PC Magazine January 2022

In addition to helping people choose the technology products that are the best fit for their needs and budgets, a huge part of our mission here at PCMag is to help people use that tech correctly after they buy it. Getting your device home and taking it out of the box is just the beginning of your adventure with that new PC, phone, tablet, or digital whatnot. And of course, we offer advice for using your software and apps, staying safe online, getting the best bargains, and on and on. Something we try to educate readers about regularly is a series of beliefs that just aren’t true. Some are pretty well known (more megapixels doesn’t mean one camera is better than another); others are a little more obscure (those paid programs…

Google reported in December that it had disrupted a botnet known as Glupteba that’s spread malware to a million Windows devices. But the company is warning the botnet could return, thanks to a novel backup mechanism that taps into the Bitcoin blockchain. In December, Google announced it had worked with internet hosting providers to take down the servers that communicate to the Glupteba botnet. In addition, the company filed a lawsuit in a US district court against two Russian citizens allegedly behind the hacking scheme. “After a thorough investigation, we determined that the Glupteba botnet currently involves approximately 1 million compromised Windows devices worldwide, and at times, grows at a rate of thousands of new devices per day,” the company wrote in a blog post. “The hackers have been found spreading malware through…

Apple released the AirTag in April to help people keep track of their keys, luggage, and other easy-to-lose items. Now the device is being used to monitor the location of something else: cars. More specifically, car thieves have started tracking high-end vehicles with AirTags. “Since September 2021, officers have investigated five incidents where suspects have placed small tracking devices on high-end vehicles so they can later locate and steal them,” said to Canada’s York Regional Police. “Brand name ‘air tags’ [sic] are placed in out-of-sight areas of the target vehicles when they are parked in public places like malls or parking lots. Thieves then track the targeted vehicles to the victim’s residence, where they are stolen from the driveway.” The police say that AirTags are being hidden in trailer hitches, bumpers, and…

Although it has received a mostly positive response, Windows 11 has also been the target of quite a few barbs—including several from PCMag. Some may disagree with the complaints listed below or consider them insignificant. Others will feel righteous indignation and outrage when they try the new operating system. Some of these qualms have gotten lots of noise, especially on social media and tech news sites. Some are personal peeves. Where appropriate, we debunk complaints that are unjustified or insignificant. But others seem like genuine gripes. Without further ado, let’s launch into our selection of the top complaints users have about Windows 11. 1. Windows 11’s Hardware Requirements Are Too High At launch, much was made of Windows 11’s demanding hardware requirements. This complaint mostly affects those who want to upgrade their…

Women in tech face considerable obstacles that start during their youngest years in school and persist in careers that they are frequently forced to abandon because of pay disparities and harassment. So when Elon Musk, who holds considerable sway over (mostly) men in the field, makes a sexist tweet that gets over 600,000 likes, or moves company headquarters to a state that has put a bounty on women seeking medical care, it has a collective impact on women employed in tech jobs and a direct impact on the women who work for him. Musk’s social media has won him the scrutiny of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a defamation lawsuit. But he has not had to answer for his tweets that would land him an HR investigation if he was…

Raise your hand if this has happened to you: You wake up in the middle of the night, check your phone to see the time, and notice several missed text messages. You check them, hoping all your loved ones are OK, and see each is a one-time passcode. Now your worry turns to dread because someone has one of your passwords, and only an SMS message stands between you and some would-be hacker. So what do you do? I would change my password, store the new, unique, and strong password in a password manager, and go back to bed. More important, I’d consider changing my SMS authentication method to something a bit stronger in the morning. Why? It turns out that clever crooks can reroute text messages. But if you use an…