Microsoft recently released the new version of Bing, now with powerful AI technology integrated into the search engine.
The announcement took place at the company’s headquarters and is being billed as a landmark event, dubbed Microsoft’s “iPhone moment” with many executives talking to reporters and showing off the new wares. The new Bing is powered by artificial intelligence software from OpenAI, the maker of the popular chatbot ChatGPT, to help answer users’ questions and chat with them about any topic imaginable. Microsoft first invested in OpenAI in 2019 and has re-upped with a rumored $10 billion investment this year in order to capitalize on a wave of recent progress in A.I. capabilities. While Google has long held a dominant position in the search market, Microsoft is using this as a way of catching up, and eventually plans to incorporate the technology into many of its other products as well.
The new Bing is currently available to a small group testers and will become more widely available soon. It looks like a hybrid of a standard search engine and a GPT-style chatbot; depending on what you type in you will see standard ads and links on one side relating to your question or prompt, and full responses typed out on the other side with links to websites and other related information. You can also ask a follow up question or make a more detailed request. Visit here to learn more about the new technology, pros and cons, and how one user felt about it after testing it for a few hours.
MacOS Ventura
The time to upgrade from MacOS Monterey to MacOS Ventura is now, starting by checking that your device is included on the compatible list.
Apple has provided a list of compatible Mac models that will allow Ventura to be installed. Next, you’ll want to back up your Mac; there are several ways for backup including automatically with Time Machine, by using iCloud Drive to store and share files, and restoring from a backup. If you don’t have enough storage space for downloads, installations, or copies, you will want to take the additional step of finding out how much storage is available, how you can optimize your space, and freeing up space by moving or deleting files. Finally, you can go to the Apple Menu, choose System Preferences, and click on Software Update. When the update finds MacOS Ventura, you can click Upgrade Now to install it.
MacOS Ventura will make the things you do most on your Mac even better, with powerful ways to get more done, share and collaborate in apps, immerse yourself in games, and take full advantage of all your other devices. To learn more about the upgrade, visit
here.
Cyber Predictions for 2023
John and Dray from Huntress kicked off the new year by sharing their predictions regarding the threats and insights trending in 2023. The first of five key trusted knowledge observations (TKO) is Phishing.
Cyber attackers will continue to use the economic crisis and political tie-in’s to phish users; a popular method will include documents with catchy titles or content like “Layoffs 2023”, or by using attachments or links leveraging current topics. The phishing efforts and social engineering tactics are a reminder that now is an important time to start and continue security awareness training for employees. The second TKO is Dark Web Marketing, where cybercriminals are becoming more innovative with how they advertise their products and rework their marketing operations to look more legitimate. They can include business models, organization hierarchies, and ways to handle grievances among themselves in darknet forums. In reality, they are for-profit, making money by selling ransomware-as-a-service.
Third on the list is Cybercriminal Insider Threats; hackers can screw up the plans of another hacker group they are disgruntled with or competing against. This usually occurs in the darkweb in moderated forums, but sometimes leaks to the regular internet for anybody to see. The fourth TKO is Burnout, which is an issue at all stages of cybersecurity practitioners’ as well as pre-careers. Cybersecurity burnout will fuel the widening of the workforce/skills gap; as threats increase, so will burnout, and companies need to prioritize the well-being of their employees’.
Last on the list is Acronym Acropolis as more acronyms are added to the “alphabet soup” of the cybersecurity industry. There are already many popular acronyms, and as the list continues to grow, it is important to stay calm, and make sure you understand what everything actually means. Learn more details about the 2023 predictions from Huntress
here.
