Articles by Peter Suciu

There's a new trailer for Battlefield V, the World War II first-person shooter Electronic Arts released last year, highlighting the game's Chapter 5: War in the Pacific. The trailer, released Wednesday, previews team-based gameplay in settings ranging from Europe to the South Pacific War in the Pacific is a free download that will be available on O...

Unmanned aerial vehicles -- or "drones" as these flying objects more commonly are known -- pose a growing danger, cybersecurity expert Kevin Townsend recently warned in a guest post for Avast The drone category is broad -- it includes toys for hobbyists, tools for commerce, and devices used for a variety of military purposes. They range in size fro...

As part of National Cyber Security Awareness Month or NCSAM, the National Cyber Security Alliance is advising all computer users to "Protect IT" by taking precautions such as updating to the latest security software, Web browser, and operating system The nonprofit public-private partnership, which works with the Department of Homeland Security as w...

NBCUniversal last week named Matt Strauss, a longtime executive at Comcast Corporation -- the parent company of NBCUniversal since 2011 -- to oversee its new Peacock streaming service set to launch in April. Strauss most recently served as executive vice president at Comcast, where he oversaw Comcast's video, Internet, and voice services NBCUnivers...

Dish Network and Fox Corporation were able to come to terms last weekend, ending the blackout of Fox-owned-and-operated local stations, as well as FS1, FS2, BTN, Fox Soccer Plus, and Fox Deportes. The blackout of those channels, which began late last month, was notable for its timing. The fall college and professional seasons had just begun -- as well as the new fall season of prime-time programming on Fox...

Stopping cyberattacks requires diligent behavior. One of the themes of this year's National Cyber Security Awareness Month, or NCSAM, is that all computer users should take steps to Secure IT That means shaking up the passphrase protocol by using not just strong passwords but strong and unique passphrases....

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), and one of the prongs in the three-part theme is for all computer users to "Own IT." This means staying safe on social media, updating privacy settings, and keeping tabs on apps. Simply put, users need to take better ownership of their data and their online presence as part of daily safe cyber practices...

Cybersecurity should be a concern for all businesses -- large and small. Cybersecurity also should be a concern for consumers, government agencies, and basically anyone who relies on the Internet in our increasingly connected world To cite two high-profile examples of mass cybercrime, some 3 billion Yahoo accounts were hacked in 2016, and 412 milli...

Smartwatches outsold traditional watches in the fourth quarter of 2018. The category saw a 51 percent increase in dollar sales for last year, along with a 61 percent increase in unit sales, according to recent data from NPD Group. One in four Americans aged 18 to 34 now owns a smartwatch, and that is likely to increase Traditional watches did regai...

At Apple's annual new products and devices event earlier this week, CEO Tim Cook told the crowd gathered at its Cupertino headquarters that the new Apple TV+ streaming service will be available for US$4.99 per month. Consumers who buy a new iPad, iPhone, or Apple laptop will receive a year of the subscription-based streaming video service for free ...

Users of a multi-cloud storage strategy may be twice as likely to face a security breach as those that use hybrid or single clouds, suggests a report by UK-based security specialist Nominet released this week Fifty-two percent of survey respondents who adopted a multi-cloud approach suffered a data breach over the past 12 months, compared to 24 per...

Verizon, the No. 1 mobile carrier in the United States, this week introduced a free version of its robocall-blocking app, which will be standard on all new Android devices. The company further announced that it will auto-enroll eligible Android users to its Call Filter service and block what are seen as "high-risk" calls This includes calls from nu...

Consumers could suffer from sticker shock when it comes time to buy a 5G-enabled phone, suggests a new report from IHS Markit, based on a poll conducted in the United States Although consumers expect to pay more money for 5G smartphones, the prices may exceed their expectations dramatically, with some devices selling for as much as 29 times more th...

YouTube, which operates as one of Google's subsidiaries, is under increased scrutiny after a New York Times report earlier this month highlighted the role it played in the recent presidential election in Brazil Among the concerns the paper highlighted is YouTube's installation of a new artificial intelligence (AI) system that can track user behavio...

The latest Windows 10 update from Microsoft hasn't gone smoothly for many users due to a conflict with an outdated driver for Intel's Rapid Storage Technology. This is somewhat ironic in that RST was designed to improve the performance of storage hardware. Certain versions have slowed the installation process, and in some cases, the program actually has made the installation of the Version 1903 Windows 10 update impossible...

United Airlines this week announced that it would begin rolling out Clear's biometric prescreening at its hub airports, including Newark Liberty International and Houston George Bush Intercontinental. The system works by verifying a flier's fingerprints or eye scan Clear is already available at about 60 locations throughout the United States. It of...

CBS earlier this week went dark across AT&T's U-verse and DirecTV services days after the seven-year contract between the two companies expired. As the two couldn't come to new terms, CBS and its related channels -- including CBSN, CBS Sports, and The Smithsonian Channel -- were blacked out This latest disruption in service affected viewers in majo...

On July 20, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong uttered the now famous line, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind," when he became the first person to set foot on the moon It fulfilled the almost as famous "We choose to go to the moon" line delivered by President John F. Kennedy to a crowd at Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas, on ...

The Federal Trade Commission this week announced its approval of a US$5 billion settlement with Facebook, ending a long-running investigation into the company's privacy practices. The commission's 3-2 vote was along party lines The United States Department of Justice must finalize the settlement before the matter is closed. The DoJ's action will en...

Ravelry, an online knitting community that has more than 8 million members, last month announced that it would ban forum posts, projects, patterns, and even profiles from users who supported President Trump or his administration "We cannot provide a space that is inclusive of all and also allow support for open white supremacy," the administrators ...