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Microsoft has announced a new strategic partnership with enterprise software giant SAP. The companies are currently working to develop a solution that will encourage SAP customers to transition from SAP Identity Management (SAP IDM) to Microsoft Entra ID. Earlier this month, SAP announced its plans to sunset its IDM solution in 2027. The SAP IDM…

In this episode of First Ring Daily, Brad Sams and Paul Thurrott discuss how Microsoft’s Build 2024 conference will be all about AI and Copilots, and how AI technology could become the next big data harvesting tool. 

Microsoft is pulling the plug on its Publisher desktop publishing application. The company will discontinue support for the tool on October 13th, 2026, and it will no longer be available for Microsoft 365 commercial customers. Microsoft Publisher was first launched in 1991 as a desktop publishing application. It allows Office users to create professional documents,…

Microsoft has released an advisory regarding a critical vulnerability in Exchange Server. The company disclosed this zero-day flaw in the February 2024 Patch Tuesday updates and cautioned that it is currently being actively exploited in the wild. The security vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-21410, could allow hackers to relay NT LAN Manager (NTLM) hashes and impersonate…

Microsoft has announced its plans to update Secure Boot on Windows Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) PCs. The company is collaborating with its equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners to issue new Secure Boot keys starting this year. Secure Boot is a security feature that was first implemented in Windows 8 machines, particularly those running on the…

Petri.com was recently asked by Cayosoft to conduct a survey amongst our audience regarding Active Directory (AD) downtime and disaster recovery strategies. Petri.com’s extensive experience in the marketplace, coupled with our standing as a representative voice for IT Professionals, allows us to bring distinct insights into prevailing trends and their evolution over time. The survey,…

Microsoft has announced notable enhancements for its Windows Autopatch service. The biggest change in this release is the ability for commercial customers to use their existing update rings with Windows Autopatch. Microsoft has introduced a new feature that enables organizations to import their existing Intune Update rings for Windows 10 or later into Windows Autopatch…

Microsoft released yesterday the February 2024 Patch Tuesday updates for Windows 11 and Windows 10. As usual, the company addressed several vulnerabilities across a wide range of its products, including two zero-day flaws that are actively being exploited by attackers. In addition to the zero-day vulnerabilities, Microsoft advises administrators to patch critical flaws in the…

A Windows Server Active Directory (AD) forest is the topmost logical container in an AD configuration. In this article, Michael Otey explains the role forests play in an AD configuration and why it is necessary to consolidate Active Directory forests and domains to improve security and management. Every Active Directory deployment contains at least one forest, the parent container in…

Microsoft’s latest Cyber Signals 2024 report reveals the alarming trend of nation-state threat actors harnessing generative AI for malicious purposes. Microsoft has also outlined its proactive measures in deploying AI-powered defenses to tackle the ever-evolving threat landscape. Microsoft Threat Intelligence team has reported that over 300 threat actors are currently using AI and Language Model…

Packaging and rolling out third-party applications to Windows endpoints has traditionally been a daunting task. It often involves a significant amount of testing and trial and error, and it can become a major time sink for IT Professionals. Recognizing this challenge, Microsoft announced a solution at its Ignite conference – a service set to make…

Cybersecurity researchers have revealed an ongoing campaign targeting Microsoft Azure corporate accounts. The malicious campaign is leading to the theft of sensitive corporate data and financial assets from numerous organizations. Specifically, Proofpoint researchers first spotted the ongoing activity back in November 2023. The threat actors used malicious emails with shared documents to target employees with…