Q: There’s been talk of “low code” for decades now. How are things different nowadays for the low-code movement? Freitag: “Low code is dramatically different than a decade ago, even a year or two ago because of Covid-19, and it’s trending at a feverish pitch right now. It’s really a confluence of long-brewing trends. In the midst of the digital transformation trend, we saw an increase in low-code adoption because of the widening IT talent gap....

Ransomware, corporate email compromise, and credential harvesting together brought bring sector companies to a standstill in Latin America in 2021, further straining supply chains, the X-Force Threat Intelligence Index has found. In Brazil, ransomware was the primary attack method used by perpetrators last year, accounting for 32% of the security incidents. Manufacturing companies were the most attacked sector in Brazil, representing 20% of the ransomware attacks in 2021. According to the study, this reflects a global trend as cybercriminals found a vantage point in the critical role manufacturing organizations plays in global supply chains to pressure victims to pay ransoms....

I want to believe that technology is making the world better. Just. I want to believe that we are all becoming more aware of the world’s truths. And I want to believe that when companies say things, they really mean them. That’s why I was so, so moved when McDonald’s began experimenting with robot ordering at the drive-thru. Yes, it looked like a perfectly awful experience, but I wanted to believe that, over time, the robots would come to understand our accents and our quirky individualistic orders....

We now have to give more thought to the underlying connectivity in our homes. Mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, ranging from security cameras to smart appliances, have all increased the load shouldered by our routers. Also: The best mesh Wi-Fi systems right now Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the face of modern work by introducing remote and hybrid working to the population at large....

Also: Best Windows 10 laptop in 2021 Unsurprisingly, given how hard Microsoft has been beating the hybrid work drum over the past year, the company is positioning Windows 11 better suited for a hybrid world than previous Windows releases. Officials played up how the new UI will help customers be more productive in both work and personal endeavors. It’s also probably a shock to no one that Microsoft is claiming Windows 11 is the most secure Windows version to date and is a “zero-trust-ready” operating system....

Microsoft also is unveiling a new virtualization partnership with iDirect, which is a satellite provider, as well as additional goespatial and data analytics partnerships with ESRI, Blackshark and Orbital Insight as part of today’s milestone updates. Azure Space isn’t just for companies in the space industry. It’s meant to appeal to companies in public and private industry customers in the agriculture, energy, telecommunications, and government markets. It’s also meant for any customer with remote-access and bandwidth needs....

In a blog post, Microsoft president Brad Smith said it was coordinating its efforts to protect users in Ukraine with the Ukrainian government, the European Union, European nations, the US government, NATO, and the United Nations. “Several hours before the launch of missiles or movement of tanks on February 24, Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) detected a new round of offensive and destructive cyberattacks directed against Ukraine’s digital infrastructure. We immediately advised the Ukrainian government about the situation, including our identification of the use of a new malware package (which we denominated FoxBlade), and provided technical advice on steps to prevent the malware’s success,” Smith said....

Smith said in April that Microsoft would look for ways to remedy the partner concerns it deemed valid. After European antitrust regulators began digging into partner and customer complaints, Microsoft agreed to look into the matter. Bloomberg subsequently published a report citing customers who were none too happy about the new licensing rules. In today’s blog post, Smith said he and other senior Microsoft business leaders had meetings with CEOs of two European providers, plus additional meetings with companies in various European countries....

The patches released address common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) in: Microsoft Windows and Windows Components; Azure; Office and Office Components; SysInternals; Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based); SharePoint Server; and the .NET framework. The one exploited CVE disclosed on Patch Tuesday impacts the Windows SmartScreen Security Feature. To exploit it, an attacker could craft a malicious file that would evade Mark of the Web (MOTW) defenses. When you download a file from the internet, Windows adds the zone identifier, or MOTW, to the file....

AAD is central to Microsoft’s identity and security services and its ‘join’ feature for controlling device access is now coming to its Windows 365 Cloud PC – the managed PC service it launched last summer for $20 to $162 per user per month for compute, memory and storage. AAD’s Join feature for has been “by far” the most requested feature by users of Windows 365 Enterprise, according to Microsoft. It acts as a device-joining bridge from the cloud-based Azure AD for organizations that use the on-premise variant of Active Directory....

With Build 22581, Beta channel Insiders now can test Live Captions, Start folders, the redesigned Task Manager, tablet-optimized taskbar, and more. Not every single feature that is has been introduced to the Dev channel necessarily will be in the new Beta channel test builds. A quick refresher on Microsoft terminology: The Dev channel is considered the experimental ring where features that are introduced may or may never ship. The Dev Channel builds are not tied to any specific Windows release....

The shift to Teams and video collaboration has a raft of implications that affect everything from your home network’s performance through to the mobile devices and PCs we use – and how meeting etiquette has evolved. Microsoft has been working to evolve Teams as its average monthly user base grows, from 145 million a year ago to 270 million today. In Febuary 2022, the company rolled out improvements to its Teams Companion Mode for iOS, which lets users tap a smartphone to engage with a Teams meeting while also using Teams on the desktop or Microsoft Teams Rooms....

Teams Premium is now generally available and Microsoft has revealed that the AI features it’s getting – such as an intelligent recap of meetings – are powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 series of large language models that are behind OpenAI’s hit chatbot ChatGPT and are available to developers via Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service APIs. “Teams Premium brings the latest technologies, including Large Language Models powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, to make meetings more intelligent, personalized, and protected—whether it’s one-on-one, large meetings, virtual appointments, or webinars,” Microsoft says in an announcement....

Digital twins and Azure IoT are only the tip of Microsoft’s metaverse technology stack. Microsoft officials are carving out a strategy where everything from Azure Maps and the Power Platform, to Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure AI plus Autonomous Systems, could play a role in helping customers create and use their own business metaverses.

Microsoft boosted Viva with its Microsoft acquisition of OKR vendor ally.io in 2021 to enable Viva Goals, which is one of five modules in the Viva employee experience suite. Viva runs on top of Teams, and also includes Viva Learn, Viva Topics, and Viva Connections. Microsoft in September announced it was adding new integration points in Viva Goals, including an enhanced Teams app that allows users to check in and collaborate on OKRs....

Security researchers have discovered numerous modules used by the attack group, which Microsoft calls Nobelium. The US and UK in April officially blamed the attack on the hacking unit of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), which are also known as APT29, Cozy Bear, and The Dukes. Microsoft in March uncovered the GoldMax, GoldFinder, and Sibot components from Nobelium, building on other malware from the group including Sunburst/Solarigate, Teardrop and Sunspot....

If you have any technology-related worries – from your kids being glued to their phone, to the influence of the Chinese government and the role of technology in the 2016 and 2020 US elections – the authors of Monster: A Tough Love Letter On Taming the Machines that Rule our Jobs, Lives, and Future are worried about it too. And if you weren’t already concerned, they’ll tell you why you should be....

Also: Here’s everything Apple announced during its ‘Far Out’ event Where did Apple miss the mark? I don’t hike, I don’t dive, and I almost never find myself without either a cell or Wi-Fi signal, let alone in the middle of the wilderness. I’m betting the majority of you could say the same. I try to stay active, but that typically involves a treadmill or bike ride around the paved, lakeside path near my house....

As a result, around two-thirds of employees said it was “extremely” or “somewhat” likely they’ll leave their employer within the next year because there aren’t enough opportunities for skills development (64%) or career advancement (66%), or because there’s no way for them to transition to a different job or a new career path (65%). Also: These three tech skills could help recession-proof your career, say bosses Looking ahead to 2023, 89% of employees said they were highly motivated to advance their skills, with 80% of employees attributing this newfound motivation to the pandemic....