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Microsoft Edge Mobile Browser Blocks Android And iOS Ads

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As most people know, Microsoft Edge was the company’s “reboot.”  After trying for years to patch and update their beleaguered Internet Explorer, Microsoft ultimately decided to scrap it and start fresh.  Since Edge’s launch, it has struggled to gain traction with users.

Recently, Microsoft has upped the ante, at least where Edge for iOS and Android devices are concerned.  A recent update sees the browser outfitted with a built-in ad blocker.  Prior to the update, if you wanted an ad blocking solution, you’d have to download and install it separately.  This move saves users a step, and gives you one less thing to think or worry about.

It’s a good move, but that alone is unlikely to give Edge the surge in popularity it needs to catch up with other browsers.

To provide some perspective, currently, Microsoft Edge is installed on about five million Android devices, based on stats from the Google Play Store.  Contrast that with 100 million installs of Mozilla’s Firefox, and more than a billion Chrome installations.

Those are sobering numbers that underscore just how much ground Edge needs to cover to even be playing in the same league as other popular web browsers on mobile devices.  While we don’t have statistics for installs from the Apple Store, it’s hard to imagine that they’d be any better, and, are probably a fair bit lower.

That’s not to say that Microsoft’s move wasn’t good, because it definitely was.  Anything that a company can do to cut down the number of unwanted, annoying, and potentially dangerous ads is a very good thing. Odds are that the company’s recently move will be copied by the major players in the browser world.  Even if it doesn’t boost Edge’s numbers much, that’s a win for anybody who uses the internet.  Kudos to Microsoft for making the change.

Study Shows People Prefer Alternatives Over Passwords

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File this one away under “confirming things we already knew.”  A recent study conducted jointly by Blink and Trusona confirmed that people just don’t like passwords very much.

Their study tracked the login behavior of 148 participants over a three-week period.  Without knowing the true purpose of the study, participants were asked to log into a gift idea generation website at least three times a week.

They were given the option of a “classic” (password-based) login, or an “easy” login option, which utilized alternative forms of authentication.

The results should surprise no one, but here are some of the statistics collected during the course of the experiment:

84 percent of participants utilized the easy login at least once

47 percent of participants utilized the classic login at least once

Those who used the easy login had successful logins 78 percent of the time

Those who used the classic login had successful logins 56 percent of the time

Per Robert Capps, a VP for NuData Security,

“This report shows that consumers are ready to move beyond passwords and usernames to more secure authentication methodologies.  Using a multilayered authentication framework that combined behavioral analytics with biometrics allows companies to verify users accurately without adding unnecessary friction and detect any unauthorized activity before it enters the environment.

Multilayered solutions that include these technologies analyze hundreds of data points throughout a session and create an evolving profile of a user across the session.  Passive biometrics and behavioral analytics are technologies that can provide this level of monitoring without adding friction to legitimate users, thus creating more convenient experiences for users.”

Clearly, users don’t like passwords.  Unfortunately, there’s currently no technology on the market capable of the feats Mr. Capps describes.  There are several promising models and products in varying stages of development, but sadly we’re still a ways off from realizing a password-free, hyper-secure login paradigm.  That day is no doubt coming though, and not a moment too soon.

Some Private Posts On Facebook May Have Been Exposed

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Facebook is in hot water again.  Recently, the company admitted that while testing a new feature on the site, they inadvertently made public the posts of more than fourteen million users.  The incident occurred between May 18th and May 22nd and occurred when Facebook was testing a new “Featured Posts” enhancement.

The goal was that users could selectively make posts visible to everyone.  Unfortunately, the error created a situation where any posts users in the test group made were automatically shared to everyone.  The company found and corrected the mistake on May 27th, but during the intervening span of days, any posts those users made were set to global visibility.  Facebook is currently in the process of contacting the impacted users and asking them to review any posts they made during the impact period.

Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan had this to say: “To be clear, this bug did not impact anything people had posted before – and they could still choose their audience just as they always have.  We’d like to apologize for this mistake.”

Unfortunately, this is not the first time in the recent past that Facebook has gotten into hot water over the mishandling of user data.  Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to testify before Congress when it came to light that the company acknowledged they had improperly shared private information pertaining to tens of millions of its users with Cambridge Analytica, which used the information in an attempt to influence the most recent presidential election.

Even if you’re not a member of the test group, if you use Facebook and made any posts between May 18th and May 27th when the company fixed the bug, it pays to review your posts just to make sure that their visibility has been properly set.

SSD Drive Makers Adding Features To Reduce Duplicate Data

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Big changes are in the works in the SSD-based storage ecosystem. It includes three different vendors all making similar announcements regarding designs to help companies that rely on SSD-based storage systems to reduce duplication and control data creep.

It’s not hard to see why they’re scrambling.  Although the price of SSD-based storage systems are coming down, it’s a slow process.  Currently, a gigabyte’s worth of SSD storage costs about forty cents, versus about five cents per gigabyte of HDD storage.  Less data duplication means less data to store, making the SSD drives utilizing the new technology more efficient.

Here’s a quick overview of the solutions offered by the three major vendors in this space:

Hitachi – Hitachi is working to upgrade all-flash F-Series and its hybrid flash/hard disk G-Series of drives, as well as its SVOS operating system. The improvements to the operating system include new AI-based container and operations support and introduced a new feature in the form of the “Hitachi Infrastructure Analytics Advisor.” This provides real-time analysis of your data center optimization across all storage devices, networks, servers and virtual machines in a bit to more efficiently predict data center needs and optimize/troubleshoot data storage.

HPE – The company has upgraded their “Nimble” storage line, which includes an array of all-flash products, a hybrid disk-flash product line and a secondary flash line. The big change here is that the company’s products now support inline, variable block size deduplication.  The company claims this change makes their products “the most efficient hybrid arrays in the industry by a wide margin.”

IBM – IBM has issued an upgrade to its Storwize arrays, the first in more than two years. The update improves cloud integration, overall disk performance and an array of enhanced deduplication tools, claiming as much as a 5:1 data reduction while retaining 100 percent data availability (provided you’re using IBM HyperSwap).

How big an impact these changes will have remains to be seen, but kudos to all three companies for taking decisive steps to bolster the performance of their storage devices.

Use Caution Traveling, Hackers Now Have Keys To Hotel Rooms

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Score one for the good guys, but with hesitation. Unfortunately, in today’s fast-moving digital world, even a victory doesn’t mean the end of a problem.

Recently, a pair of researchers (Tomi Tuominen and Timo Hirvonen of F-Secure) released information about a new hack they had discovered. It takes advantage of a critical security flaw in the magnetic VingCard locking systems used in hotel chains around the world.

This particular system produced by Assa Abloy is deployed in more than 42,000 facilities around the world. So in terms of scope and scale, this flaw impacts literally millions of doors.

The security flaw is about as bad as it gets, too.  The duo found a way that hackers could turn an old, dead RFID key card into a master key that could be used to unlock any VingCard door.  Although the software they used to create the master key card is proprietary, any hacker worth his salt and with a couple hundred dollars to spare for equipment could reproduce the hack on their own, if given time.

Fortunately, long before the pair announced their discovery of the hack, they contacted Assa Abloy privately. They have been working with the company’s R&D department to develop a fix for the security flaw.  That fix has now been deployed, and the researchers stress that so far, there is no evidence that the exploit has ever been used in the wild.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be used, and just because Assa Abloy has released a fix for the flaw doesn’t mean that everyone will promptly install it. So, the risk is still very real.  If you’re a frequent traveler, take extra precautions and don’t leave your valuables in plain sight in your room.  They may be more vulnerable than you realize.

Are Lasers The Answer To Completely Wireless Computing And Charging?

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Researchers at the University of Washington just might change the face of computers and computing forever.  It may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but based on their research, the day may soon be coming when computing devices are completely un-tethered, requiring no wires for either power or recharging.

The team was able to successfully charge a smartphone from across a room using nothing more than lasers.  Right now, their approach has an effective range of about forty feet.  Devices are detected by way of acoustic “chirps” which occur below the threshold of human hearing.  Once a target device is located, the laser charging system sends power to them using laser light, with no damage to the target device.

Right now, the power transfer is limited to just a couple of watts. However, the researchers don’t see any obstacles that would prevent scaling of the power transfer, meaning it could easily be modified to power PCs.

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) is not a new idea.  In fact, it’s in use today in such things as smartphones and electric toothbrushes.  The problem, at least until now, has been a matter of range, which has been virtually nonexistent until the University’s game-changing experiments.

The big breakthrough wasn’t in sending power to a device via laser.  Scientists have known that was possible for quite some time.  The issue though, was that when lasers (or microwaves) were used to send power, they were invariably hazardous to humans in the area. In addition, they often fried the electronics they were attempting to power.  The research team seems to have solved for both of those problems.

While the technology is still quite some distance from being commercially available, this is a huge leap forward.  This could forever change the way we interact with our computing devices, and that change could come much sooner than anyone ever imagined.

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