March, 2018 - Softonic English

Modern digital solutions to modern digital problems

We’ve all heard Gen Xers, and Millennials but not everybody has heard of Xennials. Xennials are a micro-generation born between 1977 and 1983. This small window of time is relevant because anybody born between 1977 and 1983 will have experienced an analog childhood and a digital adulthood.

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They’re a bit of both, Gen X and Millennial all in one. The plight of the Xennial is significant because it shows that we’re all living in a digital world, but we don’t all know what we’re doing in that digital world. Even millennials, who are considered to be digital natives, still need to learn the rules of the digital world they’re born into, and Gen Xers have to come to terms with the new world that has sprung up around them. It is a jungle out there.

Every day takes all of us deeper into this digital world that we all now inhabit, but it is a digital world, much like the analog one that came before it, filled with ever-evolving threats and risks. The main difference is that we’re all dealing with threats from across the globe rather than just from our neighborhood. Whether it is you, your little eight-year-old son or your 88-year-old mother who is online doesn’t matter. You’re all exposed to the same malicious actors who are continually coming up with new and elaborate ways to take what is yours. Ransomware, adware, identity theft, phishing scams… the list goes on.

As the list gets longer and types of threat vary, it becomes harder and harder for the programs you enlist to protect you to keep up. It is no longer enough for antivirus programs to simply scan your computer and then check the findings against a database of known threats and malicious code. This type of action is still useful, but it needs to be the baseline, the bare minimum upon which stronger and more effective methods of detection can be built. Sophos understands this perfectly and has developed some digital techniques and processes that allow it to offer comprehensive real-time protection of all the computers it is tasked to protect.

A head for business

Sophos is not new to antivirus and security. Traditionally concentrating on enterprise-level security and managing antivirus and malware protection across entire networks, sometimes connecting thousands of PCs, Sophos has been protecting businesses for decades. This experience means that when it comes to the nuts and bolts of signature-based antivirus, matching detections against databases of known threats, Sophos has extensive records filled with years’ worth of detections to check. Signature-based antivirus is not enough anymore, however. It is like an analog solution in a digital world, but Sophos knows this.

The fact is that not all digital threats these days are simple viruses or malware. Ransomware can encrypt your data, phishing sites can look exactly like reputable sites, keyloggers can send your passwords to nefarious third parties, and even your webcams and microphones aren’t safe and could be spying on you right now. The point is, detecting a malicious piece of code and then taking action might not be enough, and it might be too late. Sophos’ answer to the modern problems of this digital age is protocol behavioral analysis.

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Protocol behavioral analysis looks at how a file is behaving. Sophos then acts accordingly based on how it is behaving. If, for example, ransomware strikes Sophos will understand that it is trying to encrypt the user’s data so that it can be held for ransom. This understanding allows Sophos to prevent the encryption and backup the targeted data to ensure none of it is lost to the encryption. Other times behavioral analysis will have the edge over analog signature-based antivirus is with PUAs (Potentially Unwanted Applications). PUAs could be anything you don’t want on your PC, but at the moment fashionable PUAs are crypto-miners that hijack a PCs resources and uses them to mine bitcoins for some malicious actor. Sophos’ behavioral analysis can spot a file acting like a crypto-miner and then move to block it from working.

Sophos Home Premium

Although Sophos has been protecting businesses for years, Sophos also offers Sophos Home Premium allowing personal users to bring enterprise-level protection into their home. Being expert in protecting large networks, Sophos can bring network-level features, as well as behavioral analysis, and advanced ransomware protection, to their home protection offering.

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Malicious traffic detection works at the network level, and each Sophos Home Premium license can be used to protect up to ten devices. These devices can all be managed remotely from a single device, meaning the other nine devices have visible online security that won’t get in their way. Sophos Home Premium provides robust security via features like banking protection; online content filtering; and web protection via a database that includes tens of millions of bad URLs and a separate database of phishing sites. Privacy guard monitors access to webcams and microphones, and blocks attempts to record keystrokes, while a download reputation service ensures only files from safe locations are downloadable. Sophos Home Premium gives complete control over an entire family’s access to and interaction with the digital world we live in. Whether you’re looking to stop your youngest child from seeing inappropriate content or your elderly parent from being scammed online, Sophos gives you the power to take control.

Sophos Home Premium

Sophos Home Premium is available for Windows and Macs, and all licenses come with premium support, which includes live email and chat available 12 hours a day, and access to a 24-7 knowledge base. Sophos has a huge library of articles relating to all manner of modern digital threats, meaning keeping yourself up to date with what is out there is only a click away.

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Conclusion

With Sophos bringing its enterprise-level antivirus software into the home, it is providing security-conscious users the chance to protect themselves and all members of their family, via their ten device subscription model. The advanced protection offered by Sophos Home Premium cannot be understated, and the ease with which this rigorous and modern protection can be shared with other less tech-savvy or security conscious users’ needs to be celebrated.

Today’s modern digital world offers you everything you could ever imagine at your fingertips, but it is also full of risk and potential danger. Sophos Home Premium offers a robust means of protection that ensures you can make the most of what today’s world offers without having to worry about the potential threats. In an ever-evolving digital world, that is an impressive feat.

Sophos Home Premium

For those worried about the cost of such rigorous antivirus protection, Sophos also offers a Sophos Home Free version. Obviously, this doesn’t offer many of the premium features spoken about above but still offers real-time antivirus, parental web filtering, web protection from known malicious sites, remote management, and the peace of mind of having your device protected by Sophos’ security experts.

If you’d like to try the premium features mentioned above you can try a Free 30 Day Trial of Sophos Home Premium.

5 easy steps to becoming a communications guru

Communication is a critical skill for keeping team members up-to-date, and winning the support of key stakeholders, but which communication skills make all the difference?

Here are 5 free courses to help you make a leap in your career.

Introduction to Communication Skills Study Now

Introduction to Communication Skills will guide you through the basic rules which governs the communication in your everyday life. The course will look at how you interact with those around you, and help you to be more effective communicator.

Communication Skills - Perception and Nonverbal Communication Study Now

Communication Skills - Perception and Nonverbal Communication is a course that will help you understand how you view and hear the world around you. You will also explore nonverbal communication skills to help you become a more effective communicator.

Communication Skills – Group Work and Networking Study Now

Gain a better understanding of the most effective ways to work in a group, including theories on group dynamics by studying the course Communication Skills - Group Work and Networking. The course will look at how you deal with conflict, and how you network.

Communication Skills - Persuasion and Motivation Study Now

Communication Skills - Persuasion and Motivation is a course that will introduce you to the art of persuasion, and motivation techniques for both yourself and others. The course will look at how persuasion impacts our daily lives, and discusses the differences between persuasion and manipulation. The course will also guide you through motivation theories.

Diploma in Communication Skills Study Now

Learn about the art of communication, perception, group dynamics, and persuasion by studying the course Diploma in Communication Skills. The course will look at the impact which these soft skills can have upon your daily life if used effectively.

Beyond WhatsApp: the most secure messaging apps

At the moment, WhatsApp is the most used messaging app in the world. According to recent figures, more than 2 billion users have it installed on their cell phones, a number that speaks to its importance in day-to-day life and in our way of communicating.

Despite this relevance, WhatsApp isn’t the only app for this. In fact, there are much more comprehensive ones. At Softonic, we’re bringing you this post called Beyond WhatsApp:

Today’s most secure messaging apps.

Though it’s not stepping on WhatsApp’s toes, Telegram gets more users every day. This increase is due to a large range of options, making communication between users easier, more enjoyable and, of course, fun.

For all that, we must add something many people don’t know about: Telegram is one of the most secure services that exist. Telegram encrypts all chats and groups with 356-bit AES, which guarantees a very high level of security.

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Line

Telegram and WhatsApp are sometimes used in Asian countries, but there’s an app that undeniably leads the pack: Line. If you ask a Japanese, Korean, etc. about messaging systems, it’s likely the first thing they’ll say is Line. Is this tool secure? The answer is yes.

Line encrypts all sent messages and chats. Likewise, if that weren’t enough, we must note that Line has received three international security certificates. Your information is in good hands with Line.

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Signal

With Signal, we get a messaging service that stands out for its security: or at least, that’s its most emphasized feature. Recommended by Edward Snowden, the famous ex-analyst of the NSA (National Security Agency), Signal offers us open-source software developed by Open Whisper Systems.

Signal’s main feature is that it is doesn’t store sent messages on a server, but rather the information is sent encrypted and is received the same way, i.e., it goes from one device to another without previously being recorded. Also, it has an option for self-deleting messages after a time.

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Confide

We’ll wrap up this list with one that goes to an almost paranoid extreme: Confide. This app doesn’t store sent or received messages either, so nothing gets recorded on a server. Likewise, messages are also deleted after a while or even after being read.

If you thought that was enough, wait for the best part: it’s necessary to put your finger on the message to see it. Forget about taking screenshots, unless you have mad Smartphone skills. Confide is by far the most secure app, though it’s a little cumbersome for saying “hi” to mom or dad.

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The 20 best Xbox games ever

Sony launched the original Xbox 16 years ago. During the console’s five-year run, hundreds of games were released, some good, some not-so-good. Although the Xbox console itself has moved on with the recent release of the Xbox One X, let’s take a trip down memory lane and look back at the best 20 games that the Xbox brought us.

The best Xbox games ever

20. Beyond Good and Evil

Beyond Good and Evil was a smart, quirky game that offered real depth and emotion to its story. It looked at tough topics, from government corruption to trust and truth, and handled them all expertly thanks to the care and craft that went into the game’s storytelling. When you also consider the game’s varied gameplay, from vehicle racing, espionage, and of course photography, Beyond Good and Evil is a hard game to forget.

19. Burnout 3: Takedown

Put simply, Burnout 3 was a racing game for people who liked things fast and fun. While titles like Forza Motorsport offered a more serious racing experience, Burnout was never a series to take itself too seriously. The third Burnout offering was no different, and offered gamers the most over-the-top crashes and high tempo racing yet.

18. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

Despite what your thoughts may be on the actual film, Escape from Butcher Bay was unreservedly good, making it a rare exception for a movie tie-in video game. The first-person action threw you into the thick of all variety of knife and gun fights, and you got the real sense of being in a grimy, sci-fi prison while working through the compelling storyline.

17. Half-Life 2

Although originally a PC game, Half-Life 2 was still a stand-out game on the Xbox, and remains one of the best FPS you could buy on the console.

Although Xbox gamers will have to make do with just a single-player campaign mode, the campaign itself is engaging, scary, and one of the best things you’ll ever play through.

16. Jade Empire

Before the days of Dragon Age and Mass Effect, BioWare released Jade Empire. Although BioWare’s ability to craft a great game was never in doubt thanks to their work on titles such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, this was one of BioWare’s first forays into creating their own world.

Players could choose to follow either the Way of the Open Palm or the Way of the Closed Fist, and could make a number of choices that had an impact on how the end-game plays out. Overall, Jade Empire was a truly compelling RPG that stands the test of time.

15. Jet Set Radio Future

Jet Set Radio Future was one of the very first games to come out on Xbox, and was packaged along with Sega GT for the first Xbox consoles. You play as a graffiti artist who skates around Tokyo, spraying graffiti, grooving out to the game’s soundtrack, and causing a general nuisance for the local police. Although simple in plot, Jet Set Radio Future was memorable due to its unique design, gameplay, and soundtrack.

14. Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

Another title that was transitioned from the PC to the Xbox, Crimson Skies was an action-packed flying game that pushed realism to the side in favor of better gameplay.

Flying around in an assortment of fighter planes, the real charm of Crimson Skies came through in its online mode, which was engaging enough to keep you playing long after the single-player campaign had ended.

13. TimeSplitters 2

Although the original TimeSplitters was only available on PlayStation 2, its sequel made its way to the Xbox, and we were all better off for it. An insanely fast-paced FPS, players battled their way through ten different levels, as your time-traveling heroes tracked down aliens who were jumping to different time periods. There’s a lot to like about this game, from the two and four-player split screen modes to the N64 GoldenEye 007 throwback during the Siberian station level.

12. Psychonauts

Psychonauts was one of the gems in the Xbox’s catalog of games. The dialog was witty, the visuals were spectacular, and the platforming gameplay presented an enjoyable challenge. Although the game sadly didn’t meet with the commercial success it arguably deserved, Psychonauts was still immensely enjoyable and was by far one of the funniest games you could find on the Xbox.

11. Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

Essentially a military-inspired Grand Theft Auto, Mercenaries was a sandbox game that let the player take the reins and decide how to complete missions. The range of vehicles you could choose from was impressive, as was the sheer arsenal of weapons at your disposal. Leveling buildings has never been so fun.

10. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was an action-platformer that impressed with its story as well as gameplay. The ability to rewind time made for an interesting and at times challenging gameplay experience, although the game could have done with being a little bit longer to capitalize on this.

9. Ninja Gaiden Black

Ninja Gaiden Black was a re-release of the original Ninja Gaiden, which added new levels, items and other features, which actually ended up improving Ninja Gaiden as a game. The result was a quick, striking action game that was set across a sprawling backdrop of environments.

8. Forza Motorsport

A game that is in many ways akin to the Gran Turismo racing series, Forza Motorsport made its own mark on the genre thanks to its high-quality graphics, extensive customization options, and great gameplay. All this, combined with a single-player campaign mode, provided an experience that other Xbox racing games struggled to match.

7. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

KOTOR is easily one of the best Star Wars universe games ever made. BioWare knocked it out of the park with this title and crafted an RPG that delivered compelling characters, story, and fluid turn-based gameplay as your character aligned themselves with the light or the dark side of the Force.

6. Halo 2

Halo 2 had huge shoes to fill given the success and all-round critical acclaim of its predecessor, and it did not disappoint. Although Halo 2 took steps to improve on the original, with an intriguing plot in the single-player campaign, Halo 2 really shone with its online multiplayer, which paved the way for online play as we know it today.

5. Fable

Although Fable didn’t quite reach the heady heights of the “ultimate RPG” that was originally promised, it certainly didn’t disappoint. An action-RPG that had wide appeal, there was something endearing about the world Fable created and the characters that inhabited it. Not only did you get to watch your character grow from a child into an adult, but the elements of good-or-evil decision making that were in place made Fable an intriguing, fun, albeit short, game.

4. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Although it was Grand Theft Auto III on the PlayStation 2 that really set the standard for sandbox games, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas stays true to its predecessor’s roots, while seemingly doing everything better. The game itself was the largest GTA made at the time, and sprawled across three cities, each with their own distinct feel.

You could also customize your character, CJ, in a way that pushed new boundaries for the genre. And of course, anyone looking to cause absolute carnage on the streets, or the skies, was not disappointed with the range of vehicles and weapons on offer.

3. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory corrected the mistakes of its predecessor, and as a result solidified itself as one of the best stealth games ever made on the Xbox. The game was a visual delight, and gameplay was improved, making it more forgiving for players. The addition of more multiplayer options was just the icing.

2. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Morrowind was a sandbox RPG at its finest. Whether you were committed to following the main quest through to its end, or just wanted to wander aimlessly and attack or steal everything that lay in your path, anything was possible. Although the subsequent iterations of the Elder Scrolls, namely Oblivion and Skyrim, have overshadowed Morrowind, Morrowind remains a landmark for RPG-console games to this day.

1. Halo: Combat Evolved

There could only ever be one winner in this countdown, and naturally, it is the original Halo. Although there is heated debate about whether Halo or Halo 2 is the better game, Halo takes the top spot simply because its impact was so enormous that the Xbox would not be what it is today without the original game.

A solid campaign mode, a multiplayer experience that spawned so many LAN-parties, stylish graphics, and atmospheric sound all made this game so memorable, and more than worthy of the top spot.

Do you agree with our choices? Let us know in the comments.