Chester Bennington, Linkin Park lead singer, dies of suspected suicide aged 41

Police say that the singer, who struggled with substance abuse, is suspected to have killed himself in a private residence in Los Angeles County

Police have confirmed that Chester Bennington, the lead singer of band Linkin Park, has died.

His death at his private residence in Palos Verdes Estates in Los Angeles County at approximately 9am Thursday morning was confirmed by the coroner and is being treated as a suspected suicide.

Bennington, who was 41 years old, joined the group in 1999 and became a household name the year after with the release of the band’s debut album Hybrid Theory, which was nominated for a Grammy award for best rock album. Their second album, Meteora, has sold over 27m units and the band collaborated with Jay-Z for 2004 EP Collision Course.

Bennington also fronted the Stone Temple Pilots from 2013 to 2015 and made small appearances in the films Crank and Saw 3D. When his close friend and fellow musician Chris Cornell, lead singer of the bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, killed himself this past May, Bennington honored him on Twitter and performed at his funeral.

“You have inspired me in many ways you could never have known,” Bennington wrote. “Your talent was pure and unrivaled. Your voice was joy and pain, anger and forgiveness, love and heartache all wrapped up into one. I pray you find peace in the next life. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your life.”

In past interviews, Bennington has spoken candidly about his struggles with drugs and alcohol. “It’s not cool to be an alcoholic — it’s not cool to go drink and be a dumbass,” he said to Noisecreep in 2009. “It’s cool to be a part of recovery. This is just who I am, this is what I write about, what I do, and most of my work has been a reflection of what I’ve been going through in one way or another.”

He also shared details of an abusive childhood. In a 2011 interview with the Guardian, he said: “When I was young, getting beaten up and pretty much raped was no fun. No one wants that to happen to you and honestly, I don’t remember when it started ... My God, no wonder I became a drug addict. No wonder I just went completely insane for a little while.”

Bennington is survived by six children, Jaime, Isaiah, Draven, Tyler Lee and twins Lily and Lila, and his wife Talinda Ann Bentley.

His Linkin Park bandmate Mike Shinoda tweeted that he was “shocked and heartbroken” at the news while other tributes have arrived from Rihanna, Nikki Sixx, Stormzy (with whom Bennington recently worked), Ohio governor John Kasich and Chance the Rapper.

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Online Censorship: A Global Map & Ranking of Every Country’s Internet Restrictions (Infographic)

Do you know what internet activities are illegal in your country?

Online censorship is the latest battleground in the fight for freedom of information, and every country is handling it differently. Russia restricts access to political media, while Finland – their neighbor across the border – only restricts torrents. Some countries’ rankings are obvious (we all know the UK and USA  have relatively few internet restrictions), although others come as more of a surprise.

Many different elements can determine a governments’ desire to restrict access in their country. For example, the blanket ban on all internet access in North Korea is strongly related to a fear of its populous understanding life outside of the closely guarded country. China, Taiwan, and Vietnam restrict internet access for political reasons, while countries like Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen have religious motives. Whatever the reason, it is good to know what your country’s policy is.

Check out the map below to see what’s restricted in your country, and compare it to other countries to see where you rank in the world of online censorship.

Click to see image in full size

This article was originally published on vpnMentor blog.

The link for the article is here.

www.vpnmentor.com/blog/online-censorship-country-rank

5 Tools to Help Protect Yourself From Ransomware

A DEVASTATING GLOBAL cyberattack called WannaCry has alerted millions of people to the dangers of ransomware. Hospitals, utilities, businesses, and more were locked out of their computers, facing payment demands from anonymous hackers. And while it’s too late for over hundreds of thousands of devices across 150 countries that WannaCry hit, there are a few tools you can use to help limit your own risk, both now and going forward.

After all, WannaCry’s hardly the only ransomware out there. Protect yourself now, before the next one hits.

WD My Passport Hard Drive
Really, any external hard drive backup will do; we just like the WD My Passport for its built-in hardware encryption and three-year warranty. What specific model you go for, though, matters much less than how you use it. The key here? Regularly back up your system, but keep your hard drive disconnected from your desktop. Otherwise, the ransomware will find and encrypt your backup just like it did your main system. 

CrashPlan Data Backup
When you think “cloud backup,” you might think “Dropbox.” Don’t! At least not for these purposes. Dropbox offers a lot of value as a syncing service, keeping your files straight across multiple devices. Handy, but not much help if ransomware hits. Instead, look for a true cloud backup service that backs up and encrypts all of your files in a server far, far away. If a hacker locks up your digital life, a cloud backup means you can just wipe and start over with an uninfected version. Crash Plan gets solid reviews from a range of sites for its ease of use and cost, but competitors like Carbonite and Backblaze offer similar functionality.

Windows 10
Are you on an older version of Windows? Are you even still using Windows XP? Please stop that immediately. In fact, thanks in part to a big release of NSA tools by a hacking group called Shadow Brokers, you should consider any Windows version other than the very latest a potential risk. You’re past the free Windows 10 upgrade period at this point, but it’s still worth the investment for the added peace of mind. Just make sure that even once you’re up to date, you’re downloading each patch as soon as it becomes available.

Bitdefender Internet Security
Anti-virus software gets a bad rap sometimes, and not without reason. It gets its hooks into so many parts of your computer that if something goes wrong with your AV, your whole system’s at risk. Then again, if ransomware takes over, you don’t have a system to begin with. There are a lot of fine choices here, but Bitdefender stands out for having repeatedly aced real-world protection testing from independent reviewer AV-Comparisons over the last year. And yes, it protects against WannaCry, as would almost any top AV product.

An iPhone
Don’t get us wrong, Android phones are wonderful! But ransomware doesn’t just hit desktop computers. It’s surging  on smartphones as well. And while both the iOS App Store and Android’s Google Play do a pretty good job of keeping malicious apps off your phone, the prevalence of third-party app stores for Android make it a much bigger risk for ransomware infection. An iPhone is your safest bet; just don’t click on any links in spammy text messages. And if you prefer Android regardless, stick with official downloads only.

How to Improve Your Online Privacy as a Journalist?

What precisely needs to be done to ensure that a journalist’s sources and data are secured and well? In Online Privacy for Journalists, the former Haaretz Deputy Editor, Michael Dagan, will teach you tips and tricks to project your sources and valuable information.

You would be hard-pressed to find a journalist who would disagree that it is harder than ever to protect your data and your sources. And it is only becoming more difficult as technology continues to develop, with a perpetual “technological arms race” between those who want to protect their information and those who want to steal it. It is not enough now just to be a good journalist; one must be tech-savvy and stay up-to-date with the latest communications technologies and know how to protect your information, lest you send a message which is intercepted and ends up in the wrong hands.

One of the worst parts is that merely searching the web for privacy-enhancing software tools can very well cause the NSA to track you. Even if a journalist is to use the Tor network (and many do), this can be easily detected, only causing to be flagged as a suspicious character. So while there is no golden bullet to protecting yourself as a science, political, technology or other journalists, there are steps that you can take to protect yourself from the prying eyes of the government or anyone else who stands to gain from stealing your information.

The guide Online Privacy for Journalists outlines topics such as how to communicate with sources and safeguard sensitive data, how to use two-factor authentication, how to become anonymous online, how to secure your email, and even which search engines are safer to use.

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https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/online-privacy-journalists/