Introducing free Skype Meetings

Microsoft introduced a free browser based Skype Meetings.

We’re pleased to introduce free Skype Meetings—a new online meetings tool that provides small businesses with real-time audio and HD video conferencing. Skype Meetings includes collaboration features like the ability to share screens and content during meetings.

Watch this video to see Skype Meetings in action:

With Skype Meetings, you can quickly set up meetings and share a personalized URL that participants click to join the meeting. During the meeting, participants can IM, share their screen or PowerPoint presentation or use the laser pointer and whiteboard features to make it more engaging and productive. The meeting organizer also gets professional meeting controls such as the ability to mute the audience in order to be heard.

Anyone in the U.S. with a business email address and whose organization doesn’t already have Office 365 can sign up for free Skype Meetings at www.skype.com/meetings. Once you sign up, you can set up meetings for up to 10 people for the first 60 days and up to 3 people thereafter. All you need is a device with an Internet browser, a microphone, speaker and camera, which are included on many devices.

If you have an Office 365 business subscription that includes Skype for Business, then you already have richer online meetings capabilities, such as the ability to conduct large group meetings for up to 250 people and the ability to IM anyone in your organization at any time—not just during meetings. In addition, Skype for Business is integrated with other Office 365 apps to enable you to do things like schedule a Skype meeting from your Outlook calendar, see your colleagues’ presence, and initiate an IM or start an audio or video conversation within apps like Outlook, Word and PowerPoint.

Start a free meeting today at go.skype.com/meetings.

—Andrew Sinclair, general manager for Skype for Business

What I was really hoping from this was gaining the PSTN conference calling and that is not what we have here. This is Microsoft providing the product to entice users to jump onto one of the Office 365 subscriptions that provide Skype for Business as part of the App group that you get.

Do you have a spare $1499?

Samsung has just launched an EVO 850 4 TB drive SSD which has just become the largest consumer grade SSD on the market.

Built with Samsung's renowned V-NAND technology, the 4TB 850 EVO SSD melds the reliability and endurance of the 850 EVO series with high-end performance. Set in a slim and compact 2.5-inch form factor, the Samsung 850 EVO 4TB model sports all the trimmings and optimizations of the 850 EVO line with blistering-fast 540 MB/s read and 520 MB/s write speeds with TurboWrite.

Four terabytes is quite a staggering amount of data, especially for an SSD; for reference the 4TB 850 EVO can hold up to 1,000 two-hour 1080p movies with compression--that's more than two or three movie libraries on a single 2-inch SSD. The colossal SSD also features a 1.5 million hour MTBF rate, and uses the SATA 6Gb/s interface for speedy transfers.

Samsung's 4TB 850 EVO SSD retails for a staggering $1,499 and comes with a five-year limited warranty, with availability across over 50 regions like the United States, Korea, China and Europe. Drop by the product page for more information.

Ransomware that demands money and gives you back… nothing! – Naked Security

• nakedsecurity.sophos.com
• View Original
• July 13th, 2016

Ransomware isn’t a laughing matter, especially if you’re the victim.

Even if you don’t lose any data in the attack, it’s a bit like getting mugged by crooks who end up running off without your wallet.

If ransomeware by itself wasn’t scary enough!

read more

Users sign away their firstborns on fake social network – Naked Security

We already know that people are willing to hand over their firstborns for free Wi-Fi.

Or, at least, they’re more willing to accidentally sign over perpetual ownership of their tots than they are to read lengthy terms and conditions. We know this thanks to a security firm that set up an open Wi-Fi network in a busy public area in London and then presented people with lengthy terms and conditions to sign up and – buh-bye, now! – inadvertently sign kids away in blissful ignorance.

Now, thanks to new research, we know that the same goes for signing up for a new social media platform.

Sorry, kids: you’ve once again been put on the bargaining table by researchers out to prove the point that this is the biggest lie on the internet:

I have read and agree with the terms and conditions.

The study comes from Jonathan Obar, who teaches communication technology at York University, and Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch, a University of Connecticut communications assistant professor.

read more

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/07/15/users-sign-away-their-firstborns-on-fake-social-network/

Card fraud now hits nearly one third of consumers worldwide

Naked Security reports:  Card fraud now hits nearly one third of consumers worldwide

Imagine folded, chopped, and mutilated plastic up to the sky: that’s the pile being generated by cardholder fraud these days.

I’ll let ACI Worldwide and Aite Group quantify the pile just a bit:

Of all cardholders – debit, credit, and prepaid – 30% have experienced card fraud in the past five years.

That’s the #1 takeaway from their latest biennial survey of cardholders in 20 countries worldwide.

If that topline figure isn’t bad enough, 17% of debit and credit card holders say they’ve fallen victim multiple times over that period – up from 13% in the 2014 survey.

Many of the costs to individuals and institutions are pretty obvious: reimbursements of fraudulent transactions, potentially damaged credit ratings, card replacement and security costs. Unsurprisingly, card fraud also contributes to costly customer churn: worldwide, one-fifth of consumers “changed financial institutions due to dissatisfaction after experiencing fraud.”

But, as the survey’s authors note, financial institutions face an additional cost that might not be obvious to the casual observer: worldwide, 40% of consumers use the compromised account less frequently after the fraud.

Read More

USB Tethering

It has been a long time since I have written anything about photography equipment which is funny since I still consider photography as one of my main hobbies. Today I ran into an article posted in the Verge describing a USB Tethering system to boost signal strength between your computer and your camera. You can add additional lengths of cable for a total of 65 feet. Other additional support products include a battery and power injector to increase the signal strength even more making a much more reliable connection especially at the longer cable lengths.

TetherTools is a great place to purchase or learn more about this product and the options they suggest. In fact they have a whole line of products to support your camera to computer tethering needs. You can purchase product individually but they have a great kit with:

• (1) Tether Table Aero Traveler
• (1) TetherPro Cable 15'
• (1) JerkStopper Tethering Kit with Camera Support & Clip-on for the Aero
• (1) Non-Slip ProPad for the Tether Table Aero Traveler
• (1) SecureStrap
• (1) Aero XDC External Drive Compartment
• (1) StrapMoore
• (1) Tether Tools Cable Organization Case (Standard)

All for just $379.00, not to bad. You will need to add your own tripods though.

Fake Pokémon GO app watches you, tracks you, listens to your calls – Naked Security

I don’t understand its popularity but there is no denying that it is taking the world by storm. With a world that is already so full of wonder why do we need this? Well, the bad guys are taking advantage of it of course!

Take a look at this article on NakedSecurity that describes not only the program but also some very scary security issues.