There were 974 data breaches reported globally in the first half of 2016, up 15 percent from 2015, according to a new report from digital security company Gemalto. Some 554 million compromised data records were exposed in these data breaches. Fifty-two percent of these cases were not reported right away.

Share Del Mar Alliance, a political group that supports vacation rentals in the San Diego, CA town of Del Mar, sent out an email encouraging people that own rental properties in the area to register to vote in the county. The email was intended to help drive support for rental homes as The Del Mar City Council is deciding whether to regulate or ban the short-term rentals in the area. Critics complained that the email's message was illegal and the group followed up with an email recommending people to vote where they live.

Emails had an average of 33.3 percent open rate in Q1 2016, yet at the same time, according to a new report from eMarketer. However, while engagement was up, deliverability rates were the lowest they have been in two years, meaning that bounce rates are up. The study also revealed that almost 70 percent of emails opened during Q4 2015 were opened on a mobile device.

Fifty-eight percent of emails sent in Q2 2016 were opened on mobile devices, according to a new report from Experian. The report revealed that while only 42 percent of emails were opened on desktop, they still generated 49 percent of email-generated revenue tracked by Experian.

Startup Inside.com is hoping to make it big with email newsletters. The platform allows users to sign up for topics that they are interested in and at the end of the day, they will receive a "top news of the day" email newsletter based on their interests. If a subject gets more than 1,000 sign-ups, the team will produce a newsletter around this subject manually. The beta roster includes eight newsletters such as "Inside San Francisco" and "Inside Electric Vehicles."

A bug in Microsoft Outlook software for Windows makes smiley face emoticons looks like J's. The issue has been around since around 2010 and it exists in email, contacts, calendars and notes. The hiccup appears when the user types the plain text version of a smiley face :) and appears to the recipient as a J.

Forty-five percent of global companies report that they are not set up to deal with the threat of malicious attacks, according to Mimecast. In addition, 90 percent of these companies have called malicious insiders a major threat to security. Spam email continues to be the chosen tool of hackers, which allows thieves to get past network security.

Washington State transit service Sound Transit violated state elections law by sharing the email addresses of ORCA transit cardholders with a campaign that is promoting an initiative to expand the light rail. The agency shared almost 173,000 email addresses. In doing so the Washington Public Disclosure Commission found that the group violated state law that prohibits public agencies from using public resources to assist a political campaign.

A new email claiming to come from FedEx is in circulation and the message contains some pretty toxic malware. The message tells recipients that they have missed a delivery and instructs the person to download an attached document for more information. Downloading the file leads to the following message: "ATTENTION! All your documents, photos, databases and other important personal files were encrypted using a strong RSA-1024 algorithm with a unique key." The message then demands a bitcoin payment to release the ransomed files.

The House Oversight Committee is reviewing a Reddit post which could potentially connect an IT specialist that worked on Hillary Clinton's private server to questionable practices. The post shows a person looking for advice on how to alter the contents of "VERY VIP" emails. The government agency is working to determine the authenticity of the post from an account thought to belong to Paul Combetta, an engineer that worked with Platte River Networks.