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I am doing some clerical work for an insurance adjustor and he has asked that I assist in setting up a system where one email would be sent to 50 recipients. He does not want it done in BCC format as he claims those on the BCC list would be able to discover who the email was sent to. I do not want to make this more difficult than it has to be. He said an email blast program may be the way to go but I know nothing about these. Your advice/assistance is most appreciated.

Theresa and Billy Niedermayer paid an $800 ransom to get precious family photos of their three young boys back from cybercriminals. Their home computer had been seized by one of the more malicious malware programs spreading fast around the world. Ransomware takes computer files hostage. Cybercriminals target photos, videos, spreadsheets, documents, slide presentations — anything that someone will pay to recover. The initial infection takes seconds. In some cases, the malicious software encrypts the files so their owners can no longer read them. The data isn't compromised or removed, just locked down and inaccessible. Try to access them and a...

Alan Turing and the New Emergentists Erik J. Larson February 18, 2015 4:29 AM | Permalink The acclaimed Alan Turing biographical film The Imitation Game is up for multiple Oscars on Sunday. It is a tale of Turing as a tragic hero and misunderstood genius, irascible, certainly idiosyncratic, who insinuates himself into a job interview at Bletchley Park as a self-proclaimed mathematical genius, which later is born out as true. He "invents" the digital computer to solve the decryption challenge posed by the German Enigma machines, and thus saves the Allied powers from Hitler.  The film is a human-interest story,...

The Operation Arid Viper campaign has successfully stolen more than 1 million files with current malware campaigns underway, though it's not the usual suspects, according to Kaspersky Lab and Trend Micro. The Arab-speaking group, with ties to Gaza, have targeted foreign government offices, critical infrastructure, military, universities, and other high-profile targets. The attacks likely occurred starting in mid-2013 and a full investigation into their actions is underway.   "Whoever the real culprits are, it is clear that they are part of the Arab world, evidence of a budding generation of Arab hackers and malware creators intent on taking down their...

Some 5,800 automated tank gauges, which monitor for fuel leaks and other problems with the tanks as well as fuel levels, recently were found sitting wide open on the Internet without password protection, leaving more than 5,000 gas stations in the US vulnerable to attackers who could remotely alter the alarm thresholds to simulate a leak, disrupt the fuel tank operations, and worst-case, wreak havoc by shutting down the gas stations altogether, researchers say. Rapid 7 chief research officer HD Moore says his team scanned for the vulnerable devices after getting a heads up from Jack Chadowitz, president and CEO...

The investigative arm of the Department of Justice is attempting to short-circuit the legal checks of the Fourth Amendment by requesting a change in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. These procedural rules dictate how law enforcement agencies must conduct criminal prosecutions, from investigation to trial. Any deviations from the rules can have serious consequences, including dismissal of a case. The specific rule the FBI is targeting outlines the terms for obtaining a search warrant. It's called Federal Rule 41(b), and the requested change would allow law enforcement to obtain a warrant to search electronic data without providing any specific...

Adobe on Saturday released an updated version of its Flash player software that patches an undisclosed vulnerability which could allow remote attackers to take control of Macs or PCs, urging users to update as the problem is being actively exploited by malicious actors. Flash versions up to and including 16.0.0.287 on OS X and Windows and 11.2.202.438 on Linux are susceptible to the attack, the cause of which has yet to be detailed. Mac users with Adobe's automatic update feature enabled should begin receiving updates to version 16.0.0.296 immediately, and the company is preparing a standalone patch for manual installation...

“Don’t look now, but Google’s Project Zero vulnerability research program may have dropped more zero-day vulnerabilities—this time on Apple’s OS X platform,” Dan Goodin reports for Ars Technica. “” “In the past two days, Project Zero has disclosed [three] OS X vulnerabilities,” Goodin reports. “At first glance, none of them appear to be highly critical, since all three appear to require the attacker to already have some access to a targeted machine.” ‘Still, the exploits could be combined with a separate attack to elevate lower-level privileges and gain control over vulnerable Macs,” Goodin reports. “And since the disclosures contain proof-of-concept...

Literally every time I work in the computer store, we'll get a customer whose Mac is plagued with problems they don't understand: Their Mac is acting slow. It crashes. And more. And in more cases than not, we find that they've installed a program called MacKeeper. Removing MacKeeper fixes the problem. So what is MacKeeper and why should you avoid it? MacKeeper was originally developed by a company called Zeobit and was sold a couple of years ago to another firm called Kromtech. The software purports to be a suite of more than a dozen individual utilities that are actually...

The perfect desktop is undoubtedly the one you would design yourself. However, lacking the necessary time and expertise, many users hop instead from desktop to desktop desktop with the same enthusiasm as others hop between distros, hoping to find the ideal distribution.In many cases, they never find their ideal, and for good reason -- even the simplest Linux desktop is a mixture of advantages and disadvantages.Here, for example, are some core reasons for both accepting and rejecting the seven leading desktops of today:Cinnamon Leading Advantage: Like MATE, Linux Mint's other desktop, Cinnamon is a classic desktop for GNOME-based applications. However,...

A Favicon. for the "non initiated " that tiny little icon that displays in the address bar whenever a web site provides a the proper file for same. One of my browsers doesnt display a favicon for the drudge report...one has chosen to "adopt" a YAHOO Icon for that site. While I dont necessarily view this ias problematic...it is somewhat of a mystery. anyone have any ideas?

Freeper tech gurus I have a Motorola surfboard that has served me well for 8 years. It is probably Docsis 2.0...... I am topping out at 30 mbps which is good enough. Some internet reports say I can double this speed with a newer Docsis 3.0 modem I get phone calls from Comcast saying I will need this newer type modem or will have trouble with reception due to them upgrading where I am to a docsis 3.0 system. So I need the compatible modem Do I really need the newer 3.0 modem? THANKS!

The world’s largest brick? Photo: Trucktrend In addition to Apple devices, noted security expert and The Mac Hacker’s Handbook co-author Charlie Miller has carried out some fascinating (and potentially terrifying) research into hacking vehicles. Last year, alongside fellow hacker Chris Valasek, Miller demonstrated that it is possible to hijack the steering and brakes of a Ford Escape and Toyota Prius using only a laptop connected to the car. Having done that, he has now moved onto exploring vulnerabilities in other vehicles — including his new 2014 Cherokee jeep. All that research comes at a high price, however, since Miller recently...

During the last few years, the semiconductor industry has been having a harder and harder time miniaturizing transistors with the latest problem being Intel’s delayed roll-out of its new 14 nm process. The best way to confirm this slowdown in progress of computing power is to try to run your current programs on a 6-year-old computer. You will likely have few problems since computers have not sped up greatly during the past 6 years. If you had tried this experiment a decade ago you would have found a 6-year-old computer to be close to useless as Intel and others were...

When asked what he likes best about working for Google, physicist John Martinis does not mention the famous massage chairs in the hallways, or the free snacks available just about anywhere at the company's campus in Mountain View, California. Instead, he marvels at Google's tolerance of failure in pursuit of a visionary goal. “If every project they try works,” he says, “they think they aren't trying hard enough.” Martinis reckons that he is going to need that kind of patience. In September, Google recruited him and his 20-member research team from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and set them...

Summary: Yes, you still can trick Microsoft into giving you security updates for Windows XP. No, it's not a good idea. You are not protected. Perhaps the most popular story I've written for ZDNet was the one explaining how you can hack the registry in Windows XP and trick Windows Update into continuing to send you security updates. The basis of it is that Microsoft has an embedded variant of Windows XP and support doesn't end on that until April 2016. The hack makes XP look like the embedded version. I have maintained a Hyper-V VM on a Windows 8.1...

E-cigarettes may be better for your health than normal ones, but spare a thought for your poor computer – electronic cigarettes have become the latest vector for malicious software, according to online reports. Many e-cigarettes can be charged over USB, either with a special cable, or by plugging the cigarette itself directly into a USB port. That might be a USB port plugged into a wall socket or the port on a computer – but, if so, that means that a cheap e-cigarette from an untrustworthy supplier gains physical access to a device. A report on social news site Reddit...

I am walking through my north London neighbourhood on an unseasonably warm day in late autumn. I can hear birds tweeting in the trees, traffic prowling the back roads, children playing in gardens and Wi-Fi leaching from their homes. Against the familiar sounds of suburban life, it is somehow incongruous and appropriate at the same time. As I approach Turnpike Lane tube station and descend to the underground platform, I catch the now familiar gurgle of the public Wi-Fi hub, as well as the staff network beside it. On board the train, these sounds fade into silence as we burrow...

PowerPoint for iPad is one of the Office apps where Microsoft will now let users create and edit documents for free. In a significant change for its flagship software applications, and a potentially risky move for its business, Microsoft will let users create and edit documents without a paid subscription in its Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps on iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets. The change, announced this morning, makes Microsoft more competitive by eliminating one of the biggest criticisms of the Office apps for iPad — the requirement to pay for an annual Office 365 subscription of...

When was the last time you used your computer's disc drive? What about your DVD player? E-waste is all around us, but as the brilliant Instructables user behind this $60 3D printer proves, there's plenty to be done with it—if you've got some engineering chops. Last week we wrote about the world's smallest 3D printer, which costs less than $300 and prints resin. But an Instructables user named Mikelllc has gone way further, uploading his designs for a 3D printer made from 80 percent recycled e-waste and costing roughly $60. Part of the idea, he writes, is to "help us...