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Twitter reported an operating loss of $537 million for the third quarter due to a one-time litigation-related net charge of $766 million. Twitter reported a 54-cent loss per share on revenue of $1.28 billion, up 37% from a year ago. The $766 million charge is related to a settlement the company was forced to pay in September after allegedly giving investors misleading user growth metrics. Wall Street was expecting Twitter to report non-GAAP earnings of 15 cents a share on revenue of $1....

In carrying out the review, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it found that through buying Giphy, Facebook would be able to increase its “already significant market power” by denying or limiting other platforms’ access to Giphy GIFs and driving more traffic to Facebook-owned sites – Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram – which already account for 73% of user time spent on social media in the UK. CMA added it found Facebook could also change the terms of access by, for instance, requiring other social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter, and Snapchat to provide more user data to access Giphy GIFs....

On January 25, the NCSC said the trial project is a joint effort between the cybersecurity guidance organization and the Industry 100 (i100). i100 is a cohort of public and private sector companies working with the NCSC to “bring industry and government expertise together in a way that helps us all learn lessons, identify systemic vulnerabilities and reduce the future impact of cyberattacks.” The project is called Scanning Made Easy (SME) and is a collection of NMAP Scripting Engine (NSE) scripts developed to tackle what NCSC calls a “frustrating” problem: the use of scripts that are not suitable, or necessarily safe, to run....

The websites for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Security Service (SBU) and Cabinet of Ministers all faced outages confirmed both by the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection and Netblocks, an organization tracking internet outages around the world. PrivatBank, the largest commercial bank in Ukraine, and Oschadbank, the State Savings Bank of Ukraine, both dealt with outages too. Cloudflare told ZDNet that they have seen sporadic DDoS activity in Ukraine....

While they talk about being “interconnected”, the reality today is that hyperscalers currently operate like isolated operating systems, according to Simon Piff, IDC’s Asia-Pacific vice president. This presents a significantly challenging piece for organisations in the region, Piff told ZDNET. It would fuel the need for multi-cloud management and cross-cloud security strategies as the next phase of development in the market, he said. This would result in tremendous opportunities for systems integrators and software vendors able to remove the complexities and offer the integration tools necessary to make multi-cloud management seamless, the analyst said....

The new Carbon Black Cloud Managed Detection and Response (MDR) for endpoints and workloads is supported by analysts with decades of experience. They monitor and analyze data for customers in the VMware Carbon Black Cloud using advanced machine learning and algorithmic toolsets. The threat analysis team “has not only expertise derived over many years but also the ability to watch the threat landscape over a broad spectrum,” Kal De, VP and GM of VMware’s Security Business Unit, said to ZDNet....

Auckland District Court ruled last Friday that Vodafone NZ was guilty on nine charges of violating the Fair Trading Act between October 2016 and March 2018. The New Zealand Commerce Commission (ComCom), which brought the case last year, argued fibre was a generic description of fibre to the home, especially in relation to the country’s government-subsidised Ultra-Fast Broadband network, and consumers where likely to think the same in Wellington, Kapiti, and Christchurch where Vodafone was promoting its FibreX service....

Apple AirPods (2nd Generation) for $99.99 ($60 off)Apple AirPods (3rd Generation) for $139.99 ($40 off) (Out of stock)Apple AirPods Pro for $179.99 ($70 off)Apple AIrPods Max for $479.99 ($70 off) Whichever model you decide to purchase, Walmart promises a delivery date as soon as this Sunday (December 12), though, the timing will vary based on your zip code and availability. Also: See how the Apple AirPods fare in ZDNet’s best wireless earbuds roundup

Dozens of countries and states across the US are creating digital ways for people to carry around proof that they have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Walmart’s plan will have their customers store it in a pharmacy account on Walmart.com or Samsclub.com. Walmart’s vaccine record can also be printed and shared. The company said the vaccine record is based on a free digital version of the cards given to people by the CDC after being vaccinated against COVID-19....

For those that have yet to hear about the Mullvad Browser (which would probably be most of you), it’s a rebuild of the Firefox browser, available for Linux, MacOS, and Windows, that enhances online privacy and security by reducing your browser fingerprint. Also: The best browsers for privacy What is a browser fingerprint? It’s a way to identify you by collecting data about your online activity. These fingerprints can be used to either partially or fully identify users and devices… even when cookies are turned off....

The red and white bank closed the 2021 financial year with net profit of AU$5.46 billion, a 138% increase over last year, while revenue came in 5% higher year-on-year to AU$21 billion. “Despite another challenging period, cash earnings rose, the balance sheet remains strong, and I am pleased with our progress on making Westpac a simpler, stronger bank,” Westpac boss Peter King told shareholders on Monday. Total expenses came in at just over AU$13 billion, which King said was reflective of the bank directing more resources to fixing issues, including IT network and domain consolidation, customer process digitisation, and reducing third-party spend....

Will you be able to squeeze another year out of your devices, or will this fall be the end of the road for your shiny Apple gadgets? It all depends on how old your devices are. Note that while your device may still be compatible with the upcoming release, some older devices may not get all the features of the release. iOS 14 Let’s start off with the iPhone. If your iPhone currently runs iOS 13, then it’s good news, because it will run iOS 14....

Microsoft released Windows 11 to the masses this week. It got a major visual refresh but also is mostly restricted to newer hardware, which improves security benefits but also means a slower rollout. Despite a year of testing with Windows Insiders, AMD and Microsoft have now disclosed that there may be as much as a 15% hit on performance after installing Windows 11 on AMD processors, such as its EPYC and Ryzen line....

Microsoft has long faced accusations from rivals like Vivaldi and Firefox-maker Mozilla over Windows 10 making Edge the default browser. Vivaldi in 2017 complained that Windows 10 upgrades made Edge the default even though users had previously selected another browser as the default. But, as spotted by The Verge’s Windows watcher, Tom Warren, Windows 11 in its current preview form makes it more complicated than it is in Windows 10 to change the way the default browser is assigned....

The Xbox Series S allows you to game across four generations of Xbox with thousands of games. When you’re not gaming, you can stream Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, Microsoft Movies & TV, and more on your console. Additionally, you can buy an all-access gaming pass for $25 per month for 24 months to play those same thousands of games without having to purchase every single one. With 512GB of storage built into the gaming console, you’ll have plenty of space to add games to your library....

The good news is that Apple is lining up a software update that should resolve the problem, according to a new support document. “You might see “Unable to Communicate with Apple Watch” if you try to unlock your iPhone while wearing a face mask, or you might not be able to set up Unlock with Apple Watch,” Apple notes. It says this will be fixed in an upcoming software update....

Nvidia’s latest work in this area is noteworthy because it not only has to collaborate with competitors in order to achieve its goals, but also because the work is part of a broader set of initiatives called Max Q, a “capstone suite of technologies focused on laptops” that now uses AI to optimize system design. While much has been written about how AI is becoming more adept at developing software (such as DeepMind’s AlphaCode’s recent progress), there’s been less focus on AI use to optimize computing architectures where there are still thorny problems to address....

Colin Born, head of corporate development at Zoom, said building out a venture investing effort has allowed Zoom to bring an entirely new dimension of support to their developer ecosystem. “Providing support around fundraising allows our app partners to focus more on innovation, which will increase the quality and variety of apps available to Zoom’s customers around the world,” Born said. “It is critical we drive the growth of solutions that meet the needs of our customers....

For example, much of the web has been built on trust, with security very much an after-thought. There’s always been hacking, of course, but the difficulty of making it pay meant that, apart from state-sponsored attacks and industrial espionage, the impact was quite limited. But the rise of cryptocurrency, which enables hard-to-track payments, plus the general insecurity of many computer systems, and our total reliance on them, has created the perfect ransomware storm that now engulfs so many companies....

Before the pandemic, only 41% of developers worked at an office either full-time or part-time, but of the 12,000 surveyed in GitHub’s 2021 State of the Octoverse report, just 10.7% expect to go back to the office after the pandemic ends. Microsoft is touting hybrid as the way many people will work for the foreseeable future and that was borne out by the survey. Pre-pandemic, 28.1% of developers had hybrid arrangements but after the pandemic, 47....