The city of Riviera Beach, Florida is the latest high-profile victim of a ransomware attack.

Recently, the city council voted to pay more than $600,000 to a hacking group to regain access to data that had been locked and encrypted via ransomware nearly a month ago.

Microsoft is continuing to push quietly into new frontiers on the accessibility front.  Their most recent effort?  The release of four free "Eyes First" games that people who have speech and mobility-related disabilities can play using nothing but eye movements.

Be advised, according to a recently published Microsoft support document, certain Bluetooth devices may experience pairing and connectivity issues after installing the latest Windows 10 update.

The bulletin reads in part, as follows:

"These security updates address a security vulnerability by intentionally preventing connections from Windows to unsecure Bluetooth devices.

The hacker who calls himself 'Gnosticplayers' has been busy and prolific.  Over the years, he's sold more than one billion user accounts on the Dark Web.  His most recent product is more than ten million user records for the social planning and e-invitations service, Evite.

Researchers at the cybersecurity firm Anomali have discovered a completely new type of malware that's disturbing on several levels.

Worse is the fact that the researchers aren't quite sure what it does.

The new strain has been dubbed 'IPStorm' by its creators, who at this point, remain unknown.

Do you use Evernote Web Clipper for the Chrome web browser?

If so, be advised that the developer recently reported that a critical flaw in the extension could allow hackers to access user information from third party online services.

Online security company Guardio discovered the flaw and had this to say:

"Due to Evernote's widespread popularity, this issue had the potential of affecting its consumers and companies who use the extension - about 4,600,000 users at the time of discovery.

Researchers have recently discovered a pair of critical vulnerabilities in Alaris Gateway Workstations. These bring us closer to the tragic day when a hacker will actually be able to kill someone with code. Alaris workstations are used to deliver fluid medications.

Great news for inter-operability.  Apple has brought their new iCloud app to the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 devices. Even better, the app is designed such that it's deeply integrated with Windows 10, even allowing you to access iCloud files from inside other Windows apps.

The recent hack of the American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) is having ripple effects around the world.

Recently it was reported that as a direct consequence of that hack, Quest Diagnostics (one of the largest diagnostic testing laboratory services in the United States) was breached.

Hackers are always on the lookout for new ways to freshen up time-tested techniques. Where time-tested techniques are concerned, few are older than the humble phishing email.

In one form or another, it seeks to trick an unsuspecting user to innocently hand over sensitive information, like usernames and passwords that the hacker can then use later for any purpose.