August 2023 blogspot

Forwarding Phishing
More than 7 million suspicious e-mail messages were reported to the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) last year - almost 20,000 per day - and an increase of over 30 per cent from the 2021 total. The figures refer to messages that businesses and individuals forwarded to the NCSC's Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) using the address report@phishing.gov.uk. In 2022, this forwarded mail led to the removal of over 72,000 malicious site URLs used by scammers. In its annual Active Cyber Defence report, the NSCS said it took its experts an average of six hours to take down a site once it had been reported. The NCSC, which is part of GCHQ, launched the reporting service in 2020 during the first Covid lockdown. It received over 5,000 forwarded messages on the first day and over 10 million in the first two years. In total, the NCSC has removed 242,000 malicious URLs since the launch of SERS.
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/phishing-scams/report-scam-email

New-Look Outlook
A new-look Outlook app is coming to windows 11, Microsoft has confirmed. replacing the Mail and calendar apps. Named 'Outlook for Windows', it lets you synchronise your work and personal e-mail messages, calendars and contacts "in one secure place". It is available now in Build 23506, which was released to Windows Insiders in late July and Microsoft will start moving users to the new app this month. There will be a temporary option to go back to the current apps if you prefer the old look to the new look. Microsoft announced the tool as long ago as 2022, claiming it was a "modern and simplified" way to access your messages on Windows 11. At the time it said the tool would be installed on all Windows 11 computers from early 2024 as the default e-mail program. It added that the separate Mail and calendar apps will remain available to download from the Microsoft Store until the end of next year.
https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2023/07/19/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-23506/

Supernova Thunderbird 115
Thunderbird 115 - or Supernova, as Mozilla has named it - is a major refresh of the popular free e-mail client, complete with a new look and logo. It redesigns the program's interface and adds several new features to make Thunderbird faster, smarter and even easier to use. One of the biggest changes is the introduction of a Unified Toolbar, which sits along the top of the main window above the tabs bar. This customisable toolbar lets you add shortcuts to your most frequently used options in different sections, which it calls Spaces. These include Mail, Address Book, Calendar and Settings, and the displayed options will change according to which Space you are using. Other notable improvements include a new Tags section in the Folder sidebar, which lets you quickly filter incoming mail with tags such as Important, Personal and ToDo, plus a revamped Calendar with a condensed 'mini month' layout. Supernova is free to download and available for Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 as well as macOS or Linux.
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-GB/

Boxed Rocks
In 1975, a Californian advertising executive called Gary Dahl was listening to his friends complaining about their pets when he had a brainwave, says Historic Vids on X (formerly Twitter). The perfect non-human companion, he declared, was a rock. It would be cheap as hell, and wouldn’t require “feeding, grooming or attention”. His buddies laughed, but Dahl took his “Pet Rock” idea seriously. He ordered a shipment of large stones from Mexico, packaged them in a cardboard box - complete with straw bedding and “air holes” - and wrote a mock 32-page training manual entitled The Care and Training of Your Pet Rock. They were a hit. Over the next six months, more than 1.5 million Pet Rocks were sold, making Dahl a millionaire.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1684456286870462464

Here's One They Made Earlier
If you're from a certain generation, you might remember Blue Peter's John Noakes using one to make a super-duper rocket, or Valerie Singleton's hotly-desired, yet ultimately rubbish, pencil pot. But the original white Fairy Liquid bottle was phased out ten years ago. Now, vintage Fairy Liquid bottles have become the latest must-have collectable. The iconic white containers with red tops, sold up to 2000, are fetching up to £200 on eBay, says Catherine Lough in The Telegraph. Laura Freeman, writing in The Times commented: “I sense a bubble.” 
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/10/vintage-fairy-liquid-bottles-latest-must-have-collectable/

Previously Unsuitable
The most popular TV programme in America right now appears to be Suits, the previously unloved legal drama starring Meghan Markle. The show, which ran between 2011 and 2019, has been streamed for a record three billion minutes since being added to Netflix in mid-June. It’s funny, says Walt Hickey on Substack and Chuck Newton writing on LinkedIn. Streaming companies spend billions of dollars on new content, yet “the main thing that viewers seem to want is a 134-episode nine-season procedural that ran on basic cable”. 
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chuck-newton-0481a34_suits-success-the-future-of-netflixonomics-activity-7095407672463683584-nAJB

SEARCH ENGINE OF THE MONTH
Founded in 2019, Tempest is an online privacy focused company operating in ten countries across three continents. The company says its new search engine and browser offer innovative solutions for users who value their privacy and security online. Tempest Search, the privacy-focused search engine, aims to eliminate search engine tracking, browser history, and ad re-targeting. Tempest also promises to end "digital echo chambers" and deliver unbiased results. Additionally, Tempest is committed to halting data profiteering by refraining from monitoring or selling user data to third parties. Another unique feature of Tempest is the Privacy Report, which provides a comprehensive analysis of how websites treat our privacy, allowing users to make informed decisions about their online activities.
https://malwaretips.com/threads/meet-tempest-a-new-search-engine-that-doesnt-sell-your-data.122135/