Over the past few years, Microsoft has been building out the Viva brand with Yammer-based apps. Last summer, it launched Engage for Viva, an app based on the Yammer Communities app for Teams. Also: More powerful than ChatGPT’: Microsoft unveils new AI-improved Bing and Edge browser The Viva employee experience suite, which runs on top of Teams, includes Viva Engage, Viva Learn, Viva Topics, Viva Connections, and Viva Goals. Viva Connections was also based on Yammer, which continued to run as Yammer apps alongside the Viva apps....

The flaw was bad news for Windows domains, with Microsoft confirming that attackers were using this vulnerability to install specially crafted packages and spread the Emotet/Trickbot/Bazaloader malware families. The Windows AppX Installer is a Windows 10 feature that allows users to install .appx packages. SEE: Windows 11: Here’s how to get Microsoft’s free operating system update In a blogpost explaining why it’s switched off the ms-appinstaller protocol for the MSIX Windows app package format, Microsoft says that an attacker can use that protocol to “spoof App Installer to install a package that the user did not intend to install”....

What we know for certain is it’s the biggest DDoS attack on an Azure cloud customer. It was bigger than the previous high, 2020’s Azure 1 Tbps attack, and Microsoft reported it was “higher than any network volumetric event previously detected on Azure.” Who was targeted? We don’t know. Microsoft isn’t talking. The attack itself came from over 70,000 sources. It was orchestrated from multiple Asia-Pacific countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, and China, and from the United States....

In a blog post, Microsoft said by extending the tool it will help organisations quantify the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their usage of Microsoft 365 applications, including Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Teams. Microsoft added that using the dashboard, organisations can measure total emissions and break that down to emissions per active Microsoft 365 user. Customers can also segment and filter emissions by scope and data centre region, and estimate the carbon emissions they avoid by moving their Exchange and SharePoint deployments to the cloud....

Under Windows Update, users ultimately will see “Online Service Experience Pack - Windows.Settings.Account” with a version number. Microsoft execs have said fairly little about Windows Feature Experience Packs. These packs, introduced with Windows 10, have included the updated Snipping Tool, text input panel, and shell-suggestion UI. In addition to the new Your Microsoft Account settings page, Microsoft also has added support in today’s test build for “Discovery of Designated Resolvers....

Why? Because together they can advance and profit from using these cloud technologies to further the hybrid cloud and, an OpenStack specialty, 5G. Microsoft is joining the Open Infrastructure Foundation as a Platinum Member. This move makes perfect sense. According to the 2021 OpenStack User Survey, which will be released shortly in Superuser Magazine, 40% of OpenStack users running their deployment in a multi-cloud configuration are already running OpenStack on Azure....

The latest update follows a recent beta release of SwiftKey that brought the AI functionality only to Android devices. Now the official app supports iOS/iPadOS as well as Android. With AI taking over the tech world, companies have been eager to jump on the bandwagon and take advantage of this hot, new trend. That certainly includes Microsoft, which has already added its Bing AI to Microsoft Edge on desktop and mobile devices....

“That’s the first time I’ve been applauded as a security person and executive,” Arsenault tells ZDNet. “We said we’re turning off password rotation within Microsoft, because we had eliminated that part of it.” As Microsoft’s CISO, Arsenault is responsible for protecting both Microsoft products and its internal networks used by its 160,000 employees. After adding vendors into the mix, he’s responsible for about 240,000 accounts globally. And getting rid of passwords and replacing them with better options like multi-factor authentication (MFA) is high on his to-do list....

Surface remains one of Microsoft’s most popular products, with revenue increasing 3% year-over-year by $226 million in the fourth quarter of its 2022 financial year. But that wasn’t always the case, and Surface represents a big shift in Microsoft’s business over the last decade. Here is how the Surface earned its spot as one of Microsoft’s best sellers. Microsoft released its first iteration of the Surface tablet PC back in 2012, launched as the Surface with Windows RT and then later renamed the Surface RT....

It’s a handy feature that most users of apps like WhatsApp and Messages have used for a while to clarify which message they are trying to respond to. Quoted reply is already available in Teams for iOS and Android but until now it hasn’t been available in Teams chat on the desktop for one-to-one chats, group or meeting chats. It’s coming to the web soon, according to Microsoft which announced the new desktop feature in a blogpost....

News of Casual Games coming to Teams leaked in June with speculation it could be its on-ramp to Microsoft’s metaverse. Microsoft now says that bringing classic Windows games or brain teasers like Solitaire to Teams can improve productivity for remote and hybrid workers. “Along with our morning caffeine, sometimes we need a brain teaser or some friendly competition to get relationships going, infuse levity into our workday, and build a sense of community,” writes Nicole Herskowitz, vice president of Microsoft Teams in a blogpost....

For the past two years, Microsoft has offered Teams Rooms Standard and Teams Rooms Premium, but as of this week the company will offer customers Teams Rooms Basic and Teams Rooms Pro. The service has the same proposition: to improve meetings for remote and in-person participants with assistance managing and servicing Teams Rooms devices, Teams displays, and Surface devices. But the change introduces cost, licensing and functionality differences and the Standard and Premium inclusions don’t align exactly with the new Basic and Pro feature sets....

“We are tracking multiple active email campaigns that use BazarLoader to deliver a wide range of payloads. These campaigns appear disparate but share a common trait: their tactics attempt to challenge conventional email security solutions and best practices,” Microsoft said in a tweet. The ‘Stolen Images’ Bazarloader campaign uses fake copyright infingement contact form emails and malicious files pretending to contain “stolen images” to trick users into downloading the malware....

The warning comes as Microsoft begins turning off Basic Authentication, or “Basic Auth”, in Exchange Online tenants worldwide from October 1, 2022. Microsoft’s explains here why it is deprecating Basic Auth for Exchange Online. The process will also prevent the use of passwords in apps that don’t support two-step verification. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned organizations in June about the upcoming move. Basic Auth doesn’t support multi-factor authentication (MFA), which would prevent most password-spraying and password-guessing attacks....

Update (August 26): Here’s an odd addition to this story. A Google spokesperson proactively reached out with this (surprising) statement: “We’re pleased to see Microsoft offer Chrome OS users a more optimized experience and embrace the open web. People love Chrome OS because it provides a speedy, secure, and simple computing experience and helps them stay connected while they work, study and stay entertained.” I subsequently asked whether Google officials were happy that Chromebook users running Office would no longer be able to work offline once Microsoft makes this change....

In a statement, the company said its Operations and Technology teams “detected unauthorized access of some of the crypto wallets managed at Liquid” and later discovered that a total of “approximately $91.35 million of crypto assets were moved out of Liquid wallets by an unauthorized party.” “Of this amount, $16.13 million USDe of ERC-20 assets have been frozen (disabled for onchain movement) due to the assistance of the crypto community and other exchanges,” the statement explained....

According to the research on the current state of technology adoption in the arts and culture space, there was a significant change in terms of Internet use by museums and the presence of these organizations in social networks. The study noted that 56% of cultural institutions had some kind of social media presence in 2020 compared to 48% in 2018, leading to a 49% increase in interactions with the public through such platforms, including the promotion of collections, exhibitions, projects or services....

In February, Motorola updated the standard Moto G Stylus, but didn’t announce anything new for the Moto G Stylus 5G that was released back in 2020. With Thursday’s announcement, the stylus-equipped model is gaining its fair share of updates. It has a 6.8-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 5,000mAh battery, and three rear-facing cameras: A 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle that doubles as a macro camera as well, and finally, a 2MP depth sensor....