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two-factor authentication

Will Twitter now start charging for SMS two-factor authentication?

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According to Twitter’s announcement on Friday, only Twitter Blue subscribers will have access to text messages as a two-factor authentication process.

The change will happen on March 20. Two additional free options for Twitter log-in authentication will be available to users: a security key and an authentication mobile app.

two-factor authentication
Image Source: techspot.com

Users that utilize two-factor authentication, or 2FA, must first input their password and then a security code to access their accounts. This is one of the main ways users keep their Twitter accounts secure.

Also Read: Why suddenly are Twitter feeds flooded with Elon Musk’s tweets?

The company noted, “While historically a popular form of 2FA, unfortunately, we have seen phone-number-based 2FA be used – and abused – by bad actors. So starting today, we will no longer allow accounts to enroll in the text message/SMS method of 2FA unless they are Twitter Blue subscribers.”

Users who subscribe to Twitter Blue get a blue checkmark on their account. For Android and iOS users, the monthly subscription fee is $11. According to a Twitter account security assessment, only 2.6% of Twitter users had 2FA activated as of 2021, and of those, 74.4% used SMS authentication.

Nonsubscribers of Twitter Blue will have 30 days to stop utilizing the text authentication option and join up for another 2FA sign-in option, according to Twitter. According to Twitter, deactivating text message 2FA won’t immediately separate the user’s mobile number from their account. Musk replied “Yup” to a tweet that claimed Twitter lost $60 million annually “to Pump 2FA SMS”.

SIM hacking—where “bad actors” obtain access to users’ accounts by taking their phone numbers and impersonating them to be them—is a widespread occurrence, making the SMS method one of the least secure kinds of two-factor authentication. In 2019, the method was used to effectively hack Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter.

Also Read: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki steps down after nine years

One user commented that they “don’t think the site has had a single positive change” after Elon acquired it for $44 billion and seized control of the massive social media corporation. Online reactions have varied from amazement to dismissal.

Musk stated earlier this week via video conference at the Global Government Summit in Dubai that he is still considering leaving his position as Twitter’s CEO and “guesses” he will find a successor before the end of 2023. Musk stated. “I think I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure it’s in a financially healthy place in that the product roadmap is clearly laid out.

I’m guessing probably towards the end of the year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company. I think it should be in a stable position at the end of this year.”

Microsoft

Why does Microsoft limit Bing chats to just five questions per session?

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Microsoft will set a cap of five queries per session and 50 inquiries per day for chat conversation on its new Bing search engine, which is driven by creative artificial intelligence (AI).

According to a blog post by Microsoft, “very long chat sessions can confuse the underlying chat model in the new Bing. To address these issues, we’ve implemented some changes to help focus the chat sessions.”

Microsoft
Image Source: nytimes.com

Bing noted, “Our data has shown that the vast majority of people find the answers they’re looking for within 5 turns and that only around 1 percent of chat conversations have 50+ messages.” In order to prevent lengthy back-and-forth chat sessions, Bing will encourage users to start a new session if they exceed the five sessions limit.

Also Read: Can ChatGPT assist Microsoft in dethroning Google Search?

The New York Times published a two-hour-plus talk with Bing after reports of its “unhinged” conversations surfaced earlier this week. In the conversation, the chatbot expressed its affection for the author and said they were unable to sleep that night for some reason.

Microsoft made its decision days after certain media stories suggested that the latest Bing search engine’s results might be harmful and that the tech might not be suitable for widespread use.

When a Reuters reporter questioned the new, AI-enhanced version of Bing about the cost of car air filters, Bing returned adverts for filters supplied by the auto parts site Parts Geek, not just answers to the question.

Microsoft may make money from the revamped Bing, which has millions of individuals on the waiting list for access. How long these restrictions will persist is not immediately evident since Microsoft is currently attempting to enhance Bing’s tone.

According to Microsoft, “as we continue to get feedback, we will explore expanding the caps on chat sessions,” this cap appears to be temporary for the time being. The chat feature on Bing keeps becoming better every day, with technical problems being fixed and bigger weekly dumps of updates to enhance search and responses.

Microsoft pointed out earlier this week that it did not “fully envision” users of its chat interface utilizing it for “social entertainment” or as a tool for “general discovery of the world.”

Also Read: Elon Musk Forced Algorithm Change to Help Boost His Tweets

The brand-new Bing is a ground-breaking product that makes use of cutting-edge AI technology to provide better searches, more thorough answers, a new chat interface, and the capability to generate and share content with others. The new Edge browser, which provides users with many features and advantages, is also merged with the new Bing.

The new Bing may, however, experience certain problems and inaccuracies at launch, such as producing erroneous information about goods, locations, and financial documents, similar to any new product.

Steam Deck

Is it possible to transfer games between PCs and Steam Deck?

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Players can now use Steam Deck to wirelessly transfer games from their Desktops to their mobile Valve gaming consoles.

Because of this, consumers can effectively use less internet by not having to download their PC gaming software again from their Steam Deck. Not to mention that for people with horribly jerky internet connections, the game transfer choice should be speedier.

steam deck
Image Source: stuff.tv

According to Engadget, this new Steam Deck ability changes everything if a gamer’s internet connection is too slow or has a limited amount of bandwidth. Recently, Valve added a new feature to Steam Deck that let players share games across their local networks.

Also Read: Why suddenly are Twitter feeds flooded with Elon Musk’s tweets?

They can transfer a file from their Desktop to their portable gaming system without accessing the internet thanks to it. According to the gaming company, “Local Network Game Transfers are great for Steam Deck owners, multi-user Steam households, dorms, LAN parties, etc.”

You must first enable Steam’s beta on your PC’s Steam client and Deck in order to access the feature. Choose the game you want to add to your Deck from there, and Steam will check every PC connected to your network to see if it already has the game.

Steam will start the game transfer procedure if it discovers one. It’s important to note that this feature works with computers connected to the same network, thus you are free to move installed Steam games from any other computers in your home to your PC. On its help page, Steam provides more information about how everything functions.

It also states that it will download the remaining portions of the game from its servers in the event that the devices lose connectivity during the transfer process “or no more content is available.” Also, users can change the parameters that control which Desktops your Steam Deck may download from.

Users can only transfer games from the devices they’ve connected into Steam, therefore Steam by default has it set to “Only my own devices.” But, users may change this setting to “Only my friends” or “Any user” if they wish to download games from a friend’s or relative’s Computer. Unfortunately, Steam does not yet enable game transfers coming from PCs using Big Picture mode or the Steam Deck.

Also Read: iPhone 15 and 15 Plus to get redesigned camera. What to expect?

The Valve Corporation created the Steam Deck, a portable gaming device. It which debuts on February 25, 2022, is a device that functions similarly to the Nintendo Switch and may be played handheld or when hooked up to a monitor.

It is an x86-64-v3 device that runs SteamOS and has built-in gaming inputs for playing the entire Steam library, supporting Windows PC games using the Linux-based Proton portability layer. The system is an open framework that allows users to install suitable non-Steam software, including operating systems, games, and applications.

Twitter

Why suddenly are Twitter feeds flooded with Elon Musk’s tweets?

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Since Elon Musk acquired the social media platform in October, users of Twitter have been paying closer attention to him. It seems like some people can only see Musk on Twitter right now.

Some Twitter users discovered on Monday that, with the exception of the occasional promotional message, their “For You” feeds on the social media platform were stuffed with tweets and responses from the tech mogul, some of which were several days old.

Twitter
Image Source: businessinsider.in

People complained that recent tweets from accounts that don’t follow Musk were flooding their feeds. In a tweet sent out early on Tuesday, Musk appeared to recognize the problem, writing: “Please stay tuned while we make adjustments to the uh .… ‘algorithm’.”

Also Read: iPhone 15 and 15 Plus to get redesigned camera. What to expect?

Musk tweeted on Sunday that he had worked hard all day long at Twitter headquarters with the technical team to fix two problems. First off, up to 95% of his tweets were not delivered at all since the “Fanout service” for the “Following” feed was overloaded when he tweeted. Several users’ queued tweets were also ruined by this problem.

Second, the Recommendation method used an absolute block count rather than a percentage block count, which resulted in the deletion of accounts with a large number of followers even when blocks represented only 0.1% of followers and made it “simple” to bot spam profiles with blocks.

This change comes in response to Musk’s criticism that his tweets were not getting enough views, which led him to temporarily make his account private and even sack an engineer because of it. It appears that a number of right-wing profiles that Musk engages with also saw a decrease in their reach as a result of some algorithmic modifications made by Twitter.

The oddity occurs less than a week after users of the social network reported a number of widespread issues affecting their use of the platform on February 8. Users lost access to direct messages, received error messages stating they were “over the daily limit for sending tweets,” and had to schedule tweets before posting them.

The same day, Twitter made the announcement that it will begin charging $100 each month for a “basic tier” to utilize its API, which programmers and researchers use to examine public tweets.

Also Read: What is the new RGB lighting feature in Windows 11?

On February 10, Twitter also made it possible for US Twitter Blue members to send tweets with 4,000 characters instead of the standard 280.

Many who use the network have taken offense at Musk’s decision to charge for services that are generally free, particularly because the modifications are made quickly and without much notice. In an attempt to give users the coveted blue checkmark, Twitter launched an upgraded verification system last year, but it failed.

cyber attack

German airport websites hit by suspected cyber attack

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A day after a significant IT malfunction at Lufthansa left thousands of travellers stuck, the webpages of seven German airports were reportedly targeted by a probable cyber attack on Thursday, according to the ADV airport organisation. Düsseldorf, Nuremberg, and Dortmund were among the airports that were impacted, although the websites for Germany’s three largest airports—Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin—were unaffected.

cyber attack
Image Source: brecorder.com

Due to a technological malfunction, numerous German airport websites are no longer accessible. According to reports, the disruptions might be caused by cyber attack. The website issues have not interfered with airport operations, indicating that the IT problem appears to be limited to the online environment.

Also Read: Google Staff in Zurich Stage Walkout Over Job Cuts

Passengers will be impacted by further outages in the days ahead, particularly as other airports experience strikes. Even though websites occasionally experience problems and even go offline, it is unusual for several airport websites to do so at the same time.

It is assumed that these failures are the consequence of cyber attack directed at airport infrastructure given their proximity in time and form. None of these interruptions has, as of yet, affected airport operations. Before any flights are impacted by the outage, airport officials are working fast to address the problems and restore service to the websites.

The website breakdowns, which could cause operational hiccups in the upcoming days, occur just one day before a significant one-day walkout. A one-day airport employee strike has been organised for tomorrow, February 17, and will run the entire day.

Tourists are advised against flying tomorrow in Germany as the walkouts are expected to cause significant delays at airports throughout the nation. Tomorrow’s flights out of Frankfurt and Munich have been cancelled by Lufthansa due to the strikes, causing major issues and lost reservations for travellers.

On the list of airports where a strike is anticipated, DUS is the only one impacted by the website outage. Yet, the strike’s large number of cancelled flights will undoubtedly create a domino effect that will affect almost all German airports.

For the next few days, this will cause airline disruptions across the nation and many neighbouring nations. The only thing that will fuel this upcoming storm is the website outages.

Also Read: Elon Musk Forced Algorithm Change to Help Boost His Tweets

The airports hit by the website disruptions are not the only ones this week to experience such setbacks. An IT issue on February 15, had a significant impact on the operations of the Lufthansa Group. All of the company’s airlines had delays as a result of the malfunction.

Frankfurt Airport (FRA) was closed to all arrivals as a result of the inconvenience. This resulted in the cancellation of thousands of flights and hundreds of travellers’ travel plans. With all the flight cancellations and delays, the German air transit business is heading towards what appears to be a weekend to remember.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk Forced Algorithm Change to Help Boost His Tweets

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As per Platformer, Elon Musk made Twitter Corporation professionals work late on Sunday to change his social network’s algorithm and take priority in his tweets, giving rise to a flood of them appearing in users’ feeds on Monday.

Billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk is believed to be dissatisfied with the number of individuals who saw his Super Bowl Twitter post.

According to Platformer, as a consequence of Musk’s requirement, Twitter exempted Musk’s Twitter posts from filters intended to enhance the quality of consumers’ timelines and artificially increased those by a factor of 1,000. On the day after Super Bowl, users on Twitter made complaints about receiving an influx of the owner’s tweets.

Also Read: Elon Musk to unveil Tesla’s ‘Master Plan 3.’ What to expect for us?

Musk explained his group in person late on Sunday night. Around 80 individuals were brought into it to assist with the project, which had quickly already become the firm’s primary concern. Employees worked all night to explore specific theories as to why Musk’s Twitter posts weren’t attaining quite so many persons as he assumed they should and also to test alternative solutions.

James Musk sent an important message to Twitter staff at 2:36 on Monday morning.

“We are debugging an issue with engagement across the platform,” wrote Musk, a cousin of the Twitter CEO, tagging “@here” in Slack to ensure that anyone online would see it. “Any people who can make dashboards and write software please can you help solve this problem? This is high urgency. If you are willing to help out please thumbs up this post.”

Source: theverge.com

Musk’s affirmation of his backing for the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday gained tremendously less involvement than a similar message from US Vice President Joe Biden. According to the report, the firm has become increasingly interested in and also infuriated by his interaction figures, which have begun declining in recent weeks.

Also Read: Twitter to start charging developers for API access

Musk seems to have almost 129 million followers on Twitter, while Joe Biden has 37 million. Before actually taking the business private in a 44 billion USD agreement in October, Tesla Corporation CEO Elon Musk stated that he wanted to equalize the playing field as well as reduce bias in the structure.

Twitter did not reply instantly to an emailed inquiry for clarification. Musk tweeted regarding Twitter as well as its features just after the report was published, but he did not address its material. He had previously tweeted a meme implying that his tweets would be forced-fed to Twitter users. He also stated that the algorithm was being tweaked by the company.