Wednesday Newsbytes: The “I Can’t Believe He’s Gone” Facebook Scam; 26 Billion Records Exposed Online: Windows 11 Patch Fails to Install; Windows 12 May Force Major Changes to PCs… and more!
Every day we scan the tech world for interesting news in the world of technology and sometimes from outside the world of technology. Every Wednesday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Wednesday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
“I Can’t Believe He’s Gone” Scam On Facebook: What It It And And How To Protect Yourself From It
Scammers use fake news articles to trick Facebook users into following links
The internet lurks with dangers, and a new “I can’t believe he’s gone” scam preys on emotions on Facebook. Exploiting grief and loss, it lures clicks with fake obituaries mimicking prominent news brands, like the BBC.
Clicking on the provided link in the scam directs users to a compromised website designed to collect personal information. To avoid falling prey to such malicious activities, it is essential to exercise caution online and verify the legitimacy of unexpected or distressing posts, especially those related to personal emergencies.
Marijus Briedis, cybersecurity expert at NordVPN, explained in a blog post that the scam consists of a post containing some variation of ‘I can’t believe he’s gone. I’ll miss him so much’ and a link.
“When you come across unexpected or alarming posts, especially those about personal emergencies, take a moment to verify their legitimacy before clicking any links,” he said.
“Clicking the play button takes you through several redirects, very likely to perform fingerprinting, where sites gather information about your browser, your location, and other sites you’ve visited. The scammers do this to make sure you are redirected to a site that is likely to generate the most profit from people fitting your profile…
26 billion records exposed online in biggest data leak ever — what to do now
Even if you’re super careful online, your personal and financial information can be exposed in a data breach. Sometimes though, hackers compile credentials and information from past breaches and put it all together to make it easier to use in their attacks.
As reported by Cybernews, this is exactly what happened with a new, supermassive Mother of all Breaches (MOAB) which contains 26 billion records or 13 terabytes of data taken from previous leaks, breaches and hacked databases. In a recent investigation alongside cybersecurity researcher Bob Dyachenko, the news outlet discovered all of these exposed records on an open instance.
While the owner of all this stolen data may never be identified, Cybernews’ security researchers believe they could be a hacker, a data broker or even some other service that works with large amounts of data.
Even though this MOAB doesn’t appear to be made up of new data, you could still be at risk online as a result. Here’s everything you need to know about this new data leak and how to see if you’re affected…
Patch KB5034123 is spewing out the usual unhelpful error codes that mean nothing
Windows 11’s latest patch, the cumulative update for January, is failing to install for some users, and compounding the misery is that the reason for this spanner in the works can’t be discerned.
This is update KB5034123 and the trouble is that the installation process is failing, in some cases repeatedly, with the usual unhelpful error codes.
As Windows Latest pointed out, some of those include error ‘0x80188309’ and apparently more common is ‘0x800f081f’, although whatever string of characters happens to be spewed out, it’s unlikely to be of any use.
The only thing to be done with these stop codes is to search the web for them and see if there are any mentions of the specific issue in question, and possible workarounds or solutions, but in this case, there’s no apparent cause yet pinpointed.
There are reports of installation failure with Windows 11’s January update across Microsoft’s Feedback Hub and Reddit, and Windows Latest noted that it has received a bunch of reports from ‘many users’ claiming that it’s ‘nearly impossible’ to install KB5034123.
There are also some folks who are reporting that they are getting the same type of failure, namely that the update starts to download, reaches partway through (25% in many cases), and then Windows Update comes up with a failure message…
Windows 12 may force a major change for new PCs
Newer generations of computers are expected to be “AI PCs,” and several suppliers have been preparing new products with high-powered specifications that match those industry promises.
Recent news indicates that Microsoft plans to increase the minimum specifications for its upcoming Windows 12 operating system, which is expected to be released in 2024. According to a report by industry analyst Trendforce, the tech company will up the base memory requirement on Windows 12 to 16GB in accordance with its standard for running its AI assistant Copilot at minimum efficiency.
The report added that Microsoft’s updated hardware specifications will indicate which computers will count as an AI PC.
There’s much to infer from this specifications update. In the past, computers had fairly low minimum requirements for running new system versions. Windows 11 requires 4GB of memory to run and update, while Windows 10 requires 1GB of memory for a 32-bit machine or 2GB of memory for a 64-bit computer.
Other experts note that Windows 10 remains the most widely used version of Microsoft systems, while Windows 11 has gradually gained adoption, primarily when users buy new computers. This has been the pattern even though most devices on the market are compatible for a Windows 11 upgrade.
With the current trends, the industry is likely betting on consumers purchasing fresh Windows 12 devices rather than updating to the operating system anyway. From the looks of it, older models will likely not have compatibility beyond memory. Trendforce notes that this standard might force computer manufacturers to make 16GB memory the new standard for entry-level products…
Microsoft is adding a Windows 11 feature that makes accessing your phone’s photos even easier
Spilling the goss might get so much easier
A new feature is coming to Windows 11 that will make transferring screenshots from your phone to your PC much easier. Thanks to testing being done by Microsoft, you should soon have the ability to access and edit your screenshots from your phone directly on your PC.
The Windows Insider Program for Developers is a channel that receives experimental builds of Windows 11 that represent any upcoming updates or new features that Microsoft plans to implement in the near future, in order to gather feedback before pushing features to the public version.
When enabled in the Dev Channel, the Windows 11 Build 23619 now has a ‘Cross-Device Experience Host update’ that will replace the existing Phone Link feature, using this new feature instead to connect your phone and your PC.
Once your phone is connected, every time you take a screenshot on your phone a little pop-up will appear in your desktop notifications. You’ll then have to option to view, edit or share your screenshot straight from your PC.
Simple and smooth sharing
I’m pretty excited for the feature to officially arrive in the public build of Windows…
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope these articles were informative, interesting, fun, and helpful. Darcy & TC
AS to the data breach, I checked my email and it had been found on 17 different sites. However, I no longer use those sites and had removed them from my LastPass long ago. I still changed my email password. Am I ok?
You should change your email address since your email found on the dark wen. Changing your password will stop hackers from logging into your email account but nothing said your password was found on the dark web right? If your email address was found on the dark web that means it’s for sale to spammers now.