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In this special Thanksgiving edition of First Ring Daily, Brad Sams and Paul Thurrott discuss everything that happened at OpenAI this week, why Nvidia remains a key player in the current AI boom, and they also imagine a world where Apple would sell its M-Series chips to PC manufacturers.

Cybersecurity researchers from Blackwing HQ have managed to bypass Windows Hello fingerprint authentication on three different laptops from Dell, Lenovo, and Microsoft. The penetration tests were carried out at the request of Microsoft to assess the security of the fingerprint sensors used in these devices. Windows Hello is a biometric authentication feature that allows users…

Microsoft announced yesterday the launch of its new Defender Bounty Program. The new program is aimed at enticing security researchers to unearth new vulnerabilities in the security solution in exchange for rewards between $500 and $20,000. The submissions must specify the severity (Critical or Important) and step-by-step instructions to reproduce the issue in the fully…

Microsoft has introduced email notifications support for its Microsoft Defender XDR service. The feature allows IT admins to configure the security solution to receive notifications through email for both manual and automated response actions. Microsoft Defender XDR (formerly Microsoft 365 Defender) is a managed extended detection and response service designed to help customers prevent, detect,…

This short guide explains how Microsoft Azure penetration testing solutions can work to enhance a native public cloud platform within Azure, and what IT professionals can do to proactively defend against evolving numbers of serious threats, thus bolstering their security posture. As far as public cloud infrastructure solutions go, there is perhaps none more versatile…

Microsoft has released a fix for ‘Something Went Wrong [1001]’ errors plaguing users attempting to sign into Office 365 desktop apps. The bug was previously affecting Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and the Office mobile apps. Microsoft acknowledged the issue in a support article published on November 17. The company explained that the problem is caused…

Microsoft has announced the general availability of its Defender for APIs security solution. This new offering has been in preview as part of the Microsoft Defender for Cloud service since April, allowing organizations to safeguard their business-critical APIs and sensitive data from evolving cyber threats. Microsoft Defender for Cloud is designed to offer security and…

Update November 21, 2023 – 9:10 AM PT: Microsoft has started rolling out the new Copilot AI assistant to Windows 10 Insiders in the Release Preview Channel. Insiders on non-managed devices will need to head over to Windows Update, turn on the ”Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” toggle and check for…

Microsoft has announced that Windows Admin Center version 2311 is available in public preview for commercial customers. The latest update brings new experiences for Azure Arc and Azure Migrate, coupled with enhancements to widely-used tools. “Windows Admin Center provides an Azure Arc for servers onboarding experience through our Azure hybrid center. New in this release,…

Microsoft has announced SharePoint Premium, a new AI-powered solution designed to transform content management for Microsoft 365 customers. SharePoint Premium is currently in public preview and will become generally available for commercial customers in early 2024. “SharePoint Premium brings AI, automation, and added security to your content experiences, processing, and governance. With SharePoint Premium we’ll…

Microsoft is planning to add the Server Message Block (SMB) over QUIC technology to all editions of Windows Server 2025. The company is currently testing the feature with select users in Windows Server Insider Datacenter and Standard editions. What is SMB over QUIC? SMB (Server Message Block) is a network file-sharing protocol that allows users…

Microsoft held its Ignite 2023 conference in Seattle this week, and the company unveiled some big updates for Windows Autopatch. The company has announced that it’s consolidating Windows Autopatch and Windows Update for Business into a single update management solution for enterprise customers. Windows Autopatch is a cloud-based service that enables IT admins to automate…