The cyberattacks, which spanned three continents, include anti-doping organizations. They followed reports that Russia could be banned from all major sports after “inconsistencies” were found. Microsoft says the attacks follow Stronium’s usual M.O., with a combination of spear-phishing, password spray, and IoT hacks. They involved the group’s custom malware, with some successful attempts. Not the First Time This isn’t the first time Strontium has targetted anti-doping. Previous reports suggest it released emails and medical records of officials acquired between 2016 and 2018....

1 Full Statement2 Minecraft Education Among the tools available are tours of the International Space Station and the ability to learn code on the block-building game. Many countries around the world are in a state of national quarantines. Travel is restricted in those countries to just essential workers and for essential needs (supermarket and pharmacy). Millions of workers have been forced to stay in, either without work or working from home....

A week ago, Microsoft told customers it would change how people could buy Power Platform licenses such as PowerApps, Flow, and Power BI. According to the company, starting November 19 self-service options would become available automatically. IT admins would not be offered the option, it would just roll out automatically. Many businesses expressed dislike over the changes. Microsoft had argued the changes reflected demand from customers. “Over the past week, we’ve been listening to customer feedback regarding the rollout of our self-service purchase capabilities for Power Platform products....

Kano’s previous PCs, the $280 touchscreen Computer Kit Touch, and its most basic $150 Computer Kit sibling, run the company’s proprietary Kano OS. However, for the new Kano PC, Microsoft’s Windows 10 will be the platform. Specifically, the device provides the Windows 10 Education edition. There are some differences to this SKU compared to Win10 Home, such as only apps from the Windows Store will run. Kano PC is a 2-in-1 with a separate touch screen and keyboard, allowing it to be used like a mini PC or a tablet....

Through this new generation, Microsoft is consolidating the features from Gen1 and adding new abilities. Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 receives a direct integration to Azure Blob Storage through a Hadoop capable file system. Redmond adds this generation also retains the “scalability and affordability” of the previous version. By leveraging the price and scale of the object storage, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 is both reliable and powerful. Indeed, Microsoft says the suite can match the reliability and performance of on-premises file systems: “Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 offers a no-compromise data lake....

Over its preview period, traffic analytics has analyzed “terabytes of flow logs on a regular basis”. The solution has helped customers audit networks, detect security issues, optimize workloads, and ultimately reduce costs. New Traffic Analytics Features With general availability, Microsoft is adding a number of additional enhancements. According to senior program manager Yajvendra Gupta, these will help to secure and optimize networks more intuitively: “Your environment: Provides a view into your entire Azure network, identifies inactive regions, virtual networks, and subnets – for example, network locations with VMs and no network activity for further analysis....

The issue appeared widespread, affecting users in the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. It was only avoided by users of Azure Government, who likely have mitigations for such failures. After an hour or two, Microsoft’s engineers applied a mitigation for the incident. The service now appears to be up and running, though it’s not clear if a more permanent solution is needed. — Azure Support (@AzureSupport) April 6, 2018 So far, the company hasn’t provided an explanation for why its service failed, though it says it’s evaluating the issue....

Among the issues reported by users include the ability to create, update, start, and delete virtual machines. Furthermore, users were unable to deploy new VMs or update existing ones. However, VMs running on Linux or those currently on Windows were not affected by the outage. In response to the problem, Microsoft issued the following explanation: “We identified that calls made during service management operations were failing as a required artifact version data could not be queried....

In truth, it was unlikely Google was ever going to win the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS) contract. Microsoft’s experience and services just outweigh Google’s G-Suite, which are much more reliant on connectivity. It is worth noting Microsoft is a third-party beneficiary of the contract as OEM companies are servicing the deal. Many bidders were awarded the contract, but Microsoft is the main beneficiary as it supplies the underpinning software....

The update to Bing Maps ties loosely with the travel-centric search tools Microsoft added to Bing earlier this year. Travellers using the platform can now plan their vacations but also their travel arrangements. The Distance Calculation app in Bing Maps is a useful tool. Users enter the starting point and final destination and Bing will automatically calculate the distance between the two points. Maps will also show you several route options....

Using Azure Stack, customers will be able to share data and manage infrastructure in a safe environment. Integrated into Azure Government, Stack will allow connections on the Azure Marketplace and across billing, backup, and subscription. New regions were announced for the platform. Government institutions wanting to manage classified data can do so through Azure Government Secret Regions. These regions were “designed and built specifically to support government agencies and partners who have Secret classified data workloads, these new regions will deliver multi-tenant cloud infrastructure and capabilities to U....

So far, Windows 10 19H1 previews have been limited in terms of features. This is something that we have seen before. Microsoft keeps new features under wraps for the first month or two through preview. Eventually the new abilities that make up 19H1 will flow, but for now we have to be content with smaller additions. With that in mind, Windows 10 Preview 18267 is not bursting with features. It does score some interesting abilities, through, including a new search indexer mode....

At the moment, Microsoft has only launched the downloads on the Windows Insider Program. The company says the features are available for those on the newest preview builds. With this release, the company is furthering its plans to release more open source distribution methods to the Windows Store. Indeed, at Build 2017, Microsoft confirmed that ubuntu and RedHat Fedora will both come to the store soon. The former is arriving on the Windows Store in collaboration with Ubuntu creator Canonical....

Apparently, the feature has been enabled in Windows 10 20H1 Preview Build 18932, which was released yesterday. However, it is currently hidden from users. To access the new search tool, you will need a tool such as Mach2. The addition is straightforward, it simply integrates a Bing search box into the lock screen. So, in the future you will be able to conduct a search before opening the PC. It is unclear whether this will mean Bing will surface results onto the lock screen or whether users will have to unlock after conducting the search....

European Commission regulators have been putting Microsoft Cloud under a microscope for three years. Smaller cloud providers have been concerned the company’s practices are shutting them out of the market. Earlier this year, Microsoft made an initial round of concessions, including allowing cloud providers to host Windows and Microsoft 365 apps on their own infrastructure. In a new blog post, the company is also addressing licensing concerns that were part of the investigation....

Microsoft has officially revealed Redstone 5 will indeed become the October 2018 Update. As the name suggests, the update will arrive in October. We already know some new additions to the platform include a cloud clipboard, dark File Explorer theme, and Microsoft Edge improvements. It’s true that this Redstone release is slightly less packed than previous Redstone builds. It certainly does not feel as seismic as Redstone 2, the Creators Update....

Available on PC and Xbox in 2020, Flight Simulator already has an Insider Program available. Microsoft has been updating the title weekly and earlier this month road-mapped its Tech Alpha 2 release. With the rollout of the first Tech Alpha build, Microsoft is making a few promises. Firstly, the company says users who were not chosen for the first alpha build will be automatically registered for the second. Microsoft says it wants to get “everyone interested in early build testing, actually testing early builds”....

Windows Terminal was launched last month, but developers could only access it through code on GitHub. Microsoft has now released an installer for the application on the Microsoft Store. Users can now install the Terminal app on Windows 10 as they would a normal Store app. If you are unfamiliar with the new service, the Terminal is a one-stop shop for command line implementation on Windows 10. Developers can leverage multiple tabs and customize the experience with themes....

In its announcement, the company also says Windows Server 2008 and later customers can also pull in the update. Available now, .NET Framework customers can get the release through the Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services, Microsoft Update Catalog, and Docker. Microsoft has made several important security changes. The company has fixed a code execution vulnerability that would occur when the framework processed untrusted inputs. This allowed hackers to potentially take over a system....

1 Securing Android for the Surface Duo?2 Features You may remember Microsoft announced its plan to bring Microsoft Defender ATP to Android and iOS back in February. Windows Defender ATP was launched in 2016 and is aimed at enterprise customers on Windows 10. The service provides an early barrier against cyberattacks, detecting and dealing with incoming threats on enterprise networks. Now that the service is available across platforms, it was rebranded as Microsoft Defender this year....