September 2023
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Microsoft is now calling the Windows 11 OS monthly feature releases for Windows 11 “Windows configuration updates,” “controlled feature rollouts” (CFR), or “gradual feature rollouts”. Microsoft internally refers to these Windows 11 releases as “moments” releases.
Azure Active Directory is now renamed to Entra ID.
Users of Office 365 will see a privacy popup window asking that you review your privacy settings. Privacy settings control what data you want to share and describe what features will not work without sharing. It refers to the Microsoft Services Agreement and privacy statement.
In the fine print is the language for using your data for AI tools.
For more information, see Overview of optional connected experiences in Office.
Go to File > Account > Account Privacy > Manage Settings. Under the Connected Experiences section, you can choose whether certain types of connected experiences, such as experiences that analyze your content, are available to use. If you don’t go to Manage Settings, all connected experiences are available.
Support for connections to Microsoft 365 services for Office 2016/2019 are unsupported after October 2023.
Effective October 1, 2023, nonprofits will no longer be able to renew the legacy Office 365 E2 plan.
In September, all Microsoft 365 apps, Word 365, Excel 365, PowerPoint 365, and emails with Outlook 365 will get new default templates that will be applied to new, blank documents.
The change is being pushed to Microsoft 365 apps; the user cannot opt-out.
A new default color scheme matches modern readability and accessibility standards.
A new font family (Aptos) is used in all those templates, limited to Microsoft 365 apps only.
Aptos fonts can be embedded in 365 documents to ensure they look as intended. Go to File | Options | Save | Preserve Fidelity when sharing this document | Embed fonts in the file.
Microsoft Edge for Business is arriving automatically.
Microsoft Edge for Business is designed to separate work and personal uses of the Microsoft Edge browser. Users signing into the browser with Microsoft Entra ID (Office 365) accounts will use the Microsoft Edge for Business browser, while users with a Microsoft account get the Edge browser for personal use.
Users will know that they are using Microsoft Edge for Business browser when they see a briefcase icon in the browser (it’s located on the left, resting on top of the Edge browser’s logo). Also, the browser will show the word “Work” in the upper left corner.
You can manage Edge for Business in the Microsoft Edge management service in the 365 portal.
Microsoft Edge Enterprise documentation
Microsoft has been using malware-like popups in Windows 11 to get people to ditch Google.
Adobe will be discontinuing Creative Cloud Synced files starting February 1, 2024.
Smartwatch wristbands can become a hotbed for harmful bacteria growth. 95% of the bands they studied were contaminated with bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas, and E.coli.
The highest total counts were found on rubber and plastic wristbands. Lysol Disinfectant Spray and 70 percent ethanol were highly effective.
Free courses and seven professional certificates from LinkedIn.
Cyber insurance is getting harder to obtain.
“Businesses should opt for insurers that include a risk assessment of the organization to remediate identified security weaknesses prior to quoting.”
The survey also exposes a growing list of exclusions that could potentially render cyber insurance coverage null – read the fine print.
2023 State of Cyber Insurance Report.
Insurance costs rise, and coverage shrinks, but policies remain essential.
Apple will announce the iPhone 15 and new Apple watch on Sept. 12th.
PowerToys 0.73.0 released. These are utilities for Windows.
WordPress 6.3.1 released.
STARZ is lowering the annual fee for its streaming service by about $10.
CHATBOTS and AI
Free online courses: Generative AI for Executives from AWS.
Career Essentials in Generative AI by Microsoft and LinkedIn.
Changes to the Microsoft Service Agreement:
“To the extent necessary to provide the Services to you and others, to protect you and the Services, and to improve Microsoft products and services, you grant to Microsoft a worldwide and royalty-free intellectual property license to use Your Content … Your Content may appear in demonstrations or materials that promote the Service.
Use of your content — As part of providing the AI services, Microsoft will process and store your inputs to the Service as well as output from the Service, for purposes of monitoring for, and preventing, abusive or harmful uses or outputs of the Service.”
Zoom updated its Terms of Service in March, spelling out that the company reserves the right to train AI on user data with no mention of a way to opt-out. Zoom execs swear the company won’t actually train its AI on your video calls without permission, even though the Terms of Service still say it can.
X/Twitter has updated its Terms of Service to let it use Posts for AI training.
Google Search with AI
With Google Labs, you can check out AI features in Google Search, Gmail, and Google Docs. You can also play with an AI-based notebook and a musical AI that will turn your words into music.
Turn on the switch for SGE generative AI in Search. Be sure to read the fine print on the popup window: Google will collect data on your searches to help improve its own products and services.
“They’ve set the conditions to use their product, and if you don’t like them, feel free to stick with your landline. User agreements aren’t negotiable. It’s getting harder and harder to find a human at the company to talk to, much less someone willing and authorized to discuss terms. The companies providing the services and collecting the personal information simply have too much bargaining power and too big a budget. If evidence of that is needed, just look at the fines the companies willingly paid for violating privacy rights.
A physical-world analogy might be: “I’m giving you a car! It’s your car!! You need to insure it, maintain it, pay for gas (or electricity), repair any damage, and pay any taxes because it’s your car.” Makes sense. “Oh — one more thing. I get to use it whenever and however I want. But, because it’s your car, if my use causes any harm to anyone, you’ll be responsible for that. You’ll also be responsible for any speeding or parking tickets I may collect. By the way, that applies not just to my use, but to anyone else I allow to use it — and I plan to let millions of people use it. And I plan to charge them for it. Enjoy your new car!”
– From AskWoody newsletter.
U.S. Federal Judge Exempts AI-Created Content from Copyright.
ElevenLabs AI Voice Generator Can Produce ‘Emotionally Rich’ Recordings in 30 Languages.
Gannett is pausing the use of an AI sports bot after criticism.
Last week, readers noticed the generative AI tool kept describing local sporting events as “close encounter[s] of the athletic kind.” Articles with that phrasing have popped up on The Columbus Dispatch and The Indianapolis Star, among others. Some stories were also missing essential information.
SECURITY
Beware of joining Teams meeting invites unless you know the person and expect it. It is another method for delivering malware.
Beware of scanning QR codes unless you know where the link will take you. This has the same effect as clicking on an unknown link in email – it could lead to a potentially malicious website.
67% of data breaches happen when someone clicks on a link they believe is safe.
Disposing of equipment.
Be sure you remove and destroy the hard drive before sending your computers to ewaste or giving them away. We recently had a client whose computer was hacked after being passed on. Any data or saved passwords could be at risk.
Canon announced that over 200 models of inkjet printers can expose your Wi-Fi details. The Canon advisory recommends that you reset all settings to factory defaults before sending a printer to be recycled.
LinkedIn accounts hacked in widespread hijacking campaign.
Enable 2FA for your account if you have not already done so.
Microsoft reports an increase in phishing attacks on Office 365 accounts with 2FA enabled.
By tricking you into logging into a fake page and then confirming with 2FA, they use your credentials to gain control of your account.
If you are still using that four-digit PIN to log in to your phone, be aware that with special equipment and four days, someone can gain access and log in to your phone merely by doing all the four-digit combinations and brute-forcing the passcode. If you use a password vault on your phone, it’s especially important to make your login as secure as possible.
Experian Pays $650,000 to Settle Spam Claims.
Experian sent its account holders millions of commercial emails promoting additional Experian services, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ).
Cyber-criminals have been exploiting fraudulent artificial intelligence (AI) bots to install malicious software under the guise of genuine AI applications.
Discord.io has shut down operations after suffering a major data breach exposing the personal details of its 760,000 members.
New York Times Spoofed to Hide Russian Disinformation Campaign about the Ukraine war.
‘Downfall’ Bug in Billions of Intel CPUs Reveals Major Design Flaw
This only affects computers sharing a CPU. It is a design flaw which will be challenging to fix.
Paramount discloses data breach following a security incident.
Golf store Callaway data breach exposes info of 1.1 million.
Mom’s Meals discloses data breach impacting 1.2 million people. Credit card, DOB, driver’s license, and other sensitive data were exposed.
HUMOR
Tim Torian