Meta has unveiled its plans to show more ads in Facebook and Instagram Reels, allowing creators to make money out of their shared videos.
Facebook Reels introduced its monetization program last year as a way for creators to make money by creating and sharing engaging Reels. Meta is now expanding the program and lets thousands of new creators join the test. However, the company is also considering a new payout model for creators.
According to the company’s announcement, the new model pays creators “based on the performance of their public reels, not the earnings of ads on their reels.” By performance, Meta means the number of plays and not other engagement factors. Of course, other signals might be incorporated into payouts in the future.
Meta restructures its payout model for Facebook and Instagram Reels
The new payout model means creators can make money by crafting more engaging Reels. Which could finally lead to stronger user retention on the platform. As for Instagram, Meta says a similar program will be rolled out to a small group of creators and advertisers in select markets in the coming weeks.
Meta adds that the restructured payout results from the company’s tests, arguing that performance-based payouts work better for both sides. Additionally, paying creators based on the earnings of ads could negatively affect their revenue as some factors might be out of their control.
Meta also announced the performance-based payout model would apply to In-Stream ads on Facebook. This is a part of the company’s initiative to support creators making all types of content.
Back in 2021, Meta launched a Reels Play bonus with over $35,000 monthly bonuses for creators. The company later slashed the money and then paused the program entirely amid its cost-cutting efforts. The new payout model for creators coincides with Meta’s plans to cut 10,000 jobs to reduce costs.
Cybersecurity experts have identified the new Cactus ransomware, and it is a master of disguise. It does this uniquely, hence making even the beefed-up antivirus software packages not notice its existence. This sounds quite scary because anyone can have this virus on their system whilst having antivirus software running.
The new malware executes itself in a series of ways, as identified by some cybersecurity experts. One of its methods of execution involves it hiding itself from any antivirus software that might be available on the user’s system. It harps upon the weakness of antiviruses and endpoint security solutions out there to keep itself concealed in plain sight.
Information regarding this ransomware was provided by the folks at Kroll. The firm’s risk and financial advisory solutions team have been able to spot this malware and make it known to the public. Here is everything you need to know about this masquerading malware that hopes to hold your files for ransom.
The new master of disguise in the cybersecurity world is the Cactus ransomware
The new Cactus ransomware has three main modes of executing itself in a system. In this article, the main focus will be just one of the ways it executes on a system. This method of execution makes the Cactus ransomware go undetected even by antivirus software packages.
If you are familiar with antivirus software products and endpoint security solutions, you’d know that they can’t read encrypted files. Well, one of the ways the new Cactus ransomware executes itself in a system is by encryption. With the use of an AES key, a bad actor can deploy this ransomware to a system, where it will exist as an encrypted file.
Cybersecurity experts have been able to understand how this ransomware operates. It all starts with the bad actors providing this ransomware with a unique AES key that they also have access to. With the AES key, the ransomware’s configuration file and public RSA key can be decrypted.
After this, the bad actor can then encrypt the malware file and then forward it to the target. These will get to the target’s system as a HEX string, which is hardcoded in the bad actor’s binary. After the malware gets into the target’s system, the bad actor decodes the HEX string.
This will give them access to the user’s data which they can then access with the AES key. The entire encryption process makes the Cactus ransomware hard to detect. It can easily exist on a system, causing damage whilst being ignored by the installed antivirus or endpoint security solution.
The Cactus ransomware is a master of disguise and hides in plain sight. But this malware also has two other ways to execute on a target’s computer system. Executing it using encryption and another method together makes this malware more lethal. More research and work will go into better understanding this ransomware and how to prevent its attacks.
WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Facebook, has been found to include a bug that allows the app to continue accessing the microphone even after the user has closed it. This bug was discovered by several users, but brought to the spotlight by a Twitter engineer who noticed it happening on his Pixel 7 Pro.
The bug appears to be affecting several Android devices, including different Samsung and Pixel models, as well as several different versions of the Android app. However, WhatsApp has responded by claiming that the issue lies with Android and not the app itself.
Over the last 24 hours we’ve been in touch with a Twitter engineer who posted an issue with his Pixel phone and WhatsApp.
We believe this is a bug on Android that mis-attributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate. https://t.co/MnBi3qE6Gp
In several of these reports, microphone activity from the app has been spotted in Android’s Privacy Dashboard as well as through the visible green dot notification on the Android status bar. However, WhatsApp states that this seems to be a bug on Android that mis-attributes information in the privacy dashboard and has asked Google to further investigate.
Unfortunately, WhatsApp’s response didn’t come until after Elon Musk took to his own Twitter account to share his opinion on the matter. As you can probably guess by now, his reaction was not positive, accusing the company of not being trustworthy.
This latest bug could further erode users’ trust in the app, so it is important that Google take a look at the issue and respond accordingly. Hopefully this fix comes sooner rather than later.
Google has been working on making Android a better place for tablets, and the company hasn’t stopped yet. A new report states that Google will make Google Photos better for tablets. This will mainly influence the photo editing feature of the app.
Editing pictures on Google Photos has always been a very optimized experience for smartphones. You have your photo up top with the options displayed in a carousel on the bottom. However, some people like to use larger screens to edit their photos. If a person wants to use their tablet to edit photos, the app would rotate to portrait orientation.
This will make it pretty frustrating to use because the photo, if taken in landscape orientation, would be shrunken to fit in the portrait orientation. This pushes people to edit on their phones instead.
But, Google is going to make editing in Google Photos on tablets better
This is the latest in a long line of Google products to get much-needed tablet optimizations. According to a tweet from Nail_Sadykov (via Phone Arena), the editing UI in Google Photos will be formatted to work in landscape.
Instead of being pushed to the top, the photo you’re editing will be on the left side, and that will take up most of the screen. On the right side, you will see all of your editing tools. On the upper right of the screen, you’ll see icons for the different categories (Suggestions, Crop, Adjustments, Tools, and Markup).
Under the bar, you’ll see each section expanded with large Material You buttons and UI elements. Under the Adjustments tool, each of the sliders (brightness, contrast, HDR, etc.) will be displayed all on one plane, rather than being separated into their own sections.
So, the interface will be much better suited for people who want to edit photos on their tablets. This is great, as there are a ton of tablets out there that have amazing displays. Editing photos on them should be a breeze.
At this point, we have no idea when Google plans to roll out this change. Since there are live screenshots, it appears that the feature is pretty well developed. Hopefully, Google will roll this out soon. We also can’t rule out the company announcing this during Google I/O which is happening tomorrow.
Over the past few years, data breaches and hacks have become increasingly common, with new companies falling victim every day. Western Digital recently fell victim to a data breach, which impacted both customer and company data and resulted in the company halting certain online functions. Now, WD has finally come out with an update on the situation.
According to WD, threat actors breached its systems, gained access to a crucial database and stole the personal information of customers, including customer names, billing and shipping addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers. In addition, hackers were also able to access passwords and partial credit card numbers, but fortunately, they were encrypted and hashed, thus making it difficult for hackers to decipher the information. To limit the extent of the breach, WD says it took several steps, including the shutdown of certain online services, such as its web store.
While Western Digital has not disclosed the true extent of the breach, hackers reportedly stole over 10 terabytes of customer information and have also attempted to demand a ransom from the company based on the promise that they will not publish the data. However, WD rejected these demands, and hackers have begun publishing the stolen data on websites.
“We are working with leading outside forensic and security experts to assist with our investigation and are coordinating with law enforcement,” says WD.
WD’s advice to its customers
Until the investigation is complete, WD has advised all affected customers to be cautious of any unsolicited communications and avoid clicking on any suspicious links or downloading attachments from emails.
Moreover, WD said that while it has already restored My Cloud services on April 13th, it will restore account access by May 15th. However, it is important to note that its online store will remain closed until full restoration is complete.
The FBI has been coordinating Operation PowerOFF since 2018, aiming to disrupt the DDoS-for-hire service infrastructures worldwide.
As part of this Operation, On May 8th, 2023, the FBI seized around 13 internet domains that offered DDos-for-hire services.
The FBI has named them “Booter” services as these services result in “booting” or dropping the victim’s computers from the internet.
The seizure revealed data of hundreds of thousands of DDos-for-hire users responsible for millions of attacks against Schools, universities, financial institutions, and government websites, affecting millions of victims.
10 out of 13 domains seized were found to be a reincarnation of previously seized domains in December when the FBI targeted 48 booter service domains.
An example shown by the Dept of Justice stated that a domain named cyberstress.org was found to be a reincarnation of cyberstress[.]us, seized in December.
The investigation by the FBI
The FBI opened new accounts and renewed old accounts on these DDoS-for-hire service websites for further investigation. They paid for these services in cryptocurrency and launched an attack on FBI test systems.
As advertised by these websites, the services were able to affect the computers on a large scale severing internet connections from the systems and making them completely unavailable.
Additional investigation showed that these services could also disrupt other users’ internet connections if the attackers launched their attack on an internet service provider via a connection point.
Following these investigations, the FBI stated that four defendants arrested in Los Angeles in 2022 admitted to running these booter service operations.
Jeremia Sam Evans Miller aka “John The Dev” from San Antonio, Texas ran the botter service named Royalstresser.com (formerly Supremesecurityteam.com).
Angel Manuel Colon Jr., aka “Anonghost720” and “Anonghost1337,” from Belleview Florida who ran the booter service SecurityTeam.io
Shamar Shattock from Margate, Florida, who ran the booter service “Astrostress.com”
Cory Anthony Palmer, from Lauderhill, Florida, who ran the booter service Booter.sx
All these defendants are scheduled to be sentenced this summer, as mentioned by the Department of Justice.
Furthermore, the FBI has been coordinating this operation with international law enforcement agencies and is aiming to arrest administrators and users of these illegal services.
The time has come once again to kick back and watch the Google I/O keynote, this time to see what new stuff Google has in store for users in 2023.
This is the second year that Google is bringing the event back to the shoreline amphitheater with physical attendance after having digital-only events for a couple of years. It’s also going to be streamed online for anyone who can’t attend. And this year is definitely going to be one to watch as Google is expected to officially unveil some exciting hardware at this year’s event.
Although, most of it is stuff that’s expected because a lot of it has already leaked numerous times. Here’s what you will likely see Google show off at I/O 2023 if you watch the event. For starters, Google is expected to unveil at least two major pieces of hardware. There’s the Pixel 7a, Google’s latest iteration of the A series device, and then the more exciting of the two, the Pixel Fold.
The Pixel Fold has been rumored for years now. And it looks like we may finally get to see the device. Google is also expected to launch the Pixel Tablet at this event after showing it off at its Fall event last year.
How to watch Google I/O 2023
Now, you might be wondering how you can watch the Google I/O 2023 keynote and it’s actually quite simple to do. Google will be streaming the event live on its YouTube channel and you can actually view that video below. This is typically where Google will show off any hardware. In addition to talking about the different topics this year’s event will focus on. Such as new Android versions, beta software, new features and more.
The keynote will officially start at 10am PDT on May 10. So there’s nothing to actually watch until then. It’s also worth keeping in mind that a lot of time with these live events, there is a possibility of things getting started a few minutes late.
Though Google is usually pretty good about starting mostly on time. The keynote should last for around two hours and should end right about noon. But just because the keynote is over that doesn’t mean Google I/O is over. As there will still be more to see. At 12:15pm PDT, Google will then be livestreaming the Developer Keynote over on the Google Developers YouTube channel. And you can view that livestream video below.
This particular keynote will focus on “the latest updates to our developer products and platforms” Google says. So there’s likely to be a lot of technical stuff and it won’t necessarily be very consumer-driven. But if you’re interested in watching it either way you can do so from the video above. You can also check out the complete Google I/O schedule here.
Ever since HMD Global acquired the rights to the Nokia brand and started launching phones, the fan-favorite brand has had a tough revival, with some phones performing well while others, like the Nokia 9 PureView, being a total flop. Now, Nokia is gearing up to launch two new affordable phones in the US, namely the Nokia C300 and C110, with Verizon’s prepaid carrier Tracfone.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Tracfone has already set up support pages for both the Nokia C300 and the Nokia C110, indicating that the launch is imminent. In terms of specs, both models will support 5G, with the Nokia C300 being the more advanced of the two.
It features a 4000 mAh battery, a triple camera setup on the back (comprising a 13MP main sensor, 2MP macro sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor), an 8MP selfie shooter, and 32GB of expandable storage.
Additionally, the phone is IP52 water and dust resistant. However, it comes with Android 12 out of the box, which may be a deal-breaker for some users since there is no guarantee of the phone receiving future software updates from Nokia. Furthermore, details on the chipset and display size remain unclear.
On the other hand, the Nokia C110 is the more budget-friendly option, with a single 13-megapixel camera and a secondary 5-megapixel selfie shooter. The phone has a smaller 3000mAh battery but is also IP52 water and dust resistant, like its bigger brother.
Pricing and availability
While it’s unclear how much these phones will cost, based on the specifications and reports, the Nokia C300 and Nokia C110 could be the most affordable 5G smartphones available in the US. Therefore, if you’re in the market for a budget Android 5G phone, keep an eye out for these new Nokia phones when they eventually become available.
POCO is best known as a brand under Xiaomi’s wing that releases budget-conscious devices. The company does have various different ranges of phones on offer, and the F series represents their very best phones. Well, the POCO F5 and POCO F5 Pro got announced quite recently, and we’ve been using them for a while now. POCO shipped them out early for us to check out. So, in this review article, you can read more about the POCO F5 and POCO F5 Pro, in case you’re planning to upgrade.
The ‘Pro’ model is, of course, the superior one, and they are fairly different, but have some things in common. Despite that, we’ve decided to hit both of them in the same review, to basically compare them at the same time. They do not look the same, though, nor do they come with the same processor. On the flip side, their software builds are pretty much the same, as is their wired charging, for example. Having said that, we’ll kick things off with the design aspect, and move from there. Let’s get going, shall we?
Table of contents
POCO F5 & POCO F5 Pro Review: Hardware / Design
From the design standpoint, these two phones do not look like siblings, not at all. They have a different overall shape, not to mention entirely different camera islands on the back. In all honesty, I personally preferred the POCO F5 design over the POCO F5 Pro. I’ll explain why below, but I just wanted to emphasize how different they are first.
Both phones include a flat display, albeit not the same one
The POCO F5 has flat sides, and a flat display, with a centered display camera hole. Three cameras sit on its back, each of which is a separate camera island, basically. The POCO F5 Pro does not have flat sides, not at all. Its backplate curves into the frame, it has a regular design, I’d say. It’s similar to the vast majority of smartphones with glass backplates. It also has a flat display, though, and a centered display camera hole.
The POCO F5 is less slippery in the hand due to its flat sides (all around) mostly, and it doesn’t cut into your hand as it’s not exactly heavy. It weighs 181 grams compared to 204 grams of the POCO F5 Pro. The difference is not that big, but I can definitely feel it. I’ve found that the POCO F5 Pro is more difficult to use with one hand, even though they’re similar in terms of size. Neither is exactly ideal for one-hand use, that’s for sure.
The POCO F5 is more comfortable to use
They both feel really nice in the hand, and well-built. The POCO F5 Pro more so than the POCO F5, but only because of the added weight. Once again, I do prefer the POCO F5 more due to the lack of heft. If you’re fed up with gigantic and heavy phones, and want to get one of these two, go with the POCO F5. Also, the backplate of the blue POCO F5 looks great. It glitters when the light hits it the right way, and it looks great without looking tacky. I’ve used the white POCO F5 Pro, which was rather bland in comparison. I also preferred the camera design on the POCO F5, even though it collects dust much quicker due to separate camera islands.
Cases
Each device comes with a regular gel/silicone case. It’s a soft, see-through case, that many people use. The fit is excellent, as this is an official case, and it does offer plenty of protection. All the buttons are covered, and all the sides as well. The case protects the cameras really well, and there’s also a generous lip on the front. This will do just fine until you get something else, if you don’t like this style, of course.
Both phones:
POCO F5:
POCO F5 Pro:
POCO F5 & POCO F5 Pro Review: Display
Both phones include 6.67-inch AMOLED displays, but they’re far from being the same. The one on the POCO F5 Pro is sharper, brighter, and offers a higher touch sampling rate. The POCO F5 features a fullHD+ (2400 x 1080) Flow AMOLED DotDisplay. It has a maximum brightness of 1,000 nits, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 240Hz touch sampling rate. The POCO F5 Pro, on the other hand, features a WQHD+ (3200 x 1440) Flow AMOLED DotDisplay with a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 480Hz touch sampling rate. It gets up to 1,400 nits of brightness at its peak. Both panels are protected by the Gorilla Glass 5.
The ‘Pro’ model has a brighter display
Is there a noticeable difference between them, usage-wise? No, not really. Truth be said, most people won’t notice the difference in resolution or touch sampling rate. Where you will notice the difference is outdoors, during the day, especially if the sun is shining. The POCO F5 Pro panel does get brighter, though the difference is not huge. Both displays are more than good enough, actually. They’re vivid, the blacks are decently deep, and the viewing angles are also not bad. Overall, I don’t have any major complaints here. These are not the best panels out there, but they’re good, especially for the price.
POCO F5 & POCO F5 Pro Review: Performance
The processors used inside these phones are different, but in other performance-related hardware aspects, they’re quite similar. The POCO F5 is fueled by the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 SoC. That is Qualcomm’s best mid-range chip right now, basically. The POCO F5 Pro is equipped with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which is a predecessor of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. So, it’s basically a flagship processor for 2022. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is, needless to say, a better chip, but the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 performs great too.
Before we get down to the actual performance, let’s see what else is included. Both phones come with LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 flash storage. The same goes for Dynamic RAM Expansion 3.0 feature, and LiquidCool Technology 2.0. Both smartphones come in variants with 8GB and 12GB of RAM. The POCO F5 goes up to 256GB of storage, while the POCO F5 Pro comes with up to 512GB of storage. Both variants that we used include 12GB of RAM, by the way, just to give you some perspective.
The POCO F5 Pro is more powerful, though the vanilla model is no slouch either
Day-to-day performance on both phones is great, to say the least. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is not that much inferior to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and offers outstanding performance. You will not exactly notice a major difference between the two during regular tasks, but the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 does stand apart when more demanding games are loaded. You can even use the POCO F5 Pro as a gaming phone, without a problem. The POCO F5 also handles games with ease, well the vast majority of them. It doesn’t offer the same performance as the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 when it comes to Genshin Impact and similar games. I did not notice any lag during my usage. A skipped frame here and there was expected, as is on almost all phones, but both have performed admirably.
POCO F5 & POCO F5 Pro Review: Battery
POCO did not skimp out on batteries either. The POCO F5 comes with a 5,000mAh battery, while its sibling includes a 5,160mAh battery. The difference in battery capacity makes sense, as the POCO F5 Pro does have a higher-res display. You’ll be glad to know that both devices offer really good battery life. Going the distance with both phones is possible, though your usage and signal will, of course, determine how good the battery life will be.
The battery life is solid
For me, personally, both phones were able to cross the 7-8-hour screen-on-time mark, depending on the day. I even had some battery left in the tank. The battery life on them is comparable, at least it was for me. I even played some games from time to time, but short sessions, and simpler games are in question, aside from the days I was testing specifically gaming, of course. Other than that, I did not really spare either phone in terms of usage. I edited images and videos on them, messaged a lot, sent a lot of emails, I was taking a lot of pictures on a daily basis, and so on.
They charge faster than way more popular Apple & Samsung flagships do
When it comes to charging, they both support 67W wired charging, and come with 67W chargers. The POCO F5 Pro also supports wireless charging, 30W wireless charging, to be exact. Needless to say, all of this is plenty fast, faster than what Apple, Samsung, and Google offer, so… I can’t complain. I had no issues with charging whatsoever.
POCO F5 & POCO F5 Pro Review: Camera
The camera setups on these two phones do not look identical, that’s for sure, but they do have the same camera hardware. Both smartphones feature a 64-megapixel main camera (f/1.79 aperture, 1.4um pixel size), an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera (f/2.2 aperture), and a 2-megapixel macro camera (f/2.4 aperture). A single 16-megapixel selfie camera (f/2.45) is also a part of the package.
Considering these two devices have the same camera hardware, and their software is so similar, you’d guess they have the same camera performance, right? Well, no, not really. In fact, believe it or not, they do look considerably different in comparison. I did my best to shoot the same scenes with both phones, only a few seconds apart, as I had both devices on me at all times. I was shocked to see how different the results were.
The POCO F5 actually provided better pictures, which is a bit odd
Believe it or not, the POCO F5 did a better job overall, at least in most situations. It provided warmer images, with better details, and far better white balance in some scenes. It even did a better job in low light. The images overall ended up looking sharp in most cases, with good colors, and they don’t look too processed. The POCO F5 Pro tended to sharpen things up way too much, and colors in some cases are way off. Look at the grass in the camera samples below, and you’ll see what I mean. It also overexposed some shots I took, unlike the POCO F5.
Low light performance is good enough
Both phones can shoot in low light without a problem. Those samples are not great, but considering the price tag, they’re good enough. In fact, low light mode is not needed for low light shots, at least you don’t have to activate it manually. Both phones will do that on their own. You can force it in some cases, if you’d like to get more light, but get ready for overexposed shots then. Simply let the phone do it on its own, well, unless you activate ultrawide mode, in which case you should always reach for the night mode manually. Low light shots with that camera are really bad unless night mode is involved. Low light shots also look more similar between the two, more similar than samples taken during daylight.
A 2-megapixel macro camera is an afterthought
There is also a 2-megapixel macro camera on the back of both phones, but that camera is not really worth talking about. OEMs should stop utilizing 2-megapixel cameras on phones, they simply don’t offer good performance. You can get usable shots under great lighting, outdoors, but for anything else, it’s not worth it. You’d be better off using the main or ultrawide cameras.
POCO F5 camera samples:
POCO F5 Pro camera samples:
POCO F5 & POCO F5 Pro Review: Software
Both of these phones run Android 13 out of the box, with Xiaomi’s MIUI 14 on top of it. They do have the POCO launcher on top of all that, of course. Now, if you’ve used MIUI 14 on any other phone, you’ll know what to expect here. There are not many changes compared to MIUI 13, most of them are under the hood. They’re performance-related,. That being said, the software on these two phones is very similar. It not only look similar, and feels similar to use, but I’ve had a similar experience with both phones.
There’s plenty of bloatware here, but almost all of it is removable
You do get a lot of pre-installed apps that you may not want to use. The good news is, you can uninstall the vast majority of that, with ease. There is even the batch uninstall option, if you’d like to get rid of it all at once. For example, the Amazon Shopping app is installed, the same goes for Netflix, a bunch of games, and more. All that can be uninstalled. Xiaomi decided to go even futher here, as it allows you to uninstall some system apps too. Calculator, for example, can be uninstalled, without a problem. What you cannot uninstall is the Camera app, of course, and apps of that nature. Everything that is not a crucial part of the experience can be removed, so don’t be alarmed by bloatware.
MIUI 14 feels great to use, from the performance standpoint
MIUI 14 felt snappy to use, and other than a single app crash across these two phones, I really didn’t have any issues with it. I’m still not a fan of some things Xiaomi is doing in MIUI, as it tends to feel considerably different to stock Android, but it works. Not only does it work, but it works really well. Unlike stock Android, the status bar icons are colored here, you cannot swipe across your bundled notifications with one finger to expand them (tap to expand does the trick), and so on. There are a ton of such small differences included here. The quick toggles section looks different by default, but you can change its appearance in the settings, the same goes for the home screen settings, and more.
MIUI-related quirks are still present, though
If you’ve used MIUI in recent past, you’ll be right at home here. And the good news is, I didn’t spot that many bugs at all. Get ready to locking apps in the background, though, as you won’t be getting notifications at times if you don’t do that. You’ll not only need to allow them to autostart manually, but you’ll need to remove battery restrictions, and lock them in multitasking in order for them to push notifications your way in a timely manner. That is to be expected when it comes to MIUI, though.
POCO F5 & POCO F5 Pro: Should you buy them?
POCO has been releasing rather compelling devices for years now. Price tags are really important when we talk about POCO devices. The company always tries to offer the best hardware for the price, and it seems like it managed to do so here, yet again. Both of these devices look very compelling on paper, though the ‘Pro’ model more so due to its processor. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is still a beast of an SoC, but the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 is no slouch either. Neither phone has any critical flaws, while they offer good displays with high refresh rate, really good performance, fast charging, and more. The POCO F5 Pro still needs an update or two in order for the camera to become better, as it has the same camera hardware as the POCO F5. All in all, for the price, these two phones are solid offerings. Not everyone wants to spend over $1,000/€1,000 on a phone.
You should buy the POCO F5 & POCO F5 Pro if:
You’re on a budget
You want a phone that feels like a top-of-the-line device for less
You’re tired of Samsung & Apple offerings relatively slow charging
NextGen Healthcare, which has its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, is a company that develops and markets software for the management of electronic health data and offers practice management services to medical practitioners.
The notification has provided the breach information that denotes data of nearly 1 million customers has been breached by an unauthorized party in which 3913 residents belong to Maine.
Threat actors have used stolen client credentials obtained from another stolen source to gain access to the NextGen database. The data stolen by the attackers are claimed to have the “Social Security Number” of customers.
As per the notification, the breach occurred between the 29th of March, 2023, and the 14th of April, 2023. However, the breach was discovered nearly 10 days later (24th April 2023).
This breach was submitted to the authorities through the “Sheppard Mullin Richter and Hamptom LLP” firm. According to the Office of the Maine Attorney General, NextGen offers threat protection services as part of their Individual Notification Letter.
“NextGen Healthcare is offering you 24 months of free fraud detection and identity theft protection through Experian’s® IdentityWorks℠ product.“ reads the letter released by NextGen as part of this breach.
NextGen stated that even though there is no evidence that the stolen personal information has been used for criminal activities, they are ready to offer 24 months of free identity monitoring, fraud consultation, and identity theft restoration service through Experian’s IdentityWorks Program.
Further information regarding this data breach is still unconfirmed, and the Forensic investigation is still under process.
According to reports, the ALPHV ransomware organization, also known as BlackCat, claimed responsibility for a ransomware attack against NextGen in January of this year.
