Author: Paul Stradling

Providing IT support and solution to small and medium businesses. Servicing Edinburgh, Livingston, Fife and surrounding areas. Responsive, Flexible, Professional and friendly local support.

Featured Article : What The XXXX Does It All Mean?

Elon Musk has stated that his “𝕏” social media platform will cover the legal expenses and initiate lawsuits on behalf of individuals who have been treated “unfairly “by their employers due to posts or likes on the site, previously known as Twitter. Presumably, he is trying to reinvent champion the platform as a bastion of…
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Tech Insight : What Are 'Deepfake Testers'?

Tech Insight : What Are ‘Deepfake Testers’?

With deepfake’s increasing being circulated and making the news, here we look at what deepfake videos are, why they’re made, and how they (might) be quickly and easily detected using a variety of deepfake detection and testing tools.  What Are Deepfake Videos?  Deepfake videos are a kind of synthetic media created using deep learning and…
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Tech Insight : What Are 'Zero-Day' Attacks?

Tech Insight : What Are ‘Zero-Day’ Attacks?

In this tech insight, we look at what ‘zero-day’ attacks are, then look at some recent high-profile examples and ultimately at what businesses can do to protect themselves from zero-day attacks.  Sophisticated Attacks That Highlight Vulnerabilities  In the ever-evolving landscape of digital threats and cyber warfare, one term often sends chills down the spines of…
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Featured Article: Reddit’s ‘Blackout’ User Protest

Reddit’s ‘Blackout’ User Protest

Following thousands of moderators making their subreddit communities private for 48 hours as a protest, we look at the reasons why, together with the implications for Reddit, its users, and other stakeholders.  What Is Reddit?  Reddit is a social media platform where users can join communities called ‘subreddits’ to share content, participate in discussions, and…
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20 NHS Trusts Shared Personal Data With Facebook

20 NHS Trusts Shared Personal Data With Facebook

An Observer investigation has reported uncovering evidence that 20 NHS Trusts have been collecting data about patients’ medical conditions and sharing it with Facebook.  Using A Covert Tracking Tool  The newspaper’s investigation found that over several years, the trusts have been using the Meta Pixel analytics tool to collect patient browsing data on their websites.…
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New Reports Reveal Two Key Cyber Security Insights

New Reports Reveal Two Key Cyber Security Insights

With phishing attacks being favoured for their effectiveness by attackers and most ransomware attacks now targeting backup storage, we look at what businesses can do to protect themselves.   Spear Phishing Accounted For Two-Thirds Of All Attacks Last Year  A recent report from security provider Barracuda has revealed that although spear phishing attacks make up just…
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New AI That Generates 3-D Models From Text

Tech Insight: New AI That Generates 3-D Models From Text

The Shap-E AI system from OpenAI (creators of ChatGPT) and available for open-source download, can create 3D models from text.  What Is It?  According to the Cornell University researchers behind the system, Shap-E is “a conditional generative model for 3D assets” which, unlike other 3D generative models “generates the parameters of implicit functions that can be rendered as…
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WhatsApp News

Tech News : WhatsApp Wows: One Account Accessible on Multiple Mobile

WhatsApp has announced that it is introducing the ability to use the same WhatsApp account on multiple phones. Message Seamlessly Across All Devices WhatsApp says that this change gives users globally the ability to message seamlessly across all their devices without signing out, and to pick up their chats where they left off. Employees Can…
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Amazon Launches AI App-Building Platform

Tech News : Amazon Launches AI App-Building Platform

Amazon has announced the launch of ‘Amazon Bedrock,’ a new service which it says is the easiest way for customers to build and scale generative AI-based applications using foundation models (FMs).  What Is A Foundation Model (FM)?  A foundation model is an “ultra-large” machine learning model that generative AI uses. FMs, which are machine learning…
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How To Spot Fake Images

How To Spot Fake Images

With deepfake images recently making the news by fooling many people, we look at the issues around fake images and how to spot them.  Recent Examples  The emergence of AI has led to an increasing output of highly convincing fake images/manipulated images/deepfake images (and deepfake videos). Motivations for making these images vary, e.g. entertainment (fun…
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