Technology news

• Carphone Warehouse breach probed

  09-08-2015 16:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The data watchdog is "making inquiries" after mobile firm Carphone Warehouse said details of up to 2.4 million customers may have been accessed.
  
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• IT worker harvests Facebook users' personal data – video

  09-08-2015 16:00 via feeds.theguardian.com
  Facebook has been urged to tighten its privacy settings after a software engineer was able to obtain data about thousands of users by generating random mobile phone numbers. The developer shows how he harvested the names, profile pictures and other data of users who had linked their mobile phone numbers to Facebook, but had not chosen to make them public Continue reading...
  
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• Wearable tech will transform sport – but will it also ruin athletes' personal lives?

  09-08-2015 14:00 via feeds.theguardian.com
  Much of wearable technology is used to help coaches, trainers and general managers maximize player performance – but athletes want to make sure the line between the personal and the professional doesn’t blurWearable technologies and big-data analytics are enabling coaches, trainers and general managers to analyze previously unquantifiable aspects of athletic performance in fine detail. But as more technology gets strapped on to professional athletes, some are beginning to express concern ove
  
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• Carphone Warehouse database hacked, up to 2.4m affected

  09-08-2015 10:05
  
  Another week, another major hacking attack - this time around it's Carphone Warehouse that's been hit, with information on up to 2.4 million customers potentially at risk and data for some 90,000 credit cards exposed too.Owner Dixons Carphone says the "vast majority" of customers are unaffected, but if you've done business with OneStopPhoneShop.com, e2save.com, Mobiles.co.uk, TalkTalk Mobile, Talk Mobile or Carphone Warehouse then you might be involved."We are, of course, informin
  
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• Carphone Warehouse hackers may have accessed 2.4m customers' data

  09-08-2015 10:01 via feeds.theguardian.com
  Initial investigation suggests customers’ names, addresses, dates of birth and bank details may have been accessed
  The personal data, including bank details, of millions of Carphone Warehouse customers may have been accessed in a “sophisticated cyber-attack”, the retailer has admitted.The high street firm is investigating how hackers breached the IT systems of one of its UK divisions last week, an attack that also affected TalkTalk mobile customers.Continue reading...
  
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• 8 of the best free VPN services

  09-08-2015 09:40
  
  IntroductionDavid Cameron's landslide victory in this year's General Election means that the controversial Snooper's Charter is very much back on the menu in the UK, and the prospect of the government spying on online communications has many citizens understandably worried. There are plenty of ways to try to circumvent any government snooping on you and your family's data, though, and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are among the most affordable and effective ways to do so.Another way they are u
  
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• The sometimes fatal attraction of video games

  09-08-2015 09:30 via feeds.theguardian.com
  As an avid video-game player from his college years, Simon Parkin, author of a new book about gaming culture, was intrigued to discover that they were being blamed for a string of deaths in Asian internet cafes, and that one government had even legislated against them. Can the peculiar form of obsession they inspire in people sometimes prove fatal?
  • Simon Parkin Q&A: ‘Video games are something to educate yourself about, to embrace’Chen Rong-yu died in two places at once. At 10pm on Tu
  
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• ‘Video games are something to educate yourself about, to embrace’

  09-08-2015 09:30 via feeds.theguardian.com
  The author of Death By Video Game, Simon Parkin, on what made him write the book and why he thinks the industry can overcome sexism and racism
  • Death By Video Game extract: The sometimes fatal attraction of video gamesYou’ve forged a successful career writing about gaming culture for publications such as the New Yorker and New Statesman. What made you want to write a book?
  The past few years I’ve been doing a fair bit of reporting about video games, and what particularly interests me are
  
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• Spotlight on… escape games

  09-08-2015 07:59 via feeds.theguardian.com
  Put on your thinking cap for a theatrical Crystal Maze in which you must solve a puzzle or remain locked in a roomWhat are escape games?
  Not for the claustrophobic. You are in a locked room, or series of locked rooms, with a limited amount of time to get out before you are visited by some unpleasant fate: death, permanent incarceration, mild embarrassment at your failure to escape. Extracting yourself involves teaming up with fellow inmates to identify clues and solve various puzzles.Sounds stre
  
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• Seat X-PERIENCE: car review | Martin Love

  09-08-2015 07:00 via feeds.theguardian.com
  Some experiences are best forgotten, but driving Seat’s rugged new 4x4 estate is not one of them
  Price £25,495
  MPG 58.9
  Top speed 129mphThere are a few shameful episodes hiding in my motoring memory bank (the reckless speeding on country roads, the KFC family bucket emptied out of the window at 60mph, the middle finger to that old lady), but this was a real low-point. I’d been on the road all day lugging my daughter’s stuff home from university (where did she get all this junk?) and
  
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• Web's random numbers are too weak

  09-08-2015 05:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The data scrambling systems used by millions of web servers could be much weaker than they ought to be, say researchers.
  
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