Tag: Microsoft

  • Microsoft to add a built-in VPN in Edge browser to improve privacy

    Microsoft to add a built-in VPN in Edge browser to improve privacy

    Microsoft is adding a free built-in virtual private network (VPN) option to its Edge browser in order to boost security and privacy.

    The tech giant is presently testing the Cloudflare-powered VPN service, dubbed ‘Edge Secure Network,’ and says it will roll it out to the public as part of a security upgrade.

    When enabled, Edge Secure Network should encrypt users’ online traffic so that internet service providers are unable to acquire browsing data that you’d prefer to keep secret, such as health-related searches or merely weird questions.

    Users will be able to mask their location by browsing the web using a fake IP address, according to the new capability. Users will be able to access content that is restricted in their country, such as Netflix or Hulu shows.

    Read more: Instagram is testing ‘pin’ feature for posts

    While the functionality is still under development and not yet accessible for early testing, Microsoft has provided instructions on how people can get a sneak peek.

    This means that it will first be available through one of the Microsoft Edge Insider channels, which users may download and join here.

  • Elon Musk plans to fire Twitter employees to save money

    Elon Musk plans to fire Twitter employees to save money

    Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is putting his plans into action after acquiring Twitter for $44 billion. In an attempt to obtain money for the takeover, he told banks that he wanted to cut the salaries of board members and executives and also pitched ideas for monetizing tweets.

    Musk presented the pitch to the financiers just days after making his bid on Twitter on April 14. He previously stated that if the offer was accepted, board members’ wages will be cut to zero, saving Twitter $3 million per year. It seems clear that Musk plans to lay off people to save money.

    The tech mogul also remarked that Twitter has a considerably smaller gross margin than similar sites like Facebook and Pinterest. He claimed that this freed up a lot of room for the corporation to run more cost-effectively.

    Musk detailed his ambitions to create features that will help his company generate more money from tweets that contain essential information or become viral.

    Read more: Instagram is testing ‘pin’ feature for posts

    In the near future, a fee could be charged if a third-party website quotes or incorporates a tweet from verified individuals or organisations.

  • Elon Musk offers $43 billion to acquire Twitter

    Elon Musk offers $43 billion to acquire Twitter

    Elon Musk has submitted a takeover bid for Twitter, offering $54.20 per share, days after becoming the group’s largest shareholder. This is an offer worth more than $43 billion.

    According to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Mr. Musk described this as a “best and last offer,” reflecting a 54 per cent premium over the day before he commenced investing in the business in late January 2022.

    Musk stated in the filing that “I don’t have faith in the management” and that he could not make the adjustments he desired in the public market.

    As per a letter written to CEO Salesforce and chairman of Twitter, Bret Taylor, Musk stated that if the proposal is not accepted, he will reassess his status as a shareholder as Twitter has a lot of potential which needs to be unlocked.

    The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the world’s richest man, purchased a 9.2 per cent share in Twitter on April 4, according to a regulatory filing. The tech mogul was invited to join Twitter’s board of directors the next day, but he denied the offer by the end of the week.

    Musk wrote to Mr. Taylor on April 13: “I invested in Twitter because I believe it has the potential to be the global platform for free speech, and I believe free speech is a societal requirement for a healthy democracy”.

    Read more: Elon Musk is no longer joining Twitter board as the microblogging network is “dying”

    “However, after making my investment, I’ve come to recognize that the company, in its current form, can neither thrive nor serve this societal need,” he wrote. “Twitter should be turned into a private firm”.

    Considering the tweeted document, Musk’s financial adviser for the proposal is Morgan Stanley.

  • EXCLUSIVE: Which senior army official was photoshopped from Bill Gates meeting picture?

    EXCLUSIVE: Which senior army official was photoshopped from Bill Gates meeting picture?

    Yesterday, a picture was released by the Prime Minister’s Office of a luncheon hosted by PM Imran Khan in honour of Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Gates was on a one-day visit to Pakistan yesterday, which was also his first-ever visit to the country.

    The picture in which PM Khan and Bill Gates are sitting with Fawad Chaudhry, Asad Umar, Mahmood Khan, Azam Khan, Shaukat Tarin, Shah Farman, Khalid Khurshid and several others at the main table sparked a debate on Twitter for a missing link. If one looks at the picture closely, someone between Dr Faisal Sultan and Mahmood Khan seems to be ‘missing’.

    Twitter users wondered who had been photoshopped out of the picture while some Twitter users tried to guess the name of the person.

    Journalist Cyril Almeida tweeted: “A day later, the mystery of who was photoshopped out of this pic continues… but if rumour is to be believed…”

    https://twitter.com/cyalm/status/1494569851595206678
    Who was photoshopped?

    The Current reached out to its sources and confirmed that it was the Director-General (DG) of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum who had been photoshopped from the luncheon meeting picture.

    Ansar Abbasi had reported for The News in December 2021 that the new DG ISI has asked all authorities concerned not to release to the media his picture or video footage made during an official meeting. As per The Current’s sources, it was due to this policy that he had to be taken out of the official picture released by the PM Office yesterday.

    It’s a standing instruction for all concerned from the incumbent DG ISI not to release any of his pictures or video footage of any official meeting that he attends.

    Read More: New spy chief says no to the media

    Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum was appointed as new DG ISI in October 2021. The post was previously held by Lt Gen Faiz Hameed who is now Corps Commander Peshawar.

  • ‘At least KFC has Pakistani CEO’, netizens react to Twitter’s new Indian CEO

    ‘At least KFC has Pakistani CEO’, netizens react to Twitter’s new Indian CEO

    Indian born Parag Agrawal has been named as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Twitter after co-founder Jack Dorsey’s resignation.

    The news is making headlines in India. This is not the first time that an Indian has been appointed as a CEO of a well-known organisation. Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Alphabet, the umbrella network of Google. Similarly, Shantanu Narayen is Adobe’s and Satya Nadella is Microsoft’s.

    Since Agrawal’s appointment, Pakistanis have been tweeting about the Indian CEOs who have taken over the Information Technology (IT) world.

    There are a few hilarious ones.

    https://twitter.com/ChaiNotCoffee/status/1465645570756952070?s=20

  • Elon Musk praises Indian talent as Indian takes over Twitter

    Elon Musk praises Indian talent as Indian takes over Twitter

    Billionaire Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla Motors, took to Twitter to share his admiration for the Indian talent that contributed to America’s economy as Jack Dorsey (CEO) of Twitter stepped down and announced his successor, Indian Parag Agrawal.

    Last night, Dorsey announced his resignation on Twitter and confirmed that his replacement was Indian-born Parag Agrawal. Dorsey will remain a member of the board until his term expires in May 2022 and assist Parag with the transition.

    A 37-year-old immigrant from India, Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 as a Software Engineer and was later promoted to Chief Technical Officer (CTO) in 2017. While working as CTO, he worked as in-charge of strategy involving Artificial Intelligence, reports CNBC.

    A colleague of Agrawal, Chklovski, who worked with him from 2012 to 2014 said, “Parag is phenomenal, understands the problems, stays up late to get it done, mentors others — he’s the whole package.”

    Yoel Roth who is Twitter’s head of site integrity, tweeted, “Parag was one of the first engineers I worked with when I started at Twitter (when we were first working on timeline ranking). The rigor he brings to every decision was clear then, and I’m delighted to see it recognized today.”

    https://twitter.com/yoyoel/status/1465360091348041731?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1465360091348041731%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2021%2F11%2F29%2Ftwitter-ceo-parag-agrawal-key-to-dorseys-plans-to-revamp-social-media.html

    Apart from Twitter, five giant companies Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks have been headed currently by Indian-origin immigrants.

  • PM Khan asks Bill Gates to set up a Microsoft incubation lab in Pakistan

    PM Khan asks Bill Gates to set up a Microsoft incubation lab in Pakistan

    Prime Minister Imran Khan (PM) encouraged Microsoft to expand its footprint in Pakistan and set up a Microsoft incubation lab in the country.

    PM spoke with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), in a telephonic conversation on Thursday.

    During the phone call, views were exchanged on the ongoing polio eradication campaign in the country as well as on Pakistan’s response to the public health challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

    PM Khan reaffirmed that polio eradication remained a key national priority for the government and earnest efforts were afoot to further intensify the anti-polio campaign across the country, despite the challenges imposed by the Covid-19 crisis, in order to achieve a polio-free Pakistan.

    Bill Gates expressed his appreciation for PM Khan’s leadership for this national cause. He added that while progress is encouraging, keeping up pressure will be the key to ending transmission for good.

  • Bill Gates admits affair with Microsoft employee

    Bill Gates admits affair with Microsoft employee

    Bill Gates has admitted via a spokeswoman that he had an extramarital affair 20 years ago with a Microsoft employee that was investigated by Microsoft.

    According to details, the affair ended ‘amicably’ and is not connected to his decision to step down from the company’s board.

    The company’s board did an investigation into the affair after a female employee sent a letter in 2019 alleging that she and Gates had a ‘sexual relationship’ over the years.

    “Microsoft received a concern in the latter half of 2019 that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000,” Shaw said in an emailed statement.

    “A committee of the Board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm to conduct a thorough investigation. Throughout the investigation, Microsoft provided extensive support to the employee who raised the concern.”

    It is not clear what role the investigation or the affair played in the decision of Gates and his wife, Melinda French Gates divorce after 27 years of marriage. The couple announced their divorce earlier this month.

    Read more – Bill Gates quits Microsoft board of directors

    In a divorce filing that day, French Gates called the marriage “irretrievably broken.”

    French Gates’s divorce lawyer, Robert Cohen, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Gates is ranked as the fourth on the list of the world’s wealthiest people. Forbes estimates Gates’s net worth at $128.3 billion.

  • Microsoft hit by massive cyberattack

    Microsoft hit by massive cyberattack

    Microsoft’s Exchange Server used for email services is recently targeted by hackers. The company rolled out a security patch to secure the server. However, the company had been unable to locate the group of hackers.

    The Verge reported that the hackers are Chinese state-sponsored groups, and they managed to infiltrate nearly 30,000 United States (US) organizations using Microsoft’s Exchange Server.

    Big institutions like banks, police departments, hospitals, and local government department got affected due to the attack. The number of victims was reportedly over hundreds of thousands.

    The security patch has only fixed the vulnerabilities of the server and those whose systems have been compromised will still have to remove the backdoor channels from their systems.

    These backdoors were being used by the hacking group to plant “web shells” in their victims’ servers which would give them admin access and allow them to steal information.

    Security experts are now worried about these hackers planting additional backdoors while companies remove the ones already existing.

    Microsoft was reached out for comment on the matter and said that they are working with the US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency and other agencies to provide their customers with additional investigation and mitigation guidance.

  • Microsoft to buy TikTok before September 15

    On Sunday, Microsoft said they are “prepared to explore a purchase of TikTok in the United States”.

    This is for the first time that Microsoft has confirmed they are in talks with ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, for the acquisition of the video-sharing platform.

    Microsoft has provided notice of their intent to purchase TikTok service in the countries like the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, which would result in Microsoft owning and operating TikTok services in these markets.

    It is not clear how Microsoft would divide market territories from other areas where TikTok operates, like Europe and Africa.

    The blog post describes the discussions as “preliminary” but addresses privacy concerns, it said the company would “ensure that all private data of TikTok’s American users are transferred to and remains in the United States.

    “To the extent that any such data is currently stored or backed-up outside the United States,” the post continues, “Microsoft would ensure that this data is deleted from servers outside the country after it is transferred.”

    The recent development came after a conversation between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Donald Trump.

    “Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President’s concerns. It is committed to acquiring TikTok after the complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury,” says Microsoft.

    The statement further says, “Microsoft wants to acquire TikTok in a matter of weeks, probably before September 15, 2020.”

    Microsoft will not purchase the platform entirely on its own investment but will ask investors to participate in the purchase of the platform.