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The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday that the agency published a revised version of its “Final Customer Declaration”, which countries will have to sign before they can get access to powerful spyware technology like the NSO Group’s Pegasus. The declaration says countries will not use the tools to attack government critics or “political speech” and will only use it to prevent terrorism and “serious crimes.” Any country that ignores the declaration will lose access to cyber-tools, according to the document....

It moves so quickly these days that we feel like it’s dragging us along. Technology, of course, bears considerable responsibility. It’s made to make things faster. It’s made to quicken our pulses and our brain workings. It’s made to wreck life as we know it. And so begins my sermon on the 30th anniversary of the SMS. Yes, on December 3 1992, 22-year-old software architect Neil Papworth texted his colleague Richard Jarvis some heartfelt feelings....

As more surgeons use robots in the OR, the approach for training on them and using them needs to be standardized. The truth is that all surgeons aren’t approaching this innovative tech the same way. Standardized best practices are what set surgeons and patients up for success, and will help to make robotic surgery safer in the future. So how do we improve it? There are a handful of new challenges the surgical team faces with robots: how to collaborate, how to coordinate (both the physical setup and the tasks), and how to communicate....

Nobelium, a group Microsoft and CISA believe was behind the massive SolarWinds attack, was found operating a widespread malicious email campaign that used the account of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on mass-mailing service Constant Contact to send infected emails to thousands of recipients. Both Microsoft and CISA released alerts about the attack and the Washington Post as well as the New York Times reported that few, if any, of the malicious emails were opened....

This lifetime e-learning subscription covers the eight most commonly used programs in the Microsoft Office suite: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, OneDrive, OneNote, and Calendar. The courses consist of lessons and quizzes that assess and improve your skills. The more quizzes you take, the more skill points you earn. You can even link your resume to the skills score dashboard so that employers can see that your qualifications are valid....

That means its 100/20Mbps plan will become 300/100Mbps, while the Business Evolve 100/100Mbps plan will become 300/300Mbps, and Small Business Fibre 100/100Mbps will be 500Mbps symmetric. “The fibre build propelled New Zealand’s broadband infrastructure well ahead of that in Australia, the UK and many other countries. However, some countries, where fibre is ubiquitous are starting to pull ahead,” the company said. The upshift could impact up to 600,000 premises, Chorus said....

The Ransomware Payments Bill 2021 was introduced in the House of Representatives on Monday by Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security Tim Watts. According to Watts, such a scheme would be a policy foundation for a “coordinated government response to the threat of ransomware, providing actionable threat intelligence to inform law enforcement, diplomacy, and offensive cyber operations”. The ransom payment notification scheme created by the Bill, Watts said, would be the starting point for a comprehensive plan to tackle ransomware....

Also: CES 2023 tech you can actually buy now HP Dragonfly Pro series Somewhat confusingly, HP’s new Dragonfly Pro series is actually aimed at “freelancers wanting elevated experiences in their hybrid lives”. This is a group, HP says, who require “technology with the power they need for multitasking and heavy workloads coupled with built-in support and services for peace of mind”. Also: CES 2023 preview: 4 big questions that will shape the week So as well as the usual attention to design, ergonomics, performance and battery life, HP has introduced one-touch access to its 24/7 live concierge service, along with optional ’total device protection’ to cover mishaps like liquid spills or cracked screens....

From your laptop to the servers at America’s biggest corporations, everybody needs cybersecurity. That’s doubly true for the government, and as you might imagine, the rules governing their cyber defense workforce are much more stringent. That’s where the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the RMF come into play. Learning about them is one of your first steps toward a career in cybersecurity outside the private sector. Luckily, there’s now a concise way to do just that, thanks to iCollege’s comprehensive course on Risk Management Frameworks....

If you want a lucrative career in the tech industry, there is no longer any reason why you shouldn’t have one. You can take affordable self-paced video courses taught by expert instructors even with no technical background. So if you’d like to train to work in IT, ethical hacking, network security, and more, the 2022 Premium IT Asset & Risk Management Certification Prep Bundle offers a great deal. The “CompTIA ITF+ Fundamentals Exam Essentials” course covers the essential knowledge and skills of advanced computer users and entry-level IT professionals and requires no previous experience....

That turned out to be a poor investment; the battery quickly deteriorated, the Wi-Fi connection was unstable, and, ultimately, the hinge became so loose that the upper half of the laptop detached during a morning commute. Fortunately, today’s $300 Chromebooks yield much better experiences. The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 (2022) is an affordable tablet with a display that’s meant to be detached from its body. I’ve been testing the 2-in-1 over the past month, and while there are a few telltale signs of its budget makeup, I can’t help but fathom how much better my college life would’ve been with it – instead of the Toshiba....

Also: CES 2023 tech you can actually buy now Included in the lineup drop are new models for many of its OLED TV series, including the Z3, G3, and C3 OLED TV series. The upgraded models feature improved panel technology to bring not only brighter color into your home but also improved color accuracy and clarity for a precise picture thanks to an improved AI Picture Pro. In addition to the brighter settings and increased performance, the new lineup will introduce the new a9 AI Processor Gen6 chip into the TVs....

No matter where your imagination took you, it probably looked nothing like LG’s DualUp monitor. LG has been championing the monitor market over the past decade, with its UltraFine brand being many working professionals’ display of choice, and the UltraGear setting up gamers for victory. The DualUp, with its unusual 16:18 aspect ratio, carves out its own path; one that takes your existing knowledge of desktop interaction and compresses it into a square....

Before the conference, Torvalds had spent six days scuba-diving at Bonaire, an island in the Dutch West Indies. Given the choice, he said he’d “rather be diving than going to conferences.” Wouldn’t we all? Torvalds also said that, although he works a lot on the Linux kernel, he’s no workaholic: If you want to know who the real workaholic of the Linux kernel is, Torvalds suggests you look at Greg Kroah-Hartmann, the stable Linux kernel maintainer....

Take a look at the 16-inch MacBook Pro. It comes with 1TB of storage, but if you want to upgrade that to the 2TB drive, that extra 1TB will cost you a whopping $400. Or, to put that another way, if you use that drive to permanently store, say, a 4GB video file, that space is costing you $1.60. Must read: Apple releases massive mystery bug fix update for Macs I’m in the market for a new MacBook Pro as my existing one is getting a bit tired (and the warranty will expire soon), so I’ve been looking at what Apple has to offer....

Chase and Marriott Bonvoy announced Thursday that the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card will now earn 3x points per dollar at grocery stores, gas stations, and restaurants, on the first $6,000 spent each year. Cardholders can also earn 3 Free Night Awards (valued up to 50,000 points each) after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first three months. In addition, earning Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status will be a bit faster; the card will now earn one Elite Night credit for every $5,000 spent with the card....

The Complete Cartoon Animator 4 Pro Windows Bundle gives you everything you need to start animating, with both tools and training in one bundle. But act fast, as this price drop will only be available through December 31st. To begin with, the bundle comes with Cartoon Animator 4 Pro. Formerly CrazyTalk Animator, one of TopTenReviews’ choices for Best 2D Animation Software, this package is designed to get beginners animating quickly....

While we saw a real-world demo of Matter implemented at IFA 2022, we still haven’t had a Matter product hit the market yet, so it has continued to sound more like dream than reality, until now. Matter is the new connectivity standard created by the CSA as an effort to tear down interoperability walls between manufacturers of the IoT.

It suddenly had an even more captive market, prepared to pay a little bit more just to get familiar food quickly. Soon, though, inflationary pressures loomed and prices accelerated. This is a little uncomfortable for a brand that has always claimed to represent value. But what can any fast-food purveyor do to make customers feel even a little better? How about making them believe that none of the bad stuff ever happened?...

“The one pattern that we’ve pulled out so far is that cloud’s positive impacts are for firms in outer regional Australia or remote Australia,” Productivity Commissioner Catherine de Fontenay said at the Economic Implications of the Digital Economy Conference on Wednesday. The pattern was found as part of a study conducted by the Productivity Commission into whether cloud technology is associated with higher firm turnover per worker and higher wages per worker....