Even Twitter’s employees are using Threads

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Even Twitter’s employees are using Threads
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Right now, we’re witnessing the greatest rivalry this world has known; a battle between two rich guys and their social media platforms. This rivalry is that of Twitter versus Threads. Well, according to The Daily Beast, it seems that people are really enjoying Threads, even Twitter’s own employees.

Mark Zuckerberg recently celebrated crossing the 100 million user line not too long ago with Threads. That’s both impressive and not, as Threads basically runs off of the backend of Instagram. If you have an Instagram account, you have a Threads account.

However, to Threads’ credit, people seem to be enjoying the app despite its missing features and algorithm. The app is going to improve as time goes on, so you can bet that more features are going to drop soon. In the meantime, you can sign up for the beta program on the Play Store to test out new features.

Twitter’s employees have been sewn into Threads

Elon Musk has been on a crusade to bad-mouth this latest (and biggest) competitor in the microblogging space. Threads came onto the scene a week ago, and it’s already amassed a ton of users. Most of those users, at least for the first couple of days, spent their time talking about Elon.

The Daily Beast took a random sample of 133 Twitter employees (as per their LinkedIn account), and it found that 31 of them were actively on Threads. That’s about a quarter of the sample size, and it shows that Twitter’s employees aren’t against using the competition.

Even Ester Crawford took to Threads and started criticizing Musk over his leadership. If you’re curious who that is, she’s the one who broke headlines months ago by sleeping on her office floor at the Twitter HQ to get more work done. She was let go from the company, regardless.

Several of the Twitter employees using Threads are going much the same thing, laying into their boss (former boss, in Crawford’s case) while at the company. You can imagine some of them Threading during their lunch breaks.

Elon doesn’t know…yet

Elon hasn’t responded to this news just yet. We don’t know what the billionaire will do when he finds out about this, but it won’t be pretty. Just hope that he doesn’t ban his employees from using the platform.


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Microsoft Renamed Azure Active Directory to Entra ID

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Microsoft Renamed Azure Active Directory to Entra ID
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Azure Active Directory to Entra ID

Microsoft has recently made an announcement that their Microsoft Entra service has been extended to include the Security Service Edge.

Moreover, the Azure AD has been rebranded as Microsoft Entra ID.

According to Microsoft, there has been a significant increase in password attacks in the past year, with more than 4000 attacks per second. This number has almost tripled from the previous rate of 1,287 per second.

Additionally, Microsoft reports that attackers are becoming more sophisticated and finding new ways to bypass critical defenses.

Microsoft’s services have been significantly enhanced to ensure absolute security for businesses’ critical data and eliminate any possible security threats.

The company reported the next milestone in our vision of making it easy to secure access with two new products:

  • Microsoft Entra Internet Access
  • Microsoft Entra Private Access.

With this new service, we can secure access to any app or resource from anywhere; this increase in cloud workloads is straining traditional corporate networks and legacy network security approaches.

Microsoft Entra Internet Access:

It is an identity-centric Secure Web Gateway. It protects access to the internet, software as a service (SaaS), and Microsoft 365 apps and resources. 

It enables best-in-class security and visibility, along with faster and more seamless access to Microsoft 365 apps, so you can boost productivity for any user, anywhere.

Microsoft 365 scenarios in Microsoft Entra Internet Access are in preview today.

Microsoft Entra Private Access:

An identity-centric Zero Trust Network Access secures access to private apps and resources.

Now we can quickly and easily connect to private apps, and it reduces operational complexity and cost by replacing legacy VPNs and offers more granular security.

Both Internet and Private access focus on cloud access security brokers, which comprise Microsoft’s Security Service Edge (SSE) solution.

Microsoft’s Security Service Edge (SSE) solution.

Microsoft Azure Active Directory is Becoming Microsoft Entra ID

They are just changing the name, but the capabilities and licensing plans, sign-in URLs, and APIs remain unchanged.

Changed Azure to Entra

The organization added some advances in the Entra to defend the attackers, it helps IT and identity practitioners prevent account compromise. That deploys with a comprehensive snapshot of prevented identity attacks and the most common attack patterns.

They introduced the simple view metric cards by attack graphs and highlighting the business impact of enforced controls.

Microsoft Entra ID Governance, now generally available, is a complete identity governance solution that helps you comply with organizational and regulatory security requirements while increasing employee productivity through real-time, self-service, and workflow-based app entitlements.

Microsoft Entra External ID has integrated solutions for external users that include: customers, patients, citizens, guests, partners, and suppliers.

Moreover, they have only released a preview of these resources and will fully release them by the end of the year.


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Save Big on Anker Charging Products during Prime Day

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Save Big on Anker Charging Products during Prime Day
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Today, for Prime Day, Anker is discounting a ton of its own charging products, which includes chargers, cables, and so much more. So today is a great day to pick up a new charger or two. You can never really have too many chargers. Here’s what’s on sale today:

You’ll notice that quite a few of Anker’s popular GaN chargers are on sale today. So if you’ve been looking to save on a GaN charger or battery pack, now is the day to do so. GaN is a really good technology to adopt now, as it will result in smaller chargers and batteries. This is because it uses Gallium Nitride for cooling inside, instead of Silicon. Which uses less space, and cools it more efficiently. So many newer chargers that are coming out, use GaN.

Anker also has a number of its USB hubs available in this deal today. The Anker 332 is one of those, which offers USB-C and USB-A ports as well as a HDMI port for connecting to a display. And it’s down to just $24.49, which is a fantastic price here.

Finally, there’s the Anker 737 Power Bank. This is one of our favorite battery packs, but it is not cheap. Even at a discount of 33% its still $99. It’s a 24,000mAh capacity battery pack, that has a full display available. So you can see the exact amount of power being used, and the percentage that is left. So no more guessing from the four LED lights.

These are just some of the very many Amazon Prime Day deals available today, and you can check out more here. If you need an Amazon Prime free trial, you can grab that here (students get 6-months free, here).


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Windows Policy Loophole Let Hackers to Install Malicious Drivers

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Windows Policy Loophole Let Hackers to Install Malicious Drivers
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Windows Policy Loophole

Microsoft blocked code signing certs, favored by Chinese hackers and devs, for loading malicious kernel mode drivers via Windows policy exploit.

Windows kernel-mode drivers, at Ring 0, grant utmost privilege, enabling the following abilities:-

  • Stealthy persistence
  • Undetectable data exfiltration
  • Universal process termination

A kernel-mode driver can disrupt the active security tools on a compromised device and perform the following illicit activities:-

  • Interrupt the security tools’ operations
  • Turn off the advanced protection capabilities of the security solutions
  • Make targeted configuration changes for stealthy evasion

Cybersecurity researchers at Cisco Talos recently reported this issue to Microsoft and stated:-

“Actors are leveraging multiple open-source tools that alter the signing date of kernel mode drivers to load malicious and unverified drivers signed with expired certificates. We have observed over a dozen code signing certificates with keys and passwords contained in a PFX file hosted on GitHub used in conjunction with these open source tools.”

It’s a significant risk since once someone gets hold of the central part of the targeted system, they have unrestricted control over the whole system, ultimately leading to complete infiltration.

Windows Policy Changes

Windows Vista brought policy changes, limiting the loading of kernel-mode drivers into the OS. This modification by Microsoft made the Devs must now review and sign their drivers via Microsoft’s portal for compliance.

For legacy app compatibility, Microsoft made exceptions, enabling continued loading of older kernel mode drivers. Here below, we have mentioned those specific exceptions:-

  • The PC was upgraded from an earlier release of Windows to Windows 10, version 1607.
  • Secure Boot is off in the BIOS.
  • Drivers were [sic] signed with an end-entity certificate issued before July 29th, 2015, that chains to a supported cross-signed CA.
Windows kernel architecture (Source – Cisco Talos)

To manipulate the signing date of malicious drivers before July 29th, 2015, exploiting the third policy, the Chinese threat actors leverage the following open-source tools:-

  • HookSignTool
  • FuckCertVerifyTimeValidity (aka FuckCertVerify)

Threat actors alter signing dates to employ old and leaked certificates that are not revoked for driver signing, and achieving privilege escalation on Windows.

Open Source Tools Analysis

HookSignTool:

It’s a driver signature forgery tool that uses the Windows API hooking and manual import table modification to give its operator the ability to change the signing date.

This tool was released by “JemmyLoveJenny” in 2019 on “52pojie[.]cn,” and since 2020, it’s available on GitHub. Besides this, HookSignTool is also used to sign the “RedDriver,” a malicious driver and browser hijacker.

Windows Policy Loophole
HookSignTool (Source – Cisco Talos)

FuckCertVerifyTimeValidity:

Utilizing the Microsoft Detours package, this tool intercepts the “CertVerifyTimeValidity” API call, and to the desired date it sets the timestamp. While it requires the addition of the “FuckCertVerifyTimeValidity.dll!test” function in the import table.

But, unlike the “HookSignTool,” it leaves no trace in signed binaries, making detection challenging. This tool to have been created for signing game cheating software and initially it was released on December 13th, 2018 on GitHub.

Since then, it has been replicated, uploaded, and distributed to different GitHub repositories.

FuckCertVerifyTimeValidity attaching to Windows API (Source – Cisco Talos)

Apart from this, along with the matching private key and password, a non-revoked code-signing certificate that is issued before July 29th, 2015 is required by both tools.

Resigned certificate (Source – Cisco Talos)

In GitHub repos and Chinese forums, Cisco’s researchers discovered over a dozen certificates that these tools can exploit.

They are extensively employed for the following things:-

  • Game cracks
  • Bypass DRM checks
  • Malicious kernel driver execution

Recommendations

Here below we have mentioned all the recommendations provided by Microsoft:-

  • Make sure to install the latest Windows updates.
  • Ensure that your antivirus and endpoint detection products are updated with the latest available signatures.
  • Make sure to configure the AV and EDR tools properly.
  • For optimal defense shields, ensure that all the key security features of AV and EDR tools are enabled.

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Samsung relaunches Galaxy S21 FE with Android 13 onboard

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Samsung relaunches Galaxy S21 FE with Android 13 onboard
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The heavily-rumored Galaxy S21 FE re-launch is official. Samsung is now selling the “new” Snapdragon 888 version of the phone in India, with Android 13 onboard. It’s unclear if the company plans to launch the device in other markets where it originally sold the Exynos 2100 version.

The Galaxy S21 FE debuted globally in January 2022. Samsung launched the phone in two processor variants — Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100. Buyers in India, Europe, and some other markets got the Exynos version, while the company sold the Snapdragon version in the US. This has been standard practice from the Korean firm for the past few years.

But, in a surprising turn of events, Samsung has re-launched the Galaxy S21 FE in India, bringing the Snapdragon version to the country. The device is now available through its official online store and retail channels with a price tag of ₹49,999 (roughly $605). That’s a bit too pricey for a phone powered by the Snapdragon 888 chipset. Other companies are selling phones with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 at lower prices.

The OnePlus 11R, for example, is powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and is priced at ₹39,999 (roughly $485). The Snapdragon-powered Galaxy S21 FE may find it tough to compete against these devices in India. Samsung, meanwhile, has stopped selling the Exynos version, which was once down to ₹32,999 (roughly $400), through its online store in the country. It may still be available in offline retail channels, though.

The “new” Galaxy S21 FE runs Android 13 out of the box

Samsung is shipping the Snapdragon version of the Galaxy S21 FE with Android 13 out of the box. The company hasn’t specified the Android version on its product listing page, but a customer support executive told us that the latest Android version will come onboard. This should mean the device will get updates up to Android 17. The support executive couldn’t confirm that, though.

The original Galaxy S21 FE debuted with Android 12 and will get updates un to Android 16. The only other notable change is 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage coming standard. Samsung isn’t offering any other memory or storage configurations. The device is also getting a new Navy Blue color variant to go with the existing Graphite, Lavender, Olive, and White colors. Everything else remains unchanged.

For a quick recap, the Galaxy S21 FE features a 6.4-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It gets Corning Gorilla Glass Victus screen protection and comes with an IP68-rated body.

Samsung has included a flagship-grade 12MP primary rear camera with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). It also has an 8MP zoom camera (3x optical zoom) and a 12MP ultrawide camera. The selfie camera is a 32MP sensor.

The Galaxy S21 FE packs a 4,500mAh battery with support for 25W fast wired charging and 15W wireless charging. It also supports reverse wireless charging. Other highlights include an under-display fingerprint scanner, stereo speakers, Samsung DeX support, Samsung Knox security, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 6, and NFC. You can check out our Galaxy S21 FE review for its everyday performance.


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TikTok enters the music streaming market with ‘TikTok Music’

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TikTok enters the music streaming market with ‘TikTok Music’
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The music streaming market is mainly dominated by two American and Swedish giants, Apple Music and Spotify. Soon, these giants might have a new competitor from China, and that’s TikTok Music.

The Chinese video-sharing app is reportedly planning to launch a music streaming service to take on Apple and Spotify. TikTok has already shown it’s not afraid of competition and ready to take every risk to enter new business segments. The ByteDance-owned app hopes to turn a portion of its massive user base (1.67 billion users) into TikTok Music subscribers.

TikTok Music is a big blow to Apple and Spotify. The Chinese app will collaborate with major record labels, including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music, to enrich its portfolio. The service is currently available in Brazil is Indonesia, but it might expand to the US and Europe markets this year.

TikTok Music is here to battle Apple Music and Spotify

All music streaming services work similarly, and TikTok Music is no exception. You can listen to your favorite songs and then add them to your library for future listening. But TikTok Music has a feature that gives it a competitive advantage over Apple Music and Spotify.

The app features song recommendations and personalized curation to help users find trending songs on videos. Moreover, TikTok Music allows importing music libraries from other platforms, creating collaborative playlists, and finding a song by searching for lyrics. These features will make the app more appealing to TikTok’s young user base.

TikTok Music also comes with a song identification feature. This is similar to Apple’s Shazam. Another app feature is the ability to comment on songs and albums, aligning with the main app’s socialization purpose. Finally, TikTok Music will let users find song suggestions by scrolling vertically.

Brazilian and Indonesian customers currently use TikTok Music for $3.49 a month. An Apple Music subscription costs exactly the same amount in these countries.

TikTok already told TechCrunch that its goal is to combine “the power of music discovery on TikTok with a best-in-class streaming service.” The plans for US and EU release are yet to be determined by the company. The rising tensions in US-China relations and US lawmaker’s efforts to ban TikTok’s main app in the country over national security concerns might make the company think twice before expanding to the Western markets.


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Twitter CEO says platform is growing but web traffic data shows “Twitter traffic tanking”

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Twitter CEO says platform is growing but web traffic data shows “Twitter traffic tanking”
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According to TechCrunch, while Yaccarino has been trying to show her best “What, me worry?” look, at the beginning of this week Twitter users reported that links to Threads.net’s website were blocked in Twitter searches. As a result, Twitter users had a hard time finding certain conversations and user profiles on Threads. 

Meanwhile, in an attempt to convince advertisers that things are looking up at Twitter, Yaccarino sent out a tweet stating that traffic is growing. “Don’t want to leave you hanging by a thread… but Twitter, you really outdid yourselves! Last week we had our largest usage day since February. There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it,” Twitter’s CEO tweeted. The executive’s tweet contradicts a tweet from Cloudflare co-founder & CEO Matthew Prince that shows declining traffic for Twitter.

Twitter blocks some searches for tweets that link to Threads although Threads URLs can be posted for now - Twitter CEO says platform is growing but web traffic data shows "Twitter traffic tanking"

Twitter blocks some searches for tweets that link to Threads although Threads URLs can be posted for now

At the same time, web analytics and data company Similarweb said that web traffic for Twitter was down 5% during the first two days that Threads was available to the public. That decline was based on the web traffic generated by Twitter the previous week. On a year-over-year basis, during the first two days of Threads’ availability, Twitter’s web traffic had plunged 11%.

Despite Twitter CEO Yaccarino's bullish comments on the platform's traffic, data shows that Twitter's web traffic is dropping - Twitter CEO says platform is growing but web traffic data shows "Twitter traffic tanking"

Despite Twitter CEO Yaccarino’s bullish comments on the platform’s traffic, data shows that Twitter’s web traffic is dropping

There is no question that helping Threads’ explosive growth is the connection that the social media site has with Instagram. To become a Threads subscriber, you need to have an Instagram account and once you sign up for Threads, your Instagram profile shows a special Threads badge. And if you delete your Threads account, you are forced to delete your Instagram account too.

If you want to join Threads, those with an iPhone can install the app from the App Store by tapping on this link. Those with an Android device can get the app from the Play Store by tapping on this link.

If Threads continues to add subscribers at this pace and Twitter continues to see traffic decline, the upstart competitor from Meta could overtake Twitter which reported having 238 million monetizable daily active users last summer in its last quarterly earnings report as a public company before Musk purchased the platform for $44 billion.

Hmm. Perhaps a cage match between Musk and Zuckerberg would be more entertaining and fun to watch. But in the world of tech, the battle between Threads and Twitter might have more implications for the future of social media.


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Microsoft claims victory in FTC trial over Activision deal

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Microsoft claims victory in FTC trial over Activision deal
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Microsoft has scored a big win in its FTC trial over the Activision Blizzard acquisition. On Tuesday July 11, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley has reached a ruling in the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction on Microsoft’s attempt to buy Activision Blizzard.

The request has officially been denied, which means Microsoft can now technically proceed with its acquisition. While this looks like a slam dunk, there are still potentially a couple of hurdles left to clear. But for the most part it looks like Microsoft will come out on top. The $68.7 billion deal has been a central topic in the gaming industry for more than a year now. And with good reason. It’s a massive acquisition.

Microsoft has been met with a ton of opposition to the deal, both from rival company Sony and regulators. But now that looks to be coming to a close soon. With Judge Corley’s ruling, Microsoft can now go ahead with the acquisition by the July 18 deadline.

This is not a win for Microsoft in the FTC antitrust case

Today’s decision from Judge Corley is a good thing for Microsoft. It is not however the end of things just yet. Microsoft still has an ongoing antitrust case with the FTC that still needs a resolution.

But this ruling goes a long way to sway things in Microsoft’s favor. The argument against Microsoft’s acquisition has consistently been that it will stifle competition. The ruling submitted today (via The Verge) states otherwise though. “To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content. The motion for a preliminary injunction is therefore DENIED” the ruling says.

Call of Duty has been one of the main reasons for opposition in this deal, though not the entire focus for the FTC in particular. With the regulator claiming the acquisition going through would give Microsoft an unfair advantage in the cloud gaming space.


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Sony 55-Inch A80K OLED TV on Sale for $1,098 at Amazon

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Sony 55-Inch A80K OLED TV on Sale for $1,098 at Amazon
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Amazon has a great deal on the 55-inch Sony A80K BRAVIA XR OLED TV. That’s going to save you $700 off of the regular price. The 65-inch model is also on sale for $1,498, saving you $300 off of its price. Now the 77-inch model is not currently on sale, but that could change.

This is one of their cheaper, but still great OLED TVs. Many of their OLED TVs start at $5,000 or more.

Sony A80K OLED TV – Amazon

Why you should buy the Sony 55-inch BRAVIA XR A80K Google TV

The Sony A80K is a 2022 model, and it also has some exclusive features for the PlayStation 5, according to Sony. However, those “exclusive” features are really just HDMI 2.1 features that other TVs have also been adding. So if you have a PS5, you can enjoy gaming at 4K120, as well as variable refresh rate and auto-low latency mode. There’s also Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Switch available on this TV.

Since this is an OLED TV, you’re going to get an incredible picture out of this TV. That includes deeper blacks and more true-to-life colors. This is also thanks to it having a wide color spectrum for real-world shades and hues. This is thanks to Sony’s XR Triluminos Pro.

Now, on the software front, it also has Google TV built-in. So that means you’ll get support for Google Assistant and Google Cast. As well as support for YouTube, Apple TV, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and much more. Sony has also included BRAVIA CORE, which has a bunch of great movies that you can stream, for free. Making this a really great TV to pick up for your home.

You can pick up the Sony 55″ A80K OLED TV from Amazon today for just $1,098 by clicking here. But you’d better hurry as this sale is not going to last very long.

Sony A80K OLED TV – Amazon


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