News written by James Delahunty (October, 2015)

A data breach at a credit agency has exposed personal data of over 15 million T-Mobile customers, or potential customers, the carrier has warned.

Experian, which processes credit applications on behalf of T-Mobile, has publicly disclosed a security breach detected on Sept 15th, which may affect millions of T-Mobile's customers. The data breach affected a server that contained personal information for consumers who applied for T-Mobile USA postpaid services between Sept. 1, 2013 and Sept. 16, 2015.

While no payment card information or banking information was exposed during the breach, the information that was accessible may put millions of individuals at increased risk of identity theft. The server stored records containing names, addresses, social security number, date of birth, ID information (drivers license, passport numbers etc.) and other information used for T-Mobile's credit assessment.

While the social security numbers and I.D. information was encrypted on the server, Experian has determined that the encryption may have been compromised.

Experian has notified federal and international law enforcement agencies of the hack and is cooperating with the investigation. It is also notifying the individuals who may have been affected and is offering free credit monitoring and identity resolution services for two years through ProtectMyID.

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Microsoft has announced six Xbox One holiday bundles that will go on sale before the end of 2015, here is a quick comparison of what they all offer.

Microsoft has gone a little Bundle crazy this year, but we will only focus on the six detailed in the past week and not previously announced bundles, such as the Halo 5 bundle or the Xbox One Elite bundle. We'll take a look at what's on offer, when they are available (and for pre-order) and what they will cost.

The six new Xbox One bundles announced this week by Microsoft are:

• Xbox One Rise Of The Tomb Raider Bundle
• Xbox One 1TB Holiday Bundle
• Xbox One The LEGO Movie Videogame Bundle
• Xbox One Special Edition Gears Of War Bundle
• Xbox One With Kinect Bundle
• Xbox One Fallout 4 Bundle

So let's take a look at what comes with each bundle!

Xbox One Rise Of The Tomb Raider Bundle

The Rise of the Tomb Raider bundle will be available starting in November for $399 USD. Here's what you get:

• Xbox One console with 1TB HDD
• Full-game download of the highly anticipated Rise of the Tomb Raider
• The exclusive Tactical Survival Kit Content Pack, which contains a new outfit and weapon skin for Lara
• Full-game download of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

You can pre-order the bundle now from the Microsoft Store.

Xbox One 1TB Holiday Bundle

The Xbox One 1TB Holiday Bundle will be available starting 28 October for $399 USD. Here's what you get:

• 1TB Xbox One console
• Xbox One wireless controller with 3.5mm headset jack
• Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
• Rare Replay, featuring 30 iconic games from Rare
• Ori and the Blind Forest full game download
• Xbox 360 Gears of War collection

You can pre-order it from the Microsoft store now.

Xbox One The LEGO Movie Videogame Bundle

The Xbox One The LEGO Movie Videogame bundle will be available in October for $349 USD. Here's what's included with the bundle:

• 500GB Xbox One console
• Xbox One wireless controller with 3.5mm headset jack
• The LEGO Movie Videogame

It is already available from the Microsoft Store and other outlets.

Xbox One With Kinect Bundle

The Xbox One with Kinect Bundle will be available starting in October for $499 USD. The bundle will include:

• Xbox One 500GB Console
• Kinect for Xbox One
• Full game download of Dance Central Spotlight
• Full game download of Kinect Sports Rival
• Full Game Download of Zoo Tycoon

The exact date isn't announced yet but it is available to pre-order from Microsoft already.

Xbox One Special Edition Gears Of War Bundle

The Xbox One Special Edition Gears of War Bundle will be available starting in November for $349 USD. The bundle includes:

• Xbox One 500GB Cirrus White console and controller
• Full download of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
• Superstar Cole multiplayer skin
• Early access to the Gears of War 4 Beta

While not exclusively part of the bundle, it is worth pointing out that for a limited time, when you play Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on the Xbox Live service, you will also receive the Xbox 360 Gears of War collection playable on Xbox One for free. This bundle is exclusive to Walmart in the United States.

Xbox One Fallout 4 Bundle

The Xbox One Fallout 4 Bundle will be available 10 November for $399 USD. You can already pre-order the bundle today. This what you will get in the bundle:

• 1TB Xbox One console
• Xbox One wireless controller with 3.5mm headset jack
• Fallout 4 full game download
• Fallout 3 full game download, now playable on Xbox One
• 14-day Xbox Live Gold trial

For me, the Fallout 4 bundle would appeal the most, but it comes down to personal preferences. Microsoft previously announced a whole bunch of bundles available in multiple territories to cater to different tastes as the holidays approach.

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Why is everybody seemingly running with open arms to HTML5, and away from Adobe Flash?

Back in 2007, it was considered a drawback that Apple would snub Adobe's Flash plugin in the browser on its brand new iPhone, and it would later continue to ignore Flash products in future iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe even stated that Apple's decision meant that users were being denied a full web experience, citing the extremely high rate of Flash support on Desktop web browsers and its use on millions of webpages.

It wasn't until 2010 that Steve Jobs explained to customers why Flash won't be supported in Apple's mobile products. Chief among Jobs' concerns were the proprietary nature of Flash, its chequered security track record and its efficiency for video playback. Jobs' favoured the comparably open HTML5 standard to Flash, and the advantage of hardware decoding for H.264 video (which Flash supported by then, but hardware decoding support was inconsistent between sites).

Security concerns stood out for Jobs for good reason. The Adobe Flash plugin for major web browsers has been a consistent target for hackers seeking vulnerabilities as a means to attack web users. New Adobe Flash security flaws are still very common, and it seems Adobe is in a constant race to save the image of Flash.

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Are you one of the estimated 3.3 million Americans caught up in this common scam this year?

If you haven't been targeted with it, you likely know friends or family who have been. It is simple, but very effective and common enough that Microsoft feels the need to educate the public about it.

It would work something like this: You receive a phone call from an unknown or blocked number, and a polite sounding person on the other end is revealed as an employee of Microsoft, calling to inform you that your PC or other device has been compromised with malicious software. The polite employee then offers to help.

At this point, you may be asked to follow instructions that will either take you deep into your operating system settings, or to a webpage where you can download a client that will allow this nice person to fix your problem for you. The software will allow the other person access to your computer.

After this point however, things will likely take a clearly suspicious turn as you will inevitably be enlightened on the fee you will need to pay for fix the "problem". It would not be uncommon for your device to be locked at this point until you pay the fee, and unfortunately a lot of people do pay up. So many pay up, in fact, that Microsoft predicts that tech support scams of this nature will hit an estimated 3.3 million Americans this year, and generate $1.5 billion for the scammers.

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