Windows Store. Originally rumoured to be called Windows Blue, the details of the improved OS have not been revealed at the conference or on the Windows blog. What is known is that despite the controversy caused by Windows 8, Microsoft is standing its ground and not accepting defeat, praising the…

With less than a year until Microsoft pull all support of their 2001 operating system, XP, businesses face compliance issues if they don’t instigate a migration to a newer supported version of Windows OS very soon. From 8th April 2014 Microsoft will be ceasing support of Windows XP alongside Microsoft Office 2003. This move will urge, if not force users to update their office software as well as their operating system. Microsoft recommends planning, testing and deploying any changes before the end of support date in spring 2014. This 1 year deadline however will cause businesses a number of issues…

With many of us still using the now ancient 3G spectrum for mobile browsing, it’s hard to believe that super-fast 5G is already on the cards. Tech giant Samsung have announced the successful development of a first adaptive array transceiver which can be used by mm-wave Ka bands to offer data transfer speeds hundreds of times faster than the recently released 4G. There was speculation that the superior frequency would not be able to maintain these record speeds over long distances. Samsung however have confirmed that with the use of a 64 antenna element that speeds remain with connections over…

It’s popular belief that email addresses are not case sensitive and so sending an email [email protected] will be delivered to the same recipient as [email protected] The chances are that using either of these addresses will result in the correct recipient receiving the email, according to standards however this does not always have to be the case. Email addresses are broken down into 3 sections ‘localmailboxname’’@’’domainname.com’. The local mailbox name section of the email is in fact case sensitive, so emailing [email protected] could have a different recipient to [email protected] The domain name section however is not case sensitive (insensitive), emailing @DOMAINNAME.COM,…

Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday is here again, and a report has confirmed that the update will address 33 vulnerabilities across various platforms. The update will be dispatched as 10 sets of fixes, 2 labelled critical and 8 important. One critical patch will address issues in Internet Explorer 6 through to 10, this vulnerability allows malicious code to enter the victims machine. The exploit is active in all versions of Windows from XP onwards. The second critical flaw addresses the recent vulnerability in Internet Explorer 8, reported Signal Networks here. Despite initial belief that Microsoft would not be able to patch the…

The Government has pledged a further £7.5million into the UK’s cyber security industry. The fund will be used to support the UK’s national cyber security program, by creating two post graduate centres designed to train the highest level graduates in the design and management of security innovations. The two centres will be located at Oxford University and University of London (Royal Holloway). One will focus on working alongside businesses to reduce the number of online threats and improve security in the various sectors of UK business. The other centre will work heavily focussed on big data and the physical security…