Andy Patrizio
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Andy Patrizio
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Microsoft announces AI Immersion Workshop
Microsoft intends to run an AI Immersion Workshop in Seattle on May 9, a free pre-event to Microsoft Build developer conference.The workshop is a special opportunity for advanced developers looking to create the next generation of scalable, real-world intelligent apps that use the very latest AI and machine learning techniques.The workshop will feature hands-on tutorials using Microsoft and open-source technologies. Microsoft developers will be there, and the workshop is said to be an opportunity to connect with developers and data scientists working on Microsoft’s products and services, as well as to connect with industry peers. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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FBI trained Geek Squad techs on law-enforcement tactics, new records show
The connection between the FBI and Best Buy's internal service and repair organization Geek Squad went a lot further than initially thought, according to newly unsealed records in a case involving a doctor charged with child pornography after bringing in a laptop for repair. The Orange County (California) Weekly has been all over a case involving a well-respected physician Dr. Mark A. Rettenmaier. Rettenmaier took his laptop to the Mission Viejo Best Buy in November 2011 after he was unable to start it. + Also on Network World: Why you shouldn't trust Geek Squad ever again + While performing a recovery scan of his data files, a Geek Squad technician found an image of "a fully nude, white prepubescent female on her hands and knees on a bed, with a brown choker-type collar around her neck." The technician notified his boss, who alerted the FBI. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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FBI trained Geek Squad techs on law-enforcement tactics, new records show
The connection between the FBI and Best Buy's internal service and repair organization Geek Squad went a lot further than initially thought, according to newly unsealed records in a case involving a doctor charged with child pornography after bringing in a laptop for repair. The Orange County (California) Weekly has been all over a case involving a well-respected physician Dr. Mark A. Rettenmaier. Rettenmaier took his laptop to the Mission Viejo Best Buy in November 2011 after he was unable to start it. + Also on Network World: Why you shouldn't trust Geek Squad ever again + While performing a recovery scan of his data files, a Geek Squad technician found an image of "a fully nude, white prepubescent female on her hands and knees on a bed, with a brown choker-type collar around her neck." The technician notified his boss, who alerted the FBI. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Anonymous hacker causes dark web to shrink by as much as 85%
An attack by Anonymous, the shadowy hacker crew that seems to alternate between good guys and bad guys depending on the issue, help cut the dark web down by as much as 85 percent, according to a new report. Anonymous turned its sights on Freedom Hosting II, a hosting service for Tor-based sites, at the start of February. Freedom Hosting II (FHII) was the host to over 10,000 dark web sites, many of them hosting images of sexually abused children. It was named after another host, Freedom Hosting, that Anonymous took down in 2011. An Anonymous hacker went after the service after they discovered the provider knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it. The hacker who did it told Vice it was his first hack, and he didn't intend to take down the site—just look through it. When he found large amounts of child porn, he deduced the site knew what was going on and he decided to take down the hosts. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Anonymous hacker causes dark web to shrink by as much as 85%
An attack by Anonymous, the shadowy hacker crew that seems to alternate between good guys and bad guys depending on the issue, help cut the dark web down by as much as 85 percent, according to a new report. Anonymous turned its sights on Freedom Hosting II, a hosting service for Tor-based sites, at the start of February. Freedom Hosting II (FHII) was the host to over 10,000 dark web sites, many of them hosting images of sexually abused children. It was named after another host, Freedom Hosting, that Anonymous took down in 2011. An Anonymous hacker went after the service after they discovered the provider knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it. The hacker who did it told Vice it was his first hack, and he didn't intend to take down the site—just look through it. When he found large amounts of child porn, he deduced the site knew what was going on and he decided to take down the hosts. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Third-party releases ‘nano-patch’ for Microsoft zero day bug
The delay in last month's Patch Tuesday fixes has caused considerable angst given there were several known problems, including two disclosed by Google.Microsoft is on track, as far as we know, for a patch release next week, but one company isn't waiting. It has issued its own fix for a minor bug.A U.K. security company called ACROS Security has released what they call their first "nano-patch" for CVE-2017-0038, a bug in EMF image format parsing logic that does not adequately check image dimensions specified in the image file being parsed against the amount of pixels in the file.If image dimensions are large enough, the parser is tricked into reading memory contents beyond the memory-mapped EMF file being parsed. An attacker could use this vulnerability to steal sensitive data in memory or as an aid in other exploits when ASLR needs to be defeated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Third-party releases ‘nano-patch’ for Microsoft zero day bug
The delay in last month's Patch Tuesday fixes has caused considerable angst given there were several known problems, including two disclosed by Google.Microsoft is on track, as far as we know, for a patch release next week, but one company isn't waiting. It has issued its own fix for a minor bug.A U.K. security company called ACROS Security has released what they call their first "nano-patch" for CVE-2017-0038, a bug in EMF image format parsing logic that does not adequately check image dimensions specified in the image file being parsed against the amount of pixels in the file.If image dimensions are large enough, the parser is tricked into reading memory contents beyond the memory-mapped EMF file being parsed. An attacker could use this vulnerability to steal sensitive data in memory or as an aid in other exploits when ASLR needs to be defeated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft paying a bug bounty of $30,000
First off, I have to issue something of a correction regarding last week's blog post on Intel price cuts. As it turns out, I have been informed that Intel didn't cut the prices, Micro Center cut them as a loss leader, something it frequently does. It doesn't change the bargain prices, just the motivation. So, I wanted to set the record straight on that. Onward. Microsoft is looking for a few good bugs. And people who will keep it quiet. OK, so I have no evidence of direct causality, but it seems convenient. Over the past few weeks, Google has embarrassed Microsoft twice by publicly disclosing security vulnerabilities in Windows 10 that still have not been patched after 90 days. Google has no mercy with its Zero Day disclosures and plays no favorites. Any company that does not fix a bug by 90 days after Google informs them of it will be hung out to dry. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft paying a bug bounty of $30,000
First off, I have to issue something of a correction regarding last week's blog post on Intel price cuts. As it turns out, I have been informed that Intel didn't cut the prices, Micro Center cut them as a loss leader, something it frequently does. It doesn't change the bargain prices, just the motivation. So, I wanted to set the record straight on that. Onward. Microsoft is looking for a few good bugs. And people who will keep it quiet. OK, so I have no evidence of direct causality, but it seems convenient. Over the past few weeks, Google has embarrassed Microsoft twice by publicly disclosing security vulnerabilities in Windows 10 that still have not been patched after 90 days. Google has no mercy with its Zero Day disclosures and plays no favorites. Any company that does not fix a bug by 90 days after Google informs them of it will be hung out to dry. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Windows 10 Creators Update allows indefinite postponing of reboots
When it launched, Windows 10 had a really bad habit of spontaneously rebooting to install updates. Updates were coming fast and furious in its early months, which was to be expected during an OS launch. A restart without warning was not expected or appreciated, and this earned Redmond some anger.Eventually they tamed that beast, giving people options when to reboot and warning them that one was needed. Now Microsoft is promising even more control over when you reboot, including the option to indefinitely postpone it, as documented in a new blog post. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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AMD’s Ryzen processor forces hefty price cuts from Intel
For the first time in a decade, we have competition in the x86 market. AMD is finally poised for a comeback with a true breakthrough in performance in its Ryzen line of processors, and Intel is reacting.Benchmarks show the Ryzen processors, a completely new design by Jim Keller, the same engineer who created the Athlon chip more than a decade ago and turned AMD from an also-ran into a real competitor (for at least a little while), outperform Intel's best and cost a lot less. The result is temporary sell-outs of some CPU pre-orders. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft employees donate $650 million in cash, services and software
Microsoft formed Microsoft Philanthropies a little over a year ago with a plan to donate money, time, cloud computing services and software around the globe. In its first year, it has done a lot of that. Mary Snapp, corporate vice president of Microsoft Philanthropies, provided an update to the program's progress after its first year, and it's impressive. The company's contributions to various nonprofits and schools include donations worth $465 million to 71,000 organizations and more than $30 million in technology and cash donations to organizations serving refugees and displaced people. Plus, company employees raised $142 million for 19,000 nonprofits and schools. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft to end its paid Wi-Fi service for Skype
Microsoft is pulling the plug on its Wi-Fi service for Skype users, which let users buy Wi-Fi access in paid public hotspots for a reduced fee over what the hotspot owner would charge. The company has sent notice to its subscribers that the service will be discontinued at the end of this month and they should use up whatever credits they have.Originally called Skype WiFi and later rebranded as Microsoft WiFi, the service dates back to 2009 when Skype was still an independent company. Following the purchase by Microsoft, the service was restructured and rebranded several times before being integrated into Windows 10. However, a promised integration with Office 365 never happened. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft may owe you $100 if you bought from the Microsoft Store
Microsoft has settled a class-action lawsuit regarding sales at its Microsoft Store outlets. And if you made a purchase at one of those stores, you might be owed as much as $100.The lawsuit alleged that Microsoft Store receipts contained too much information. The lead plaintiff’s receipt listed the buyer’s name, the name of the salesperson and the first six and last four digits of the buyer’s payment card number—more than half the numbers on the card. According to the 2003 U.S. Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), retailers may print only the last five numbers of a payment card on the receipt. Retailers had until 2006 to comply with this restriction, and the Microsoft Stores are much newer than that. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft may owe you $100 if you bought from the Microsoft Store
Microsoft has settled a class-action lawsuit regarding sales at its Microsoft Store outlets. And if you made a purchase at one of those stores, you might be owed as much as $100.The lawsuit alleged that Microsoft Store receipts contained too much information. The lead plaintiff’s receipt listed the buyer’s name, the name of the salesperson and the first six and last four digits of the buyer’s payment card number—more than half the numbers on the card. According to the 2003 U.S. Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), retailers may print only the last five numbers of a payment card on the receipt. Retailers had until 2006 to comply with this restriction, and the Microsoft Stores are much newer than that. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Google reveals Microsoft bug affecting IE and Edge
Google is pretty strict about its Project Zero rules when it comes to disclosure: a company has 90 days to fix the bug after it is informed by Google, after which it is announced to the public. Google did it last week with the announcement of two unpatched bugs, and now it's doing it again. A security flaw in Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer was first reported to Microsoft Nov. 25, 2016. Microsoft was offered the standard 90-day lead to patch the issue before Google announced it to the world. With the cancellation of this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft failed to issue a fix, and now the bug is out there for the whole world to see. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Google reveals Microsoft bug affecting IE and Edge
Google is pretty strict about its Project Zero rules when it comes to disclosure: a company has 90 days to fix the bug after it is informed by Google, after which it is announced to the public. Google did it last week with the announcement of two unpatched bugs, and now it's doing it again. A security flaw in Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer was first reported to Microsoft Nov. 25, 2016. Microsoft was offered the standard 90-day lead to patch the issue before Google announced it to the world. With the cancellation of this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft failed to issue a fix, and now the bug is out there for the whole world to see. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft’s anti-malware program still isn’t very good
In spite of a recent effort to improve the performance and detection rates in Windows Defender, Microsoft's anti-malware tool is still not very good at its job. According to the latest tests, it's downright lousy. The latest round of tests performed by German institute AV-TEST, one of the most respected and regarded malware testing shops, show that Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool fared the poorest in removing an existing infection. AV-TEST conducted a lengthy, comprehensive test over a 12-month period to determine the best malware removal solutions for Windows 10. This involved 897 individual evaluations for each product, evaluating eight security suites. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft’s anti-malware program still isn’t very good
In spite of a recent effort to improve the performance and detection rates in Windows Defender, Microsoft's anti-malware tool is still not very good at its job. According to the latest tests, it's downright lousy. The latest round of tests performed by German institute AV-TEST, one of the most respected and regarded malware testing shops, show that Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool fared the poorest in removing an existing infection. AV-TEST conducted a lengthy, comprehensive test over a 12-month period to determine the best malware removal solutions for Windows 10. This involved 897 individual evaluations for each product, evaluating eight security suites. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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7.4% of software on PCs are past end of life
A new Secunia Research report states that the average private user in the U.S. has 75 programs installed on their PC, and 7.4% of them are past end of life and no longer patched by the vendor. By being past end of life, this software becomes a popular attack target by hackers because the programs are so widespread on devices today. This was the warning from Microsoft when it ended support for Windows XP in 2014—that people should no longer use it because exploits would no longer be fixed. The report from Secunia Research, which is owned by Flexera Software, covers findings for the fourth quarter of 2016 in 12 countries. In the U.S., it found 7.5 percent of private users had unpatched Windows operating systems in Q4 of 2016, up from 6.1 percent in Q3 of 2016 and down from 9.9 percent in Q4 of 2015.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here