Tag: Microsoft

Microsoft launches generative AI model designed exclusively for US intelligence services — air-gapped system for spies aims to avoid potential security leaks

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AI technology has already proved instrumental in transforming and disrupting a wide range of industries, and really it’s just getting started.

Microsoft, which has gone “all-in” on artificial intelligence, has developed a generative AI model designed expressly for U.S. intelligence services. Unlike other AI platforms, such as Microsoft’s own Copilot, this one will be “air gapped” and won’t require a potentially unsafe connection to the internet.

Bloomberg notes, “It’s the first time a major large language model has operated fully separated from the internet… Most AI models, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT rely on cloud services to learn and infer patterns from data, but Microsoft wanted to deliver a truly secure system to the US intelligence community.”

18 months of development

The tool will allow intelligence services to use AI for tasks such as analyzing vast swathes of classified data without the fear of data leaks or hacks that could potentially compromise national security.

William Chappell, Microsoft’s CTO for Strategic Missions and Technology, told Bloomberg that the company spent 18 months working on this special GPT-4-based tool which will be able to read and analyze content, answer questions and write code without needing to go online. Equally importantly, it reportedly won’t learn from, or be trained on, the data it is fed.

At a security conference last month, Sheetal Patel, assistant director of the CIA for the Transnational and Technology Mission Center, said, “There is a race to get generative AI onto intelligence data, and I want it to be us.”

Microsoft is launching its own Xbox mobile game store, offering titles like Candy Crush and Minecraft

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date May 10, 2024
No Comments on Microsoft is launching its own Xbox mobile game store, offering titles like Candy Crush and Minecraft

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Microsoft appears to be ramping up its mobile gaming efforts, revealing plans to launch an Xbox mobile game store in July.

While we already know that an Xbox mobile game store has been in the works for quite some time, this new July release timeline comes from a recent interview with Xbox president Sarah Bond at the Bloomberg Technology Summit.

Bond went on to express a desire to bring Microsoft’s “own first-party portfolio” to the store, including “games like Candy Crush” and “games like Minecraft” in addition to third-party titles from partners.

It seems clear that the Xbox mobile game store will be part of the wider Xbox ecosystem, as Bond described it as “a true cross-platform gaming centric mobile experience.” Presumably, this means some form of integration with existing Xbox game libraries and compatibility with popular features like Microsoft Rewards and Xbox achievements.

Interestingly, the store will first be made available as a web application rather than a traditional app. “We’re going to start on the web,” Bond explained. “We’re doing that because that really allows us to have it be an experience that’s accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what and independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores.”

This sounds quite similar to the existing Xbox Cloud Gaming service, which can be accessed through mobile phone web browsers. Although the intention is clearly to compete with the Android Google Play Store and iOS App Store, it’s difficult to imagine the Xbox mobile game store finding much success without a dedicated presence on the home screen.

Still, with recent European Union (EU) regulation prompting Apple to allow third-party iOS app stores for the first time in the region it seems very plausible that we will see one released down the line. Perhaps the allure of big properties like Candy Crush and Minecraft will prove enough to persuade a number of fans to make the jump in the meantime.

Microsoft Graph is becoming a popular target for hackers

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date May 7, 2024
No Comments on Microsoft Graph is becoming a popular target for hackers

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Multiple hacking collectives are been actively using Microsoft Graph API to hide their communications with command & control (C2) infrastructure hosted on Microsoft cloud services, cybersecurity researchers from Symantec Threat Hunter Team have revealed.

The researchers claim that for two and a half years now, groups such as APT28, REF2924, Red Stinger, Flea, APT29, and Oilrig, have been using this technique to remain out of sight. Among the targets is an unnamed organization from Ukraine, which was infected by a previously unknown malware variant dubbed BirdyClient.

The method of using Microsoft Graph APIs to hide malware communications was first seen in June 2021, but only picked up speed a year later.

Trusted and cheap

Symantec’s researchers believe hacking groups are opting for Microsoft cloud services to host malware, due to the company’s good standing. This kind of traffic isn’t going to raise any alarms, they argue:

“Attacker communications with C&C servers can often raise red flags in targeted organizations,” Symantec said. “The Graph API’s popularity among attackers may be driven by the belief that traffic to known entities, such as widely used cloud services, is less likely to raise suspicions.”

There’s also the question of costs: “In addition to appearing inconspicuous, it is also a cheap and secure source of infrastructure for attackers since basic accounts for services like OneDrive are free.”

APT28 is an infamous Russian state-sponsored threat actor that’s been observed abusing Microsoft solutions in the past. In mid-March this year, a report from IBM’s X-Force claimed the group was abusing the “search-ms” URI protocol handler to deploy malware to phishing victims. While its victims may vary from campaign to campaign, it always aligns with the interests of the Russian federation. Hence, the victims are often located in Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Poland, Armenia, the U.S., and others.

Via The Hacker News

Microsoft just gave us a first look at the future of its DNS services

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date May 6, 2024
No Comments on Microsoft just gave us a first look at the future of its DNS services

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Microsoft has announced a new, upcoming feature, that aims to solve a decades-old conundrum with DNS security.

The feature is called ZTDNS, or Zero Trust Domain Name System, and is currently entering private preview. Microsoft promised a separate announcement once the feature makes it to the Insiders program.

In a blog post, Microsoft explained how virtually since its inception, the process of translating human-readable domain names into IP addresses was, from a security standpoint, a major risk. Due to the way DNS was designed, IT admins were often faced with a choice: to either add cryptographic authentication and encryption to DNS and risk losing visibility over malicious traffic, or route DNS traffic in clear text and leave no option for the server and the client device to authenticate each other, which is as equally risky.

No new protocols

To solve this problem, Microsoft decided to integrate the Windows DNS engine with a core part of Windows Firewall – Windows Filtering Platform – directly into end devices.

Commenting for Ars Technica, VP of research and development at Hunter Strategy, Jake Williams, said integrating these engines will allow Windows Firewall to be updated with a per-domain name basis. In other words, organizations will be able to tell clients “only use our DNS server, that uses TLS, and will only resolve certain domains.” Microsoft calls this DNS server or servers the “protective DNS server.”

“For DNS servers to be used as Protective DNS servers for ZTDNS lockdown, the minimum requirement is to support either DNS over HTTPS (DoH) or DNS over TLS (DoT), as ZTDNS will prevent the use of plain-text DNS by Windows,” Microsoft explained in its blog post. “Optionally, use of mTLS on the encrypted DNS connections will allow Protective DNS to apply per-client resolution policies.”

To conclude, Microsoft stressed that ZTDNS doesn’t include new network protocols, which should enable an “interoperable approach” to domain-name-based lockdown.

Microsoft and Google vie for top spot in productivity and business app leadership in latest report — Google has a upper hand due to its platform dominance but Microsoft’s LinkedIn emerges as the ultimate Pro social network

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A new study analyzing Google Play downloads of productivity tools has shown an overwhelming majority of mobile users turning to their smartphones to navigate their professional lives and schedule day-to-day tasks.

The report by SplitMetrics found the top apps in the business and productivity categories have amassed a staggering 4.7 billion and 55 billion downloads respectively. Microsoft’s LinkedIn leads the business category with a whopping 1.5 billion lifetime downloads, followed by video conferencing giants Zoom (1.1bn) and Microsoft Teams (426m), then OfficeSuite (195m) and Indeed (188m).

In the productivity category, it’s Google that leads the way. Google Drive has racked up an impressive 10 billion lifetime downloads, followed by Google Calendar (6bn), Microsoft OneDrive (4bn), Google Assistant (3bn) and Google Keep (2.7bn).

Productivity boosts all round

The study also reveals the apps that have delivered the most significant year-on-year growth. Lopay: Payments & POS achieved a 339% increase in the business section in 2023, followed by Etsy Seller (329%), JobSwipe (221%), Parcel Tracking – pkge Mobile (144%) and Shopify (83%).

PDF Reader – PDF Viewer experienced the biggest growth in productivity in 2023 with a 701% jump. It was followed by Notepad (457%), All Document Reader (431%), Google Tasks (29%) and Link to Windows (21%).

Thomas Kriebernegg, General Manager of SplitMetrics, said: “The data paints a clear picture. Tools that empower people to be productive and manage their work or businesses effectively are very popular. The rise of on-demand services, remote work, and mobile entrepreneurship is driving the demand for user-friendly, feature-rich business and productivity apps. While user acquisition costs may be higher in the business category, the high engagement and potential value users bring means there’s a significant market opportunity.”

Microsoft quietly improves Edge browser with a new internet tester and fixes

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date May 4, 2024
No Comments on Microsoft quietly improves Edge browser with a new internet tester and fixes

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Microsoft has rolled out a new update to its Edge browser which adds a host of security and stability fixes alongside a dedicated internet speed test as well.

As spotted by Techspot, the Microsoft Edge browser update Version 124.0.2478.80 has brought in a new internet speed test built into the sidebar as well as fixes aimed at plugging a couple of glaring security vulnerabilities that were highlighted by the community from a prior update.

It’s worth noting that Edge did have a built-in speed tester, much as Google Chrome does right now, but it was removed for about a year before being re-implemented in the sidebar alongside a redesigned world clock, unit converter, translator, dictionary, and calculator all available shorthand. While far from exciting, it sure sounds useful.

A screenshot of Microsoft Edge's new Speed Test feature

(Image credit: Future)

You can use the new sidebar feature from the Red Toolbox as found at the top of the righthand corner which will expand the newly refreshed items into view. However, while the internet speed test is accessed from this menu, it will open up in a separate browser window and then give you the upload and download score.

The new feature is yet another reason why many think Microsoft Edge is better than Google Chrome despite the latter’s popularity. Google still retains favor despite advancements made by Microsoft’s built-in Windows browser which comes pre-installed with every copy of Windows 11, but Microsoft continues to try and innovate its way to broader popularity (as well as some shameless pleading to stick with its browser as your default).

Another step towards a definitive web browser

While Microsoft Edge may not quite have the same level of fame and success that Google Chrome does, a steady string of updates and innovations like this may be enough to turn the tide.

Edge generally has lower power consumption, and, most crucially, goes easier on your RAM relative to Google Chrome when under the same level of stress.

Still, it has struggled to gain traction as people’s preferred web browser, but continually rolling out new advancements like this built-in internet speed test is certainly a way to convince people of a browser’s superior functionality.

5 Great Note-Taking Apps: Google Keep, Apple Notes, Notion, Bear, Microsoft OneNote

Post author By miranda cosgrove
Post date May 3, 2024
No Comments on 5 Great Note-Taking Apps: Google Keep, Apple Notes, Notion, Bear, Microsoft OneNote

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Notes are nested inside custom category tabs; think color-coded tags in a three-ring binder. You can attach specific notes to meetings via Outlook and prioritize them using urgency tags of various levels. If you’re looking for a “professional” notes app, OneNote is a great option.

Plus, if you have a subscription to Microsoft 365 on the desktop, you can then take advantage of Microsoft’s Copilot AI integration in OneNote. The AI helper can create summaries and to-do lists, collate information from various sources, or just rewrite your notes to make them more clear and coherent.

Apple Notes

If you use an iPhone, then Apple Notes is an obvious choice. It comes installed on your phone, and, like Google Keep, it excels in its simplicity. While there are more advanced features, like the ability to add attachments and to clip text and images from the web, they don’t clutter things up.

Organization is also superb if you take the time to set up category folders and nest subfolders inside them. If you’ve already gotten used to Apple Notes, there’s nothing wrong with sticking with it. Oh yes, and if you’re feeling adventurous, you can dictate notes to Siri—it’s not as knowledgeable as the other AI-powered assistants out there, but it transcribes speech pretty well.

Bear

Meet Apple Notes’ more refined cousin. Bear notes offer a bevy of styling options that allow you to change themes, adjust formatting, and play with the typography of your notes. (It is available on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers only.) Functionally, Bear works the same as any of the other apps on this list, albeit with a lot more flair. It packages all its features in a warm, cozy style that won Apple’s design award in 2017.

One of Bear’s most helpful features is the ability to link notes together via tags. Just tag your thoughts with the appropriate category (work, wedding, books to read) as you jot them down, and Bear will sort them into their proper folders. If it feels like your thoughts come from all over the place, or if you’re bad at keeping things organized in folders, this can be a great way to keep your digital life in order.

Bear got a big version 2 update last year, which was a labor of love that gave it a bunch of new features. The updated app is better at organizing tables, has the ability to add footnotes, and offers better in-note search. It’s all wrapped in a more pleasant design too.

Bear is a free app, but a Pro version costs $30 per year and offers additional features like custom themes, the ability to sync with iCloud, and the option to export notes in more formats like PDF and HTML.

Evernote

Sorry to say, but we can’t recommend Evernote anymore. Once the most innovative of the cloud-based notes apps, Evernote has since evolved into a sad shadow of itself. The app now is a cluttered mess that has jammed together just about every feature imaginable: group chat, photo transcription, web clipping, and integration with other online services. As a result, it’s much more cumbersome to use than the others on this list when you just want to jot down a simple idea. We were also turned off by the sheer volume of pop-up ads that appear over and over to prompt you to subscribe to Evernote’s $130 per year premium tier. (Evernote’s current new parent company, Bending Spoons, laid off its entire US workforce last year.)

Unfortunately, lots of people still use Evernote, and probably feel locked into its now-degraded ecosystem. It may be hard to make that switch to a new app, but if you’d like to, it’s possible to remove your notes from Evernote. Sadly, exporting your stuff off the app has become almost as cumbersome as using the app itself. Still, if you plan to make the switch, here’s how to do it:

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Tags Apple, Apps, Bear, Google, great, Microsoft, Notes, notetaking, Notion, OneNote

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Microsoft adds more security chiefs following recent cyberattacks

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date May 3, 2024
No Comments on Microsoft adds more security chiefs following recent cyberattacks

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Microsoft has just unveiled the next step in its major cybersecurity overhaul, and that is to hire security executives for different product groups.

Following a string of major cyberattacks, and the subsequent US government “call to arms” of sorts, Microsoft decided to completely revamp its cybersecurity practices, and “put security above all else”, as CEO Satya Nadella recently put it.

One major milestone in that endeavor is the hiring of additional security chiefs to product groups, Bloomberg reports. While the identities of the new officials are yet to be released, we do know a couple of names.

Russians and the Chinese

Ann Johnson, for example, who’s been a Microsoft security executive for almost a decade now, has been named deputy CISO for consumer outreach and regulated industries. In an email to the publication, Microsoft said Johnson will work on “customer engagement and communication about Microsoft’s own security”. Johnson will report to Igor Tsyganskiy, the company’s global CISO since December last year.

Roughly a year ago, news broke that APT29, a known Russian state-sponsored threat actor, compromised Microsoft corporate email accounts, and through those breached accounts of officials working in several US federal agencies. “Midnight Blizzard’s successful compromise of Microsoft corporate email accounts and the exfiltration of correspondence between agencies and Microsoft presents a grave and unacceptable risk to agencies,” CISA said at the time.

A few months later, Chinese hackers were deemed responsible for stealing one of Microsoft’s access tools and using it to infiltrate email accounts of US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and hundreds more.

All this, and more, led the US Cyber Safety Review Board to issue a report earlier this month, criticizing Microsoft’s “shambolic cybersecurity”.

In the meantime, Microsoft promised to do better, by setting up the Secure Future initiative which Bloomberg described as the “most significant security plan since co-founder Bill Gates halted Windows development in 2002 and ordered engineers to prioritize product safety over new features.” However, the company is still being criticized for not doing enough.

Microsoft should accept that it’s time to give up on Windows 11 and throw everything at Windows 12

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date May 2, 2024
No Comments on Microsoft should accept that it’s time to give up on Windows 11 and throw everything at Windows 12

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If the recent news concerning two Windows 11 updates that have been breaking various features isn’t enough, the recent reveal that the OS’s market share has dipped below 26% certainly should spark some alarm.

According to April 2024 data from Statcounter, Windows 11 plummeted to a 25.69% market share after it reached an all-time high of 28.16% back in February 2024. Meanwhile, Windows 10 has risen to over 70% market share during the same period, and this is after Microsoft announced its intentions to reach End of Support (EOS) for Windows 10 by October 2025.

Microsoft could be looking at a tremendous issue, in which its hopes for Windows 11 being the ultimate AI-supported OS with Copilot, are hampered due to not having the user base it needs. Normally, an OS drops in support once the successor launches, so Windows 11 falling nearly three points in just a few months is quite telling.

But is it honestly surprising?

It’s no secret that Windows 11 has been plagued with issues and bad updates since its launch — not to mention its biggest problem involving many users not being able to make the upgrade in the first place due to its much steeper installation requirements, which prevents many otherwise interested users from even upgrading in the first place.

There’s also the fact that the OS has been forcing ads as “recommendations” into the Start menu and has even begun testing promotional recommendation pages that take up your whole screen, urging users to make Edge the default browser and installing or enabling other services. The worst part is that there’s no way to fully opt out of these ads, which accomplish nothing but clog up the UI with constant notifications.

As for what features Windows 11 offers over Windows 10? There’s simply not enough incentive for users to make the jump, with some features like centering the icons and Start menu on the taskbar and bringing back desktop widgets, barely worth mentioning. And some features, like the ability to move the taskbar, were actually removed.

On the other hand, Windows 10 came after Windows 8/8.1 which endeared users to its many improvements including bringing back the Start menu. Not to mention how much more stable the OS is compared to its successor, with far fewer broken updates.

What’s the future for Windows 11?

The biggest reason to make the move to Windows 11 is possibly Microsoft Copilot, but that’s also coming to Windows 10. There are some unique AI tools that Windows 11 will be getting eventually, but that could also serve to further the divide between users with higher-end PCs and less powerful ones.

So then, what should Microsoft do? The tech giant might have to cut its losses and speed up the release of Windows 12, putting all the AI goodies and other new features there instead. The user base would be more willing to move to a new OS, and doing so could even prevent a possible ecological disaster in the making. There are also tons of other features and tools that could be added, plenty of which are fan favorites that would easily draw in users from Windows 10.

This move would be the kiss of death for Windows 11, but this would honestly be a net positive for Microsoft, as it could put all the bad press for Windows 11 behind it and fully support a superior OS while giving Windows 10 users far more incentive to make the switch in the process.

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Tags accept, give, Microsoft, throw, Time, Windows

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Microsoft admits latest Windows 11 update is breaking some VPNs

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date May 1, 2024
No Comments on Microsoft admits latest Windows 11 update is breaking some VPNs

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Windows 11 and Windows 10 users are in some cases facing a problem whereby their VPN connection is failing to work thanks to the latest cumulative updates from Microsoft for these operating systems.

We’re talking about the main updates for last month, April, which are KB5036893 for Windows 11 (ushering in Moment 5 features), and KB5036892 for Windows 10 – and this also holds true for the preview updates released at the end of April.

Neowin noticed that Microsoft has officially acknowledged that these updates are breaking some VPNs, posting on its Windows 11 health dashboard to say: “Windows devices might face VPN connection failures after installing the April 2024 security update (KB5036893) or the April 2024 non-security preview update.”

Microsoft informs us that it’s working on fixing the problem and will “provide an update in an upcoming release,” but sadly, we don’t get any details beyond that.

Analysis: Rocky road for updates of late

This is a vague diagnosis from Microsoft, with no info provided as to what might be the root cause (or causes) of this VPN-related problem. It’s not affecting all Windows 11 (or Windows 10) users by any means, but certainly some VPN users are experiencing service failure. All we can do right now is wait for Microsoft to continue its investigation into finding out what’s gone wrong with the April update, and to provide those additional details – hopefully soon.

For those affected, this is a troubling situation, as the April cumulative update is very different from an optional update – you have to install it (Windows 11 Home users can only delay it for a bit if they want to take evasive action). Also, without the update, you don’t have the latest security measures, so your PC is just a bit more vulnerable to intrusion.

For home-based PC users running into this bug, Microsoft only offers up the following advice: “If you need support with your personal or family account, use the Get help app in Windows.”

It’s been a pretty rocky road for the April update for Windows 11 when you consider that the upgrade has brought with it some other nasty bugs, including a new spin on the Blue Screen of Death – which we dubbed the White Screen of Doom. Plus the preview update for April has an odd issue with profile photos, and there are other glitches floating around besides. So, all in all, Microsoft isn’t having a great time of things lately.

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Tags admits, Breaking, Latest, Microsoft, update, VPNs, Windows