Technology

Girls from schools across the UK have been competing in the National Cyber Security Centre’s CyberFirst Girls competition. Tasks included ethical hacking, cryptography, decoding and logic tasks. The competition’s aim is to encourage girls to consider a future career in cyber security. BBC Click’s Lara Lewington finds out more. See more at Click’s website and

A ransomware attack on the US Colonial Pipeline was not a surprise, as experts have been warning of increased attacks, Oxford Information Labs chief executive Emily Taylor has said. She told BBC World News: “Experts have been warning about increased rates of ransomware attacks and also the vulnerability of critical infrastructure such as this pipeline

LJ Rich looks at some of the best technology news stories of the week including: Plans for a rotating plank floor for Rome’s Colosseum were unveiled A Dutch couple begins living in the country’s first 3D-printed house A hair brushing robot is developed by MIT’s CSAIL – the aim is expand the skills of personal

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is likely to continue as now despite the couple announcing their divorce after 27 years of marriage, Dr Beth Breeze, director of the Centre for Philanthropy, at Kent University, said. “They have got a 21-year history in their foundation of giving sums larger than anyone has given historically, working

Huawei has revealed the third iteration of its folding smartphone, abandoning its previous designs and taking some inspiration from Samsung. This time, the folding display on the Mate X2 is protected inside the phone. BBC Click’s Chris Fox went hands-on with the phone and described it as the best folding phone so far – but

Victims of ransomware gangs are being urged to report it rather than pay the criminals behind the attacks. The gangs use malicious software to scramble and steal an organisation’s computer data and demand money to restore it. Megan Stifel, executive director of the Global Cyber Alliance, which seeks to reduce cyber risk, told BBC World

LJ Rich looks at some of the best technology news stories of the week including: Ride-haling firm Lyft sells its self-driving business to Toyota – for $550 million (£395m, € 454m) A drone capable of carrying three separate loads takes to the skies A robotic arm which uses artificial intelligence to identify and pick apples

BBC Click’s LJ Rich looks at some of the best technology news stories of the week including: Apple unveils a new iPad and colourful iMacs containing its new M1 chip Instagram says it will let users filter out abusive messages using a new tool Software which helps scientists quickly develop DNA-based structures complete with rotors

The much-anticipated third season of Call of Duty: Warzone has been released, resetting the title to a 1980s-based storyline. Publisher Activision recently revealed that the online game had attracted more than 100 million players. BBC Click’s Marc Cieslak spoke exclusively to Rob Kostich, the firm’s president, about keeping those players interested in the free-to-play first-person

Non-fungible-tokens (NFTs) use blockchain technology to create a unique digital certificate or token which states who owns a virtual or physical item. They have been used to sell digital art, memes, a tweet and digital trading cards, but could they also be used to purchase homes? BBC Click’s Lara Lewington finds out more. See more

Live events mean unexpected things can happen – and when technology is thrown into the mix, things are bound to go wrong every now and then. But the pandemic has changed how things are done, and events that were once live are now pre-recorded. This means companies can edit out when things don’t quite go

Cloud gaming has been called the future of video games, with all the action produced in a data centre rather than on an expensive PC or console in the home. The benefits include never having to download software updates and being able to play anywhere, not just in the living room – but gamers will

“As my mother would say, I’ve been mucking about with computers in this industry for the last 20 years,” recalls Londonderry-born Sean McCafferty. He is now the chief operating officer at Hypixel Studios, one of Northern Ireland’s highest-profile gaming companies. After the announcement of its block-based fantasy game, Hytale, the company was bought by one

Jen Copestake looks at some of the best technology news stories of the week including: Google’s annual I/O developer conference returns in May in a virtual form, the company announces Artist will.i.am announces the launch of a new facemask featuring noise-cancelling headphones, Hepa filters and LED lights – the project is a collaboration with Honeywell

A smartphone with a microscope camera offering 60x magnification has been revealed by Chinese phone-maker Oppo. BBC Click’s Chris Fox went hands-on with the Oppo Find X3 Pro to see what the microscope could capture – and whether it was useful or just a gimmick. See more at Click’s website and @BBCClick

Chris Fox looks at some of the best technology news stories of the week including: A legal challenge which could ban UK government ministers from using self-destructing WhatsApp or Signal text messages for official business is launched Wine experts discover whether a bottle of wine which has spent a year in space tastes any different