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Category Archives: Microsoft

US officials urge Americans to use encrypted apps amid unprecedented cyberattack

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and international partners published today a joint guide, Enhanced Visibility and Hardening Guidance for Communications Infrastructure, that provides best practices to protect against a People’s Republic of China (PRC)-affiliated threat actor that has compromised networks of major global telecommunications providers. The recommended practices are for network engineers and defenders of communications infrastructure to strengthen visibility and harden network devices against this broad and significant cyber espionage campaign. To protect agencies in the future, the FBI, National Security Administration (NSA) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint guide on Tuesday aimed at protecting communications-related companies from future hacking.

NBCNews: “Amid an unprecedented cyberattack on telecommunications companies such as AT&T and Verizon, U.S. officials have recommended that Americans use encrypted messaging apps to ensure their communications stay hidden from foreign hackers. The hacking campaign, nicknamed Salt Typhoon by Microsoft, is one of the largest intelligence compromises in U.S. history, and it has not yet been fully remediated. Officials on a news call Tuesday refused to set a timetable for declaring the country’s telecommunications systems free of interlopers. Officials had told NBC News that China hacked AT&T, Verizon and Lumen Technologies to spy on customers…In the call Tuesday, two officials — a senior FBI official who asked not to be named and Jeff Greene, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — both recommended using encrypted messaging apps to Americans who want to minimize the chances of China’s intercepting their communications. “Our suggestion, what we have told folks internally, is not new here: Encryption is your friend, whether it’s on text messaging or if you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communication. Even if the adversary is able to intercept the data, if it is encrypted, it will make it impossible,” Greene said. The FBI official said, “People looking to further protect their mobile device communications would benefit from considering using a cellphone that automatically receives timely operating system updates, responsibly managed encryption and phishing resistant” multi-factor authentication for email, social media and collaboration tool accounts…

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, November 23, 2024

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, November 23, 2024 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on… Continue Reading

LinkedIn launches its first AI agent to take on the role of job recruiters

TechCrunch: “LinkedIn, the social platform used by professionals to connect with others in their field, hunt for jobs, and develop skills, is taking the wraps off its latest effort to build artificial intelligence tools for users. Hiring Assistant is a new product designed to take on a wide array of recruitment tasks, from ingesting scrappy… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 26, 2024

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 26, 2024 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and… Continue Reading

Microsoft brings AI-powered overviews to Bing

TechCrunch: Microsoft has launched its answer to Google’s AI-powered search experiences: Bing generative search. On the heels of a pilot in July, Bing generative search — albeit still under development — began rolling out to all U.S. users this morning. The easiest way to invoke it is by searching “Bing generative search” on Bing; Microsoft also… Continue Reading

How I Use Microsoft Word to Instantly Check Documents for Plagiarism

How to Geek: “Microsoft Word isn’t just for typing documents; it has a built-in feature called the Similarity Checker that checks your document plagiarism right from your word editor. This tool not only highlights potential plagiarism but also guides you in citing sources correctly. [This is a front line use case, and other applications are… Continue Reading

Slack, Teams, Google Chat: Is There Any Safe Place to Complain About Work Online?

WSJ via MSN: “Workers are getting too comfortable venting on their employers’ chat apps. We tend to forget that nothing we say there is private. Disney last week said it was quitting Slack, after a hacker gained access to an executive’s account and leaked millions of intraoffice messages. They included computer code, details about unreleased… Continue Reading

LinkedIn Is Training AI on User Data Before Updating Its Terms of Service

TechCrunch: “LinkedIn may have trained AI models on user data without updating its terms. LinkedIn users in the U.S. — but not the EU, EEA, or Switzerland, likely due to those regions’ data privacy rules — have an opt-out toggle in their settings screen disclosing that LinkedIn scrapes personal data to train “content creation AI… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 31, 2024

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 31, 2024 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on… Continue Reading

4 Reasons the Free Version of Microsoft 365 is Good Enough

How to Geek: “…While you require a Microsoft 365 subscription to use the desktop apps (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook), the web versions are completely free. As long as you have a constant internet connection and are using a modern browser, you can access them without installing anything. Even though some advanced features found… Continue Reading