Russell Smith

This Week in IT, Microsoft is set to layoff underperforming employees, website certificates could be set to expire much faster, and Microsoft urges orgs to patch AD domain controllers as a new vulnerability is identified. Episode overview This week’s IT news highlights Microsoft’s plans for layoffs, changes to website certificate expiration, and a new Active…

This Week in IT, I look at the year in review with stories about new features that came to Microsoft Loop, the beginning of the end for WS Update Services, a new Microsoft app for hybrid teams, how Teams got a Slack-like makeover, and the timeline for phasing out the legacy Outlook client for the…

This Week in IT, Google asks US government to break apart Microsoft’s exclusive deal with Open AI, organizations are struggling to keep up with AI storage requirements, and some Windows news for enterprises and Copilot+ PC owners. Links and resources Episode overview This week’s IT news covers Google’s request to break apart Microsoft’s deal with…

This Week in IT, Microsoft talks Windows 11 hardware requirements as Windows 10 gets closer to end of life, a new search experience is coming to Windows, plus some important security updates. Links and resources Episode overview In this week’s episode, Russell discusses various updates and news related to Microsoft, including Windows 11 hardware requirements,…

This Week in IT, Microsoft isn’t collecting your data to train AI models and a rundown of the most important Copilot updates from Ignite 2024. Thanks to Semperis for sponsoring this episode of This Week in IT! Episode overview This Week in IT, there’s a rumor circulating about Microsoft using customer data to train AI…

Security firm ESET is warning that RomCom, a Russian Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group, is actively exploiting two zero-day security flaws to plant backdoors on systems. Firefox is being exploited through a use-after-free bug (CVE-2024-9680) in the animation timeline feature, which can lead to code being run in the restricted context of the browser. The…

CEOs are optimistic about the impact of AI and are increasing budgets for IT departments. Research from Salesforce finds that 84% think “AI will be as significant to businesses as the internet,”. The research also found that CIOs are having to serve as Chief AI Officers, with Deloitte research showing 63% of CIOs reporting directly…

Microsoft is taking legal action to disrupt 240 websites owned by a cybercrime group in Egypt. The sites are connected to Abanoub Nady (MRxC0DER), who develops and sells DIY phishing kits under the ONNX brand name. The ONNX name is being used fraudulently to sell the do-it-yourself phishing kits, which are used by many cybercriminals…

Microsoft has long been part of the FIDO Alliance, a consortium of technology companies championing a passwordless future. The company is taking another step to making passkeys the future by introducing API support in Windows 11 for third-party passkey providers. In a November 22 blog post, Microsoft said that it is releasing updates to WebAuthn…

Some European Microsoft 365 users started the week this morning without access to Microsoft 365 services. Microsoft said on X that was investigating an issue impacting users accessing Exchange Online and some functionality in Microsoft Teams calendar. The issue mostly appeared to affect users trying to access Outlook through the web browser. Although, some users…

Microsoft updated its roadmap last week to confirm that Intelligent Event Recap is coming to Teams Town Hall and Webinars in January 2025. Intelligent Event Recap, similar to Intelligent Meeting Recap, which was first launched for Teams Premium users in May, 2023, uses artificial intelligence to create an overview of an event with the aim…

This Week in IT at Ignite, Microsoft announces big changes coming to Windows security, including a new Administrator Protection feature, hotpatching, and changes to help prevent and recover Windows when software updates go wrong. Thanks to Semperis for sponsoring this episode of This Week in IT! Episode overview Microsoft announced significant updates to Windows security…