Best wallpaper Chrome extensions

Having a lovely image on our screens makes us smile and feel more productive. It can sometimes make us calm down when we’re having a bad day. That’s why having a wallpaper extension on your Chrome browser is a brilliant idea, especially if it’s with someone smiling back at you.

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We’ve composed a list of some of the best wallpaper extensions for Chrome. While they present random images when you open a new tab, some of them have tools to increase productivity. For instance, you can add notes or tasks to focus on while researching or working online.

Top Chrome extensions for trending wallpapers

Charli D’Amelio Wallpapers New Tab

When you ask Chrome to open a new tab, you’ll usually see the Google search engine and theme. The Charli D’Amelio Wallpapers New Tab extension changes the default settings, giving you free wallpapers of this TikTok artist instead. Every time you open a new tab, you’ll see a new random image from the collection.

There’s more to it than wallpapers, though. You’ll also see games and other media, or you can change the settings. There are affiliate links below the search bar if you want to engage with some of the content.

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Best wallpaper Chrome extensions


Friday Night Funkin Wallpaper FNF New Tab

If you’re obsessed with Friday Night Funkin, try out this FNF wallpaper extension for Chrome. Every new tab presents an exciting wallpaper from the FNF games, showcasing Boyfriend against his enemies. Should you like specific ones, you can select them as the main images to randomly appear.

Another feature lets you quickly add a note to your browser so you can recall it later. There are links for shortcuts to your social media platforms and email. Also, you can download any of the free wallpapers to your PC or share them online.

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Best wallpaper Chrome extensions

Motiontabs – Best Live Wallpaper Experience

Here’s a Chrome extension I decided to keep after testing it. Motiontabs – Best Live Wallpaper Experience presents new live wallpapers for each tab, making you feel positive and productive for the day ahead. While it only has a few enabled at the start, you can download more from its library or upload your own in MP4 format.

There are only a few settings you can change, but it adds shortcut links at the bottom to your most visited sites. You’ll also see your location at the time, while you can click on a button to read more details about the wallpaper that’s live on your screen.

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BTS Bangtan Boys Wallpaper

While BTS is still deciding if they want to be a band or not, you can still reminisce about the good time with the BTS Bangtan Boys Wallpaper Chrome extension. The shuffle feature randomizes images of the pop band, changing with each new tab. Obsessed fans will probably spend more time opening tabs than actually searching for something online.

This wallpaper extension also lets you quickly add notes or check the time at the bottom of the window. You can also place shortcuts to websites you use regularly so you don’t have to paste the URL every time. As an extra option, there’s a themes button where you can see what else is available.

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Best wallpaper Chrome extensions

Indie Aesthetic Wallpapers New Tab

Do you remember Charli D’Amelio Wallpapers New Tab mentioned earlier? The Indie Aesthetic Wallpapers New Tab extension for Chrome is made by the same people, namely, LovelyTab. It features some of the top wallpapers from the Indie scene, making you feel at peace while you’re researching.

The other features are pretty much the same. You’ll have access to LovelyTab’s library of games, or you can switch to one of its other themes. You’ll once again see affiliate links under the search bar.

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Best wallpaper Chrome extensions

Cute Kawaii Aesthetic Wallpaper New Tab

LovelyTab strikes again with the Cute Kawaii Aesthetic Wallpaper New Tab Chrome extension. It places anime images on your new tabs, with some of them featuring the popular Kawaii girl. There’s also a feature to save the backgrounds you like as favorites, so they’ll appear more regularly in the cycle.

You can enable or disable the weather settings, while the function uses your PC’s location to determine what time to set. The joystick icon is available on the screen when you play one of LovelyTab’s games in the browser.

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Best wallpaper Chrome extensions

XXXTentacion Wallpapers Rare New Tab

Our final LovelyTab focuses on the music artist Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, also known as XXXTentacion. The XXXTentacion Wallpapers Rare New Tab extension for Chrome provides the top free wallpapers with the artist on the screen. You’ll have the usual LovelyTab settings, such as weather, games, and time.

However, the layout of this Chrome extension is slightly different. There are a few more widgets at the top of the screen, such as the onscreen game control and theme changer. The standard affiliate links appear to be gone, but I’m sure you can enable it in the settings.

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Best wallpaper Chrome extensions

Toca Life World Wallpapers New Tab

While I’m not familiar with this brand, the Toca Life World Wallpapers extension looks adorable. The rotating themes contain wallpapers of the popular characters in various settings. As an extra touch, you’re able to start a slideshow of your favorite images for when you’re taking a break from work or school.

If you need your tasks to remain your focus while researching online, there are sticky notes you can attach to your Chrome browser. When you’re done, you simply remove the note and move on to your next assignment. There’s also an option to save shortcuts to the sites you love to visit, which is excellent for those of us working on WordPress consoles.

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Best wallpaper Chrome extensions

You can now look to see if you can install the big Windows 11 on your PC

Microsoft has been working away on tweaks and updates to Windows 11 since its launch last October. We’ve brought you news of all sorts of features, including telling you about what you can expect from the first major Windows 11 update when it drops. Well, today we have news on that major update as it is now possible to check whether you will be able to install it onto your PC.

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When Microsoft launched Windows 11 it staggered its release, meaning not every PC was able to install it all at once and instead Microsoft released it in stages based on PC performance specifications. Windows 11 is now available for everyone, but some users have been worried that their PC won’t support Sun Valley, which is the name of the update. Fortunately, however, Microsoft has enabled a registry that will let you check your device’s capability, and we are going to show you how to use it.

The bad news is that you are going to have to go into the Windows Registry Editor to run the check, but don’t worry as, thanks to Windows Latest, we can give you step-by-step instructions of what you need to do:

  1. Open Windows Registry Editor on the PC.
  2. In Registry Editor, tap on the address bar and remove the address.
  3. Go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\TargetVersionUpgradeExperienceIndicators
  4. To check compatibility with 22H2, open NI22H2 NI stands for ‘Nickel’ while 22H2 represents the updated version.
  5. If you double-tap on the value, you will notice “RedReason“. If the value is NONE, it means your device is ready for the feature update. In other words, Microsoft won’t block the update on your device, at least for now.
  6. If you see some other value, you won’t be able to upgrade. The value depends on the compatibility issue. For example, if your device doesn’t meet the hardware requirements, you will “TPM UEFISecureBoot” inside the the “RedReason”

Basically, you need to go through each of the values and check that the value reads NONE. If all of the values come back like this, you will be able to upgrade. It is worth noting, however, that Microsoft has said that Sun Valley isn’t going to add any extra hardware requirements on top of those needed to run Windows 11 so you should be OK with the update if you are running Windows 11. If you do want to check though, now you know how to do it.

Make sure you stick with us for all your updates on the latest Windows 11 news.

Beware of these chatbots on Facebook Messenger that are spreading phishing scams

Unfortunately, we have seen a lot of scams going around recently, with many different types of malware popping up in all sorts of different places.  More than ever, you need to be vigilant when going about your daily business online. This point is only reinforced further by today’s news as researchers have discovered Facebook Messenger chatbots that are running phishing scams. Let’s dig a little deeper into this story.

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Threat detection and response specialists Trustwave have released a report into what it calls Interactive Phishing. This type of threat sees malicious actors using Facebook Messenger chatbots to steal victims’ credentials and gain access to their accounts. They specifically target managers of Facebook Pages so that they can take control of them and spam users.

Interestingly, these scams begin via email. Potential victims receive emails saying that their page has breached Facebook’s Community Standards and has been scheduled for deletion. The email includes an Appeal button, which leads to a link that has been shortened using Meta’s own link shortener. Clicking this link launches Facebook Messenger and a conversation with a chatbot called Page Support.

All is not right with this page, however, and this is where your own vigilance comes into play. Trustwave says this about the page that is supposedly an official Facebook support page:

“… closer inspection of the profile owning the page will reveal that this is not an actual support page. The profile used is just a normal business/fan page with zero followers and no posts. Even though this page may seem unused, it had a “Very Responsive” badge which Facebook defines as having a response rate of 90% and responds within 15 minutes. It even sported a Messenger logo as its profile picture to appear legitimate.”

Not everybody spots these signs, however, and once victims hit the Appeal Now button in the Messenger chat they are taken through a conversation that ends up with them putting all of the page’s login credentials into an online form. This includes their password. The scam even sends over a prompt to include a code that the user will receive on their mobiles as the scammers try to log into their account from another device. Once this happens, all the details are then put onto a spammer database.

As we’ve already mentioned, it is more important to remain vigilant these days. To prevent yourself from falling victim to phishing attacks like this, download and review our phishing attack detection infographic.

Scammers are still able to use Microsoft Excel to push malware

Excel macros can help you save time by doing repetitive tasks for you on your spreadsheets. These actions include types of data manipulation you do frequently when compiling reports. Unfortunately, however, malicious actors have also been using Excel macros as vectors for passing on malware. To fight this, earlier this year, Microsoft disabled Excel macros 4.0 by default but it looks like scammers are still able to target Excel users via macros, let’s dig into this a little more.

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Researchers at cybersecurity specialists Netskope have released a report that outlines how Excel files are still being used for malicious reasons. They stated that they have discovered a lot of dangerous Excel documents that can target users of older and, therefore, unprotected versions of Microsoft Excel.

The infected macros they discovered are carrying a well-known trojan called Emotet, which is capable of stealing the victim’s information and then dropping further instances of malware onto the device.

Gustavo Palazolo, the lead researcher at Netskope, who published the report, had this to say on the extent of the vulnerability:

“we found 776 malicious spreadsheets submitted between June 9, 2022 and June 21, 2022, which abuse Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros to download and execute Emotet’s payload. Most of the files share the same URLs and some metadata. We extracted 18 URLs out of the 776 samples, four of which were online and delivering Emotet.”

Basically, this all means that scammers are sending out Excel spreadsheets that are infected with a trojan malware called Emotet that infects devices and networks it finds its way onto. This means that once again, we are talking about a phishing scam and the best way to defend against it, as well as ensuring you’re running the latest version of Excel, is to stop it from infecting your device in the first place.

Phishing scams try to catch you out with fake links. In this particular case, potential victims receive emails containing attachments like payment forms or other types of spreadsheet. This means that to stay alert to this scam you need to know how to spot phishing scams. To learn how to do so, check out our guide to spotting fake email scams.

Brand new exciting trailer for Fallout: London mod appears

Fallout: London isn’t a new game or an expansion pack to Fallout 4. Instead, it’s a DLC-sized mod made by non-Bethesda developers featured in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic London. The new trailer states a release window in 2023, and it reveals stunning imagery of what we can expect.

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The mod has been in development for a few years now, but it seems the developers are ramping up for the official release. The latest Tweet reveals there will be a panel podcast where they will discuss as many details of Fallout: London as they’re willing to share. 

From what we’ve seen in the new trailer, the expectations are already high. You can see that London has fallen, so to speak, and even the famous London Bridge is in a bad state. Many of the scenes look similar to what we’ve seen in Fallout 4. Even the sentinel bots make a return, but there are a few new elements.

For example, you’ll notice what looks like Ents from The Lord of the Rings, those massive tree entities. Well, they used to be human, and one has a branch poking through his mouth out the back of his head. There’s also a hint of knights and sword fighting, making me wonder if we’ll have some Arthurian quests. I’ll be keeping my eye out for a round table.

It’s exciting to see a new Fallout title appear, even if it is a mod. I don’t usually bother with mods, as I’m worried it will mess up my original game. However, Fallout: London looks so impressive, there’s no way I’m going to miss out on this one.

In the meantime, I’ll continue playing Bethesda’s latest chapter of The Elder Scrolls Online, the High Isles. This past weekend saw a unique real-life quest where fans had the chance to pull a sword out of a stone. I’m seeing a pattern appear here….

Head to the beautiful High Isles chapter in The Elder Scrolls Online READ MORE

Here’s a video Bethesda shared with me about the ESO Sword Capture event and those that won a copy of the game and the new High Isles DLC.

Niantic shifts focus from Pokémon Go to AR basketball game, NBA All-World

It seems that Niantic is changing gear from finding creatures in Pokémon Go to becoming a pro basketball player in the upcoming AR game, NBA All-World. What makes the occasion special is that the NBPA and NBA are both partnering with the developer to make this an NBA 2022/2023 season to remember. It will also be a step towards a new AR title in the metaverse.

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If you have a standard basketball court in your area, you can turn it into an NBA-themed court with all the frills of the championship. Like Pokémon Go, NBA All-World changes how the real world looks on your phone. It will feel like you’re participating in the matches, and you can score a few points too.

While the trailer doesn’t really tease enough information, the official website is already live and ready for pre-registration. When it goes live, you’ll be able to meet other players on the court and challenge them to encounters. What this means is you have the opportunity for a 1-on-1 battle to see who’s the best at taking basketball shops. 

The other option is recruiting the player to your team so you can take on other teams. If you’re alone, you have the chance to practice your virtual shooting or beef up some of your stats. They include Fitness, Defense, Offense, and Energy levels. 

It seems like Niantic is really eager to expand into the AR realm, especially with the recent announcement of its AR Lightship platform, VPS. With Pokémon Go also growing further, it’s going to be incredible to see them hard at work this year.

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Starship Troopers: Terran Command | Alien RTS Mayhem

Starship Troopers: Terran Command is the latest real-time strategy game from Slitherine Ltd that launched on Jun 16, 2022. For the low cost, you receive an incredible amount of content across the Starship Troopers universe. While it’s only single-player at the moment, you have campaign and scenario modes to enjoy.

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Despite Starship Troopers: Terran Command not having a multiplayer mode, there are plenty of levels and maps to play that will keep you busy. The main point of the game is to destroy the Arachnids on planet Kwalasha while you mine resources and establish new bases.

Destroying the Arachnid swarms in Starship Troopers: Terran Command

Starship Troopers: Terran Command takes us back to similar environments as we saw in the ST movies. Seeing the planet and creatures appear sends goosebumps up my spine every time. Here are some details of the stories without spoiling the RTS game experience for you.

Meet your new home

Welcome to planet Kwalasha. There are plenty of resources to mine on the planet, and there are a few established bases on the surface. The problem is that there’s an Arachnid population that isn’t happy with your presence there. After all, this is their home. 

Each level has the same basic premise: land on the planet, expand your operations and clear the creatures from their nests. However, there’s always a unique twist, and you may need to backtrack to get some supplies or new troops. The campaign certainly keeps you interested to see what’s coming next.

Starship Troopers Terran Command review

Establishing bases

Unlike other RTS games, such as Dune: Spice Wars, your ability to create massive bases is not available. Instead, you’ll find them along the way in campaign mode, fitting in nicely with the story. It’s a pity there’s no sandbox mode, as it would have been a nice touch to build bases and eradicate the Arachnid horde.

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Starship Troopers Terran Command review

Scenario mode

What Starship Troopers: Terran Command does have besides the campaign is scenario mode. It has a few extra missions that tie in with the story, set separately so you can play it when you wish. It’s possible that we may see more scenarios appear in the years ahead.

Starship Troopers Terran Command review

How long to play Starship Troopers: Terran Command?

There are about 21 campaign missions. Each one will take you about 15 to 30 mins at the start, but it may extend to 50 mins at a later stage. The time to complete Starship Troopers: Terran Command depends on how quickly you finish the levels. It can easily take up to 20 hours in total.

Starship Troopers: Terran Command is all about strategy

I’ve only given you a taste of what to expect in my Starship Troopers: Terran Command review so far. In this section, I’ll dig deeper into the gameplay mechanics and what it’s like to play the RTS game. 

Learning how to play Starship Troopers: Terran Command

When I started playing Starship Troopers: Terran Command, I was surprised to see there wasn’t a tutorial mode like most RTS games have. However, it didn’t take long before I realized it was built into the campaign levels. As you play towards your objectives, it teaches you how to perform specific actions.

Study your troops and abilities

You’ll begin with the basic troops, unlocking more as you progress through Starship Troopers: Terran Command. Each one has specific abilities I recommend you study before continuing. They’ll help you later down the line.

For example, the engineer can place a turret on concrete surfaces to help repel the Arachnids. The trooper can throw a grenade when the action gets a bit tight. You’ll also have snipers that can clear spitter bugs from afar.

Starship Troopers Terran Command review

Capturing and enhancing bases

There was one moment when I saw a base and became excited at the thought of expanding it. However, you’re limited to the platforms they provide you with a few open slots. With the resources you receive from completing tasks, you can unlock new facilities to upgrade troops or weapons.

Starship Troopers Terran Command review

Unlocking troops and equipment

The buildings you find and unlock in Starship Troopers: Terran Command are what give you access to new troops. There’s no tech tree, unfortunately, so you’ll have to settle for the abilities each level gives you. Still, that means you can save your resources for summoning more troops or turrets when you need them the most.

Calling in reinforcements

When you fight the Arachnid horde, your troops will lose a few soldiers. There’s a health bar per group, revealing how much you’ve lost. Fortunately, you can call reinforcements at one of your bases to replenish them, delivering maximum strength again. You’ll need to use this to your advantage in the critical parts of each level.

Starship Troopers Terran Command review

Destroying hives and holes

You’ll notice quite quickly that you’ll spend plenty of time destroying Arachnid hives and smaller bug holes. It’s a game mechanic that enforces progression in the game. Basically, you’ll end up in a situation where you need to clear a hive before you can proceed to the next base.

If you don’t, they’ll just continue to multiply and attack your troops at the closest base. Alternatively, they’ll keep hunting you down. The best solution is to take them down the moment you find them.

Starship Troopers Terran Command review

Similar games to Starship Troopers: Terran Command

I’ve already mentioned Dune: Spice Wars as a viable alternative, and it has a vast story and base-building mechanics you’ll love. A 4K turn-based strategy game also by Slitherine you should try is Warhammer 40,000: Gladius, with brutal troops and stunning environments. Other RTS titles you to try include Northgard, Command & Conquer: Generals, and Company of Heroes 2.

What you’ll need on your PC

You’ll need quite a bit of space on your PC for Starship Troopers: Terran Command, as well as decent memory. It works well on Windows 11 without any performance issues. Here are the minimum requirements:

  • OS: Windows 7, 8, 10 (64 bit), 11
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 or equivalent
  • DirectX: Version 9.0
  • Graphics: GeForce GTX 1050/ Radeon RX 560
  • Storage: 10 GB 

Enjoy the Starship Troopers: Terran Command visuals and effects

As I usually do with my reviews, I’m covering the visual and sound effects of Starship Troopers: Terran Command as the last portion. Let’s take a quick look at what you can expect.

Gorgeous planetary and creature details

The one aspect you’ll notice from the start is how stunning the visuals are on the planet. Even the water details are impressive that you can zoom in close for a better view. The Arachnids are frightening and stunning at the same time. The bases and hives also have gorgeous graphical detail.

Starship Troopers Terran Command review

Incredible interface and menus

The interface and menus aren’t distracting, and you’ll find all the tools you need with ease. When you discover a new unit, Arachnid type, or equipment, a small icon appears with more information. If you click on it, it takes you to the archive room where you can read about strengths and weaknesses. There are also a few stats.

Starship Troopers Terran Command review

Sounds almost exactly like the Starship Troopers movie

If you’ve watched every Starship Trooper movie like I have, you’ll smile at some of the sounds and effects in Starship Troopers: Terran Command. Besides some familiar voices, I’m referring more to the Arachnid sounds that may send chills down your neck. I’m also glad there was voice-acting, as I’m a lazy reader in games.

Starship Troopers Terran Command review

Final Verdict of Starship Troopers: Terran Command

Starship Troopers: Terran Command is an excellent bow to the brand. The RTS game lets you clear the planet of the Arachnid hosts while you establish your base once again. The game mechanics are easy, with a click here and there. I hope to see sandbox and multiplayer modes appear in the near future, but it’s a fantastic game to keep you busy for days on end.

Be sure to check out my Dune: Spice Wars and Mirror Forge reviews if you liked this guide!

Dune: Spice Wars READ MORE
Mirror Forge READ MORE

Pros

  • Stunning graphics and sound
  • Large variety of troops and creatures
  • True to the Starship Troopers universe
  • Plenty of levels and game time
  • Impressive effects
  • Story compels you further into the game
  • Excellent information hub

Cons

  • No multiplayer mode
  • No sandbox mode

Developer: The Artistocrats

Publisher: Slitherine Ltd.

Game Modes: Single-player, Campaign, Scenarios

Platform reviewed: Windows 11 – Steam

Google is killing the Hangouts Chat app

Over the years, in a bid to grab some of the success Facebook and WhatsApp have enjoyed, Google has unleashed a wide variety of social networks and chat apps. Many of them, however, such as the likes of Google+ and Google Duo, are no longer here. It now looks like another of Google’s communication apps is destined for the scrapheap as the internet search giant has announced that Google Hangouts is on the way out. Let’s explore the story a little further.

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For starters, Google isn’t calling this discontinuation of Google Hangouts but rather an upgrade. This is because Google is pushing Google Hangouts users towards towards Google Chat instead, complete with what Google calls its modern features and better integration with other Google Workspace apps and products.

In the detailed blog post announcing the move, Google said that the move was about offering a better way to collaborate. The blog post states:

“Moving to Google Chat opens up new and better ways to connect and collaborate. For example, users can edit Docs, Slides or Sheets with side-by-side editing, making it easier to collaborate while continuing the conversation.”

So, what does this mean? Does it mean that Google Hangouts is another failed messaging and communication app from Google? Well, not exactly. In fact, there are still plenty of Gmail users who are happily texting and chatting with their friends via Google Hangouts. If you are one of these faithful Google Hangouts users, then the news is that Google Hangouts will continue to be usable until November 2022.

Even then, however, the news isn’t all bad as Google has confirmed that it will warn users at least one month in advance of Hangouts going offline and that all existing Hangouts conversations will safely move across to Google Chat before Hangouts gets the chop.

As well as the post announcing the move from Hangouts to Chat, Google has also put together a factsheet that goes through the migration process in detail as well as laying out all the differences that exist between the two apps. To ne fair, they are pretty similar, but Google Chat is the superior app, which is why Google is choosing to stick with it over Hangouts. You can access that factsheet here.

If you are a cybersecurity-conscious person then you will be happy with this news as Google has recently moved to help protect Google Chat users from phishing attacks.

Google Workspace getting big collaboration-friendly updates

Collaboration has always been one of Google Workspace’s biggest assets. Working on documents and spreadsheets with other people just always felt seamless on Google Docs and Google Sheets, long before Microsoft realized it needed to play catch up. To collaborate, however, you first need to share your documents and Google has been working on an update to its Share document user interface. Let’s take a quick look.

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We reported in May on team-focused features coming to Google Docs with the addition of easy-to-use dropdown chips and a series of table templates. Today’s update builds out Workspace’s team-based offerings further.

Essentially, this update makes it much easier for users to share content with colleagues and external providers as well as set document ownership and contribution parameters. Previously, it was only Google account holders that were prominently displayed in the Share box. Now, however, the change makes it easier to include non-Google account holders in the process as well as making it easier to transfer ownership.

Another collaboration-focused update coming to Google Workspace relates to collaborating with colleagues who use Microsoft Office. It specifically relates to Offline syncing for opened Microsoft Office documents. The Google Workspace Updates post announcing the update had this to say:

“This feature brings the collaboration benefits of Google Workspace to Microsoft Office files. At times when your device is offline, you’re now able to edit, comment, and collaborate on Office files using Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Any changes made to files while offline will then sync to Drive once you are connected again.”

This means that whenever you are working with somebody who prefers to use say Microsoft Word over Google Docs, it won’t be a problem if you ever have to work offline. Google Docs and Microsoft Word will be able to communicate with each other and update each other on the progress you have both made as soon as you get online again.

Two interesting updates for Google Workspace then, with the Microsoft Office collaboration update very interesting indeed. If you would like to learn more about Google Workspace and how to be more productive you should check out this new AI-powered productivity feature that Google has added to Google Docs.

Ransomware attacks are hitting US schools and colleges hard!

Ransomware sounds terrifying. A hacker steals all of your data and then holds you ransom to either give it back or not release it out onto the internet. The truth is, however, that it is mostly big institutions that get held hostage rather than personal internet users as these institutions can’t afford the downtime that comes with losing access to all their data. Unfortunately, this reality is taking its toll on education institutions in the US, with ransomware attacks costing schools and colleges billions of dollars.

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A report by Comparitech has brought to light that in 2021 there were 67 individual ransomware attacks affecting 954 schools and colleges. Interestingly, this represents a decrease in the number of attacks from the year before when 83 attacks affected 1,753 institutions. Unfortunately, however, the costs of these attacks remained astronomical with schools and colleges facing demands of between $100,000 and a staggering $40 million.

The analysis also shows the disruption these types of attacks cause too, with downtime ranging from a little time offline for the institutions that had adequate backups to up to months and months of working downtime for those without proper protections.

Cybersecurity specialists Kaspersky have also recently released a report into Ransomware but instead focused on the 8 most common ransomware groups who are pulling off the attacks. The Kaspersky researchers named the 8 most common ransomware groups as:

  1. Conti/Ryuk
  2. Pysa
  3. Clop (TA505)
  4. Hive
  5. Lockbit2.0
  6. RagnarLocker
  7. BlackByte
  8. BlackCat

The Kaspersky report is very in-depth and is aimed at, “SOC analysts, threat hunting teams, cyberthreat intelligence analysts, digital forensics specialists and cybersecurity specialists that are involved in the incident response process and/or want to protect the environment they are responsible for from targeted ransomware attacks.” The objective of the report is to help build an understanding of Ransomware and ultimately defend against it. That means that, ultimately, it would be very useful for the types of teams running security in the schools and colleges mentioned above. The report is available to download here.

This news clearly highlights the repercussions that come from falling foul of malware attacks such as Ransomware. Although Ransomware mostly target institutions there are plenty of personal-level user attacks and threats out there that you need to defend yourself against. You can use antivirus programs like Kaspersky to keep you ahead of the game but at the very least you need to know how to get the most out of Windows Defender.

Image via: Comparitech