Tag: microsoft

Microsoft Leak Reveals New Windows 10 Workstation Edition For Power Users

Upon close inspection of the Windows 10 build that Microsoft accidentally pushed to insiders last week, several users are reporting discovering the reference of a new Windows 10 SKU. From a report: In a leaked slide, Microsoft describes the edition as “Windows 10 Pro for Workstation” with four main capabilities: 1. Workstation mode: Microsoft plans to optimize the OS by identifying “typical compute and graphics intensive workloads” to provide peak performance and reliability when Workstation mode is enabled. 2. Resilient file system: Microsoft’s file system successor to NTFS, dubbed ReFS, is enabled in this new version, with support for fault-tolerance, optimized for large data volumes, and auto-correcting. 3. Faster file handling: As workstation machines are typically used for large data volumes across networks, Microsoft is including the SMBDirect protocol for file sharing and high throughput, low latency, and low CPU utilization when accessing network shares. 4. Expanded hardware support: Microsoft is also planning to allow Windows 10 Pro for Workstation on machines with up to 4 CPUs and a memory limit of 6TB. Windows 10 Pro currently only supports 2 CPUs. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Leak Reveals New Windows 10 Workstation Edition For Power Users

Intel adopts e-SIM to support Microsoft’s connected PC vision

PCs are making a comeback, if the news out of Computex 2017 is any indication, and Microsoft wants to make sure they’re all constantly connected . To support that vision, Intel is making its current and future modems compatible with e-SIMs, so future laptops can connect to LTE networks without physical SIM-card trays. That’s because the technology you’d typically find in a SIM card will be embedded into its modems, so you can connect your machine just by entering a phone number and avoid having to fiddle with a tiny tray. The chip maker says it is working on validating “e-SIM-enabled always-connected platforms with multiple carriers using the Intel XMMTM 7260 modem and our upcoming Intel XMM 7360 modem.” At its keynote, Microsoft announced a slew of carriers that will support the e-SIM devices, including T-Mobile, AT&T, Vodafone and other international service providers. The always connected PC project is another part of the two brands’ Project Evo collaboration to deliver Windows devices across multiple product categories. So this could mean e-SIM-enabled speakers or VR headsets in future, too. Click here to catch up on the latest news from Computex 2017!

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Intel adopts e-SIM to support Microsoft’s connected PC vision

JSON Feed Announced As Alternative To RSS

Reader Anubis IV writes: With Slashdot recently asking whether we still use RSS, it may come as a surprise that something interesting has happened in the world of news feeds this week. JSON Feed was launched as an alternative to RSS and Atom, eschewing the XML they rely on — which is frequently malformed and difficult to parse — in favor of a human readable JSON format that reflects the decades of combined experience its authors have in the field. The JSON Feed spec is a simple read that lays out a number of pragmatic benefits the format has over RSS and Atom, such as eliminating duplicate entries, adding the ability to paginate feeds so that old entries remain available, and reducing the need for clients to scrape sites to find images and other resources. Given that it’s authored by the developers behind one of the earliest, popular RSS clients and a recently Kickstarted blogging platform, the format is intended to address the common pain points currently faced by developers when producing and parsing feeds. While it remains to be seen whether JSON Feed will escape the chicken-and-egg stage of adoption, several clients have already added support for the fledging format in the week since its announcement, including Feedbin, Inoreader, and NewsBlur. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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JSON Feed Announced As Alternative To RSS

Microsoft made the Surface Pro both lighter and quieter

Microsoft has mostly left the Surface Pro line untouched since late 2015, but the company is finally giving it a long overdue refresh today. Announced at an event in Shanghai earlier, the new machine — now simply dubbed Surface Pro — packs Intel’s 7th-gen Core processors ( Kaby Lake ; m3, i5 and i7 flavors), an enhanced PixelSense display, optional LTE Advanced radio and a battery life of up to 13.5 hours for video playback, which is a notable jump from the old nine hours. Oh, and there’s no longer a fan for the m3 and i5 models. Simply put, Microsoft calls this “the lightest, the best sounding, the fastest and the quietest Surface Pro ever, ” and the company was keen to claim that its own machine is 1.7 times faster than the iPad Pro . While the machine itself looks pretty much the same as before from afar, up close you’ll notice the slightly rounded edges. What’s also not immediately noticeable is the new hinge design: you can now push it all the way down to 165 degrees — or “Studio Mode, ” as Microsoft would like to call it. Even the Surface Pen has been given a spec bump: the old 1, 024-level pressure sensitivity is now at 4, 096 levels, and it comes with tilt sensitivity along with a speedy 21ms latency. Much like the recently announced Surface Laptop line, the new Surface Pro comes with an Alcantara keyboard in three colors: platinum, cobalt blue and burgundy. Pre-order starts today at $799 and up, with specs starting from 128GB SSD plus 4GB RAM all the way up to 1TB SSD plus 16GB RAM, and it’s shipping in mid-June. This mid-cycle update was expected after Surface chief Panos Panay said that a Surface Pro 5 wouldn’t appear until there’s “an experiential change that makes a huge difference in product line.” Even then, this new Surface Pro does manage to pack a few surprises, so it should keep us entertained for the time being. And if that doesn’t scratch the itch, you could just buy one of the many alternatives from other hardware makers. Jon Fingas contributed to this post. Source: Microsoft

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Microsoft made the Surface Pro both lighter and quieter

New Ransomware ‘Jaff’ Spotted; Malware Groups Pushing 5M Emails Per Hour To Circulate It

An anonymous reader writes: The Necurs botnet has been harnessed to fling a new strain of ransomware dubbed “Jaff”. Jaff spreads in a similar way to the infamous file-encrypting malware Locky and even uses the same payment site template, but is nonetheless a different monster. Attached to dangerous emails is an infectious PDF containing an embedded DOCM file with a malicious macro script. This script will then download and execute the Jaff ransomware. Locky — like Jaff — also used the Necurs botnet and a booby-trapped PDF, security firm Malwarebytes notes. “This is where the comparison ends, since the code base is different as well as the ransom itself, ” said Jerome Segura, a security researcher at Malwarebytes. “Jaff asks for an astounding 2 BTC, which is about $3, 700 at the time of writing.” Proofpoint reckons Jaff may be the work of the same cybercriminals behind Locky, Dridex and Bart (other nasty malware) but this remains unconfirmed. And Forcepoint Security Labs reports that malicious emails carrying Jaff are being cranked out at a rate of 5 million an hour on Thursday, or 13 million in total at the time it wrote up a blog post about the new threat. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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New Ransomware ‘Jaff’ Spotted; Malware Groups Pushing 5M Emails Per Hour To Circulate It

‘WannaCry’ ransomware attack spreads worldwide (update)

England’s healthcare system came under a withering cyberattack Friday morning, with ” at least 25 ” hospitals across the country falling prey to ransomware that locked doctors and employees out of critical systems and networks. The UK government now reports that this is not a (relatively) isolated attack but rather a single front in a massive regionwide digital assault. #nhscyberattack pic.twitter.com/SovgQejl3X — gigi.h (@fendifille) May 12, 2017 The attack has impacted hospitals and transportation infrastructure across Europe, Russia and Asia. Organizations in dozens of countries have all been hit with the same ransomware program, a variant of the WannaCry virus, spouting the same ransom note and demanding $300 for the encryption key, with the demand escalating as time passes. The virus’s infection vector appears to through a known vulnerability, originally exploited and developed by the National Security Agency. That information was subsequently leaked by the hacking group known as Shadow Broker which has been dumping its cache of purloined NSA hacking tools onto the internet since last year. The virus appears to have originally spread via email as compressed file attachment so, like last week’s Google Docs issue, make sure you confirm that you email’s attachments are legit before clicking on them. Also, make sure your computers are using software that’s still receiving security updates, and that you’ve installed the latest updates available. Microsoft released a fix for the exploit used as a part of its March “Patch Tuesday” release, but unpatched Windows systems remain vulnerable. Update : Reuters reports a statement from Microsoft indicating that engineers have added detection and protection against the “Ransom:Win32.WannaCrypt” malware, so make sure your Windows Defender or other antivirus is updated before logging on to any corporate networks that may be infected. In a statement, a FedEx representative confirmed its systems are being impacted, saying “Like many other companies, FedEx is experiencing interference with some of our Windows-based systems caused by malware. We are implementing remediation steps as quickly as possible. We regret any inconvenience to our customers.” Source: New York Times

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‘WannaCry’ ransomware attack spreads worldwide (update)

Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

(credit: Microsoft) SEATTLE—When Microsoft first introduced the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) at last year’s Build developer conference , it said that it was doing so to make developers who were familiar with the Linux command line feel comfortable on Windows . The immediate and inevitable question was “Well, what about Windows Server?” Development is one thing, but what if organizations wanted to occasionally deploy their Linux software on Windows? Although Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 share many components, the Server operating system hasn’t thus far included WSL, consistent with the “developer only” rationale. But that’s going to change: at Build this week, Microsoft announced that WSL will be included in Server later this year. Microsoft still isn’t positioning this as a way of running Linux server in production on Windows; rather, the company says the addition will be useful for administrative tasks. With WSL, Windows can run scripts written for Linux. But we’re hard-pressed to see things stopping there; it seems inevitable that at some point, Windows will offer the ability to run Linux server software as one of its features. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

Today’s Massive Ransomware Attack Was Mostly Preventable—Here’s How To Avoid It

Ransomware may be mostly thought of as a (sometimes costly) nuisance, but when it hinders the ability of doctors and nurses to help people with an emergency medical problems, that qualifies as armed robbery. Read more…

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Today’s Massive Ransomware Attack Was Mostly Preventable—Here’s How To Avoid It

WCry is so mean Microsoft issues patch for 3 unsupported Windows versions

Enlarge (credit: Health Service Journal) A day after a ransomware worm infected 75,000 machines in 100 countries, Microsoft is taking the highly unusual step of issuing patches that immunize Windows XP, 8, and Server 2003, operating systems the company stopped supporting as many as three years ago. The company also rolled out a signature that allows its Windows Defender antivirus engine to provide “defese-in-depth” protection. The moves came after attackers on Friday used a recently leaked attack tool developed by the National Security Agency to virally spread ransomware known as WCry . Within hours, computer systems around the world were crippled, prompting hospitals to turn away patients and telecoms, banks and companies such as FedEx to turn off computers for the weekend. The chaos surprised many security watchers because Microsoft issued an update in March that patched the underlying vulnerability in Windows 7 and most other supported versions of Windows. (Windows 10 was never vulnerable.) Friday’s events made it clear that enough unpatched systems exist to cause significant outbreaks that could happen again in the coming days or months. In a blog post published late Friday night , Microsoft officials wrote: Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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WCry is so mean Microsoft issues patch for 3 unsupported Windows versions

Biggest Global Cyber Attack Ever? 10 WannaCry Ransomware Facts

A global cybersecurity attack involving WannaCry ransomware crippled Microsoft Windows computers across the globe today. Here are 10 facts to know. The post Biggest Global Cyber Attack Ever? 10 WannaCry Ransomware Facts appeared first on ChannelE2E .

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Biggest Global Cyber Attack Ever? 10 WannaCry Ransomware Facts