Wednesday Newsbytes: Google Deletes Cloud Account with $125B in Pension Funds; Connecting Windows XP to the Internet – a Disaster; Microsoft Introduces AI PCs; AI PCs a Privacy Nightmare?… and more
Every day we scan the tech world for interesting news in the world of technology and sometimes from outside the world of technology. Every Wednesday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Wednesday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
Oops! Google Accidentally Deleted A Cloud Account With $125 Billion Pension Funds
How else would you explain Google accidentally deleting the cloud account of a pension fund worth $125 billion? The private cloud account of the Australian pension fund UniSuper was accidentally deleted in what is being described as a ‘one-of-a-kind’ Google Cloud ‘misconfiguration’.
Service unavailable for over a week
According to reports, UniSuper suffered a widespread outage for nearly a week after the cloud account was deleted. This led to some 620,000 UniSuper account-holders being unable to access their accounts for nearly a week.
Last week, UniSuper and Google Cloud said that the services were partially restored and that it would take a few more days to normalize operations. The CEOs of UniSuper and Google Cloud also issued an unprecedented joint statement clarifying that the outage was not the result of a cyber-attack and no personal data had been exposed…
Someone connected Windows XP to the internet, and it didn’t survive long
Everyone knows that putting Windows XP online in 2024 is a bad idea, but not everyone knows just how bad an idea it actually is.
How easy do you think it is for Windows XP to get a virus in 2024? Perhaps you assume you could happily browse the internet until you stumble upon a shady website or virus-infected vile, after which it goes downhill fast. As it turns out, simply hooking up Windows XP to the internet puts it in a huge amount of danger, as someone proved in a recent YouTube video.
Connecting Windows XP to the internet is even worse an idea than we first thought
This experiment was performed by Eric Parker on YouTube, who decided to connect a Windows XP virtual machine to the internet. You may imagine that putting Windows XP online is like stepping through an active minefield, but as Eric proved, it’s more like standing in the middle of a pack of hungry wolves….
Today, at a special event on our new Microsoft campus, we introduced the world to a new category of Windows PCs designed for AI, Copilot+ PCs.
Copilot+ PCs are the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built. With powerful new silicon capable of an incredible 40+ TOPS (trillion operations per second), all–day battery life and access to the most advanced AI models, Copilot+ PCs will enable you to do things you can’t on any other PC. Easily find and remember what you have seen in your PC with Recall, generate and refine AI images in near real-time directly on the device using Cocreator, and bridge language barriers with Live Captions, translating audio from 40+ languages into English.
These experiences come to life on a set of thin, light and beautiful devices from Microsoft Surface and our OEM partners Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung, with pre-orders beginning today and availability starting on June 18. Starting at $999, Copilot+ PCs offer incredible value…
UK watchdog looking into Microsoft AI taking screenshots
The UK data watchdog says it is “making enquiries with Microsoft” over a new feature that can take screenshots of your laptop every few seconds.
Microsoft says Recall, which will store encrypted snapshots locally on your computer, is exclusive to its forthcoming Copilot+ PCs.
But the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) says it is contacting Microsoft for more information on the safety of the product, which privacy campaigners have called a potential “privacy nightmare”.
Microsoft says Recall is an “optional experience” and it is committed to privacy and security.
According to its website, users “can limit which snapshots Recall collects”.
“Recall data is only stored locally and not accessed by Microsoft or anyone who does not have device access,” the firm said in a statement.
And it said a would-be hacker would need to gain physical access to your device, unlock it and sign in before they could access saved screenshots.
But an ICO spokesperson said firms must “rigorously assess and mitigate risks to peoples’ rights and freedoms” before bringing any new products to market.
“We are making enquiries with Microsoft to understand the safeguards in place to protect user privacy,” they said.
‘Chilling’Recall has the ability to search through all users’ past activity including files, photos, emails and browsing history.
Many devices can already do this – but Recall also takes screenshots every few seconds and searches these too.
“This could be a privacy nightmare,” said Dr Kris Shrishak, an adviser on AI and privacy…
Microsoft now says your PC is in need of ‘repair’ if you’re not using Bing with Edge
Microsoft has a checkered past when it comes to upselling its own products and services through Windows, and now it’s once again been caught pushing Bing on Windows users as a healthier alternative to other search engines.
At least, that’s what you have to assume when you hear that the company’s PC Manager app, which markets itself as a utility app for maintaining your PC, has a repair tool that recommends you reset your Edge search engine to Bing.
This tip appears when you click “Repair tips,” as discovered by Windows Latest, and effectively just recommends that you reset your default browser to Bing in Edge if you’ve changed it to anything else. Multiple people on Reddit have also reported seeing this, and I verified it also happens on my own Windows 11 PC.
While it’s possible for your default search engine in Bing to be changed without your knowledge — say, if another person uses your PC or if you download a piece of malware that messes with your default search engine settings — it’s hard to see this as anything but a gentle nudge by Microsoft that hey, maybe you should go back to Bing while using our browser…
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope these articles were informative, interesting, fun, and helpful. Darcy & TC
