ICYMI: Skype Closing Down May 5, 2025

An ongoing PayPal email scam exploits the platform's address settings to send fake purchase notifications, tricking users into granting remote access to scammers, according to an article from Bleeping Computer. For the past month, BleepingComputer and others have received emails from PayPal stating,“ added a new address. This is just a quick confirmation that you added an address in your PayPal account” The email includes the new address that was allegedly added to your PayPal account, including a message claiming to be a purchase confirmation for a MacBook M4, and to call the enclosed PayPal number if you did not authorize the purchase.

Researchers at Imperial College London say an artificial intelligence-based science tool created by Google needed just 48 hours to solve a problem that took them roughly a decade to answer and verify on their own, according to an article from TechSpot. The tool in question is called “-scientist” and the problem they presented it with was straightforward enough: why are some superbugs resistant to antibiotics? Professor José R Penadés told the BBC that Google's tool reached the same hypothesis that his team had – that superbugs can create a tail that allows them to move between species. In simpler terms, one can think of it as a master key that enables the bug to move from home to home.

“Google yourself” is terrible advice. If there's personal information about you floating around on the web, you should be aware of it—because, despite common misconceptions, the internet is not written in ink. If your info is popping up on Google Search, you might be able to get rid of it. On February 26, 2025, Google announced its redesigned “about you” tool, according to an article from Lifehacker. This feature, first rolled out in 2023, looks out for your personal information on Google Search, including your name, phone number, email addresses, and home addresses. The tool then tries to remove any information it does find. Note that this doesn't necessarily delete that information from the website in question; rather, it affects outdated info that appears in Search. For example, you requested a site take down your address, or you edited a webpage to reflect your new phone number, but that deleted data still shows up when people search your name.

After kickstarting the market for making calls over the internet 23 years ago, Skype is closing down, according to an article from TechCrunch. Microsoft, which acquired the messaging and calling app 14 years ago, said it will be retiring it from active duty on May 5 to double down on Teams. Skype users have 10 weeks to decide what they want to do with their account. It’s not clear how many people are impacted. The most recent numbers that Microsoft had shared were in 2023, when it said it had more than 36 million users — a long way from Skype’s peak of 300 million users. “We know this is a big deal for our Skype users, and we’re very grateful for their support of Skype and all the learnings that have factored into Teams over the last seven years,” Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative Apps and platforms, told TechCrunch in an interview this week. “At this point, putting all our focus behind Teams will let us give a simpler message and drive faster innovation.” Between now and May 5, users will have the option to migrate all their contacts and chat data over to Microsoft’s Teams platform. Alternatively, users can download their Skype data using the app’s built-in export tool.

Legislation under the moniker “right to repair” has now been introduced in all 50 states, marking a major milestone in this grassroots consumer movement, according to an article from the GoodNewsNetwork. Wisconsin just became the final US state to introduce some sort of right to repair laws. In broad terms, all of these bills would generally guarantee a consumer’s right to access replacement parts for devices and machines, repair manuals or other relevant documents for expensive products, diagnostics data from original manufacturers, and even in some cases, such as automobiles, appropriate tools necessary for maintenance. They may also ban the use of technological protection measures, sometimes called “software locks” that are designed to restrict repair only to authorized repair technicians.

Not again! The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make a hard deadline for shutting down ATSC 1.0 and transitioning to ATSC 3.0, also known as NextGen TV, according to an article from CordCutters News. The petition to the FCC suggests a two-phase plan. First, they ask that stations in the top 55 markets, which cover about 70% of U.S. households, switch to ATSC 3.0 by February 2028. The second phase would have all remaining markets make the switch before February 2030. In the petition, NAB notes that “In addition to setting a timeline, this transition requires updates to outdated rules. NAB is also calling on the FCC to modernize regulations governing television reception devices – ensuring consumers who buy new TVs can continue receiving broadcast programming – and to adjust MVPD carriage rules so that obligations remain fair and unchanged during the transition.” I guess they’ll do ANYTHING to sell more TVs!

Antioxidants that give fruits and flowers their vibrant colors seem to counteract some of the most dangerous reproductive-system effects of exposure to microplastics, such as decreased fertility, and could ultimately be used in developing treatments, new peer-reviewed research shows, according to an article from The Guardian. The paper focuses on microplastics’ reproductive toxicity and plant compounds called anthocyanins, which are widely found in nuts, fruits and vegetables. The new review of scientific literature on anthocyanins finds that the compounds are probably protective against a range of plastic-induced effects on hormones, reductions in testosterone and estrogen, decreased sperm counts, lower sperm quality, erectile dysfunction and ovarian damage. “The search for natural compounds to counteract these harmful effects is ongoing, with anthocyanins emerging as a promising candidate,” write the study’s authors, who are with the Finland-China Food and Health Network.

A widespread Microsoft outage on March 1, 2025 left tens of thousands of users unable to access key services, including Outlook, Teams, and Office 365, for more than three hours, according to an article from TechRepublic. Microsoft has not provided full details on the root cause but attributed the disruption to a “problematic code change.” At about 5:00 p.m. ET on March 1, Microsoft confirmed it had identified a potential cause of impact, and almost an hour later reported that services were recovering. The company confirmed at 7:02 p.m. ET that service had been restored after “reversion of the problematic code change” and to “refer to MO1020913 in the admin center for detailed information.” Hmmmm … yet another untested software update from Microsoft. Who’d’ve thunk it?

During the last week of February, news outlets worldwide reported that North Korea orchestrated the theft of $1.5 billion in digital tokens from cryptocurrency exchange firm Bybit, according to an article from TechRepublic. However, this isn’t just another crypto hack. The cyberattack is considered the biggest crypto heist ever. The situation adds to the growing list of serious concerns about the security of digital assets and the increasingly sophisticated tactics of state-sponsored cybercriminals. According to reports, the North Korean hackers are believed to be part of the notorious Lazarus group, making this the third attack attributed to them in six months and bringing their grand total of stolen crypto to $3 billion. Lazarus employed a series of highly advanced techniques with several key components.

A handful of major data breaches that occurred in 2024 have already come to light in the last few months (including the PowerSchool and Community Health Center incidents), the latest of which affected a major employment screening and background check service and compromised information from more than 3.3 million people, according to an article from Lifehacker. DISA Global Solutions provides background checks for more than 55,000 employers across the country, and its systems were compromised for more than two months last year. Hackers accessed DISA's system between Feb. 9, 2024 and April 22, 2024 (when the breach was discovered) and stole the data of 3,332,750 individuals. An additional filing located by TechCrunch indicated that the breach included Social Security numbers, medical records, financial account information, credit and debit card numbers, and other government-issued documents.

Google’s latest crackdown on browser extension has rendered popular ad blockers like uBlock Origin inoperable on Chrome, as the company pushes forward with its switch to Manifest V3, according to an article from TechRepublic. The move, which critics say weakens privacy protections, affects all Chromium-based browsers, including Microsoft Edge. Meanwhile, Firefox is doubling down on its commitment to ad-blocking tools, promising to support both Manifest V2 and V3, ensuring users retain control over their browsing experience. Manifest V3 is the newest version of Chrome’s extension framework but it has faced criticism for cutting off access to some of ad blockers’ functionality. It serves as the foundation for WebExtensions, which power browser APIs. Google has defended Manifest V3, calling it “the first step in our platform vision to improve the privacy, security, and performance of extensions.” As if I needed another reason to stay away from Chromium-based browsers as my daily driver.

While Silicon Valley obsesses over AI, a weight-loss drug is quietly becoming the biggest economic disruptor since the internet. Here's why your job, investments, and future depend on understanding it, says an article from Wildfire Labs Substack. If you told someone in 1850 that air conditioning would reshape the global economy, they'd think you were crazy. But it made the American South habitable year-round, revolutionized manufacturing in hot climates, and enabled computing by keeping servers cool. The most significant changes arise from the most surprising sources. GLP-1 drugs are our air conditioner moment. We're not just talking about weight loss. We're discussing the first medication that effectively regulates human impulse control.

A new study found that aspirin may help prevent some cancers from spreading by enhancing the immune system's ability to attack metastatic cells, according to an article from Becker’s Hospital Review. In the study published March 5 in Nature, researchers found that aspirin inhibits a key immunosuppressive pathway linked to platelet-derived thromboxane A2, which suppresses T-cell activity and allows for cancer to spread. You can read the ultra-technical study here.

Digg, the dominant link aggregator of the mid-2000s, is attempting yet another comeback, according to an article from Lifehacker. Kevin Rose, one of Digg's original founders, has acquired the brand name for an undisclosed sum and is teaming up with Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian to build a new-ish social network. The plan was announced March 5, 2025 in articles on Techcrunch and in the New York Times. There aren't many concrete details in these articles about what the site will look like, though they do note it will use AI as a key moderation tool. “Communities thrive when there’s a balance between technology and human judgment,” Ohanian told Techcrunch, adding that, “should handle the grunt work in the background while humans focus on what they do best: building real connections” Rose surveyed current Reddit moderators in an attempt to learn what improved moderation tools could look like. That's about it in terms of specifics—both pieces focus less on the tech and more on the founders themselves. But we do know the new Digg won't look like a “school forum” according to Rose. He said that, in a few years, it “be an interface that is unlike any other that you've seen” Whatever that means.

Billions of devices worldwide rely on a widely used Bluetooth-Wi-Fi chip that contains undocumented “hidden commands,”, according to an article from TechRepublic. Researchers warn these commands could be exploited to manipulate memory, impersonate devices, and bypass security controls. ESP32, manufactured by a Chinese company called Espressif, is a microcontroller that enables Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections in numerous smart devices, including smartphones, laptops, smart locks, and medical equipment. Its popularity is partly due to its low cost, with units available for just a few dollars.

Did you know that Windows has a package manager? No? Well, me neither. Of course, I’ve not been a real “Windows user” since WinXP, and this is just another example of Microsoft arriving late to the party, and copying Linux. Mimicking one of Linux’s best features truly is the sincerest form of flattery, I guess. Installing a bunch of applications at once on Windows can be annoying. You need to find the installer packages, download them, then run them all, one after another. It requires spending a bunch of time clicking through menus and checking boxes. But you don't have to live this way. Linux users have long used package managers to accomplish this with far greater ease—as have some Mac users. Using a package manager, you can type a single command to install as many different applications as you want. And, it turns out, Windows comes with a package manager. It's called Winget. You can try it right now — just open PowerShell, which you can find in the start menu, or by right-clicking the Windows logo and clicking “Terminal.” Type winget search followed by the application you want to install. In most cases, you should be delivered a list of options. Read the full article from Lifehacker here.

The tech giant Google is once again under scrutiny as the Department of Justice (DOJ) reaffirmed on Friday its proposal to force the company to divest its popular Chrome browser, a move that could have ripple effects across its ecosystem, potentially leading to the sale of its Google TV division and Android platform, according to an article from CordCuttersNews. This latest development comes as part of a broader antitrust battle initiated under the previous administration, now gaining renewed momentum under the current administration. The DOJ’s renewed push follows a landmark 2024 federal court ruling by Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which declared that Google maintains an illegal monopoly over internet search. The government argues that Google’s dominance, bolstered by its control over Chrome and strategic business practices, stifles competition to the detriment of American consumers and businesses. “Google’s illegal conduct has created an economic goliath, one that wreaks havoc over the marketplace to ensure that—no matter what occurs—Google always wins,” the DOJ stated in a recent court filing. The proposal to divest Chrome aims to “allow rival search engines the ability to access the browser that for many users is a gateway to the internet,” a critical step toward leveling the playing field.

HP, along with other printer brands, is infamous for issuing firmware updates that brick already-purchased printers that have tried to use third-party ink. In a new form of frustration, HP is now being accused of issuing a firmware update that broke customers’ laser printers — even though the devices are loaded with HP-brand toner, according to an article from Ars Technica. The firmware update in question is version 20250209, which HP issued on March 4 for its LaserJet MFP M232-M237 models. Per HP, the update includes “security updates,” a “regulatory requirement update,” “general improvements and bug fixes,” and fixes for IPP Everywhere. Looking back to older updates’ fixes and changes, which the new update includes, doesn’t reveal anything out of the ordinary. The older updates mention things like “fixed print quality to ensure borders are not cropped for certain document types,” and “improved firmware update and cartridge rejection experiences.” But there’s no mention of changes to how the printers use or read toner. However, users have been reporting sudden problems using HP-brand toner in their M232–M237 series printers since their devices were updated to 20250209. Users on HP’s support forum say they see Error Code 11 and the hardware’s toner light flashing when trying to print. Some said they’ve cleaned the contacts and reinstalled their toner but still can't print.

On Tuesday, March 11, Apple dropped a series of updates for its devices, according to an article from Lifehacker. That includes iOS 18.3.2 for iPhones; iPadOS 18.3.2 for iPads, macOS Sequoia 15.3.2 for Macs, Safari 18.3.1, tvOS 18.3.1, and visionOS 2.3.2 for Apple Vision Pro. With the exception of tvOS, which doesn't contain release notes at this time, all of these updates appear to patch the same singular vulnerability: “Impact: Maliciously crafted web content may be able to break out of Web Content sandbox. This is a supplementary fix for an attack that was blocked in iOS 17.2. (Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on versions of iOS before iOS 17.2.)” It appears an out-of-bounds write issue (which happens when a program writes data that does not belong to it) allowed bad actors to attack users running versions of iOS older than 17.2. Apple's language implies that these are capable actors with specific targets, and while Apple doesn't say, it's possible that involves high-profile personalities such as politicians or journalists. The company says the issue was blocked in iOS 17.2, but since there are users who were attacked running earlier versions of iOS, it seems this update was necessary regardless.

Saving your passwords in your browser — like Chrome or Firefox — provides an easy way to access logins when you need them on websites, and having a safe place to keep strong, unique passwords is better than, well, not. However, browser password managers aren't necessarily the most secure nor the most convenient for filling password or payment fields in apps, nor do they come with features included with third-party password management tools, like encrypted storage or dark web monitoring. If you're transitioning away from your browser's password manager or simply want to remove credentials you no longer use, this article from Lifehacker shows how to delete saved passwords in the most popular browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera.

From security and privacy concerns to good old-fashioned cringe, there are all kinds of reasons you might want to delete your old social media posts. And there are plenty of tools for the job out there. The problem: most tend to focus on one or two social media networks. Redact, however, is a paid tool with support for deleting posts on 28 different services, according to an article from Lifehacker. You can use it to scan for old posts and choose what to delete, or you can search for posts that mention specific topics. It can also be used to delete posts on a schedule—this is perfect if, for example, you wanted to delete all Bluesky posts a month after you post them. It's a lot of power, basically, and it runs locally on your computer, meaning you're in control. Paid plans range from $8 per month to $15 per month for the “ultimate” plan. But just remember … the internet NEVER forgets!

Microsoft says the March 2025 Windows cumulative updates automatically and mistakenly remove the AI-powered Copilot digital assistant from some Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems, according to an article from BleepingComputer. The warning was added to updated support documents days after Redmond released this month's Patch Tuesday security updates. As Microsoft explains, the update applies to all users who install the KB5053598 (Windows 24H2) and KB5053606 (Windows 10 22H2) cumulative updates issued last week, on March 11th. Oops!

Saturn and Jupiter have been locked in a competition for the planet with the highest number of moons. But as it happens, Jupiter never really stood a chance: Saturn has just won by a huge margin, according to an article from Smithsonian Magazine. That’s because on Tuesday, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognized 128 new moons in orbit around Saturn, discovered by astronomers from Taiwan, Canada, the United States and France. Saturn’s new grand total of 274 moons is almost twice as many as all the rest of the moons in our solar system combined — so, the planet has clearly earned the title of “moon king.” Now I wonder how long it will take before the IAU sets size criteria for what it takes for a planetary orbital body to be considered an official moon (much like they did for Pluto).

One of the biggest and most enduring questions from the 20th Century (for many people) is who killed JFK? In accordance with President Donald Trump’s directive of March 17, 2025, all records previously withheld for classification that are part of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection are released.The National Archives has partnered with agencies across the federal government to comply with the President’s directive in support of Executive Order 14176. As of March 18, 2025, the records are available to access either online at this page or in person, via hard copy or on analog media formats, at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. As the records continue to be digitized, they will be posted to the collection.

Google agreed to buy Wiz, a fast-growing cybersecurity start-up, for $32 billion in the company’s biggest push to strengthen its cloud-computing business and expand beyond the search engine and consumer internet services that made it a household name, according to an article from the New York Times. The all-cash deal, announced on March 18, 2025, would be Google’s largest, easily surpassing its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2012. With the deal, Google would get a five-year-old company that most consumers are unfamiliar with but that a growing number of businesses rely on to protect their cloud applications. (It feels odd saying “Google” and “cybersecurity” in the same sentence.)

The Find My Device app for Android is getting an update: The new Find My Device app is now split up into two tabs, one for Devices, and one for People. With it, you can easily coordinate meet-ups with friends or check that your kids have safely arrived home, according to an article from Lifehacker. You'll find the app preinstalled on Pixels, and it's a free download for other Android devices. It's also available on the web, but there's no iPhone app. Despite that, you can still keep tabs on the real time locations of your contacts if they have iPhones—more on that in a moment. This is the same Find My Device tool that received a pretty major upgrade last year. While it's existed in some form for a long time, showing you Android phones and other gadgets on a map if they were ever lost and stolen, the new and improved version added a bunch of features to make it more useful. Whereas before you would need your phone to be on and connected to wifi to be able to find it, the 2024 improvements mean you can now enlist the help of all the other millions of Android gadgets out there to (securely and anonymously) track down missing devices (Apple's Find My Network works in the same way).

A young computer scientist and two colleagues show that searches within data structures called hash tables can be much faster than previously deemed possible, according to an article from Wired. Sometime in the fall of 2021, Andrew Krapivin, an undergraduate at Rutgers University, encountered a paper that would change his life. At the time, Krapivin didn’t give it much thought. But two years later, when he finally set aside time to go through the paper (“just for fun,” as he put it), his efforts would lead to a rethinking of a widely used tool in computer science. The paper’s title, “Tiny Pointers,” referred to arrowlike entities that can direct you to a piece of information, or element, in a computer’s memory. Krapivin soon came up with a potential way to further miniaturize the pointers so they consumed less memory. However, to achieve that, he needed a better way of organizing the data that the pointers would point to. He turned to a common approach for storing data known as a hash table. But in the midst of his tinkering, Krapivin realized that he had invented a new kind of hash table, one that worked faster than expected — taking less time and fewer steps to find specific elements.