The paper, published by Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl campaign groups on Tuesday, revealed that the annual spending on lobbying on EU digital economy policies has reached a whopping €100 million ($114.4 million). More than 600 companies have been involved in such activities, with at least 20% of them being …
Read More »US blaming China for Microsoft hack is an obvious deflection from the Pegasus spyware scandal
On Monday, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union accused China of being behind a hack of Microsoft’s servers in March. Without evidence, the allies said Beijing had been involved in “malicious cyber activity,” although they stopped short of implementing any sanctions. China responded by calling the …
Read More »Pentagon cancels $10bn ‘JEDI’ cloud-computing contract with Microsoft amid Amazon dispute over deal
The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) contract, part of the Pentagon’s modernization drive and worth up to $10 billion, was originally awarded to Microsoft two years ago. However, just a month later, the tech giant was hit by a lawsuit filed in the US Court of Federal Claims by …
Read More »Microsoft reports previously undetected security breach while investigating SolarWinds hack
The group, which Microsoft refers to as Nobelium, gained access to Microsoft customer support tools that allowed the cyber thieves to view billing contact information, as well as what services customers were paying for. In some cases, Nobelium – described as a “sophisticated Nation-State associated actor” in a document seen …
Read More »As Bill and Melinda Gates split up, it’s time to divorce the Microsoft billionaire from calling the Covid shots for us
Gates and his wife of 27 years, Melinda, announced on Monday that they are divorcing. They will continue to run the foundation that bears both of their names, “but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives.” It happens. There …
Read More »Microsoft lands $21 billion contract to arm US soldiers with futuristic augmented-reality headsets
The contract was announced on Wednesday and could earn Microsoft up to $21.88 billion over 10 years. Back in 2018, the US Army gave Microsoft $480 million to develop a prototype headset built around the company’s HoloLens technology. Based on its performance, Microsoft will now provide up to 120,000 of …
Read More »‘Largest-ever the world has seen’: Microsoft president claims 1,000+ software engineers must have worked on SolarWinds breech
The multifaceted breach, best-known for the company SolarWinds and its software, affected thousands of government and private computers in the US. It was first made public in December 2020 and was quickly blamed by people in Washington on Moscow. Microsoft was among companies whose electronic credentials were exploited. Speaking to …
Read More »Microsoft BANS donations to Republicans who objected to Biden victory & shifts lobbying focus to ‘promoting democracy’
The tech giant said on Friday that it will modify a policy change introduced last month freezing all political contributions, retaining the ban for GOP election skeptics, as well as those with affiliated organizations echoing claims of widespread voter fraud, until at least 2022. “We will suspend contributions for the …
Read More »Bing there, done that: Microsoft could step in if Google exits Australia over content licensing row, PM Morrison says
Australia is mulling legislation that would require Google and Facebook to pay domestic media outlets for using their content on their platforms, a move that the two tech giants strenuously oppose. Google has claimed that the licensing fees would make their services financially unviable, warning last month that the company …
Read More »Real-life dystopia? Microsoft’s patent to reanimate dead as ‘chatbots’ has Black Mirror fans worried
The living-dead chatbot would be fed all available traces of the deceased – their “images, voice data, social media posts, electronic messages,” and other data – in an effort to mimic their personality as closely as possible. Videos would also be used to generate a 2D or 3D model of …
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