Enterprise IT leaders prioritise ransomware defence and AI integration for 2025, despite significant gaps in organisational readiness and skills. Read...

Vulnerability can be exploited to gain access to customers` crown jewels. Read...

I have yet to see an OLED gaming monitor go below the $400 mark, and I’ve been on the lookout since almost a year ago. With everything going on in tech and tariffs, I’d say $480 is about as good as you can hope for right now—and if you happen to be in the market right now, Newegg has one for you. This ASRock 27-inch 1440p OLED monitor is on sale for $479.99, a cool 25% off the retail price. This just about hits the baseline for gaming-focused OLED monitors right now, with a 2560×1440 resolution and fast 240Hz refresh rate. That’s far from the fastest on the market, but it’ll make your gaming PC sweat if you try to load up a recent triple-A game with all the graphical fixins. It also offers a little more than just the basics, with USB-C support and a built-in KVM switch, though with just 15 watts of power delivery it’s not an ideal companion for a single-cable laptop setup. However, it is a pretty good pick if you like to play both PC and console games at your desk, thanks to double DisplayPort and HDMI inputs. You also get a standard VESA mount included, in case you want to add on a monitor arm. Overall, at this price, it’s a solid get. Newegg hasn’t put a time limit on this deal, but since it’s currently the cheapest OLED around, I wouldn’t be surprised if it went pretty quickly—so grab it quick if you’re interested. If you’re looking for something else, check out PCWorld’s picks for the best monitors. Get this 27-inch 1440p 240Hz OLED gaming monitor for $480Buy now from Newegg Read...

If you’re concerned that your favorite may be subsumed by the growing wave of AI, Vivaldi would like you to know they plan to resist. Vivaldi, the small Norwegian-made browser which I use as an alternative to more mainstream browsers like Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, said it plans to “choose humans over hype,” in the words of Jon von Tetzchner, the company’s chief executive. “We’re taking a stand, choosing humans over hype, and we will not turn the joy of exploring into inactive spectatorship,” von Tetzchner said in a statement, shared by the company. “Without exploration, the web becomes far less interesting. Our curiosity loses oxygen and the diversity of the web dies.” To be fair, Vivaldi reportedly employs just 150 people. Anthropic, whose AI browser, is one of a number of browsers designed around agentic AI, reportedly employs over well over 1,000 — meaning that it’s possible that VIvaldi’s statement simply means that it lacks the capability to keep up, anyway. On the other hand, Opera (which employs about 600 people and was co-founded by von Tetzchner) has managed to publish several browsers as well as Opera Neon, an agentic browser the company debuted in May. Agentic browsers not only provide access to an AI chatbot, but also use smaller “independent” small-language model (SLM) tools to perform tasks independently, such as researching hotel options for a planned trip. Vivaldi said it will not be using an LLM to add a chatbot, a summarization solution or a suggestion engine “until more rigorous ways to do those things are available.” “If AI contributes to that goal without stealing intellectual property, compromising privacy or the open web, we will use it,” von Tetzchner said in a blog post. “If it turns people into passive consumers, we will not.” In the post, von Tetzchner noted the dangers of AI browsing, such as injecting “AI modes” into Google Chrome which simply copies content from creators’ web sites and presents it as Google’s own, with tiny link icons which connect to the original sites. Microsoft Edge, he said, can be used to summarize the content of a Web page, “reshaping the address bar into an assistant prompt, turning the joy of exploring into inactive spectatorship.” Perplexity’s Comet, The Browser Co. of New York’s Dia, and GenSpark are some of the new browsers which have also chosen an AI path. “The next phase of the browser wars is not about tab speed, it is about who intermediates knowledge, who benefits from attention, who controls the pathway to information, and who gets to monetize you,” von Tetzchner said. Read...

If you’ve been exhausted by the unstoppable deployment of AI chatbots like Microsoft Copilot across your entire PC, be warned: don’t turn on your TV. Samsung said Thursday that it has begun rolling out Copilot to its 2025 lineup of AI-powered TVs, meaning your living room won’t be the escape from AI you might have been hoping for. Samsung’s smart monitors, including the Samsung Smart Monitor M9 (review) — which likewise runs on Samsung’s Tizen operating system — will be getting Copilot, too. Samsung originally announced a partnership with Microsoft at CES in January, saying that Copilot will be used for a “wide range of Copilot services, including personalized content recommendations.” “Copilot is available on 2025 TV models including, Micro RGB, Neo QLED, OLED, The Frame Pro, The Frame,  as well as the M7, M8, and M9 Smart Monitors,” Samsung said. “Availability will expand to additional regions and models over time and may vary by market.” Samsung Samsung says that this will be part of what Samsung calls its Vision AI, which includes Samsung’s own technology as well as Google’s. “With Copilot built into the display, users can access Microsoft’s powerful AI companion through a simple voice command or click of the remote, making it easier to search, learn and engage with content directly from their screens,” Samsung says. What Samsung isn’t doing, however, is building in Google Gemini into its own TVs. Instead, it’s turning to Copilot as the conversational AI built into the TV. Samsung already has its own Bixby voice assistant — which presumably is either being downplayed or is being used to adjust settings and other functions — as well as a Click to Search feature. Copilot will perform the heavy lifting. (Google Gemini is being added to Samsung’s Ballie home robot, however.) “Whether viewers are curious about something they’re watching or looking to explore a topic further, Copilot can respond instantly to share quick facts about actors or athletes, summarize plots, support foreign language learning or help break down complex concepts — all from the largest screen in the user’s home,” Samsung says. Copilot is designed to feel “like an AI companion in your living room,” added David Washington, Microsoft’s partner general manager of AI, in Samsung’s statement. Let’s say you’re disgusted by all of this omnipresent AI and want to ditch Samsung, too. So what you do then? Don’t buy an LG TV. In January, LG said it also plans to integrate Copilot to certain models of its 2025 OLED evo TVs — again not saying which ones. (Presumably, both the Samsung and LG TVs will carry prominent Copilot labeling.) Samsung has been the top-selling TV manufacturer for 19 years, incidentally. Your safest bet? Find a wealthy neighborhood nearby, and pick up a used smart (or dumb) TV from a family who has to have the latest thing. Otherwise, our collective future means working with Copilot all day, settling down on the couch, and then having Copilot chirp, “Hey there — what’s going on?” as the TV powers on. There will be no escape. Read...

Raphaël Graven, also known as Jean Pormanove, died during a live stream on the Kick website. Read...

KnowBe4 has launched a free, multilingual resource kit featuring arcade-style tools to help organisations boost cybersecurity during Awareness Month 2025. Read...

Vibe coding is all the rage among enthusiasts who are using large language models (or “AI”) to replace conventional software development, so it’s not shocking that vibe coding has been used to power ransomware, too. According to one security research firm, they’ve spotted the first example of ransomware powered and enabled by an LLM—specifically, an LLM by ChatGPT maker OpenAI. According to a blog post from ESET Research interviewing researcher Anton Cherepanov, they’ve detected a piece of malware “created by the OpenAI gpt-oss:20b model.” PromptLock, a fairly standard ransomware package, includes embedded prompts sent to the locally stored LLM. Because of the nature of LLM outputs (which create unique, non-repeated results with each prompt), it can evade detection from standardized antivirus setups, which are designed to search for specific flags. ESET elaborates in a Mastodon post, spotted by Tom’s Hardware. PromptLock uses Lua scripts to inspect files on a local system, encrypt them, and send sensitive data to a remote computer. It appears to be searching for Bitcoin information specifically, and thanks to the wide-open nature of the OpenAI model and the Ollama API, it can work on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Because gpt-oss:20b is a lightweight, open-source AI model that can run on local PC hardware, it doesn’t need to call back to more elaborate systems like ChatGPT—and as a result, it can’t be outright blocked by OpenAI itself. It’s written in Golang using Lua scripts, tools that would be familiar to anyone who’s making games in, say, Roblox. The point being that it’s possible PromptLock was created by someone with little-to-no experience in conventional programming. Though the output is variable, the prompts themselves are static, so Cherepanov says that “the current implementation does not pose a serious threat” despite its novelty. “Script kiddies are now prompt kiddies,” said one Mastodon user in reply. Read...

Getting your kids to read can be difficult, but the Kindle Kids can help with that. Since they’re already spending so much time in front of a screen, why not try this kind of screen? The Kindle Kids is a version of the Kindle designed specially for kids, and right now it’s on sale for just $99.99. That’s the cheapest price it’s been since Black Friday! This is the newest Kindle Kids, featuring a 6-inch glare-free E-Ink display that replicates what it’s like to read text on physical paper. It comes with 16GB of storage—plenty of space to store thousands of e-books—and it lasts up to 6 weeks on a full charge. The Kindle Kids has no ads (nice), and you can configure parental controls to keep your children safe from explicit content on the Kindle Store. And since there are no apps, videos, or games, the Kindle Kids really does encourage reading. This Kindle Kids comes with a kid-friendly cover, a robust build, and a two-year worry-free guarantee where Amazon will replace the device for free if your kid somehow manages to break it. Your purchase also comes with six months of an Amazon Kids+ subscription, which provides unlimited access to age-appropriate digital books and graphic novels. Afterwards, it’s only $5.99/month to continue. Reading is a fantastic way to develop a child’s brain, and a Kindle Kids device is one way to encourage more of that. As your kids head back to school, get a Kindle Kids for only $99.99 while you still can! Save 23% on a Kindle Kids and get your kids reading a lot moreBuy now at Amazon Read...

Split keyboards are hard to find, especially if you’re looking for something in the gaming niche, and doubly so if you want something from a mainstream retail store. But we have just such an example available today. First appearing at CES 2025 in January, the Asus ROG Falcata 75% keyboard is now available at Best Buy. The price? An eye-watering $420. This version of the Falcata is an interesting beast. As the full-length title implies, it’s a 75% layout, which basically means laptop-style with a full function row and arrow keys but no numpad. The keyboard’s signature feature is its ability to split in half, separating into two sections tethered by a USB cable. Many typists prefer this option for ergonomic layouts, and gamers like it for similar reasons. Notably, this keyboard is wireless—you still need that cable for the left side of the board, even when it’s positioned in its conventional layout, but Bluetooth, 2.4GHz dongle-based wireless, and standard USB are all options. The rest of the keyboard is a laundry list of in-demand features. PBT keycaps, interior layers of foam, and, of course, RGB lighting are included. You get magnetic Hall effect switches with adjustable actuation, which are hot-swap capable… but exactly how many switch options you’ll have access to aren’t known at the moment. (The ones in the box are linear, pre-lubed, with 49 grams of resistance.) A scroll wheel on the left side can be set to adjust actuation and show results with the LEDs that run along the edge, but thankfully there’s no LCD or OLED screen included, because that would be really dumb. 8K polling is available even in wireless mode, with a maximum battery life of 200 hours. Critically, Asus is not claiming that the ROG Falcata 75% is an ergonomic keyboard. This is, first and foremost, a keyboard for gaming. But it does offer more options than usual for anyone who wants adjustment, as only makes sense for a split design. You get two silicone wrist rests that can be installed and fastened to the split portions of the board, and eight screw-in feet that raise up the keyboard’s back or inner sides, depending on your preference. It’s not a full tenting kit, but it’s a lot more than you get with any conventional keyboard layout. It’s an impressive offering, to be sure… but $420 is a lot for a keyboard in anybody’s money. That’s reaching well beyond even the pricey range of wireless gaming boards from major manufacturers, soaring into the lower portions of custom keyboard designs. And this isn’t the first time Asus has pushed so hard on a super-expensive design.For that money, you could get the well-loved Dygma Raise 2, which includes more ergonomic options (but admittedly doesn’t have wireless at that price, requiring an expensive upgrade). Split keyboard fans are a small but enthusiastic bunch, and they don’t mind spending a lot, but I wonder how much they’d be willing to trust Asus with a first-gen design. Read...