The subject? Being woke. This recently ubiquitous term has incited so many emotions. When that happens, there’s no longer a real definition of what it means. Even if there ever was. Which was why I was moved by the sudden debate around a little-known Microsoft feature that’s actually been around for almost two years. It’s a feature within the newest versions of Word in Microsoft 365. Within the Editor tool, this one underlines words and phrases deemed to be, well, “problematic....

We slip into their divine systems, and we can’t get out. I feel like I fell into Apple and Microsoft’s arms simultaneously, and they still squeeze me quite tightly. Still, I know where I stand with them – more or less – and I dutifully upgrade my iPhone and constantly use Microsoft 365 because, well, that’s what I do. Yet there I was, staggering through the week when I received an odd email from Microsoft....

Update (August 23): A spokesperson told me that “Microsoft has gone ahead and updated its release notes to include: ‘At this time Widget notifications cannot be turned off. Microsoft is constantly listening and learning and welcomes customer feedback that helps shape Windows.’” Microsoft is rolling out the notifications via an update to the Windows Web Experience Pack. This pack is one of a handful of different ways that Microsoft officials said they will use to deliver updated features to Windows 11....

I was one of the fortunate few who got a Surface Duo review unit from Microsoft last fall. And like the vast majority of reviewers, I found the Duo hardware to be impressive, but the software and overall experience to be confusing and incomplete. I have not received a Duo 2 for review (and don’t know whether or not I will at this point). But I did get to see it in person and hold it for a few minutes at the New York Microsoft Experience Center in the former flagship Microsoft Store....

Microsoft researchers spotted a new variant of Sysrv, which it calls Sysrv-K, scanning the internet for Wordpress plugins with older vulnerabilities as well as a recently disclosed remote code execution (RCE) flaw in the Spring Cloud Gateway software tagged as CVE-2022-22947. The flaw affected VMware’s Spring Cloud Gateway and Oracle’s Communications Cloud Native Core Network Exposure Function and was given a critical rating by both firms. SEE: What is ransomware?...

The patch relates to several products, roles, and features such as Microsoft core drivers, Office, and Exchange Server, as well as multiple Windows core components like Bitlocker, Installer, and Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol. According to StatCounter, Windows 8.1 and 7 still accounted for almost 14% of Windows installs worldwide at the end of 2022. If unaddressed, such flaws could allow hackers to bypass security features, execute code remotely, and crack administrator access privileges....

The US bank and financial services giant was subject to a class-action suit following two data exposure incidents involving approximately 15 million current and former clients. According to the motion (.PDF), legacy equipment was decommissioned in 2016 and 2019 that contained the personally identifiable information (PII) of clients. However, the equipment was not wiped clean of this sensitive information prior to sale and the datasets may have then been exposed, in an unencrypted fashion, and available to view by the purchasing parties....

According to the Cultural Benefits of Artificial Intelligence in the Enterprise study, more than half (51%) of companies using AI in the region managed to generate profit from the use of technology, with financial return considered high by 7% of the companies polled. However, the numbers in Latin America are below the global average: 55% of AI enterprise users polled worldwide registered profit through the use of the technology with 11% generating a high profit....

NASA announced in June that its HPSC project would develop new flight-computing technology that will feature “at least 100 times” the computational capacity of current spaceflight computers, which were developed almost 30 years ago. These CPUs need to be resistant to radiation damage, operate with minimal power, and turn off when not needed, yet still be capable of robotically landing spacecraft on Mars and supporting astronauts in space. SEE: NASA’s new tiny, high-powered laser could find water on the Moon The chief problem with older spaceflight computers is that they’re over-designed, built for the most computational-intensive parts of a mission, such as during a landing sequence on Mars....

The impact, which happened in December of last year, created a crater about 500 feet wide – about the width of two city blocks, scientists said Thursday. Even though meteorites are hitting Mars all the time, this impact was clearly different, InSight impact science lead Ingrid Daubar told reporters – the crater it left behind is more than 10x larger than the typical new craters that are formed. Also: NASA: This is the weird sound of a meteoroid hitting Mars “We thought a crater of this size might form somewhere on the planet once every few decades, maybe once a generation,” she said....

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where NASA will also test its newly upgraded Exploration Ground Systems. NASA has a two-hour window for launch on August 29. Should that date not work out, the agency has another two-hour window at which it would launch on Sept. 2, as well as a 1.5-hour launch window on Sept....

My first impression upon opening the box was that it looks like the Neabot NoMo 2 has gone back to its design roots and has not built on the futuristic design of its predecessor. On getting the robot out of the box, I found a fairly ordinary auto-empty station and the robot vacuum itself. The auto-empty station looks very similar to the Ultenic T10 that I looked at in July 2021 with a digital display on the station....

While use of telehealth has been growing for years, the pandemic did indeed drive the need for virtual health services. It should come as no surprise that there’s so much interest in the health sector: US health care spending grew 9.7 percent in 2020, reaching $4.1 trillion or $12,530 per person. As a share of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, health spending accounted for 19.7 percent. At the same time, the market is crowded with entrenched, powerful players....

New Ryuk Strain Discovery The new Ryuk ransomware strain was discovered by ANSSI in early 2021 while responding to an incident. The details of ANSSI’s findings are provided in a report issued by CERT-FR, France’s Computer Emergency Response Team. Traditionally Ryuk needed to be spread manually from device to device. Attackers would first need to gain remote access to the victim’s network. They then would conduct a manual reconnaissance of the victim’s systems to identify how to move laterally....

2020 Nonprofit Trend Report: Summary of Findings As challenges grow, nonprofits need to grow, too 69% of nonprofits say the demand for transparency regarding funding has increase74% of nonprofits report that constituents’ desire to participate in their organization’s work has increased over the last five years75% of nonprofits reported an increase in demand for programs Technology is key to success, but challenges remain 93% state lack of IT or technical staff is a challenge to their organization’s adoption of new technologies 85% of nonprofits surveyed said technology is the key to the success of their organizations 75% of respondents say that how to measure and report data is a challenge Nonprofits are using technology, but adoption and success varies 91% have a core CRM or are planning to use one, yet less than one-third of development teams use mobile for staff or constituent experience 85% use insights from their marketing and engagement data to target outreach and social media, website, and advertising are the top three focus areas 85% believe that technology can replace a lot of the manual tasks that take them away from delivering services...

Heavy censorship, hundreds of blocked websites, and severely limited access to Western online services. This is what you can expect during your stay in a country with one of the worst internet freedom scores in the world. A VPN (virtual private network) can help you get past the blocks and filters. But not all VPNs work in China. Fortunately, some VPN providers are committed to helping their users in censorship-heavy regions....

It comes following an investigation into a cyberattack, against what they describe as a ‘federal civilian executive branch’ organization, found that hackers breached the network by exploiting an unpatched Log4j vulnerability in a VMware Horizon server. The warning comes almost a full year after the Log4j vulnerability was first disclosed and organizations were urged to apply patches or mitigations against a cybersecurity flaw that CISA chief Jen Easterly described as “one of the most serious that I’ve seen in my entire career, if not the most serious”....

The NSA’s cybersecurity info sheet contains cybersecurity recommendations and specific security tips for remote workers, organizations, and all internet users. It includes tips like implementing network segmentation, securing WiFi routers, and using remote access VPN solutions. The NSA also highlights general best practices like covering up webcams and microphones, regularly rebooting devices to clear any malicious software, addressing email phishing threats, and more. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large percentage of the world’s workforce has shifted to a remote or hybrid work model....

And if hackers can compromise a remote employee by stealing their corporate username and password, or infecting their computer with malware, it could become a costly network security risk for the entire organization. In Depth: These experts are racing to protect AI from hackers. Time is running out Data breaches, phishing campaigns, ransomware attacks, and business email compromise (BEC) are just some of the cybersecurity threats to organizations – if cyberattackers can successfully target remote workers....