All news with #microsoft tag

Microsoft adds Copilot to more Microsoft 365 companion apps

🤖 Microsoft is extending Copilot functionality across its Microsoft 365 companion apps, with People and Files already supported and Calendar due in the coming weeks. These taskbar mini-apps—available only to enterprise and business Microsoft 365 customers—surface contextual info like contact details, org-wide search and OneDrive file results. Microsoft says Copilot now offers instant suggestions such as recaps, flagged comments, and updates from top collaborators, and supports seamless handoff to the full Microsoft 365 Copilot app for deeper inquiries. There is no indication that Copilot can be disabled within these companion apps.

LinkedIn to Use EU, UK and Other Profiles for AI Training

🔒 Microsoft-owned LinkedIn will begin using profile details, public posts and feed activity from users in the UK, EU, Switzerland, Canada and Hong Kong to train generative AI models and to support personalised ads across Microsoft starting 3 November 2025. Private messages are excluded. Users can opt out via Settings & Privacy > Data Privacy and toggle Data for Generative AI Improvement to Off. Organisations should update social media policies and remind staff to review their advertising and data-sharing settings.

Email and Remote Access Drive 90% of Cyber Claims in 2024

📧 At-Bay's 2025 InsurSec analysis finds email and remote access were central to 90% of cyber insurance claims in 2024. Email accounted for 43% of incidents and fraud schemes commonly begin with credential theft, domain spoofing, and impersonation. Google Workspace was cited as the most secure mail provider, though claims rose; MDR services were highlighted as the most reliable defense against full encryption.

Microsoft fixes Media Creation Tool on affected PCs again

🛠 Microsoft has restored the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool after reports it failed to run on some up-to-date Windows 10 22H2, Windows 11 25H2 and Arm64 systems following the Windows 11 2025 Update. Microsoft says the issue was resolved in the optional KB5067036 preview update published October 28, 2025, and the updated tool is now available for download. As before, users can also obtain Windows ISO files directly to create bootable media.

Microsoft DNS Outage Disrupts Azure and Microsoft 365

⚠️ Microsoft is experiencing a global DNS outage that began about an hour ago, causing widespread access problems to Azure and Microsoft 365 services. Customers worldwide report they cannot log into corporate networks or reach portals including Azure, Intune, and the Exchange admin center, and some report the Azure Front Door CDN is also unavailable. Microsoft attributes the interruptions to DNS failures, warns of intermittent request failures and latency, and is reviewing telemetry while working on mitigation; it recommends programmatic access (PowerShell/CLI) when portals are unreachable.

Microsoft fixes 0x800F081F Windows Update failures

🔧 Microsoft has resolved a known issue that caused Windows updates to fail with error code 0x800F081F on Windows 11 24H2 devices. The problem affected systems that installed the KB5050094 January 2025 preview cumulative update and subsequent updates, and Microsoft traced the failures to missing language packs and feature payloads removed by ACR/MCR cleanup. Microsoft acknowledged the issue on October 15 and fixed it in the KB5067036 October 2025 preview update. Administrators who cannot install the optional preview immediately can perform an In‑Place Upgrade via Windows installation media or the Settings > System > Recovery workflow to restore missing components without losing files or apps.

BSI: Tens of Thousands of German Exchange Servers Vulnerable

⚠️ The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) warns that the majority of an estimated 33,000 publicly reachable Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 installations still operate without vendor support after 14 October 2025. Without security updates, new critical Exchange vulnerabilities cannot be patched and affected systems may need to be taken offline to avoid compromise. The BSI highlights rapid network-wide compromise and ransomware risk and urges prompt upgrades, migrations, or protective measures such as VPNs or IP restrictions.

Notable Post-Quantum Cryptography Initiatives 2023

🔐 The article surveys major post‑quantum cryptography (PQC) initiatives from 2023–2025 that aim to prepare governments and industry for an eventual Q‑Day. It highlights NIST's standardization of ML‑KEM, ML‑DSA and SLH‑DSA (with HQC later selected) and vendor adoption by Google, AWS, Microsoft and others, including Chrome's default hybrid key exchange. Collaborative efforts such as the Linux Foundation's PQCA, the PQC Coalition and IETF's PQUIP are creating tooling, guidance and implementations, while agencies and standards bodies provide migration roadmaps and practical advice on crypto agility and hybrid strategies to mitigate "harvest now, decrypt later" risks.

Windows 11 KB5067036 Preview Adds Administrator Protection

🔒 Microsoft has released the KB5067036 preview cumulative update for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, introducing the new Administrator Protection feature alongside a refreshed Start menu. Administrator Protection requires users to verify identity with Windows Hello before permitting actions that require administrative privileges; it is off by default and can be enabled via OMA-URI in Microsoft Intune or Group Policy. The preview also delivers File Explorer and UI enhancements plus a range of bug fixes across authentication, graphics, accessibility and Windows Update reliability. Microsoft reports no known issues with this update.

Microsoft and NVIDIA Deepen AI Infrastructure Partnership

🚀 Microsoft and NVIDIA announced expanded AI infrastructure on Azure, bringing NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition to Azure Local, new Nemotron and Cosmos models via Azure AI Foundry, and broader support for Run:ai and GB300 NVL72 supercomputing clusters. These updates enable on-premises and edge AI with cloud-like management, improved GPU utilization, and infrastructure tailored for frontier reasoning, multimodal workloads, and real-time inferencing. Microsoft also highlighted NVIDIA Dynamo optimizations for ND GB200-v6 VMs to boost inference throughput at scale.

Microsoft Copilot adds App Builder and Workflows agents

🤖 Microsoft introduced two new Microsoft 365 Copilot agents, App Builder and Workflows, to help employees create apps and automate tasks using their Microsoft 365 data. Users can describe requirements in natural language and Copilot will generate interactive elements or automated flows across Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Planner and other services. Outputs are integrated with the Copilot experience and protected by enterprise-grade security and role-based access controls. App Builder will be added to the Agent Store this week, while Workflows is already available to customers enrolled in the Frontier program.

ACCC Sues Microsoft Over Copilot Subscription Practices

📝 The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has sued Microsoft, alleging it misled 2.7 million Australian Microsoft 365 subscribers when integrating Copilot by obscuring the option to remain on existing plans at the same price. The ACCC says renewal communications presented the AI‑enabled tiers as the apparent way to keep service active while the choice to stay was only visible via the cancellation flow. The complaint alleges breaches of multiple Australian Consumer Law provisions and seeks civil penalties, injunctions, and consumer compensation. Microsoft says it is reviewing the ACCC's claim and will cooperate with the regulator.

GitHub Agent HQ: Native, Governed AI Agents in Flow

🤖 GitHub announced Agent HQ, a unified platform that makes coding agents native to the GitHub workflow. Over the coming months, partner agents from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Cognition, and xAI will become available as part of paid Copilot subscriptions. The release introduces a cross‑surface mission control, VS Code planning and customizable AGENTS.md files, and an enterprise control plane with governance, metrics, and code‑quality tooling to manage agent-driven work.

GitHub Agent HQ: Native, Open Ecosystem & Controls

🚀 GitHub introduced Agent HQ, a native platform that centralizes AI agents within the GitHub workflow. The initiative will bring partner coding agents from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Cognition, and xAI into Copilot subscriptions and VS Code. A unified "mission control" offers a consistent command center across GitHub, VS Code, mobile, and the CLI. Enterprise-grade controls, code quality tooling, and a Copilot metrics dashboard provide governance and visibility for teams.

Copilot Mermaid Diagrams Could Exfiltrate Enterprise Emails

🔐 Microsoft has patched an indirect prompt injection vulnerability in Microsoft 365 Copilot that could have been exploited to exfiltrate recent enterprise emails via clickable Mermaid diagrams. Researcher Adam Logue demonstrated a multi-stage attack using Office documents containing hidden white-text instructions that caused Copilot to invoke an internal search-enterprise_emails tool. The assistant encoded retrieved emails into hex, embedded them in Mermaid output styled as a login button, and added an attacker-controlled hyperlink. Microsoft mitigated the risk by disabling interactive hyperlinks in Mermaid diagrams within Copilot chats.

Actively Exploited WSUS RCE Prompts Urgent Patching

⚠️ Microsoft has released an out-of-band patch for a critical WSUS vulnerability (CVE-2025-59287) that enables unauthenticated remote code execution by sending malicious encrypted cookies to the GetCookie() endpoint. Security vendors Huntress and HawkTrace reported active exploitation of publicly exposed WSUS instances on TCP ports 8530 and 8531. Administrators should prioritize applying the update immediately; if that is not possible, isolate WSUS servers, restrict access to management hosts and Microsoft Update servers, and block inbound traffic to ports 8530/8531 until systems are remediated.

Critical WSUS RCE (CVE-2025-59287) Actively Exploited

⚠️ A critical unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Server Update Services was identified as CVE-2025-59287 and observed being actively exploited in October 2025. The flaw stems from unsafe deserialization in WSUS endpoints (GetCookie and ReportingWebService) and enables remote attackers to execute arbitrary code as SYSTEM. Microsoft issued an emergency out-of-band patch on Oct 23 after initial Patch Tuesday fixes were incomplete; organizations should apply the update or follow temporary mitigations such as disabling the WSUS Server Role or blocking inbound TCP ports 8530/8531 immediately.

Windows 11 to Prompt Memory Scans After BSOD Crashes

🔍 Microsoft is testing a new feature in Windows 11 that prompts users to run a memory scan when signing in after a blue screen of death (bugcheck). If accepted, the system schedules an Windows Memory Diagnostic to run at the next reboot, typically taking five minutes or less, and will notify users post-reboot if issues are found and mitigated. Initially all bugcheck codes will trigger the prompt while Microsoft investigates correlations with memory corruption, with targeting to be refined over time.

Microsoft adds policy to remove preinstalled Store apps

🛠️ Microsoft now enables IT administrators to remove selected pre-installed Microsoft Store apps on Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2 and Education 25H2 devices using a new app management policy. The policy can be applied via CSP, Group Policy, or the Microsoft Intune settings catalog and is disabled by default until explicitly enabled by admins. Once enforced, targeted packages and associated local app data are deprovisioned and deleted from devices, removing the need for custom Windows images or brittle scripts.

CISA orders patch for critical WSUS RCE exploited now

🔔 CISA ordered U.S. federal agencies to urgently patch a critical, actively exploited Windows Server Update Services vulnerability (CVE-2025-59287) that enables unauthenticated remote code execution with SYSTEM privileges. Microsoft released out-of-band security updates after proof-of-concept exploit code appeared, and administrators are urged to install them immediately or disable the WSUS Server role as an interim mitigation. Security firms reported scanning and attacks against WSUS instances exposed on default ports 8530/8531, and CISA has added the flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, mandating federal patching under BOD 22-01.