‘We have filed a case under your name’: beware of tax scams
They’ll be everywhere this end of financial year.
By Paul Haskell-Dowland and Nathalie Collins. The end of the financial year is near. So all of us — especially tho...
Computing
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Conversation
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Conversation
Police debacle with SafeWA COVID tracking app
Police attempted to obtain information from a COVID tracking app – is this legal?
By Tama Leaver. QR code contact-tracing apps are a crucial part of our defence against COVID-19. But their value d...
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Snails carrying tiny computers solve survival mystery
The miniature computers were fixed atop snail shells.
Snails carrying the world’s smallest computers on their shells have helped explain the mystery of their own survival ...
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Chipageddon: the coming sequel
The current global dearth of silicon chips isn’t funny – but there could be worse to come in the ...
The global semiconductor shortage is wreaking havoc on industries from handheld electronics to car making. There is a...
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Explainer
Explainer: why is a drought contributing to the silicon chip shortage?
What needs to happen to make a silicon chip – and why it needs so much water.
The ongoing computer chip shortage has multifaceted causes, including drought, an uptick in demand following the pand...
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Previewing data stored in DNA
A new technique allows researchers to ‘preview’ DNA strands without sequencing them entirely.
DNA stores tremendous amounts of genetic information, but it also has a lot of potential for storing digital data. It...
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El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender
What would a cryptocurrency as a legal tender look like?
The president of Central American nation El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, today announced a proposal to make the cryptocurr...
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What is ransomware and how is it dealt with?
Cybercrime has affected hospitals, universities and even meatworks – and could affect you too.
What is ransomware? Ransomware is a type of malicious software – AKA malware – that infects and takes control of a...
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Hyped-up hills in lying landscapes
Deepfake geography is a potential threat to national security, but the technology can also be use...
In March 2021, Tom Cruise appeared to join TikTok. To casual viewers scrolling through their For You page, it looked ...
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Can games tell if you are impulsive?
A new computer game can assess people’s level of disinhibition.
Using a series of Wild West style computer games, Australian researchers report in the journal Nature Human Behaviour...
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History
Ray Tomlinson sends a message
The brain behind using [email protected] for email use.
Nearly 50 years ago – sometime during the northern summer or autumn of 1971 – Ray Tomlinson sent the first network em...
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Conversation
Apple’s new “app tracking transparency” has angered Facebook.
How does it work, what’s all the fuss about, and should you use it?
By Paul Haskell-Dowland and Nikolai Hampton. Apple users across the globe are adopting the latest operating system...