Wednesday Newsbytes: Windows 11 to Get New Phishing Protection; Hackers Stealing Gmail Messages; 20 Years in Prison for Watching TikTok or Using VPNs? Bill Gates Warns AI Could Threaten Humanity; Windows 11 to Get More Ads… 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!
Windows 11 gets phishing protection boost and SHA-3 support
Microsoft announced that the new Windows 11 build rolling out to Insiders in the Canary channel comes with increased protection against phishing attacks and support for SHA-3 cryptographic hash functions.
Enhanced Phishing Protection is a Defender SmartScreen feature introduced with the release of Windows 11 22H2 in September 2022 and is designed to protect user credentials against phishing attacks.
Until now, it worked by warning users not to reuse school or work passwords, not to store them in plaintext in Notepad or Office documents, and not to type them into sites tagged as malicious by the SmartScreen anti-phishing and anti-malware Windows Security feature.
While phishing protection is enabled by default on Windows 11 22H2 systems, the password protection options are disabled but can be enabled from Start > Settings > Privacy & security > Windows Security > App & browser control > Reputation-based protection settings.
Under the ‘Phishing protection’ section, you can toggle on the ‘Warn me about password reuse’ and ‘Warn me about unsafe password storage’ options.
Starting today, on Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25324, Insiders will be warned not to copy-paste passwords on unsafe sites and apps…
Read more at Bleeping Computer.
Hackers are stealing Gmail messages — delete this extension right now
This malicious browser extension gives hackers full access to your Gmail account
Gmail accounts are under attack from a malicious browser extension spread via phishing emails that targets Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and other Chromium-based browsers.
Once installed in your browser, this malicious extension is able to steal the contents of your Gmail messages and even infect the best Android phones with malware but more on that later.
As reported by BleepingComputer (opens in new tab), the campaign itself was spotted by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service which both issued a joint statement warning others about it.
The cybercriminals behind the campaign hail from North Korea and the Kimsuky (aka Thallium, Velvet Chollima) threat group has a history of using spear phishing for cyber-espionage in attacks targeting diplomats, journalists, government agencies, politicians and university professors. However, while the campaign started in South Korea, it has now expanded to both the U.S. and Europe…
Microsoft tech guru Bill Gates made his fortune by investing in improving computer technology to its fullest potential, now the tech billionaire is worrying that advancements in AI may pose a serious threat to human life.
Gates said he was excited by the potential boost AI could provide to education, healthcare, business and lifestyles across the planet – but in recent months the former CEO of Microsoft had been contemplating the potential danger artificial intelligence could pose if it fell into the wrong hands.
Gates said, “Like most inventions, artificial intelligence can be used for good purposes or malign ones.”
“Governments need to work with the private sector on ways to limit the risks.”
He claims that not only could a real life “Bond villain” use it to manipulate world powers, but that the AI itself could “run out of control” deciding that “humans are a threat” and one that could easily be taken care of…
Does TikTok Ban Allow for 20 Year Prison Sentence?
A sweeping bill introduced by a group of bipartisan senators earlier this month has caught national attention as Americans await to see whether TikTok has a future in the U.S. and what that might look like for everyday social media users.
Congress appears to be moving unanimously towards the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act, or RESTRICT Act, which would give broad regulative power to the secretary of commerce over tech produced in China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela—countries that all have adversarial relations with the U.S.
Last week, TikTok CEO Shou Chew testified in front of lawmakers that TikTok had never received a request from the Chinese government to hand over data on American users and that the company would never comply with one. But Washington remains on alert about the national security threats that the Chinese-owned app poses.
While the RESTRICT Act doesn’t cite TikTok or its owner, ByteDance, by name, the senators who introduced the bill have repeatedly pointed to the surveillance fears that the app raises and the legislation has already been referred to as a so-called TikTok ban.
The ban’s criminal penalties, which include a fine up to a million dollar and/or imprisonment of up to 20 years, has caused some alarm among the bill’s observers, who have questioned whether some TikTok fanatics might face jail time for using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to get around the ban and access the app…
GPT-5 could soon change the world in one incredible way
GPT-4 may have only just launched, but people are already excited about the next version of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot technology. Now, a new claim has been made that GPT-5 will complete its training this year, and could bring a major AI revolution with it.
The assertion comes from developer Siqi Chen on Twitter, who stated: “I have been told that GPT-5 is scheduled to complete training this December and that OpenAI expects it to achieve AGI.”
GPT-4 may have only just launched, but people are already excited about the next version of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot technology. Now, a new claim has been made that GPT-5 will complete its training this year, and could bring a major AI revolution with it.
The assertion comes from developer Siqi Chen on Twitter, who stated: “I have been told that GPT-5 is scheduled to complete training this December and that OpenAI expects it to achieve AGI.”
AGI is the concept of “artificial general intelligence,” which refers to an AI’s ability to comprehend and learn any task or idea that humans can wrap their heads around. In other words, an AI that has achieved AGI could be indistinguishable from a human in its capabilities.
That makes Chen’s claim pretty explosive, considering all the possibilities AGI might enable. At the positive end of the spectrum, it could massively increase the productivity of various AI-enabled processes, speeding things up for humans and eliminating monotonous drudgery and tedious work.
At the same time, bestowing an AI with that much power could have unintended consequences…
There’s no stopping Windows 11’s Start menu ads now
The ads are (almost) here and ready to party.
Seeing an exclamation point online or within Windows is usually cause for alarm. It’s a call to action, to do something. In future versions of Windows 11, Microsoft is going to use it to flag new features in the Start menu that it wants you to use.
And they’re definitely happening.
On Tuesday, Microsoft announced Windows 11 Build 22621.1483 for its Windows Insider program. The key new feature? Notifications for Microsoft accounts in the Start menu.
“This update introduces notifications for Microsoft accounts in the Start menu,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post. “This is only available to a small audience right now. It will deploy more broadly in the coming months. Some devices might notice different visual treatments as we gather feedback.”
…If this sounds familiar, it should. Last November, Windows testers began seeing these Windows ads and notifications in an earlier build. But two things stand out. First, Microsoft is actively saying that these new ads will deploy “more broadly in the coming months.” Secondly, this new “feature” was released as part of the Windows 11 Insider Release Preview channel…
Microsoft is reportedly taking another shot at “modernizing” its OS with Windows 12
The company is once again trying to modernize Windows by breaking it up into smaller components, so each device only has the features it needs.
Microsoft is once again working on a more “modern” version of Windows yet again, and we could see some changes with Windows 12 in 2024, according to a new report from Windows Central. The company last attempted something like this with Windows 10X, a version of Windows 10 that was going to strip out features like support for classic Win32 apps, but this was eventually canned in favor of Windows 11. However, it looks like Microsoft is taking a different approach this time around.
A version of Windows for every kind of device
According to Zac Bowden of Windows Central, this new initiative is being internally called CorePC, and the goal is to create an operating system that can be designed to better take advantage of different form factors. Different kinds of devices would have different sets of features enabled, which could result in a more lightweight and optimized experience for each form factor. For example, on some devices, Win32 apps may not be supported, but for classic desktop PCs, those will still work as you’d expect, since they’re essential to the way those devices are used…
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope you found these articles informative, interesting, fun, and helpful. Darcy & TC.
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