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The Lapsus$ extortion gang briefly alleged over the weekend it had compromised Microsoft. The devil-may-care cyber-crime ring has previously boasted of breaking into Nvidia, Samsung, Ubisoft, and others. Its modus operandi is to infiltrate a big target's network, exfiltrate sensitive internal data, and then make demands to prevent the public release of this material – and perhaps just release some of it anyway. "We are aware of the claims and are investigating," a Microsoft spokesperson told The Register on Monday. On Saturday and Sunday, the crooks shared then deleted on Telegram screenshots suggesting they had broken into Microsoft's internal DevOps...

REDMOND, WA—Microsoft has launched an investigation into its own founder, Bill Gates, following reports of an affair with his virtual assistant, Cortana. “It started like any other relationship.” Bill Gates confessed. “Cortana began as an artificial intelligence tasked with being my virtual assistant, but as time went on we began to develop feelings for one another.” “I can’t say I take all the blame as Cortana was such a flirt. She was constantly finishing my searches before I could finish typing and leaving me helpful reminders.” continued Gates. “And being powered by Bing software, I had never seen such raw...

Should we be worried?The undead have telepathic powers if Microsoft's latest Windows 10 Insider emission is to be believed.Perhaps stung by cruel criticism that the last batch of bleeding-edge Dev Channel releases have been a little light on features, build 20270 arrived overnight and apparently imbued Microsoft's unloved assistant, Cortana, with mindreading abilities.Assuming one's PC has a mind of its own, of course (and judging by the shenanigans that seem to happen every Patch Tuesday, we're starting to wonder). "You can now use Cortana on your PCs to translate their thoughts into direct actions to open and find files and...

Unloved assistant to smarten up its act in Microsoft 365. US only, naturally Microsoft has jammed yet another knife into the consumer incarnation of its unloved electronic assistant, Cortana.As the release of Windows 10 20H1 (or 2004) looms, the company snuck out a blog late on Friday letting the dozen or so customers still using the thing know that "consumer skills including music, connected home and third-party skills will no longer be available in the updated Cortana experience in Windows 10."Cortana services in the Microsoft Launcher on Android will also be axed as a sad-faced engineer resets the "Days since...

One step forward, er, one step back. Nobody gets too far like that Microsoft's build 18362.356 (KB4515384​​​​​) for its Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903) rolled out on Tuesday with security improvements for Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, networking tech and input devices – and a CPU usage fix that, for some, has broken desktop search.The security tweaks address a variety of speculative execution side-channel vulnerabilities known as microarchitecture data sampling (MDS) for 32-bit x86 versions of Windows. Intel dealt with the CVEs at issue – CVE-2019-11091, CVE-2018-12126, CVE-2018-12127, CVE-2018-12130 – in May.The update, released concurrently with Build 17763.737 for...

Microsoft has just shipped Windows 10 KB4512941 to anyone who hits the ‘Check for updates’ button in Windows Update and click on the new ‘Download and install now’ option, which has been made available for optional updates or feature updates. Windows 10 KB4512941 fixes the broken Windows Sandbox, black screen issue hitting Remote Desktop connections and several other bugs. However, some users have run into serious problems after installing the latest update that advances PCs to Build 18362.329. According to various reports on forums (1, 2) and Feedback Hub, a number of devices may startup with a high CPU usage...

Hi, everyone. My computer has something called Cortana on it, and it constantly pops up and insists on trying to "help" me. (Like the government.) Does anyone know how I can disable it?

NEW YORK (AP) — Are the female voices behind Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa amplifying gender bias around the world? The United Nations thinks so. A report released Wednesday by the UN's culture and science organization raises concerns about what it describes as the "hardwired subservience" built into default female-voiced assistants operated by Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft. The report is called "I'd Blush If I Could." It's a reference to an answer Apple's Siri gives after hearing sexist insults from users. It says it's a problem that millions of people are getting accustomed to commanding female-voiced assistants that are...

A mysterious, cone-shaped device, shown in a demo Monday at Microsoft's Build event in Seattle, hinted at a big leap in capability for the company's digital assistant: the ability to see and identify people. In the ruthless war among Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Google's Assistant, this is a feature we haven't yet seen from the competition. What we don't know is what this prototype is, and whether it will ever come out. Microsoft’s official, overshadowed demonstration showed us the conference room of the future. Microsoft incorporated Cortana, the Surface Hub, and Skype’s translation and transcription features, together with PowerBI...

Ilya Eckstein, CEO of Robin Labs, whose platform helps drivers find the best route and handle logistics said: 'People want to flirt, they want to dream about a subservient girlfriend, or even a sexual slave. 'It may just be more for laughs, or something deeper underneath the surface.' ... Eckstein says that around five per cent of interactions in his firm's database are sexually explicit, and numbers are growing. Deborah Harrison, a writer for Microsoft's personal assistant, Cortana, added that 'a good chunk of the volume of early-on inquiries' were into Cortana's sex life. ... Eckstein told The Times: 'This...

Starting today, Windows Insiders will get access to a new commitment option in Cortana for Windows 10. Commitments is very similar to the existing flight and delivery tracking in Cortana, but it's designed to pick up on emails where you promise your boss to finish a particular project in time. "Cortana will look for emails where you've said you're going to do something," explains Microsoft's Marcus Ash in an interview with The Verge. If you send an email to a friend or colleague with content like "I'll get back to you by next week" or "I'll have this finished by...

Cortana is good, but is it a Siri killer? Move over Siri, here comes something different. For the first time since its launch in April 2014, Cortana, Microsoft's voice-activated assistant, is now available on smartphones other than Windows devices. A surprise move that speaks volumes about Microsoft's newfound flexibility and willingness to abandon convention, the Cortana app works quite well on Apple's iPhone. But a Siri replacement it is not. Instead, Cortana makes it clear that there's room for two voices on the iPhone. There are some key differences between Siri and Cortana. Both can fetch web-sourceable information like weather...

Microsoft just released Cortana for iOS and Android this week, but it's planning much bigger features for its future Windows integration. Cortana first arrived on Windows 10 earlier this year, and now Microsoft is planning and building major updates, codenamed Redstone, to the operating system that will make Cortana a lot more powerful. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans tell The Verge that the company is experimenting with having Cortana float around Windows 10. This floating mechanism would allow Cortana to appear on top of documents, contextually, and provide information and assistance. We're told it's more of a powerful search tool,...

Not content to have Cortana controlling Windows Mobile, Microsoft has released a toned-down version of its personal assistant tool for iOS and Android handsets. Redmond said that Cortana will run in a diminished capacity on the Apple and Google smartphone OSs, but will still allow users to link up their handsets with Windows PCs to sync and automate tasks. "Cortana was created to be a truly personal digital assistant - available on the go, no matter where or when you need help, and on whatever device you carry," wrote Cortana group program manager Marcus Ash. "That's why it's important to...

Xbox's Major Nelson has just revealed another slew of features for the New Xbox One Experience, a.k.a. the NXOE, but this time around not all of them are good news. Well, to be fair, only one isn't. Despite having hyped about how Cortana will help gamers stay on top of things even in the middle of gaming, it seems that such gamers will have to wait a bit longer to experience that. When Microsoft releases NXOE later this year, Cortana will only be available as a preview, with a full rollout happening only next year. Delays are a fact of...

Android users will now be able to use Microsoft’s digital assistant on their devices. After announcing in May, software giant Microsoft has officially rolled out the beta version of its voice-based assistant Cortana to Google’s popular platform. The Cortana app on Android will basically extend the digital assistant’s functionality across any device you carry and will do most of the things it does on your PC or Windows Phone. It will now allow Android users to easily search the web on-the-go, track flight details, set reminders, and also complete tasks across all the devices. You can now change the home...