Five stories not to miss

1 Firefox silences nuisance notifications Firefox 59 has been released with a new feature that prevents websites asking users to allow notifications. The latest version of the browser also includes performance enhancements, and a revamped version of Firefox for the Amazon Fire TV. 2 Age verification plans delayed

The controversial age-verification system for adult sites has been pushed back amid fears over privacy, standards and implementation. The system that was due to start in April was delayed until “later in the year”, two weeks before it was supposed to go into effect.

3 Intel issues Meltdown fix for future chips 4 Ransomware payments a 50-50 gamble Ransomware is a fact of life, but advice on whether to pay the ransom has been muddled: some victims report that payment results in successful recovery, while others have lost both files and money. Now we have stats. According to security firm CyberEdge’s fifth annual

Cyberthreat Defense Report, payment resulted in data recovery in 51% of cases. 5 Microsoft gives itself the Edge Microsoft riled Windows 10 watchers with plans to force links in Windows Mail to open in the company’s Edge browser, even if it wasn’t set as the default. Microsoft justified the decision by telling its Insider programme users that the changes in Skip Ahead (Build 17623) were because Edge “provides the best, most secure and consistent experience on Windows 10”.

Intel has outlined further plans to mitigate against the Meltdown and Spectre weaknesses that impacted nearly all x86 chips due to a system design flaw. Intel says its next generation of Xeon Scalable Processors (Cascade Lake), due later this year, will include hardware fixes for Meltdown and a partial fix for Spectre, as will new versions of some of its current eighth-generation Core processors.