Recent News – Page 153

Posted on August 12, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Organizations: Speed your Windows 10 development with new FastTrack guidance

Upgrading and updating complex technology environments is no small task. To support you through every step of your Windows 10 deployment, we made investments to help you assess compatibility, make informed decisions, and reduce cost and complexity. While most of you are well on your way to upgrading to Windows 10, we know there can be unforeseen challenges. We created FastTrack for Windows 10 deployment guidance to help.

Investments to help with your Windows 10 deployment journey

With Windows 7 end of support coming on January 14, 2020, we made investments to help you through every step of your journey to get and stay current with Windows 10.

To start, we built Windows 10 and Office 365 with compatibility as a core design principle, making investments across applications, add-ins, and macros in Windows 10 and Office 365 to ensure your environment continues to work as expected following an upgrade.

Tools like Windows Autopilot can help eliminate the cost and complexity associated with creating, maintaining, and loading custom images. Desktop Analytics (currently in public preview) provides intelligence to help you make informed decisions about the update readiness of your Windows clients. The Office Readiness Toolkit helps you assess compatibility as you make the move to Office 365 ProPlus. The Desktop App Assure program from Microsoft FastTrack provides dedicated engineering resources to help remediate any application compatibility issues you might have across Windows 10 and Office 365.

New FastTrack deployment guidance for Windows 10

Sometimes you have a complex scenario and aren’t even sure where to start, or you’ve encountered a problem that has your migration stalled. There are times when you need to talk to an expert to get guidance on where to go next. Today I’m happy to announce new FastTrack for Windows 10 deployment guidance to do just that.

With FastTrack, we help you to envision a technical plan, determine how to onboard and deploy new services and/or users, and work with you as you deploy to get the most value out of your technology investments. This assistance is available at no additional cost for those with 150 or more licenses of an eligible service or plan.

Learn more and get started

Microsoft 365—which includes Windows 10 and Office 365—provides the most secure productivity experience. We’re committed to working with you every step of the way. To learn more, watch our Microsoft Mechanics video and then sign in to www.microsoft.com/FastTrack to request assistance and get started.

Posted on August 12, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft and Jio: Accelerating India’s digital progress

Today we announced a comprehensive long-term alliance with Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (Jio), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited. This is an exciting advancement that will accelerate India’s digital transformation and bring the latest technologies to millions of businesses across the country. This alliance represents a unique collaboration between our two organizations.

Jio has transformed the communication and data landscape here in India, connecting more than 340 million people in the country with the power of affordable data. Microsoft has helped businesses revolutionize the global landscape of digital transformation with the worldview of intelligent cloud and intelligent edge. With a solid foundation of trust, we’re committed to accelerating the pace of innovation and delivering more value to every customer, be it large enterprises, SMBs, startups or consumers, and our partners.

This unique alliance also reinforces our commitment to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Earlier today, this announcement was shared as part of the Reliance Industries Annual General Meeting where Reliance Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh D. Ambani shared the news. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared his thoughts as well and reinforced our enthusiasm for the work we will do together and the potential benefits our alliance can bring to organizations across India, and to the country itself.

What this means for businesses

India has one of the largest small and medium business markets in the world, which continues to grow significantly. Small and medium businesses in India will have access to a range of cloud-based productivity, collaboration and business applications including Office 365, enabling them to compete more effectively in the Indian marketplace. This collaboration will accelerate innovation to create more affordable offerings for Indian SMBs and startups, including a new range of solutions for one-stop IT capabilities and allowing front-end applications on mobile devices, desktops and other tools.

Jio will build new custom solutions on Microsoft Azure for large enterprises who have already benefited from our technology platforms. Companies will also have easy and affordable access to best-in-class technologies like data analytics, AI, cognitive services, blockchain, IoT and edge computing to accelerate India’s digital transformation and enable grassroots innovation.

Jio will also leverage Microsoft’s speech and language cognitive services for its device ecosystem, providing support in 13 Indian languages, with the flexibility to add other languages. Its internal workforce will now leverage the cloud-based Microsoft 365 productivity and collaboration tools and all their non-network applications will also move to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

For the partner ecosystem in India, these new offerings create more avenues for greater innovation, deeper customer relationships and exponential growth for their businesses. And in a diverse nation of 1.3 billion people united by the power of digital, the solutions this collaboration will bring around connectivity, computing, storage and tech services will redefine how we empower employees, enable customers, transform products and optimize operations.

This joint effort is likely to unlock and accelerate digital innovation in India at an unprecedented scale. I look forward to working with and learning from our current and new customers and partners as we chart a new path with this alliance.

Posted on August 9, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

How defense agencies harness the power of digital transformation

One thing is common among defense agencies: innovation has always been seen as a key to success, providing smarter services in a more efficient manner, and enabling better decision-making at every level of an organization. Yet despite a desire to digitally transform, most defense agencies face unique challenges that complicate transformation, especially when embracing cloud-enabled services such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Keeping this in mind, Microsoft goes to great lengths to understand the distinct issues defense agencies face and prides itself on championing innovation in this space.

The desire to embrace cloud technologies stems from the need to better conduct missions that provide national security and protection of citizens. Digital transformation, even in the context of budgetary restraints, represents an opportunity to invest in more capable and efficient operations. Operational readiness, for example, is one area where digital transformation can help militaries deploy systems and personnel at higher, more sustainable rates. Imagine cloud-enabled AI tools monitoring the performance of vehicles, planes, and ships, providing insights and ensuring the highest possible mission capable rate of defense systems.

Today’s military assets are information systems and each generates a massive amount of data, up to a terabyte of operations and maintenance data in a single sortie or more. Without digital transformation, much of this data can remain untapped thus limiting potential gains. Modern, digital solutions can support tremendous growth for defense agencies and help alleviate budgetary pressure by maximizing resources and supporting more informed decisions. Using AI and machine learning-based analytics to analyze this data and apply insights to cost and performance models, defense agencies can increase readiness to effectively achieve a larger force.

For defense agencies looking to digitally transform, another challenge is sheer scale; most of them are substantially larger than most companies. In many cases, facilities, machinery, and real estate must be managed in addition to the huge number of service members, contractors, civilian employees, and families across the globe. It’s a daunting prospect. But, the issue of scale is also an opportunity. The efficiency gains that could be achieved with cloud-enabled management solutions are incredible. To use just one example, introducing IoT sensors on military bases alone, using the resulting data to track anything from access to building maintenance, has the potential to affect massive time and cost savings. For any-sized defense agency, even a small transformation can have an enormous impact.

Digital transformation has the potential to transform how information is shared, making sure game-changing insights are available in a highly-secure context to as many people as possible. Of course, security is often of the utmost concern for defense agencies, but this doesn’t have to act as a barrier to transformation. Seamless collaboration and communication are crucial to helping defense agencies realize a more modern way of working and managing themselves more effectively. Collaboration can be improved and remain highly secure by creating a single identity that facilitates communication throughout the entire organization. Moving to the cloud can help defense and intelligence organizations break down the data silos that keep information from being readily available to those who need it.

With these concerns in mind, Microsoft is driving incredible innovation in cybersecurity training—innovation that has the potential to transform how defense agencies face threats to cybersecurity. Using Microsoft’s recognized, cutting edge gaming technology, immersive learning experiences tailor-made for a defense and intelligence context have been developed to help personnel gain skills in cybersecurity that can be used to help defense agencies outpace potential threats.

Microsoft is committed to providing the military community with leading-edge technology to help them address the unique challenges of military life. The same gaming technology that is being used to train personnel in cybersecurity is also being used by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to help injured veterans stay social. In partnership with Microsoft, the VA is also providing select rehab centers with Xbox Adaptive Controllers that are designed to adapt to the individual needs of gamers with limited mobility. For injured veterans, gaming isn’t just a stress reliever, it has the potential to help with rehabilitation and pain management. For the families of military personnel, Microsoft has pioneered the Military Spouse Technology Academy, which aims to equip military spouses with hirable skills for the technology industry. These are just a few examples of how embracing modern, digital initiatives can have far-reaching benefits to the military community, supporting active-duty military members, their families, and veterans.

Given the scale of most defense agencies, budgetary limitations, and the critical nature of security, digital transformation harnesses the power of innovation to create a more mission-capable and supportive environment that supports continued innovation. Microsoft’s industry-based approach and cloud-based technology combined addresses the unique needs of defense agencies to help them to achieve more effective results.

Download the Digital transformation for defense and intelligence e-book to learn more.

Posted on August 9, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

‘Gears 5’ has gone gold for Sept. 6 release; check out the full achievement list

Today, The Coalition and Xbox are proud to announce that Gears 5 has gone gold – a major moment ahead of its launch next month. This is significant for us as game creators, as it means the game disc has been released to manufacturing so that everyone can enjoy and play on September 6 through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Gears 5 Ultimate Edition.

“From all of us at The Coalition, we couldn’t be more excited to share Gears 5 with the world. I want thank the team here who has worked so hard for our fans, and we all hope you are all as excited as we are to play Gears 5,” said Rod Fergusson, Studio Head at The Coalition. “This is furthest we have ever taken the franchise, living our studio mantra of ‘if you want to go far go together’.”

With five ways to play Gears 5, this is easily the biggest entry in the Gears of War franchise. Whether players choose to experience the Campaign, compete in Versus, outlast the Swarm in Horde or outrun them in Escape or build the perfect map – there is truly something for everyone.

“I’m very proud of what the team at The Coalition has achieved,” said Matt Booty, Head of Xbox Game Studios. “Not only is it the biggest Gears ever, it’s also the most technically refined, with 4K HDR gameplay at 60 frames per second on Xbox One X, cross-play across all modes on Xbox and Windows 10 and Steam, and updated accessibility features such as Adaptive Controller support. Together with day-and-date availability on Xbox Game Pass, we look forward to welcoming more players into the Gears universe than ever.”

Matt, along with leaders from Xbox Game Studios, joined Rod and the team to celebrate together.

Our next stop is Germany, where Gears 5 will be taking over gamescom with the reveal of the all-new Horde mode on Inside Xbox on Monday, August 19 at 5:00 p.m. CEST (8:00 a.m. PDT) followed shortly thereafter by a world premiere of the story trailer for Gears 5 campaign on gamescom: Opening Night Live at 8 p.m. CEST (11 a.m. PDT).

Adding to the excitement for the fans, we’re also unveiling the full achievement list for Gears 5. You’ll be able to add to your Gamerscore across 71 achievements spanning Campaign, Escape, Versus, Horde, Map Builder and more. Whether defeating 50 waves in Horde or completing an Escape Hive without firing a single shot, dedicated players will have challenges of all types to tackle and overcome in Gears 5 while racking up another 1,000 points. Lancers up to those looking to complete Seriously 5.0.

You can find the full achievement list for Gears 5 below, categorized by their corresponding in-game mode. You might even find some hints and secrets regarding the final experience. All spoiler free, of course – we promise!

Thank you again for your support and for following along on this journey with us! Be sure to visit www.gears5.com and follow @GearsofWar on Facebook and Twitter to keep up-to-date with the latest on Gears 5 ahead of launch on September 10.

Campaign Achievements

Name	Description	Gamerscore
My Body Is Ready	Complete Boot Camp	5
It Takes Three To Make A Thing Go Right	Complete an Act of Campaign in 3 player co-op	10
Jack of One Trade	Complete an Act of the Campaign as playable Jack (any difficulty)	5
I Was Born In A Crossfire Hurricane	Use Jack’s Flash ability to stun 3 enemies at once in Campaign	10
Back Atcha	Get a kill with ricochet bullets using Jack’s Barrier Ability	10
Back On Your Feet, Soldier	Use Jack’s Stim upgraded ability to revive a DBNO friendly in Campaign	10
Shock and Awe	Use Jack’s Shock Trap ability to shock 6 enemies at once in Campaign	10
Seraninja	Use Jack’s Cloak ability to cloak and execute 3 enemies before de-cloaking in Campaign	10
An Enemy Among Us	Get a kill with a Hijacked Pouncer, Warden, Stump and Elite Hunter in Campaign	15
Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie	Use Jack’s Fetch ability to acquire each Heavy Weapon in Campaign	10
Jack of All Trades	Acquire all of Jack’s Ultimate upgrades in Campaign	25
JACKed Up!	Fully upgrade Jack’s Abilities and Passives in Campaign	25
Relic Hunter	Equip 3 Relic Weapons at one time in Campaign	10
Relics of the Past	Kill an enemy with every Relic Weapon in Campaign	20
Not There To Buy A Timeshare	Unlock during Act 1 of the Campaign	10
And… He’s All Yours	Unlock during Act 1 of the Campaign	10
Now I Gotta Get Up Again	Unlock during Act 1 of the Campaign	10
A Mouthful of Boom	Unlock during Act 1 of the Campaign	10
It’s Time We Fight Them Together	Unlock during Act 2 of the Campaign	10
Jameson Shipping Depot	Unlock during Act 2 of the Campaign	10
That Old COG Technology	Unlock during Act 2 of the Campaign	10
Let’s Get You Some Answers	Unlock during Act 2 of the Campaign	10
We Need The Old Plan	Unlock during Act 2 of the Campaign	10
Safe and Sound	Unlock during Act 3 of the Campaign	10
Cutting It Close	Unlock during Act 3 of the Campaign	10
Throw A Switch, See What Happens	Unlock during Act 3 of the Campaign	10
Let’s Keep Pissin It Off!	Unlock during Act 3 of the Campaign	10
Then We Watch Each Other’s Backs	Unlock during Act 4 of the Campaign	10
You Know I Ain’t Going Out Like That	Unlock during Act 4 of the Campaign	10
Discovered the True Threat To Sera	Complete all Acts of the Campaign (Any Difficulty)	20
All Aboard The Crazy Train!	Complete all Acts of the Campaign on Insane	25
It’s Not Hoarding If Your Stuff Is Cool	Collect all Campaign Collectibles	15
Pennies from Heaven	Scavenge supplies from all fallen Condors in Act 2 and 3	10

Escape and Map Builder Achievements

Name	Description	Gamerscore
Pass The Soap	Pass through a refuge shower with 3 Hivebusters in the same shower cubicle	5
Master Of My Domain	Complete an Escape Hive on each difficulty	25
Who You Gonna Call? Hivebusters!	Complete 5 Escape Hives as each one of Mac, Lahni and Keegan	10
The Three Musketeers	Inflict 9000 damage in Escape while 3 Ultimate Abilities are active	15
On The Razor’s Edge	Get 100 kills while inside Hivebuster Venom	10
Brought A Knife To A Gun Fight	Complete an Escape Hive without firing a shot on Master Difficulty	25
Who’s Your Escape Main?	Reach Character Level 15 with a launch Escape Character	10
Master Escape Artist	Reach Character Level 15 with Mac, Lahni and Keegan	20
I Made It All By Myself	Create and publish an Escape Hive	10
Homegrown Hive	Complete a Featured community build Escape Hive	10

Horde Achievements

Name	Description	Gamerscore
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop	Beat 50 Consecutive Waves of Horde (any difficulty)	25
Who’s Your Horde Main?	Reach Character Level 15 with a launch Horde Character	10
Compulsive Horder	Reach Character Level 15 with Kait, JD, Del, Marcus, Fahz and Jack	20
And I’ll Form The Head!	Kill a Boss in Horde while all 5 players have active Ultimate Abilities	10
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle	As Jack, convert one of each weapon to Power using the Forge in Horde	20
Withdrawal Symptoms	As a team, collect Power from all 4 Power Taps within one wave of Horde	20
Perky’s Revenge	Get a kill with 3 Perks active in Horde	10

Versus Achievements

Name	Description	Gamerscore
Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship	Play a match of Arcade	5
One Sec, I’ll Be Right Back	Switch characters in an Arcade match and kill an opponent who previously killed you	10
Where’s My Product Endorsement Deal?	Win 5 matches of Arcade	10
My Place In The Machine	Complete placement matches for a Ranked Playlist	5
Grind Season	Win a Ranked Match in each week of a Ranked Season	25

Progression and Other Achievements

Name	Description	Gamerscore
Sire, Interrupted	Kill a Sire while it’s kidnapping a teammate (any mode)	5
A Good Plan, Violently Executed	Execute 100 Rejects (any mode)	15
You’ve Got A Friend In Me	Make a new Ally in Gears Allies	5
Did We Just Become Best Friends?	Reach Level 5 with an ally in Gears Allies	10
BFFs	Complete a Versus match with a team of four Level 5 Gears Allies	15
Once More From The Top	Re-Up!	20
One, Two, Three Sorties	Complete all 3 Objectives for Tour of Duty in a day	5
Corporal Punishment	Reach the rank of Corporal in a Tour of Duty	10
Sergeant at Arms	Reach the rank of Sergeant in a Tour of Duty	15
LOOTenant	Reach the rank of Lieutenant in a Tour of Duty	20
I’m The Captain Now	Reach the rank of Captain in a Tour of Duty	25
Generally Awesome	Reach the rank of General in a Tour of Duty	50
Seriously 5.0 – Chapter 1	Complete Insane Campaign, Master Horde & Escape Launch Maps & Characters, Get 20 Re-Ups and reach General in a Tour of Duty	100

Gears 5 is available fully localized (spoken language) in English, Mexican Spanish, Castilian Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Korean and Traditional Chinese. In addition, it is localized (menus, subtitles) in Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, Polish, Russian and Turkish.

Gears 5 will release on September 10 for Xbox One, Windows 10 PC and Xbox Game Pass. Early access starts on September 6 for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members and Gears 5 Ultimate Edition purchasers. Pre-order details can be found on the Microsoft Store.

Posted on August 8, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

It’s #InternationalCatDay! See how Esat keeps his kitty close

“We’re sorry to announce that the 07:12 Thameslink service to London St. Pancras International has been cancelled. Please stand by for further announcements. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused to your journey.”

A few years ago, my working life was very different. For six years, I spent four hours each day crammed across six trains, commuting to work and back. It was financially and emotionally draining, but it was simply the way that things were done.

It was only two and a half years ago, when I joined Microsoft as editor of its European news centre, that I realised that the traditional way we work, and our accustomed routines, could be different. Today, I have the freedom and flexibility to work from home, with my cat Meze purring away beside me.

I want to share my experiences here, not because I work for Microsoft, but because I’m truly passionate about this new way of working, and am grateful for the hugely positive impact it’s had on my life. This is my future of work.

Building bridges
On my first day, I had some reservations. They say that no man is an island, but in a professional, geographical sense, I come pretty close – I’m the only one in my direct team that lives and works in the UK. Others are scattered across Germany, Ukraine, Turkey, Bulgaria, and even South Africa – not to mention all the other people I work with around the globe, from the USA to Singapore. Bar the occasional business trips, I attend meetings and work with everyone remotely. It was a daunting prospect. I worried about being isolated, and the quality of work that could be achieved with colleagues that were hundreds of miles away. Would I feel close to them? Would I achieve my best work? Would I make friends?

Three years on, I look back on my first day jitters and realise that they were totally unfounded. Thanks to Teams, I truly feel like I’m working in the same office with my colleagues. A quick question or discussion is a mere chat window away, allowing me to instantly solve problems and give/receive advice – not to mention sending the occasional cat gif or two.

Beyond ad-hoc chats, we use video calls – a prospect which I found daunting, until I actually tried it. There’s something vulnerable, I feel, about putting yourself on camera, and I was worried it would be a distraction. In fact, I’ve found it’s the opposite.

Being able to see the people you’re talking to increases personal connections and engagements. It transforms someone from an ethereal voice to an actual person, and it doesn’t take long for the technology to melt away and become invisible. You’re just a group of people, in a room, having a chat – nothing more, nothing less.

Posted on August 8, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

7 tech tools that can help people who are blind or have low vision

It’s estimated that there are about 36 million people in the world who are blind, and a further 216 million who live with moderate to severe visual impairments. Although the World Health Organization points out that up to 80% of vision impairment around the world is avoidable with better access to treatment, the number of people who are blind or have low vision is rising as the global population ages.

But technology is playing a vital role in tearing down barriers, and artificial intelligence is making real inroads into improving accessibility.

Here are seven examples of how smart technology can be a game-changer, allowing everyone to interact with the world in new ways.

[Subscribe to Microsoft on the Issues for more on the topics that matter most.]

The eye in AI

As we’ve reported, Microsoft’s Seeing AI is an app designed to help people with low vision or who are blind. It enhances the world around the user with rich audio descriptions. It can read a handwritten note or scan a barcode and then tell the user what the product is. Point a camera at something and the app will describe how many people it can see and where they are in the image – center, top left and so on.

3-D Sound Maps

For a sighted person, walking along the street can mean taking in every detail that surrounds them. Microsoft Soundscape replicates that behavior by building a detailed audio map that relates what’s taking place around a person with visual impairment.

It creates layers of context and detail by drawing on location data, sound beacons and synthesized 3-D stereo sound to build a constantly updating 3-D sound map of the surrounding world.

Knowledge at your fingertips

Braille has been used for nearly 200 years as a tactile way of reading with fingertips. It has now jumped from the page to the screen with the updated version of Narrator, the screen-reader for Microsoft Windows, supporting digital Braille displays and keyboards.

Outside of Microsoft’s efforts, Braille touchscreens that work in the same way as tablets have already proved popular among students and teachers. At the Assistive Technology Industry Association’s 2019 conference in Orlando, Florida, innovations on display included the BraiBook, a Braille e-reader that fits into the palm of a hand, and even an electronic toy called the Braille Buzz, designed to teach Braille to preschoolers.

Beacons of change

Bluetooth beacons, such as those being used by the company Foresight Augmented Reality, act like highly precise, personalized guides for people who are blind or partially sighted. While basic GPS technology can take users to a location, beacons mounted in a store, restaurant or public building can guide them to the entrance of the building in question. And when the user is inside, other beacons can direct them to the bathroom or other important facilities.

Electric vehicles

The European Union is taking no chances with people’s safety. New legislation means electric vehicles have to be audible at low speeds and while reversing. Some manufacturers are already incorporating artificial noise into their electric vehicles.

Smart Glasses

Researchers at Ajman University in the United Arab Emirates are working on the development of a set of smart glasses that can use AI to read, provide navigation information and potentially identify faces. Glasses are connected to a smartphone through a processing unit, allowing the system to function without an internet connection.

These smart glasses are still in the early stages of development but are said to work with a reading accuracy rate of 95%.

AI for Accessibility

Microsoft’s AI for Accessibility program was launched last year, with a $25 million commitment to put Microsoft technology in the hands of start-ups, developers, researchers and non-profits in order to drive innovation and amplify human capability for people with disabilities. The program is continuously looking at new projects to support.

For more on these innovations and accessibility initiatives at Microsoft, visit microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility and follow @MSFTIssues on Twitter.

Posted on August 8, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Protect yourself against ‘wormable’ BlueKeep vulnerability

Worms are the cause of many cyber headaches. They can easily replicate themselves to spread malicious malware to other computers in your network. As the field responders providing Microsoft enterprise customers with onsite assistance to serious cybersecurity threats, our Detection and Response Team (DART) has seen quite a few worms. If you’ve met the DART Team, then you know your worms are our concern and that’s why we keep an eye out for BlueKeep.

Protect against BlueKeep

This summer, the DART team has been preparing for CVE-2019-0708, colloquially known as BlueKeep, and has some advice on how you can protect your network. The BlueKeep vulnerability is “wormable,” meaning it creates the risk of a large-scale outbreak due to its ability to replicate and propagate, similar to Conficker and WannaCry. Conficker has been widely estimated to have impacted 10- to 12-million computer systems worldwide. WannaCry was responsible for approximately $300 million in damages at just one global enterprise.

To protect against BlueKeep, we strongly recommend you apply the Windows Update, which includes a patch for the vulnerability. If you use Remote Desktop in your environment, it’s very important to apply all the updates. If you have Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) listening on the internet, we also strongly encourage you to move the RDP listener behind some type of second factor authentication, such as VPN, SSL Tunnel, or RDP gateway.

You also want to enable Network Level Authentication (NLA), which is a mitigation to prevent un-authenticated access to the RDP tunnel. NLA forces users to authenticate before connecting to remote systems, which dramatically decreases the chance of success for RDP-based worms. The DART team highly recommends you enable NLA regardless of this patch, as it mitigates a whole slew of other attacks against RDP.

If you’re already aware of the BlueKeep remediation methods, but are thinking about testing it before going live, we recommend that you deploy the patch. It’s important to note that the exploit code is now publicly and widely available to everyone, including malicious actors. By exploiting a vulnerable RDP system, attackers will also have access to all user credentials used on the RDP system.

Why the urgency?

Via open source telemetry, we see more than 400,000 endpoints lacking any form of network level authentication, which puts each of these systems potentially at risk from a worm-based weaponization of the BlueKeep vulnerability.

The timeline between patch release and the appearance of a worm outbreak is difficult to predict and varies from case to case. As always, the DART team is ready for the worst-case scenario. We also want to help our customers be prepared, so we’re sharing a few previous worms and the timeline from patch to attack. Hopefully, this will encourage everyone to patch immediately.

Learn more

To learn more about DART, our engagements, and how they are delivered by experienced cybersecurity professionals who devote 100 percent of their time to providing cybersecurity solutions to customers worldwide, please contact your account executive. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

This document is for informational purposes only and Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this blog.

Posted on August 8, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Closing the rural broadband gap is an urgent national crisis

It’s been clear to us for some time that the digital divide in this country is an urgent national crisis that must be solved. Since 2017, we’ve been working with internet service providers to do just that, through our Airband Initiative, and we’re on track to cover 3 million Americans in unserved rural areas by 2022.

It’s encouraging to see this issue rise in national prominence, through funding from the administration, congressional legislation and most recently new proposals introduced by several candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. While there’s been some progress already, solving the broadband gap will require active engagement as well as effective policy proposals from all parts of the public sector.

It’s time to recognize that inequal access to broadband translates into inequality of opportunity. People in rural areas that lack broadband face higher unemployment rates, see fewer job and economic opportunities and place children from these communities behind their suburban and peers in school. Of course, this is not just a rural issue – broadband deserts exist within very urban areas as well, where costs can be unaffordable and availability non-existent.

To be sure, there are efforts underway to provide the funding and assistance needed to expand broadband coverage for rural areas, by the administration, Congress, governors and the private sector, including Microsoft and our Airband partners. But much more needs to be done to translate proposals into action.

That’s why we’re at the Iowa State Fair this week as well. Microsoft is hosting a booth, where we’ll learn from Iowans about their digital realities, discuss what we can do through the Airband Initiative to help and what other opportunities can be unlocked with reliable, affordable broadband access. We hope to discuss the issue with political leaders attending the fair as well.

Solving the broadband gap should be a national issue because we are leaving millions of Americans behind. We look forward to working with both sides of the aisle to make meaningful progress on this important national issue.

Posted on August 8, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Crazy about chocolate, serious about people

Now, staff can build annual reports with Teams, easily sharing multiple source documents while knowing that team members are always working with the most current versions. As with every other aspect of work life for Tony’s employees, that strategy is carefully aligned with company values. “We use the chat feature in Teams to build the personal relationships we want to encourage,” says Ursem. “Email is more formal, more time-consuming. Chat lends itself to the shared humor and quick check-ins that naturally fit our culture and make us more efficient.”

With Teams, Tony’s team members have an informal, easy way to collaborate on projects with each other and with suppliers by using Teams Rooms. For IT Manager Rick van Doorn, otherwise known as Chocomatic Fanatic, nurturing spirit drives key decisions made by company leadership. “We say that our team comes first,” he explains. “Without the team, there is no company. And keeping that team collaborating optimally is vitally important to everything we do.”

Since implementing Teams, the company has averaged a 10 to 15 percent decrease in its total email volume. Ursem and van Doorn point out that this is happening despite steady company growth. “We’re pushing communication to the channels where it can happen most effectively,” says van Doorn.

A new world of work
The company focuses intently on messaging, both internally and externally. Even the design of its chocolate bars has a message – each bar is divided into unequal pieces, to mirror the inequalities in traditional profit sharing.

Internally, employees mix up workspaces every six months, sharing space with colleagues from different departments to build stronger team relations. That dedication to cultivating teamwork led the company to experiment with various apps purported to propel teamwork forward.

One of the biggest successes to come out of this experimentation was consolidating telephony with Office 365 in April 2019. As a result, employees can now access the company landline through Teams with the Vodafone Calling in Office 365 solution. For customer contact, Teams is extended with the Anywhere365 Contact Center. Because the solution interoperates with Salesforce, incoming calls can be logged in the company’s customer relationship management system for inclusion in the customer database.

“Using Teams with Vodafone Calling in Microsoft Office 365 amplifies the personal and transparent approach we’re known for,” says van Doorn. “We can talk to our chocofans with full knowledge of their prior backgrounds, orders, and feedback.” Incoming calls automatically route to the best person to handle the call, no matter where that person is, and contact information is included for the convenience of the person receiving the call.

A future in the cloud
Ten years ago, the company migrated to the cloud. “We were growing rapidly and needed to be scalable,” recalls van Doorn. “And we also looked at the growing number of relationships we were managing—both customers and suppliers, plus our rapidly expanding staff. We felt that committing to a complicated IT landscape in terms of connections, interfaces, and equipment would have been a risk.”

Cross-functional collaboration also underpins daily and strategic operations at Tony’s Chocolonely. Teamwork fans out from internal teams to a swath of partners that support different aspects of operations, including web developers, product wrapper suppliers, retail stores, and many more.

The company is so committed in fact, that its suppliers also now collaborate in Teams. “We’ve implemented the entire Microsoft 365 suite,” van Doorn. “All of our data is on SharePoint. With this modern working platform, we can easily collaborate with our partners, suppliers, and with each other.” The company also hopes to reduce business travel expenses by 10 percent now that so much collaboration takes place in the cloud.

For the people behind the Tony’s Chocolonely brand, it comes down to relationships. “By growing long-term relationships and paying a higher price—above the market price plus the Fairtrade Premium—to West African farmers, we’re trying to create an equal partnership,” says Ursem. “And if we’re performing well, other companies will be inspired to shoulder this responsibility, too.”

For more information, please visit the Microsoft Customer Stories blog.

Posted on August 7, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft and Samsung partner to empower you to achieve more

Today, we joined Samsung on stage in New York City at their Galaxy Unpacked event to share a vision for the future of productivity and how we will continue to partner in the coming years to empower people to achieve more across new Samsung devices and Microsoft experiences.

This begins the next chapter of our long-standing partnership with Samsung and is another step in our journey to bring the best of Microsoft productivity to the devices you know and love. We are excited to announce that the new Samsung Galaxy Note10 phones will help you get more done right out of the box, natively integrated with best-in-class productivity apps and services from Microsoft including OneDrive, Outlook, Your Phone app with Link to Windows, and access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint. As Satya said today, our ambition is to help people be more productive on any device, anywhere – and the combination of our intelligent experiences with Samsung’s powerful, new devices, including Galaxy Note10 and Galaxy Note10+, make this a reality.

Connecting your phone and Windows 10 PC

With Microsoft’s Your Phone, you can stay more productive on your Windows 10 PC. With the ability to access your recent photos, text messages, notifications and mobile apps right on your PC, you can stay in your flow, without the need to switch between devices[1]. And now, with native integration of Link to Windows on Galaxy Note10, it’s never been easier to connect your Samsung phone to your Windows 10 PC. Just connect your Galaxy Note10 with your PC via the Link to Windows setting and get instant access to your Android phone’s content that matters to you. Now there’s no need to dig for your phone to check notifications, schedule a ride to the airport, or even text. And you can finally stop emailing yourself photos as you can drag and drop photos directly into your email or your PowerPoint presentation.

Later this month, Galaxy Note10 users will be the first to experience the new Phone screen[2] feature, which allows you to access your Android phone’s apps, right from your PC while using your keyboard and mouse, or touch screen. Users can try out multi-touch gestures such as pinch to zoom, rotate, or swipe from their PC’s touchscreen while using Phone screen. As I demonstrated at the event today, whether it’s messaging someone, requesting a ride, scrolling through friends’ updates or ordering dinner, your phone’s screen will be available directly on your PC. And we are not stopping here; later this year, we are planning to introduce the ability to make and receive mobile calls directly from your PC. Accept the call, reply with a text, or send the caller to voicemail right from your PC. All of these features and experiences will continue to deliver meaningful innovation to help you stay focused and more productive on your Windows PC[3].

Your photos and files synced and available across devices

OneDrive makes it easy to back up, protect, share and access your photos and files from any of your devices, anywhere[4]. Today we also announced that soon, OneDrive will be natively integrated into the Samsung Gallery app, providing automatic syncing of your photos and videos and enabling new protection and cross-device experiences. The Galaxy Note10 will be the first to get the OneDrive integration, with more Samsung devices to follow. Coming this fall, you’ll have the option to sync your photos and videos to the cloud where they will be safe and accessible across all your devices.

In addition to offering the ability to access your files from anywhere, the OneDrive app also has built-in sharing, security and productivity features. For example, you can share and collaborate on files and photo albums, and you can scan and save paper documents, receipts and whiteboards and then mark them up with your finger or the Samsung S Pen. You can also securely store IDs, travel docs and other important files in OneDrive Personal Vault, a protected area of OneDrive that can only be accessed with a strong authentication method or second step of identity verification, such as your fingerprint, face, or a PIN[5] Locked files in the Personal Vault have an extra layer of security, keeping them more secured in the event someone gains access to your account or device.

OneDrive customers can get 5GB of free storage with the option to purchase 100 GB or an Office 365 subscription which includes 1 TB plus other premium features including simple recovery from malicious malware and ransomware attacks.

Outlook and Office apps help you get more done on the go

To help people get more done on the go, Outlook, a top-rated mail and calendar app, is pre-installed with Galaxy Note10. With Outlook, you can access your email, calendar, contacts and files in one convenient app – helping you to save time and focus on what matters. Additionally, Galaxy Note10 users will now have enhanced integration with the S Pen. Samsung aficionados already know they can hover over emails to preview them and take quick actions like archive, delete, flag, or reply. Now, Samsung customers can hover over a contact in email to get detailed information at a glance – tap to chat, call, or email all from your inbox. Or with Outlook’s integrated calendar and contacts, view invitations in your inbox alongside appointments for the rest of your day and hover with the S Pen to accept/decline.

Additionally, Outlook has expanded support for the Samsung ecosystem. Outlook for Android is launching an updated user experience for tablets. You can now see your folders, message list and reading pane all together with a three-pane view – and, it’s flexible so you can expand the reading pane based on your personal preference. When connected using the Samsung DeX Station for PC, you can open multiple messages in separate windows and interact with Outlook with your mouse and keyboard. Lastly, we look forward to launching a new Outlook app for Samsung Galaxy wearables in the future so you can get things done even when your mobile phone is not in hand.

Galaxy Note10 will also include access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint to offer an untethered Office experience on the go. Familiar and powerful editing, formatting and management tools make it as easy to work on files on your mobile device as it is on your desktop, so that you can continue working even if you’re away from your computer.

Experience the new Galaxy Note10 at Microsoft Store

Visit the Microsoft Store online or in person to preorder[6] and experience the new Galaxy Note10. Beginning Aug. 23, you can trade-in select mobile devices at your local Microsoft Store and receive up to $650 in trade-in value to use towards the purchase of a new Galaxy Note10.

New Galaxy Book S delivers Gigabit LTE connectivity

Samsung also unveiled on stage today the new Galaxy Book S. Developed in partnership with Microsoft and Qualcomm, this new Windows 10 PC offers Gigabit LTE connectivity to the cloud, touch-to-wake capabilities, the leading Snapdragon 8cx compute platform, and a premium design that that is ultra-slim and light-weight for uncompromised mobility. Galaxy Book S will be available this fall in select markets.

Today is an important step for both Microsoft and Samsung, and it’s just the beginning of our investment together. We can’t wait to share more with you over the coming months and years as we invest together to empower individuals and organizations to achieve more.

[1] Users must link their mobile phone to their PC through ‘Link to Windows’ on their mobile phone where available, or through ‘Your Phone app’ on their PC. Your Phone app comes preinstalled on PCs with the Windows 10 October 2018 Update or later, and is downloadable for Windows 10 April 2018 Update or later versions. Requires a Microsoft Account and an Android 7.0+ phone.

[2] Phone screen requires a Windows 10 PC running the May 2019 Update (1903). Galaxy Note10 and the PC must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

[3] Windows 1809 required

[4] OneDrive files may be made available for offline use. Otherwise internet access required. Fees may apply.

[5] Face and fingerprint verification requires specialized hardware such as a Windows Hello-capable device, fingerprint reader, illuminated IR sensor, or other biometric sensors and capable devices.

[6] Preorder begins 9:01pm PT 8/7; trade-in offer at Microsoft Stores available 8/23 – 9/8