news room – cybernews.pt

The 2026 Retention Revolution: How DigitalLoyaltyCard.io Changed the Game on January 1st

news room — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 12:32:53 +0000

The calendar flip to January 1st didn’t just mark a new year; for smart retailers and small businesses, it marked the official end of the “plastic card” era. Since the beginning of the year, a new standard has been emerging in the customer retention space, driven by DigitalLoyaltyCard.io.

If you have been following the retail tech landscape since the start of the month, you’ve likely noticed a shift away from clunky, standalone apps towards seamless integration. Here is why this platform has been the talk of the industry since the year began.

The “No-App” Ecosystem

The most disruptive feature that has set DigitalLoyaltyCard.io apart since Jan 1 is its refusal to force an app download. The platform allows businesses to issue branded loyalty cards directly into the customer’s Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.

For the end-user, it is frictionless. For the business, it removes the biggest barrier to entry: the “I don’t have space on my phone” objection.

Features Driving the 2026 Shift

Since rolling out this strategy at the start of the year, businesses are leveraging a suite of high-tech tools that were previously only available to enterprise giants:

1. Geo-Location Push Notifications (Geo PUSH) Imagine a customer walking within 100 meters (330 feet) of a coffee shop or retail store. Their phone buzzes—not with a text message, but with a native Wallet notification reminding them they are only one stamp away from a free reward. This “virtual perimeter” has turned passive foot traffic into active retention.

2. RFM Segmentation & Automation Data has been the buzzword since Jan 1. The platform doesn’t just count stamps; it analyzes RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary value).

Automated Retention: If a regular customer hasn’t visited in 30 days, the system automatically sends a “We miss you” offer.
Smart Offers: It distinguishes between a “whale” spender and a bargain hunter, sending personalized offers that actually convert.

3. The PWA Scanner (Hardware-Free) Gone are the days of buying expensive proprietary tablets. The system uses a Progressive Web App (PWA) Scanner. Any staff member’s smartphone can instantly become a terminal to award points or redeem vouchers, drastically lowering the overhead costs for businesses starting their Q1 journey.

4. Viral Referral Programs The platform turns loyal customers into advocates. The built-in referral system allows users to share their digital card link with friends. When the friend joins, both parties get rewarded—creating a self-sustaining growth loop that requires zero ad spend.

Why It Matters Now

The trajectory set on January 1st is clear: privacy, convenience, and automation. By eliminating the physical waste of plastic and the digital waste of unused apps, DigitalLoyaltyCard.io is positioning itself as the operating system for modern customer loyalty.

For businesses that made the switch at the start of the year, the data is already showing results: up to 2X customer retention and a 30% increase in revenue.

The Bottom Line: If your Q1 strategy still involves paper punch cards or asking customers to download an obscure app, you are already behind. The revolution started on Day 1 of 2026—it’s time to get your brand into the customer’s wallet.

The Importance of Information & Cyber Security Awareness

news room — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 18:52:21 +0000

Many businesses confuse Information Security and Cyber Security, using the terms interchangeably. While Information Security covers the protection of all data (physical, digital, and intellectual), Cyber Security focuses specifically on safeguarding digital systems from threats like hacking and phishing. Effective security is not just an IT issue—it requires leadership support, clear roles, and a security-conscious culture. Organizations that proactively integrate security into their operations are far more resilient than those that react only after a breach.

A strong security awareness program is essential, as human error remains the biggest risk. Training should be continuous, engaging, and role-specific, incorporating simulated attacks and real-world scenarios to prepare employees for evolving threats. While not legally required, compliance with GDPR, NIS Regulations, and ISO 27001 strengthens business resilience. Prioritizing security not only protects sensitive information but also builds trust and safeguards a company’s reputation.

A Trump. A Dead Duck. And an Uproar in Italy.

news room — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 14:00:45 +0000

Trump

Europe|A Trump. A Dead Duck. And an Uproar in Italy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/world/europe/donald-trump-jr-duck-hunting-italy.html

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A video shows Donald Trump Jr. sitting in hunting gear beside a dead protected bird. Italian lawmakers want answers.

A flag flutters on the island of Sant’Erasmo near Venice, Italy, in December.Credit…Andrea Merola/EPA, via Shutterstock

Feb. 4, 2025

President Trump has enraged his opponents in the United States by pardoning Jan. 6 defendants, investigating his enemies and revoking security clearances. But in Italy, it is a different Trump who has set off a furor, wearing a camouflage beanie and sitting in a hole in the ground.

Italian lawmakers have accused Donald J. Trump Jr., the president’s son, of hunting a protected duck in Venice’s lagoon.

“It is morally despicable,” Luana Zanella, a lawmaker in Italy’s parliament said on Tuesday. “And it’s a crime.”

The fury among environmental activists in Venice started on Monday, when they obtained a video showing a group of hunters, including Mr. Trump, shooting ducks in the Venice lagoon. In a clip, which they shared with The New York Times, Mr. Trump, an avid hunter, is hiding among tall grass beside a pile of dead ducks, and describes his prey as an action movie soundtrack plays in the background.

“This is a rather uncommon duck for the area,” he says, pointing at a copper colored duck corpse at his left. “Not even sure what it is in English.”

Others were more sure.

“It’s a ruddy shelduck,” said Andrea Zanoni, a regional lawmaker in the northern Veneto region. “And you cannot hunt it.”

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WhatsApp Spyware Attack Targets 90 Journalists and Activists Worldwide

news room — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 15:29:07 +0000

A recent cyberespionage campaign has exposed a severe security threat to journalists and activists across more than 20 countries, including several in Europe. The attack, attributed to the deployment of advanced spyware, highlights the growing risks posed by cyber surveillance tools against civil society members.

Spyware Attack Using WhatsApp

Meta-owned WhatsApp detected and blocked an extensive spyware operation in December 2024. The spyware, identified as Graphite, was developed by Israeli cyber intelligence firm Paragon Solutions. Attackers leveraged malicious PDF files shared in WhatsApp group chats to infiltrate and gain unauthorized access to victims’ devices.

Upon detecting the attack, WhatsApp promptly alerted affected users and issued a cease-and-desist notice to Paragon Solutions. The company is also evaluating legal action against the spyware vendor for facilitating these breaches.

Notable Victims and Impact

Among those targeted was Francesco Cancellato, editor-in-chief of Italian investigative news outlet Fanpage. Cancellato, who has extensively reported on extremist elements within Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, was informed by WhatsApp of the potential compromise of his device.

The attack underscores the widespread use of spyware tools to surveil journalists and activists who expose corruption, human rights abuses, and government overreach.

Paragon Solutions and the Ethical Dilemma

Paragon Solutions presents itself as a cybersecurity defense firm, claiming its software is designed for lawful intelligence gathering. However, the use of Graphite in this attack raises serious concerns about the ethical implications of commercial spyware. The company was recently acquired by the U.S.-based private equity firm AE Industrial Partners, adding to debates on the global oversight of surveillance technology.

Ongoing Concerns Over Spyware Misuse

This latest incident reignites discussions on the regulation of spyware tools and their potential for misuse against journalists and human rights defenders. Organizations advocating for press freedom and digital security have called for stronger international laws to prevent unauthorized surveillance.

WhatsApp’s swift intervention in this case highlights the importance of proactive cybersecurity measures. However, with spyware technology evolving rapidly, journalists, activists, and civil society members remain at high risk of digital espionage.

Protecting Digital Communications

To mitigate the risks of spyware attacks, experts recommend the following security measures:

Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) on messaging platforms.
Avoid opening suspicious files or links, especially from unknown contacts.
Regularly update software and operating systems to patch vulnerabilities.
Use encrypted communication tools like Signal for sensitive conversations.
Monitor device activity for unusual behavior, such as sudden battery drain or unauthorized access attempts.

As cyber threats continue to escalate, safeguarding digital privacy remains a critical priority for journalists and activists worldwide.

Tariffs: Aiming at Mexico, Hitting Ourselves

news room — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:37:26 +0000

Trump

Tariffs: Aiming at Mexico, Hitting Ourselves

Economic policies often fail to produce the desired results. President Trump’s new tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports have a chance to accomplish something rarer. They are so badly misconceived that they may achieve the opposite of the president’s stated goals.

There are many reasons to regret Trump’s latest experiment with his favorite form of foreign policy bullying, but let’s focus on three.

Prices are headed up:

The United States is not imposing a tariff on Mexico and Canada; it is taxing Mexican and Canadian goods when they are brought into the United States. And retailers have made clear that consumers are likely to pay the price.

Consider the avocado, the official fruit of Super Bowl Sunday. Mexico supplies up to roughly 90 percent of the avocados that Americans eat. The U.S. will now collect a 25 percent tax on Mexican avocados. It’s not a high-margin business, so importers will have little choice but to increase the prices they charge.

It bears emphasis that higher prices are not an unfortunate side effect of tariffs. The whole point is to raise prices on imports so that American companies can charge higher prices, too.

Tariffs, when applied surgically, can protect the development of emerging or strategic industries. Trump’s indiscriminate tariffs are simply going to raise prices for consumers already battered by years of above-average inflation.

Some U.S. manufacturers will suffer:

American companies have invested a lot of money in Canadian and Mexican factories. They draw deeply on Canadian and Mexican suppliers. Cars, especially, are not just built in the United States. They are built in North America.

This multinational manufacturing system helps American companies to compete with firms in China and other parts of the world. It is true that some factory jobs have moved from the United States to Mexico. It is also true that some share of the factory jobs still in the United States depend on the existence of factory jobs in Mexico.

Economic pain can spur migration:

Trump says Mexico isn’t trying hard enough to prevent people from entering the United States. But the new tariffs could do serious damage to the Mexican economy, and past economic downturns in Mexico have spurred migration to the United States. As life in Mexico gets less pleasant, moving to the United States becomes more attractive. It can also reduce Mexico’s appeal as a destination for other Latin American migrants.

Trump has long regarded tariffs as a miracle cure, and he has not been fazed by the failure of his first-term trade policies. Unless he backs down, the damage this time could be worse.

A Terrible Silence

I was about to start celebrating my birthday. But instead, I ran a mile through the snow to the 14th Street Bridge.

There was a plane down in the Potomac, amid all our pacific marble monuments.

I was working as a reporter at the Time magazine D.C. bureau that snowy January night in 1982, and I ran and slipped and slid through the frosted downtown streets in my fancy Italian stiletto boots. Once I reached the bridge, I asked a policeman if I could sit in his car for a few minutes to ward off frostbite.

A plane had gone into the Potomac shortly after taking off from Washington National Airport, as it was known then. The Air Florida Boeing 737-200 jet, with 74 passengers and five crew members on board, had fallen victim to a series of pilot errors. The crew had failed to properly clear the ice from the wings and failed to abandon takeoff even though they had detected a problem with the plane’s power. It fell out of the gray mist, crashing through several cars and a truck on the bridge, shearing off 97 feet of guardrail, disappearing into the frozen Potomac. It sank beneath the ice floes with only the tail still showing. Divers found many of the passengers still strapped in their seats. Only four passengers and a flight attendant survived. Four motorists on the bridge died and one passenger who initially survived drowned trying to save others.

I was remembering that dreadful January night as I watched the TV coverage of the Army helicopter that collided with an American Airlines jet arriving from Kansas on Wednesday, with 67 people dead — including the three soldiers on the Black Hawk and a vibrant group of young U.S. and Russian figure skaters on the plane. There were no survivors. Experts, like Captain Sully, talked about the trickiness of flying low over water at night. “Nighttime always makes things different about seeing other aircraft — basically all you can do is see the lights on them,” he said.

Once more, it looked like human error. This time, the initial reporting indicated, the helicopter may have been flying higher than its approved flight zone, and there was a paucity of staffing at the airport’s air traffic control tower.

I was haunted by the echoes of the Air Florida crash. A reporter who covered that earlier disaster wrote a story at the time that captured a chilling aspect of a wintry crash into the Potomac.

Writing on the front page of The New York Times, David Shribman pointed out that the horror of the scene was amplified by the silence that followed the deafening roar of the plane falling out of the sky.

The plane’s engine drowned out the sound of screaming from the motorists on the bridge. And then there was a profound hush once Air Florida’s Flight 90 skidded and sank into the water.

“There were no sounds of panic, only an eerie silence and long, slender fissures in the ice, all pointing to a torn oval of water,” Shribman wrote.

The river swallowed up everything. The pain was frozen and mute.

The same shocking stillness happened Wednesday night with the plane arriving from Wichita. There was a fiery collision and then the Potomac became an icy morgue. Terror and death were muffled by frozen water. The sound of silence was unbearably sad.

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The Hearing Confirmed That Kennedy Is Trump’s Kind of Guy

The final push from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. toward becoming overseer of America’s health care system got off to a spicy start on Wednesday in his opening hour before the Senate Finance Committee. There were protesters. A threat to bring in the police. A fiery performance from the usually low-key Michael Bennet!

Dramatic value aside, the early back-and-forth also supported the widespread assumption heading into this confirmation: Regardless of how rough the confirmation questioning gets or how squirrelly Kennedy’s answers, the Republican majority will jam him on through.

The panel’s Democratic members came out swinging, confronting Kennedy with his controversial, at times contradictory, statements on everything from vaccines to abortion access. Republicans, in turn, mostly steered hard toward issues that were more generic — or at least far afield of Kennedy’s trouble spots: department transparency, pharmacy benefit managers and, somewhat peculiarly, children inappropriately placed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Kennedy’s performance was notably unsteady. Yes, he has a neurological condition that makes his voice raspy, but he also seemed a little shaky and decidedly nervous. He got some stuff wrong. And he repeatedly let himself get sucked into trying to deny or explain away questionable statements for which the Democrats had brought the receipts. As this process rolls on, someone might want to remind him of Ronald Reagan’s observation that “if you’re explaining, you’re losing.” The periodic outbursts from the audience weren’t helping his flow.

But at this point, whether Kennedy can explain himself coherently, much less convincingly, may not matter. If the president is thinking of his cabinet secretaries more as entertaining front men and women than as top-tier leaders or managers, then Kennedy fits the bill better than most: He’s a celebrity, he’s generally pretty charismatic, he’s into performative masculinity, he is thirsty for attention, he’ll say pretty much anything …

As for the weirder elements of Kennedy’s record, it’s hard to see Republican senators getting all that worked up about the things like the bear carcass or the conspiracy theories involving the C.I.A. or his disrespectful treatment of women or his youthful delight (per his cousin) in puréeing small creatures to feed his pet falcon. If anything, those tendencies just make him seem more on brand for Trump world. And, as Pete Hegseth’s confirmation showed, Trump world is eager to steamroller over the concerns and objections of even Republican senators.

Kennedy is a first-class disrupter — and one willing to change his shape as Trump sees fit. He could have 30 bear heads in his freezer and a dozen manifestoes denouncing modern medicine, and my money would still be on his getting confirmed.

What It Would Take to Build Trump’s Iron Dome Over America

With one of his new executive orders on Monday, President Trump called for the construction of an Iron Dome-like defense shield over the United States.

It may sound like a good idea to anyone who has watched footage over the years of Israeli interceptors blasting apart rockets and missiles fired into that country by regional foes. But in practical terms, Israel is the size of New Jersey, and the missiles fired into Israel are often unguided, slow-moving projectiles lobbed from nearby — not the world-spanning missiles U.S. military planners fear most.

It’s cat-and-mouse, but simply put: It’s cheaper, quicker and easier to build missiles and offensive systems than it is to intricately engineer a shield to defeat them. It’s difficult work to develop the radars, sensors, interceptors and associated systems that detect, track and engage flying missiles. It’s even more complex to hit a ballistic missile as it zips more than 14,000 miles per hour. The metaphor most often used in military circles when it comes to shooting down an intercontinental ballistic missile with an interceptor is “hitting a bullet with a bullet.”

The United States has spent roughly $300 billion on a range of missile defense systems over the past four decades. The military has achieved remarkable success in developing short- and midrange defense systems that can defend troops on the battlefield or at sea. But when it comes to defending the homeland, the United States has yet to develop anything reliable.

America’s current program of record against ICBMs, known as Ground-based Midcourse Defense, hinges upon just 44 long-range interceptors installed in silos in Alaska and California. The system is designed to blast apart a handful of missiles launched by a rogue actor, like North Korea or Iran. Recent government figures show it has a roughly 50 percent success rate in tests.

An adversary like Russia or China could easily overpower defenses by firing hundreds of missiles, each of which could spray decoys and countermeasures to confuse defenses. Warheads are certain to slip through the most capable shields in existence today. (Russia explicitly built a new generation of nuclear-capable missiles and delivery systems to breach America’s global network of early warning and defense systems.)

To build an actual “Iron Dome for America,” the Pentagon would likely have to blanket space with satellites and the homeland with sensors and missile batteries if the United States were to be confident in stopping such attacks. The executive order directs the Pentagon to submit an implementation plan for the shield within 60 days, which should include “space-based interceptors” and a strategy to fund the program before next year’s budget is finalized. It could mark the beginning of a gold rush for contractors.

It’s telling that Trump’s order mentions President Ronald Reagan’s space-based missile defense program. Billions of taxpayer dollars went to contractors for more than a decade before the technological realities set in and the program was canceled.

However, it’s also true that the program spooked the Soviet Union leadership into diplomatic engagement with Reagan in a series of arms-control talks. Those conversations led to bilateral treaties, which ultimately reduced tensions and slashed both nations’ nuclear weapons stockpiles. Let’s hope history can repeat itself four decades later.

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DeepSeek’s Two Seismic Possibilities for American A.I.

Last week, something potentially enormous happened for artificial intelligence: The Chinese company DeepSeek released an open-source, free-to-use reasoning model that is — by crude measures, at least — on par with the best American equivalents. In its announcement DeepSeek offered one cost estimate: Its new R1 model was built for one-thirtieth the cost of OpenAI’s flagship product.

Presumably, in the weeks ahead, geek specialists will be chewing over the claims that R1 was so cheap to produce and that it performs roughly as well as the best-in-class models. But already R1 looks like an earthquake, generating a storm of debate over the weekend, rattling the whole stock market this morning and suggesting two truly seismic possibilities about the technological future on which so much of the American economy has recently been wagered.

The first possibility is that the much-ballyhooed American advantage on A.I. may be much smaller than has been widely thought. Just a few weeks ago, the venture capitalist, President Trump supporter and futurist Marc Andreessen — who spent the Biden years lamenting how far behind America had fallen on building big new things — was consoling himself that the country still had a massive lead on A.I. Last week he called R1 “one of the most amazing and impressive breakthroughs I’ve ever seen.” The A.I. analyst Zvi Mowshowitz quickly called it “the first serious challenge to OpenAI’s o1.”

(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied the suit’s claims.)

The second, related possibility is that the R1 breakthrough calls into question the whole approach to improving performance by building out ever-larger and more expensive data centers for training — an approach that has dominated work on A.I. in America for years and explains, among other eye-popping recent pledges, the announcement at the White House last week of up to $500 billion in investment in A.I. infrastructure by a new consortium called Stargate.

The basic gamble is that the returns to best-in-class A.I. will be so enormous that they will justify whatever it takes to cross that threshold — in terms of energy demand and water use, in terms of intellectual property and, particularly and most mercenarily, in terms of sheer spend.

Even before the DeepSeek breakthrough, there were growing questions about that. In June, David Cahn at Sequoia Capital called it “A.I.’s $600B Question,” and Jim Covello of Goldman Sachs, who estimated $1 trillion would soon be spent on A.I. infrastructure, suggested the benchmark figure was even higher.

In America, those most frustrated with the sorry state of our infrastructure and how little seems to ever get built like to emphasize the high cost of subway construction, pointing out that cities in Europe can produce impressive additions for far less. In the past few years, there is nothing the American economy has tried harder to do than engineer progress in A.I.; the Chinese appear, if the claimed price is close to accurate, to have almost matched that progress at a small fraction of the cost.

The Oscar Nominations Are a Sign Hollywood Still Wants to Counter Conservative Cultural Vibes

When I heard that the comedic actors Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott were chosen to announce Thursday morning’s Oscar nominations, I suspected that their presentation would provide a sort of rebuke to the bro-y, conservative vibe shift we’re all living through. Yang and Sennott came up through independent comedy and podcasting in New York — something that Sennott quipped about during their presentation: “For those of you who don’t know, the alt comedy scene is sort of like regular comedy but for women and gay people.”

The nominations further confirmed my suspicions that Hollywood’s first impulse is still to be oppositional to the conservative, Donald Trump-infected mainstream. Most notably, Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong were nominated for their performances in “The Apprentice,” a Trump biopic. It’s safe to say he is probably not a fan: He threatened to sue to block the release of the film. Stan is nominated for best actor for portraying a young Trump, and Strong is nominated as best supporting actor for his role as Trump’s adviser Roy Cohn.

But it wasn’t just that nomination that felt like a rebuke. Karla Sofía Gascón is the first openly trans person to be nominated, for “Emilia Pérez,” the same week Trump signed an executive order stating, “Women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”

The box office darling “Wicked” was nominated for multiple awards, even though The Wall Street Journal’s Richard Zoglin griped in December, “After voting Donald Trump back into the White House in an apparent repudiation of woke ideology, the nation is flocking to a movie that could be Hollywood’s poster child for diversity, equity and inclusion.” “The Only Girl in the Orchestra,” a short film about the first woman to become a full-time member of the New York Philharmonic, was also recognized with a nomination.

“Sing Sing” — which is about incarcerated men who come together to perform in a theater group and was “built on a revolutionary profit-sharing model where all cast and crew share equally in its success,” according to The Grio — was also multiply nominated.

And those are just a few examples of the progressive politics on display this year in what Hollywood is choosing to celebrate with its highest honor. Artists will continue to push back against the vibe shift, and they’ll do it with humor and verve. As Sennott noted when announcing a nomination for a film called “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent,” “Many such cases.”

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What It Means That Republicans Aren’t Acting on the Pete Hegseth Allegations

Image

Credit…Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

Update: The Senate voted to proceed on the nomination, 51-49, on Jan. 23. Two Republicans, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, voted against moving forward to a final vote on Mr. Hegseth’s nomination.

Why aren’t more Republican senators opposed to Pete Hegseth’s nomination as secretary of defense, particularly in light of new allegations, delivered in a sworn affidavit this week by his former sister-in-law, of excessive drinking and “abusive” behavior in his second marriage ?

The obvious answer is party loyalty. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush picked John Tower, a former Republican senator from Texas, to serve as secretary of defense. Like Hegseth, he was a military veteran who had been dogged by charges of womanizing and heavy drinking. Unlike Hegseth, he had top-level experience in defense matters, including the chairmanship of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

A history of heavy drinking should be disqualifying in nearly any leadership role, never mind one with responsibilities as vast and consequential as the Pentagon’s. Even so, only one Republican senator — Kansas’s Nancy Kassebaum — voted against Tower, who went down in defeat, 47 to 53. If Hegseth’s candidacy, which could come to a vote as early as Friday, is opposed by any Republican, it will most likely be from another independent-minded woman, Maine’s Susan Collins.

(Through his lawyer, Hegseth has denied his former sister-in-law’s claims, and denied as well that he has issues with alcohol. In a statement to NBC News, his ex-wife said, “There was no physical abuse in my marriage.”)

In the case of Hegseth, the power of party loyalty is compounded by three additional factors: fear of Trump, the Cult of MAGA and the boomerang effect of liberal scorn.

As to the first: At least Kassebaum didn’t have to fear a social-media fusillade from Bush, and Bush would have been too much of a gentleman to do more than fume in private over her vote. Today, any Republican senator who defies Trump risks not just public mockery and belittlement from the president, but threats of a primary challenge, too.

Then there’s the MAGA cult, whose bro culture Hegseth typifies: the big tattoos, womanizing and fervent Christian piety. When Hegseth questions the capacity of women to serve in combat, or when he is quoted as having once drunkenly chanted, “Kill all Muslims! Kill all Muslims!” (which Hegseth said last week was an anonymous false charge), it doesn’t dim his star in MAGA world. Instead, it signals that he’s reliable. That’s a bond that neither Trump nor most of the G.O.P. caucus will want to mess with.

But nothing will do more to persuade Republican senators to support Hegseth than the torrent of scorn now pouring over him from the organs of the perceived establishment. In December, The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer published a devastating exposé on Hegseth. In a different era (say, 10 years ago) the article would have destroyed his chances. Instead, it resuscitated a candidacy that, for a brief moment, looked dead on arrival in the Senate. Similar unflattering reporting by other news organizations only further abetted his comeback.

That doesn’t mean journalists shouldn’t do our jobs. It just means that, in this moral and intellectual climate, we shouldn’t expect it to make a whit of political difference.

A correction was made on

Jan. 23, 2025

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a New Yorker writer. She is Jane Mayer, not Meyer.

An Invitation to a Witch Hunt to Root Out D.E.I.

Talk about cultural whiplash. The Biden administration — which was elected on the heels of gigantic racial justice protests — made consideration of diversity, equity and inclusion the law of the land. Now the Trump administration is not just rolling back those programs and getting rid of the people who ran them; it’s encouraging workers to rat out any colleagues who might have slipped through the cracks.

Following President Trump’s executive orders ending government diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs, the Office of Personnel Management sent out guidance on how the sudden stop will be carried out — including a template for the chilling message that agency heads are supposed to send to their employees.

“We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language. If you are aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since Nov. 5, 2024, to obscure the connection between the contract and D.E.I.A. or similar ideologies, please report all facts and circumstances to the DEIAtruth@opm.gov within 10 days,” reads the template.

The suggested notice to agency employees goes on to warn, “Failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences.” On Wednesday, federal workers started receiving the message; for Department of Homeland Security employees, the template was tweaked to say failure to report “will result” in adverse consequences.

To be clear, there are reasonable people who oppose D.E.I. as wasteful and divisive, as Trump’s executive order describes. But the government’s move to encourage workers to inform on one another should give all of us the heebie-jeebies. It’s easy to imagine the bureaucratic knife fights going on in the federal offices right now, as people competing for power — or perhaps just survival as federal employees — seek to prove their loyalty and suck up to the new administration by starting whisper campaigns about who is a proponent of “similar ideologies.”

After railing for years about being the target of witch hunts, Trump appears to be setting the stage for what could be one of the most disturbing witch hunts since the McCarthy era. It reminds me of George Orwell’s 1949 novel “1984,” in which the government is always watching. Americans ought to know that nothing good comes from the government threatening those who don’t tell on their friends and co-workers. History is going to judge the cure for D.E.I. worse than the disease.

A correction was made on

Jan. 23, 2025

An earlier version of this article misstated the year of a date in an Office of Personnel Management memo about possible changes in contract and staff descriptions. It is Nov. 5, 2024, not 2025.

Wiz Research Discovers DeepSeek Database Vulnerability Exposing Sensitive Data

news room — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 15:56:48 +0000

The Discovery of the DeepSeek Data Leak

Security researchers at Wiz identified an unauthenticated ClickHouse database accessible from:

oauth2callback.deepseek.com:9000
dev.deepseek.com:9000

This database, completely open to the internet, contained highly sensitive information, including logs of user interactions, API keys, and backend configurations.

(Source: Wiz Research)

By using ClickHouse’s HTTP interface, researchers executed queries via a browser, extracting system logs, API secrets, and internal server details.

Security Risks and Consequences

The leak posed multiple security threats:

1. User Privacy Breach

The log entries contained plain-text chat histories, potentially exposing private conversations and user data.

(Source: Wiz Research)

2. API Key Leakage

Attackers could use exposed API keys to access DeepSeek’s backend, impersonate users, or manipulate AI outputs.

(Source: Wiz Research)

3. Infrastructure Vulnerabilities

The exposure allowed privilege escalation and the ability to execute queries directly on DeepSeek’s database.

(Source: Wiz Research)

Technical Details of the Exposure

Upon further inspection, researchers found that DeepSeek’s ClickHouse server was exposed via ports 8123 and 9000, making it publicly accessible without authentication.

(Source: Wiz Research)

They ran a simple SQL command (SHOW TABLES;), which listed multiple internal datasets, including log streams and operational metadata.

(Source: Wiz Research)

DeepSeek’s Response

Upon notification by Wiz Research, DeepSeek immediately secured the database, preventing further unauthorized access. However, no official statement has been made regarding whether any unauthorized breaches occurred before the fix.

Lessons for the AI Industry

This incident serves as a critical reminder that AI startups must prioritize security to prevent data leaks and infrastructure vulnerabilities.

Key Takeaways:

Restrict Database Access: Use authentication and firewall rules to limit exposure.
Encrypt Sensitive Data: Store API keys and chat histories securely.
Monitor Infrastructure: Implement real-time threat detection.
Regular Security Audits: Conduct penetration testing to prevent accidental exposure.

Final Thoughts

AI companies are expanding faster than security measures can keep up. As AI becomes critical to businesses, ensuring secure data management practices is more important than ever.

This DeepSeek exposure highlights the real dangers of misconfigured AI infrastructure. Moving forward, companies must prioritize security to avoid similar breaches.

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Top Online Backup Services for 2025: iDrive, Backblaze, Livedrive, and More

news room — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 11:48:00 +0000

Image: Madmaxer/iStock

In an era where data is one of our most valuable assets, ensuring its safety has never been more critical. Whether you’re a business owner, a freelancer, or simply someone with irreplaceable digital memories, choosing the right online backup service can make all the difference. As we step into 2025, cloud storage solutions have become more robust, secure, and user-friendly than ever. Here, we explore the best online backup services for 2025, focusing on reliability, features, and value for money

EaseUS Todo Backup – Cloud backup software

EaseUS Todo Backup covers everything you need for backups, with great features and fair pricing. With free cloud storage space, you’ll always have an extra copy of any files stored securely in the cloud. Security Zone protects vital data from ransomware in real-time.

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Free Download

Why you should trust us: It’s in our name, PCWorld. Our reviewers have been testing PC hardware, software, and services for decades. Our backup evaluations are thorough and rigorous, testing the promises and limitations of every product — from performance to the practicalities of regular use. As PC users ourselves, we know what makes a product stand out. Only the best online backup services make this list.

You might wonder why you don’t see services like Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox here. Those are more accurately defined as cloud storage. Besides typically lacking a desktop client, and offering limited, if any, automatic backup functionality, online storage syncing involves mirroring — where any deletions or changes are reflected on the other end. While online backup uses versioning, so older data is retained — an important failsafe.

iDrive Online Cloud Backup – Best cloud backup overall

Best for Comprehensive Backup

Pros:

Affordable pricing
Supports unlimited devices per account
Continuous and scheduled backups
Strong encryption and security features

Cons:

No unlimited storage option
Initial backups can be slow

iDrive remains a top choice due to its balance of affordability, functionality, and security. It allows users to back up multiple devices under one account, including PCs, Macs, external hard drives, and even mobile devices. With features like versioning, file sharing, and hybrid backup (both cloud and local), iDrive is a comprehensive solution for individuals and businesses alike.

Online Cloud Backup review

Livedrive – Best for unlimited storage

Pros

Fast, glitch-free performance
Syncing briefcase with online editing (Pro version) or separate service
Unlimited backup

Cons

Mac Client requires third-party software for briefcase functionality

Price When Reviewed:

Backup 1 PC: $119.88/yr I Pro Suite w/5 licenses: $329.88/yr

In our most recent review of Livedrive, the reviewer summed it up with one word: smooth. That’s really not a surprise, since Livedrive’s elegant setup, ease of use, and reliability — all the things that make it such smooth operator, so to speak, are the very things that made it one of our top picks for online backup over the last several years. There’s something to be said for how reassuring it can be to use a product that is artfully designed and executed.

And it also remains true that Livedrive’s value proposition is made even more sweet with the addition of unlimited storage. The standard Backup plan for one PC is approximately $99.90 for the first year and $119.88 per year after that (being a UK-based company, prices are listed in pounds and the conversion to dollars will fluctuate); a Pro Suite that covers five machines is $246.90 for first year and $329.88 for subsequent years.

Despite the servers being located “across the pond,” we experienced a brisk 5- to 10MBps upload rate from our base in San Francisco, CA, which should reassure U.S.-based customers.

Yes, Backblaze and Carbonite also offer unlimited storage, and are strong services in their own right, but there are caveats to both that push the highly polished Livedrive client ahead.

Read our full

Livedrive online backup review

Internxt Drive – Best budget backup

Pros

Online storage, sync, and backup
Fantastically affordable lifetime plans
Extremely secure and private
Free 2TB account

Cons

Could use better help and task feedback
Occasional connection errors

Price When Reviewed:

Free for 2GB, $108 per year for 2TB

What if you want a straightforward storage and backup option that costs next to nothing and still provides backup features and a ton of storage? Internxt offers a 200GB storage plan for under $4 per month or you can opt for the lifetime 2TB plan for a one time payment of $149—that’s 2TB of cloud storage and backup forever.

Another great perk is that all of Internxt’s plans, regardless of cost, offer the exact same features. This means that even if you opt for the cheapest plan they have, you’ll still benefit from the full feature set including online storage, sync, backup, and sharing. The service is also extremely easy to understand and use, and for only a few dollars a month you’re able to use features which aren’t offered in free services.

Read our full

Internxt Drive online backup review

Arq 7 Backup – Best for consolidating online storage

Pros

Super-clean interface and setup
Affordable online storage
Local and online backup
Supports a wide variety of third-party online storage services
Flawless in our testing

Cons

No plain file backup
Solo client software is a tad pricey

Price When Reviewed:

$49.99 for stand-alone client I $59.99/yr for software subscription and online storage, 5 PCs

Over the years you’ve likely used more than one cloud or online storage services. Whether that be Dropbox, Google Drive, SharePoint, you name it. You likely also use one or more of these services to store different buckets of your data. With all of these different storage options the wires can get crossed and it can become increasingly difficult to ensure all of your data is backed up to the correct service. That’s where Arq 7 comes in.

Its support for myriad third-party online backup services is second to none. Arq 7 also supports multiple jobs that you can tailor to each service such as backing up vital documents to free cloud storage, or larger files to a premium service you use as well. The interface is clean and easy-to-use, which is a huge boon considering how intimidating backing up can be for new users.

Our only minor quibble with the service is that it’s a bit of a one-trick pony—it only does backup. There are no additional features such as partition or drive-image backups, cloning, sync, or recovery via boot media. Still, in regards to backup, Arq 7 does an excellent job, and with its support for third-party services it’s one of the most versatile backup services we’ve ever tested.

Read our full

Arq 7 Backup review

Pros

5GB free account
Browser interface and local apps
Syncs across devices
Vault for non-distributed backup
User definable expiration dates for file and folder shares

Cons

No scheduled backups for Vault

Price When Reviewed:

Plans range from Free (5GB) to $20 per month (6TB)

Sync.com offers both a paid and a free tier service. The free tier comes with 5GB of backup cloud storage and most of the features offered in their premium services as well. The Sync.com service is easy to use and as secure as any other online backup service we’ve come across. It has both an attractive and well-designed web interface as well as a desktop app available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

Sync.com also makes syncing files across your devices easy to do and even has a Vault option to back up files without transferring them to the local Sync folder in case you wish to keep files unchanged or separated for any reason. While 5GB of storage may not be enough for power users or businesses, if you’re just looking to keep files stored online and the ability to sync them across multiple devices without having to pay anything, Sync.com is a reliable service with great functionality. Plus, you can always upgrade to a paid tier for more storage as needed.

Read our full

Sync.com review

Backup software with cloud backup/storage support

Typically, we separate our reviews of cloud backup services from local backup software (as seen in our best Windows backup software roundup.) But those lines have been blurred with backup software that includes support for cloud backup and storage. The following are reviews of such hybrid offerings:

Even local backup software that doesn’t offer a formal cloud component can be made to incorporate the most popular online storage services, using a cloud storage manager.

The good news is that you have lots of options for putting together a comprehensive backup strategy including local and remote copies of all your data!

How we tested

As noted above, the performance of online backup services will vary wildly according to their location and the network equipment between you and the data depository. We installed the software and backed up the same 2GB data set to check for any major issues or glitches in the client software. These are noted in the reviews.

See our article on how PCWorld tests cloud backup services for all the details.

How to pick an online storage and backup service

Cloud backup has unique considerations. Familiarizing yourself with the following key areas can help you find the cloud backup service that best meets your needs.

Capacity

Obviously, you’ll need as much storage as you have data, plus a little, or possibly a lot, more if you want to track changes and save previous versions of files. Some services keep multiple versions of files, some don’t. In many cases there’s a time limit.

Price

Nearly all online services charge for a maximum allowable amount of data, and generally uploads are free. Aside from the free tiers available from a service like Dropbox, pricing is fairly consistent across services, though you definitely get more capacity for your money from some vendors, notably Backblaze.

Features

As we mentioned previously, in addition to backup, you may want to share your files with others, work with them from mobile devices, or even edit them with office applications such as those available with Dropbox, Google, and OneDrive. If you do intend to work online, we recommend that you maintain a local copy as backup, and a hedge against internet downtime.

OS and device support

Most services provide client backup software for the major operating systems (Linux, OS X, and Windows) and both Android and iOS. Make sure the service you sign up for supports your entire panoply of computers and devices.

Privacy

If you’re concerned about the privacy of your data, make sure you use a service that allows the use of a personal encryption key that you define. Do NOT lose it, as it is absolutely required to restore your data. Sadly, using your own key often limits the types of services (e.g., no mobile backup) available.

If private encryption keys aren’t available, read the privacy policy, especially with the free services—there are significant differences.

FAQ

How reliable is cloud backup?

Generally speaking, data centers are backed up to the hilt, and some of the larger ones even back up to different geographical locations. Availability (hopefully 24/7) can also be important. Check for news of outages and the vendor’s own service blogs. In truth, all the services we’re aware of are near-100% reliable.

What speed and data transfer rates should I look for?

Speed in many cases is far more dependent upon your broadband connection than that of the online service, though the geographical location of the storage and the equipment in between can make a significant difference. Check the location of the data servers if speed is important to you. Or, just give the trial a whirl and see if you can live with it.

How often should you schedule backups?

Ideally, you should back up your data as often as possible. This is especially true if you are working on an important project or have data that you absolutely cannot afford to lose. It’s a good idea to automate the backup process and have the cloud service back up your data every hour or so.

What’s the difference between cloud backup services and services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive?

Services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive are considered to be cloud storage services. This means that a user must place their files or data onto the service’s cloud manually. These storage services usually offer a free version with limited storage or a paid version with increased capacity. They can also come with basic services such as automatic cloud backup and the synching of file versions.

A cloud backup service provides continuous versioning and backup of all the file history on your device. They will continuously and automatically back up every specified file on a device. Cloud backup service providers also offer additional data security measures such as end-to-end encryption.

Is it safe to store my data online?

Yes! All cloud backup services offer encryption of your data both during the transfer to and from your computer as well as while your data is stored on the provider’s servers.

While this encryption stops others from being able to view your data, it doesn’t necessarily stop them from stealing it. But rest assured that the level of security against theft with these services most likely rivals that of your own device. So generally speaking, while not infallible, cloud backup services are one of the most secure options for storing your data.

Do you need to back up everything on your computer?

You should at least back up all data that you can’t stand to lose. All devices will likely experience technical issues over time and oftentimes this leads to your data being lost from that device. So you should do regular backups of everything that is important to you. However, backup services typically offer more storage than most people can use, so it’s never a bad idea to safely store all of your data in case of emergency.

Windows 11’s Start Menu finally embraces your iPhone

news room — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 11:47:59 +0000

Image: Microsoft

Bringing together Windows and the Apple iPhone has been an agonizing journey. Microsoft is taking another step to connect the two, providing a consistent UI and file sharing between the two platforms via the Start menu.

Microsoft already includes an app called Phone Link within Windows, which is a surprisingly powerful way to connect Windows with Android phones. But Apple’s reluctance to open its platform has meant that iPhone owners don’t enjoy the same benefits. Connecting Windows’ Phone Link to Apple’s iMessage, for example, requires some fiddling and caveats.

With this new update, Microsoft is heading in a slightly different direction. Last June, Microsoft began testing a floating sidebar to the Windows 11 Start menu, where Android users could see a “dashboard” of their phone’s priorities: battery life, recent events (like a call or message) and quick links to Phone Link’s features like calls or photos. iPhones, of course, were excluded. Now they’re not.

The new update, which Microsoft is testing via both its Dev and Beta channels, basically puts Android phones and iPhones on a more equal footing, and adds a few new features: an easier and consistent setup process for both iPhones and Android phones, a consistent UI between the two platforms, and file sharing back and forth between Android/iPhones and Windows.

Microsoft is pushing a consistent UI and setup process for connecting to your phone to your Windows PC via Start.

Microsoft

The last feature is important because iPhones still need a workaround: while the floating Start sidebar allows Android users to access their phones’ chats, calls, and photos, that last bit is excluded from the iPhone menu. However, file sharing basically adds that feature back in; it’s just more of a manual process.

Right now, this isn’t available to mainstream users, or what Microsoft calls the Stable Channel. Instead, you still need to be willing to join Windows’ Insider program, and specifically run either Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 4805 and higher in Beta Channel or 26120.3000 and higher in the Dev channel. You also need a phone that you can sign in with a Microsoft account and download the Phone Link app, with version 1.24121.30.0 or higher.

My everyday PC remains on the Stable Channel. Although I use an Android phone rather than an iPhone with Phone Link, I find Phone Link to be surprisingly useful — even though Intel took a run at Phone link with its Unison software. I haven’t heard anything about Unison for months now, however, while Microsoft continues developing Phone Link. Hurray for competition!

A closeup of the iPhone sidebar within Start.

Microsoft

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld

Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers’ News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.

Learn Yjs Interactively

news room — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 08:12:46 +0000

Welcome to Learn Yjs — an interactive tutorial series on building realtime collaborative applications using the Yjs CRDT library.

This very page is an example of a realtime collaborative application.
Every other cursor in the garden above is a real live person reading the page right now.
Click one of the plants to change it for everyone else!

Learn Yjs starts with the basics of Yjs, then covers techniques for handling state in distributed applications.
We’ll talk about what a CRDT is, and why you’d want to use one.
We’ll get into some of the pitfalls that make collaborative applications difficult and show how you can avoid them.
There will be explorable demos and code exercises so you can get a feel for how Yjs really works.

Here’s an example of an explorable demo.
Each box below represents a client — a separate computer running an app that uses Yjs.
When you interact with either client, the changes are automatically synced to the other one.
You can control the latency with the slider on the top left to see how clients would interact over a network.

Ready to learn?

Great — let’s get started!
Click on the button below to visit Lesson 1.

Lesson 01

Introduction

About this site

Learn Yjs is a project by Jamsocket, a platform for building realtime apps. The live cursors and multiplayer garden on this page are powered by Y-Sweet, our open source Yjs server with built-in persistence.

The website is built with Astro.
The interactive demos and exercises are built with React and Yjs.

100 Days of Code: Tackling Project Euler in 100 Languages

news room — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 08:12:44 +0000

100 Days of Code: Tackling Project Euler in 100 Languages:

What is Project Euler?
For the uninitiated, Project Euler is a collection of challenging mathematical and computational problems designed to test your problem-solving skills. From simple tasks like summing multiples of 3 and 5 to more complex puzzles like finding the largest prime factors, these problems push you to think critically and optimize your solutions.

Why 100 Programming Languages?

Most developers stick to their comfort zones, working with a handful of popular languages like Python, JavaScript, or C++. But with over 700 programming languages in the world, I wanted to step out of the ordinary. By using a different language for each problem, I aimed to:

1.Learn new paradigms: From functional programming in Haskell to logic programming in Prolog.
2.Appreciate the quirks of niche and esoteric languages like Brainfuck and Whitespace.
3.Challenge myself to adapt algorithms to varying syntax, capabilities, and constraints.

The Plan: 100 Days, 100 Languages:

Start Small: Begin with a handful of languages and work your way up.
Leverage Online Tools: Use online interpreters and documentation to quickly get started with unfamiliar languages.
Document Everything: Track your progress and solutions—this makes it easier to revisit problems later.
Have Fun: Remember, the goal is to learn and enjoy the process, not to rush perfection.

Provide feedback

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news room – cybernews.pt

The 2026 Retention Revolution: How DigitalLoyaltyCard.io Changed the Game on January 1st

The “No-App” Ecosystem

Features Driving the 2026 Shift

Why It Matters Now

The Importance of Information & Cyber Security Awareness

A Trump. A Dead Duck. And an Uproar in Italy.

WhatsApp Spyware Attack Targets 90 Journalists and Activists Worldwide

Spyware Attack Using WhatsApp

Notable Victims and Impact

Paragon Solutions and the Ethical Dilemma

Ongoing Concerns Over Spyware Misuse

Protecting Digital Communications

Tariffs: Aiming at Mexico, Hitting Ourselves

Wiz Research Discovers DeepSeek Database Vulnerability Exposing Sensitive Data

The Discovery of the DeepSeek Data Leak

Security Risks and Consequences

1. User Privacy Breach

2. API Key Leakage

3. Infrastructure Vulnerabilities

Technical Details of the Exposure

DeepSeek’s Response

Lessons for the AI Industry

Key Takeaways:

Final Thoughts

For More Details, Read the Full Wiz Report:

Top Online Backup Services for 2025: iDrive, Backblaze, Livedrive, and More

iDrive Online Cloud Backup – Best cloud backup overall

Best for Comprehensive Backup

Livedrive – Best for unlimited storage

Internxt Drive – Best budget backup

Arq 7 Backup – Best for consolidating online storage

Backup software with cloud backup/storage support

How we tested

How to pick an online storage and backup service

Capacity

Price

Features

OS and device support

Privacy

FAQ

How reliable is cloud backup?

What speed and data transfer rates should I look for?

How often should you schedule backups?

What’s the difference between cloud backup services and services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive?

Is it safe to store my data online?

Do you need to back up everything on your computer?

Windows 11’s Start Menu finally embraces your iPhone

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld

Learn Yjs Interactively

About this site

100 Days of Code: Tackling Project Euler in 100 Languages

100 Days of Code: Tackling Project Euler in 100 Languages:

Why 100 Programming Languages?

Most developers stick to their comfort zones, working with a handful of popular languages like Python, JavaScript, or C++. But with over 700 programming languages in the world, I wanted to step out of the ordinary. By using a different language for each problem, I aimed to:

1.Learn new paradigms: From functional programming in Haskell to logic programming in Prolog. 2.Appreciate the quirks of niche and esoteric languages like Brainfuck and Whitespace. 3.Challenge myself to adapt algorithms to varying syntax, capabilities, and constraints.

The Plan: 100 Days, 100 Languages:

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1.Learn new paradigms: From functional programming in Haskell to logic programming in Prolog.
2.Appreciate the quirks of niche and esoteric languages like Brainfuck and Whitespace.
3.Challenge myself to adapt algorithms to varying syntax, capabilities, and constraints.