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Looking for a different day?A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Friday, July 4 (game #1257).Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.Quordle today (game #1258) - hint #1 - VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too). Quordle today (game #1258) - hint #2 - repeated lettersDo any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 0.Quordle today (game #1258) - hint #3 - uncommon lettersDo the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.Quordle today (game #1258) - hint #4 - starting letters (1)Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:Quordle today (game #1258) - hint #5 - starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?• H• S• D• TRight, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.Quordle today (game #1258) - the answers(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)The answers to today's Quordle, game #1258, are…HAVENSNAKEDREAMTORUSUnlike Scrabble, where you put down an invented word on the off-chance that it could be in the dictionary, Quordle lets you enter as many fake words as you like before you hit on a real one.That was the case for me today with TORUS, which looks like a bad spelling of Taurus but is (I just found out) a geometric shape like a donut.Maybe my school geometry lessons were not all they should have been, but I can always appreciate a donut. Mmmmm, donuts…How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.Daily Sequence today (game #1258) - the answers(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1258, are…OUTGOCRUSHSHIEDBLUERQuordle answers: The past 20Quordle #1257, Friday, 4 July: FAVOR, SKUNK, GAWKY, FLUFFQuordle #1256, Thursday, 3 July: DANCE, EYING, GLAZE, EGRETQuordle #1255, Wednesday, 2 July: INANE, SCOUR, ELITE, ULCERQuordle #1254, Tuesday, 1 July: REBAR, YEARN, FORTH, CROWDQuordle #1253, Monday, 30 June: INGOT, INFER, TAPIR, CLUEDQuordle #1252, Sunday, 29 June: MIRTH, APTLY, SCRUB, SMACKQuordle #1251, Saturday, 28 June: AWOKE, SMOKY, DEVIL, SWINGQuordle #1250, Friday, 27 June: SPEAK, EAGLE, AVERT, SUINGQuordle #1249, Thursday, 26 June: SLUMP, REBUS, GUAVA, MONEYQuordle #1248, Wednesday, 25 June: SOGGY, CLASH, MODEM, SQUADQuordle #1247, Tuesday, 24 June: QUALM, SQUIB, AXIAL, FLACKQuordle #1246, Monday, 23 June: PIXEL, FJORD, STEAL, EXISTQuordle #1245, Sunday, 22 June: WREST, CRAZE, PAPAL, SCIONQuordle #1244, Saturday, 21 June: BUDDY, GROUT, BEGIN, MADAMQuordle #1243, Friday, 20 June: BRAID, DULLY, HASTE, LURIDQuordle #1242, Thursday, 19 June: BRUSH, ISLET, FRUIT, PRIVYQuordle #1241, Wednesday, 18 June: MEDIA, SHARK, GUPPY, MOURNQuordle #1240, Tuesday, 17 June: LEAPT, PRISM, ADMIN, WHINEQuordle #1239, Monday, 16 June: RETRY, SCALD, DINGO, FEIGN

Looking for a different day?A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, July 4 (game #754).Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.NYT Connections today (game #755) - today's words(Image credit: New York Times)Today's NYT Connections words are…SHORTPINEFOLDLAUNDRYLONGBUCKETBURNSTINGTO-DOSCHEMESTIRRACKETBEATITCHHUSTLEBLENDNYT Connections today (game #755) - hint #1 - group hintsWhat are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?YELLOW: ScamsGREEN: Mix it upBLUE: Can’t live without youPURPLE: Jot it downNeed more clues?We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…NYT Connections today (game #755) - hint #2 - group answersWhat are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?YELLOW: CON GAME GREEN: COMBINE, AS BAKING INGREDIENTS BLUE: YEARN PURPLE: KINDS OF LISTS Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.NYT Connections today (game #755) - the answers(Image credit: New York Times)The answers to today's Connections, game #755, are…YELLOW: CON GAME HUSTLE, RACKET, SCHEME, STINGGREEN: COMBINE, AS BAKING INGREDIENTS BEAT, BLEND, FOLD, STIRBLUE: YEARN BURN, ITCH, LONG, PINEPURPLE: KINDS OF LISTS BUCKET, LAUNDRY, SHORT, TO-DOMy rating: EasyMy score: 2 mistakesI’m classifying today’s Connections as easy, but I still struggled with it.The purple group should have been simple, aside from the fact that there are many KINDS OF LISTS and I included two wrong ones – BURN and LONG – before I found the correct quartet.I am a serial writer of TO-DO lists, none of which I ever complete. I saw a video recently where some terrifying life optimizer was saying that people like me should write two lists – their regular long to-do list, then another list with the three most important things from the to-do list.It makes sense to me but I'll never remember to do it – I’ll have to put it on my BUCKET list. How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Friday, July 4, game #754)YELLOW: PARTS OF A WHEEL HUB, RIM, SPOKE, TIREGREEN: MILITARY CLOTHING DESCRIPTORS CAMO, DRAB, FATIGUE, KHAKIBLUE: USED IN VENTILATION DUCT, EXHAUST, HOSE, PIPEPURPLE: FAIL TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF, AS AN OPPORTUNITY BLOW, LOSE, MISS, WASTEWhat is NYT Connections?NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Looking for a different day?A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Friday, July 4 (game #488).Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.NYT Strands today (game #489) - hint #1 - today's themeWhat is the theme of today's NYT Strands?• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Every second countsNYT Strands today (game #489) - hint #2 - clue wordsPlay any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.PERSONHOMEROOTSHAKESWOONMATENYT Strands today (game #489) - hint #3 - spangram lettersHow many letters are in today's spangram?• Spangram has 11 lettersNYT Strands today (game #489) - hint #4 - spangram positionWhat are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?First side: left, 4th rowLast side: right, 6th rowRight, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.NYT Strands today (game #489) - the answers(Image credit: New York Times)The answers to today's Strands, game #489, are…CLOCKWATCHCHRONOMETERHOURGLASSSUNDIALSPANGRAM: TIMEKEEPERSMy rating: HardMy score: 1 hintMy first thought when I saw the theme “every second counts” was the TV show The Bear, as that phrase has appeared many times across all four seasons.However, I soon realized that was very niche and we were actually looking for a much more literal interpretation.Suffering a bad case of letter blindness, I took a hint after finding dozens of words that we weren’t looking for. CLOCK unlocked the rest of the board in a matter of minutes.Until this puzzle, I didn’t actually realize what a CHRONOMETER was, I just thought it was a posh wristwatch. But the main thing this search got me thinking about is how we build our entire life around time, but we have so few TIMEKEEPERS – as evidenced by the fact that this search includes SUNDIAL and HOURGLASS. It’s almost as if we haven’t got enough time to invent new ways to keep time. How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday, July 4, game #488)BURGERSSALADCOLESLAWBRATSBEANSWATERMELONSPANGRAM: BARBECUEWhat is NYT Strands?Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Samsung has reportedly pushed back the completion of its semiconductor plant in Taylor, Texas, because it has no customers. According to Nikkei Asia, the company is in no hurry to install equipment in the facility due to lack of clients and even though the facility is over 90 percent done. The factory was supposed to come online in 2024, but the company has since pushed back its opening date to sometime in 2026 to upgrade its foundry process. Samsung's fab was only supposed to be able to manufacture 4-nanometer chipsets, but the company adjusted its plans to give it the capability to manufacture more advanced 2-nanometer chips to be able to compete with rivals like TSMC. Still, the problem persisted.

If you'll recall, the plant in Taylor is part of Samsung's planned $44 billion investment in Texas. When the Biden administration announced that it was giving Samsung up to $6.4 billion in grants as part of the CHIPS Act funding, the company said that the money was going to be spent finishing up the campus in Taylor. But the facility's development has been troubled for quite a while now. Last year, Reuters reported that Samsung had delayed the deliveries of advanced-chipmaking equipment from ASML to its Taylor facility, since it had yet to sign up any major customer for the plant.

When Samsung cut jobs around the world last year, some jobs from its Texas operations were reportedly also cut due to production delays. And it's not just the company's employees who were affected by the delays: Samsung's suppliers, some of which are small companies, are also impacted and have had to look for other customers while the facility's completion is on hold. While Samsung has assured Nikkei Asia that it's still planning to open the fab in 2026, analysts previously called that into question seeing as it has yet to land volume clients. In fact, South Korean publication The Elec claimed in April that Samsung is now targeting a February 2027 opening date instead of sometime in 2026. The publication said that in addition to the lack of customers, Samsung's contractors had also pulled out of the project and its on-site workforce is now a fourth of its original size. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/samsungs-texas-chip-plant-is-reportedly-delayed-due-to-lack-of-customers-140034619.html?src=rss

The fallout from “Liberation Day” has reignited a critical conversation across Europe: how long can the EU, UK and other European nations afford to tie their digital future to American tech monopolies? For years, Europe has depended on US hyperscalers to power its infrastructure, manage its data, and now, fuel its AI ambitions. But with America’s erratic leadership casting fresh doubt over the future of Europe’s tech sector, businesses are being forced to confront the real risks of over-reliance.New research from Civo found that 84% of UK IT leaders are concerned that geopolitical developments could threaten their ability to access and control their data. As US tech giants scramble to offer reassurances, including recent pledges from Microsoft to uphold Europe’s digital resilience, the bigger question remains: can Europe afford to deepen its dependencies on the US?In the midst of all this doubt, Europe has a window of opportunity to reclaim its technological sovereignty and reduce its exposure to the political and commercial whims of US. tech giants. There has never been a better time to build a more balanced, competitive, and resilient digital economy - one that hands back control to businesses.Here are five key actions Europe must take to make that vision a reality:1. It’s time to take sovereignty seriouslyAccording to Civo’s research, 61% of UK IT leaders say that sovereignty is s strategic priority. But while European governments have talked a good game on sovereignty, action has been inconsistent. Take the UK, for example: while outside of the EU and operating under different data and competition laws, earlier this year it unveiled its AI Opportunities Action Plan.Within this, Starmer’s government promises to build sovereign datacenters and AI Growth Zones. Yet at the same time, the UK has courted massive investments from US. hyperscalers like Microsoft and AWS to expand their UK footprints.This contradiction underlines the urgent need for clear policy guardrails. Sovereignty is about so much more than just data localization; it’s about ensuring full legal, operational, and technical control over the UK’s critical digital infrastructure. That means building and backing a domestic cloud and AI industry that operates under European law with shared European values.2. Close the loopholes created by the US. CLOUD Act by avoiding it altogetherThe US. CLOUD Act grants American authorities sweeping access to data held by US. hyperscalers, no matter where in the world that data is stored. This reality undermines Europe’s data protection laws, including GDPR, and puts sensitive public and private sector information at risk of unwanted foreign interventions.Europe needs to strengthen legal frameworks that guarantee immunity from extraterritorial laws like the CLOUD Act. That means recognizing and supporting providers headquartered in Europe, fully subject to European jurisdiction, that offer complete transparency about where data is stored and who has access to it.3. Build a sovereign AI ecosystemThe rush to adopt AI has only deepened Europe’s dependency on US. firms. Most AI models today are trained, deployed, and monetized by a small handful of US hyperscalers. As a result, European businesses feeding data into these models often have no visibility into how their information is used, stored, or commercialized. So it’s not surprising that 68% of UK IT leaders now say they will only use AI services where they have complete certainty over data ownership.Europe must invest in an open, sovereign AI ecosystem. One that gives users full control over their data and AI workloads. By championing sovereign AI, Europe has an opportunity to empower organizations to develop innovative AI on their own terms, without surrendering control to black-box systems operated overseas.4. Reform the economics of cloudThe European cloud market has been stifled by opaque pricing structures, restrictive egress fees, and aggressive credit lock-ins that keep customers tied to US hyperscale platforms. This has made it difficult for new entrants and challengers to compete and for customers to switch providers without facing significant financial and technical penalties.Encouragingly, 60% of UK organizations say they are no longer reliant on a single cloud provider, showing that many are already moving towards multi-cloud and hybrid models to regain choice and control.The public sentiment is overwhelmingly clear: Europe must establish economic policies that level the playing field. This could include mandating pricing transparency, regulating unfair egress fees, or incentivizing organizations to migrate to sovereign providers. A competitive market benefits everyone. It drives innovation, reduces costs, and gives businesses genuine choice.5. Build bridges, not barriers: Uniting Europe’s digital strengths without shutting out the worldUnderinvestment remains one of Europe’s biggest barriers to digital progress. As Mario Draghi’s landmark report on European competitiveness makes clear, the status quo is no longer sustainable. Without coordinated action, Europe risks falling behind in the race to build productive, secure, and globally competitive digital industries.While the EU and the UK have taken different regulatory paths, from evolving data governance frameworks in Brussels to post-Brexit policies in Westminster, both face the same challenges: underinvestment, regulatory misalignment, and a shortage of skilled talent are holding back sovereign cloud and AI projects across the continent.The Draghi report calls for a new era of sustainable competitiveness and open strategic autonomy, one where Europe builds the foundations to compete globally while staying true to its values of fairness, resilience, and collaboration.Digital sovereignty must be part of this vision, but it cannot be achieved in silos. It needs harmonized regulations, shared investment in skills and infrastructure, and cross-border collaboration to scale European alternatives that are open where it counts and protected where it matters.But there are signs of progress. Initiatives like EuroStack, a growing coalition of policymakers, businesses, and researchers, are working to open the European market to support local digital industries to clear the path to achieving digital sovereignty.Similarly, projects like Open Euro LLM are advancing open-source, GDPR-compliant AI models that align with Europe’s values, while still remaining open to international contributions and partnerships.Sovereignty starts nowLet’s be clear: digital sovereignty does not mean closing the door on international partnerships or shutting out global innovation. As one of the world’s leading economic regions, the continent of Europe will always need to collaborate with partners around the world, but that collaboration must happen on Europe’s terms and not in ways that compromise control, economic, or geopolitical resilience.Building genuine digital sovereignty means strengthening Europe’s digital foundations so that it can engage with the global tech ecosystem from a position of strength, not dependency. It means creating an environment where businesses have real choice, where data stays protected by local laws and values, and where European innovation isn’t at the mercy of foreign policy shifts or opaque corporate interests.We have a chance to rebalance the market, encourage competition, and put fairness and transparency at the heart of Europe’s digital future. But that window won’t stay open forever. The time for action is now.We've featured the best cloud storage.This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

IdeaLab confirms it suffered a data breach, offers identity theft protection and credit monitoringRecently-departed ransomware operators Hunters International took responsibilityThe decryption key were recently published Technology startup incubator IdeaLab has confirmed suffered a cyberattack in which it lost sensitive company files.The organization confirmed the news after an extensive investigation that took almost a year, noting in a data breach notification letter sent earlier to affected individuals the attack most likely took place on October 4 2024, when cybercriminals accessed its network and stole sensitive information on current and former employees, current and former support service contractors, and their dependents.We don’t know exactly how many people were affected by this attack, or what the nature of the data is. IdeaLab just said the attackers took people’s names, in combination with “variable data”.Get 55% off Incogni's Data Removal service with code TECHRADAR Wipe your personal data off the internet with the Incogni data removal service. Stop identity thievesand protect your privacy from unwanted spam and scam calls.View DealSmuggling throughStill, it offers affected individuals complimentary identity theft protection services through IDX, which includes 24 months of credit and dark web monitoring, a $1 million identity fraud loss reimbursement policy, and fully managed identity theft recovery services.At the same time, the media reported that a ransomware operation known as Hunters International took responsibility for the attack, adding the stolen data to its leak site, likely after a failed extortion attempt.Allegedly, the leaked archive was 262.8 GB in size, and contained 137,000 files. Interestingly enough, earlier today Hunters International announced it was disbanding, apologized for the inconvenience caused, and shared decryption keys for all of its victims. It’s safe to assume IdeaLab is included in this list, as well.The motive behind the shutdown remains in the domain of speculation, with multiple security outfits believing the group was simply rebranding in order to hide its tracks from law enforcement and cut ties with previous affiliates.Researchers from Recorded Future, Group-IB, and many others, have pointed out that Hunters International recently launched a parallel operation called World Leaks, that does not deploy encryptors and just focuses on extortion.Via BleepingComputerYou might also likeHacked Tata Technologies data leaked by ransomware gangTake a look at our guide to the best authenticator appWe've rounded up the best password managers

One night last November the traffic graphs at sports-betting firm, 1win, went vertical. Hours later the lines flattened, LEDs flicked green, ticket closed. End of story—until forensics showed that, while terabits of junk battered the perimeter, someone tip-toed off with 96 million customer records. The fireworks were loud enough that nobody heard the vault door click.The culprit? Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.What was once digital vandalism—flood the pipe, claim bragging rights—has evolved into outright misdirection, hogging every console and CPU cycle while the real break-in unfolds elsewhere.DDoS Attacks TodayCarriers that once saw two DDoS incidents a day now log hundreds, and 44% of these attacks are over in under five minutes. Blink and you miss the smoke screen—plus the burglary behind it.Why the surge? Because a 100-gig “booter” subscription (to DDoS-for-hire services) costs less than Netflix. And because botnets ship pre-assembled: for instance, Eleven11bot drove hijacked webcams to launch record-breaking DDoS attacks, peaking at 6.5 Tb/s in February. That’s more than ten times Mirai’s original, 2016 record.Attackers don’t show up to smash the furniture; they keep you chasing alarms while they lift the valuables—exfiltrating data, dropping ransomware, wiring in next week’s back-door.Many teams let their guard down once the second latency graphs sag to normal, unaware they’re celebrating on the wrong lap. Stateful firewalls, last-minute ACLs (Access Control Lists), and a heroic operator attempt to handle raw volume right up to the moment an attacker overloads the very gear meant to stop them.Picture the firewall as a nightclub bouncer armed with an exquisitely detailed guest list. Flood the door with a million party-crashers and the clipboard becomes decoration. In the chaos, the bouncer waves everyone through.That reflex is fail-open.Fail-open isn’t magic—it’s physics. Cram the firewall’s state table with a volumetric SYN flood and, once memory pegs, the firmware panics and slips into bypass, in a last-ditch attempt to keep links alive and traffic flowing. If the inspection daemon seg-faults under the strain, the chassis bridges traffic until it restarts. Kill the power or flap a link and the hardware relay shorts the ports together.From the security operations center (SOC) chair, it’s eerie: logs go silent, session counters plunge, line-rate traffic barrels on, and NetFlow suddenly shows inbound RDP the policy never touched. The attacker didn’t avoid your defenses; they used them as the on-ramp.What To Do NextMITRE’s ATT&CK playbook spells it out: adversaries have been observed launching DDoS “to support other malicious activities, including distraction.” In other words, getting the service back up is merely Act I.Four moves that can help your team keep the fireworks outside:1.Baseline the who and the why, not just the how muchIt’s midnight. Five thousand no-name IP-cams halfway across the globe all at once decide your Domain Name System (DNS) authoritative name-server is their new best friend. Bandwidth may not spike massively, but intent screams: cameras don’t spontaneously flood DNS.Your detection engine should instantly flag anomalies like “Devices that typically whisper Network Time Protocol (NTP) are suddenly screaming DNS.” Layer flow data onto BGP, turning suspicious cameras into red dots on a heat map.2.Let automation throw the first punch—under a minute, or it’s too slowNo human can out-type a terabit flood. Hand the reflex to silicon—gear that fires back before you’ve even seen the spike.The second packets-per-second cross your threshold, edge routers should automatically shed malicious traffic or redirect it to mitigation gear, reverting when conditions stabilize.3.Give your firewalls an airbag—let a stateless layer eat the crashFirewalls are brilliant chess players with one fatal flaw: every new flow grabs a square on a state table, and that board is only so big. Fill it, and the box either drops everything or—worse—fails open. As a safeguard, bolt on a stateless “airbag” a hop upstream. It doesn’t care about SYNs or sequence numbers; it cares about the who and what—five thousand white-label cameras suddenly pelting your DNS server, for instance.The second that odd waveform appears, the airbag inflates: drops the anomalous traffic on device or punts the junk to a scrubber. No sessions to track, no table to exhaust; just raw line-rate math absorbing the impact while the firewall keeps pondering the finer stuff: TLS fingerprints, strange HTTP verbs, and bots masquerading as browsers.4.Audit the bouncers—make sure none of them silently swing the rope asideFail-open is a configuration choice, not a cosmic constant. Dramatically unplugging boxes mid-attack isn’t necessary; review your configurations instead. Verify each inline device explicitly states how it behaves if software crashes, links fail, or power dies. Anything set to silently bypass traffic without approval belongs at the top of tomorrow’s change list.DDoS fireworks dazzle, but nobody robs the vault just for the spectacle. Spot the diversion, stay clear-eyed, and keep the attackers outside looking in. Next time the sky lights up, keep at least one eye on the basement door.We've listed the best small and medium business (SMB) firewall software.This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

Prime Day 2025 will be here in a few days, but you can already shop great tech deals on Amazon before the July 8-11 event. Case in point: the Apple Watch Series 10, which is $100 off at the moment and down to $299. That's the lowest price it's been so far since it came out last September. We're only seeing this sale price on one colorway at the moment, but it's worth checking back to see if the particular configuration you want drops back down over the coming days.

It’s hard to believe that the Apple Watch is already ten years old. It seems like only yesterday that we got our hands on the first generation, and now the Apple Watch Series 10 is counting the days until the next generation is announced. Whether you’re looking to upgrade from an older Apple Watch or this is your first time buying an Apple smartwatch (though keep in mind an iPhone is required to use an Apple Watch), this sale is a great opportunity to pick one up at a fantastic value.

The tenth generation of the Apple Watch represents a powerhouse of computing on your wrist. In our hands-on review, we loved the comprehensive health and fitness tracking capabilities on the watch, which has been a strong niche for Apple. We were sad to see the blood oxygen app removed following a patent dispute, but features like fall detection and sleep apnea tracking are still intact. It’s also the thinnest Apple Watch yet, feeling more like a slim accessory than a bulky gadget. We gave the Apple Watch 10 a score of 90 out of 100, and it remains our top pick for best smartwatch.

If you're looking to send less, consider the Apple Watch SE. You can grab one for only $169 right now, or 32 percent off its usual price. It doesn't have all the bells, whistles and extra sensors that the Series 10 does, but you'll still get the core Apple Watch experience with excellent activity tracking, heart rate monitoring, smart alerts and more.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-apple-watch-series-10-is-on-sale-for-100-off-for-prime-day-152348579.html?src=rss

The EU Commission presented a Roadmap on how it intends to ensure that law enforcement has effective and lawful access to citizens' data Politicians seek to establish a precedent for the decryption of private dataThe Roadmap is part of the ProtectEU strategy, first unveiled in April 2025EU law enforcement bodies could be capable of decrypting your private data by 2030.This is one of the ambitious goals the EU Commission presented in its Roadmap on June 24, 2025. A plan on how the bloc intends to ensure police officers' "lawful and effective" access to citizens' data.The Roadmap is the first step forward in the ProtectEU strategy, first unveiled in April 2025 – but privacy experts have already begun raising the alarm.How the EU plans to achieve lawful access to dataProtectEU represents the EU Commission's internal strategy to bolster the security of the European bloc in the years to come.It stems from the work of the High-Level Group (HLG) carried on under the so-called Going Dark initiative. The group was tasked, by the EU Council in June 2023, to develop a strategic plan "on access to data for effective law enforcement."Specifically, the group's final report, published in March 2025, referred to end-to-end encryption as "the biggest technical challenge" to the investigative work of law enforcement agencies, explicitly targeting the use of the best VPN services, encrypted messaging apps, and similar tools.The Roadmap marks a key part of the strategy, providing more detail on how lawmakers plan to address what they refer to as "the growing challenges of accessing critical digital evidence" during criminal investigations.(Image credit: Bjorn Bakstad, via Getty Images)The plan focuses on six key areas:Data retention. The EU Commission is expected to carry out an impact assessment with the aim of extending the EU's data retention obligations and reinforcing cooperation between service providers and authorities.Lawful interception. Lawmakers seek to explore measures aimed at improving cross-border cooperation for lawful interception of data by 2027.Digital forensics. The goal here is to develop technical solutions that allow authorities to analyze and preserve digital evidence stored on electronic devices.Decryption. Next year, the EU Commission is set to present a Technology Roadmap on encryption to identify and evaluate decrypting solutions. These technologies are expected to equip Europol officers from 2030.Standardisation. The Commission is said to be committed to working alongside Europol, industry stakeholders, experts, and law enforcement practitioners to standardize the new approach to internal security.AI solutions for law enforcement. Lawmakers also seek to promote the development and deployment of AI tools by 2028. These solutions will enable authorities to lawfully and effectively process large volumes of seized data.What the experts are sayingExperts have long warned against proposed plans to break encryption, meaning the technology responsible for scrambling data into an unreadable form to prevent unauthorized access.Now, according to Internet Society's Senior Director, Robin Wilton, another move towards the decryption of private data is concerning."Efforts to develop decryption techniques almost inevitably introduce new vulnerabilities that could be exploited by anyone with the motivation and know-how; they may also encourage the 'hoarding' of vulnerabilities, which is contrary to good cybersecurity practice," Wilton told TechRadar.These comments echoed previous warnings from technologists, cryptographers, and privacy advocates who were "deeply concerned" by the EU plan to weaken encryption.The EU initiative Going Dark has now been launched by the EU Commission. They call it ProtectEU.It’s a rebranding of Chat Control. New name. Same old propaganda.The EU Commission’s goal is to “access encrypted data in a lawful manner, safeguarding cybersecurity and…April 4, 2025A surge in cyberattacks worldwide has pushed government bodies, including the FBI and CISA in the US, to encourage citizens to switch to end-to-end encrypted services to fight back against these threats.The European Commission itself even previously acknowledged encryption as a necessary measure to protect the integrity of cyberspace.This is probably the reason why a similar proposal to create a backdoor into encryption, the so-called Chat Control bill, has been failing to attract the needed majority since 2022.Now, lawmakers promise to be committed to finding the right balance between "allowing for efficient and future-proof solutions to facilitate law enforcement’s lawful access to digital information, while respecting the right to privacy and maintaining high levels of cybersecurity," said EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner.For Wilton, policymakers must never forget one simple fact: "Strong encryption isn’t the enemy of security – it’s the starting point for it."You might also like"Weakening encryption would make European security worse" "A war against online anonymity" – why Switzerland wants to change its surveillance law and what's at stakeChat Control – Poland's EU Presidency gives up on the voluntary scan of your encrypted chats