Day: February 3, 2021

Microsoft unsurprisingly throws support behind Australia’s Media Bargaining Code


Screenshot: Asha Barbaschow/ZDNet

Microsoft president Brad Smith has said his company is committed to Australia and its news publishers, and that it fully supports the News Media Bargaining Code.

Microsoft and its search engine Bing has been paraded by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his army of ministers as the answer to the Google-sized hole that would be left if Google Search ended up exiting Australia.

Appearing at the National Press Club on Monday, Morrison said he was confident Australians would be left with sufficient alternatives if Google moved ahead with its threat, pointing to a meeting he had with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Shortly after, Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts Paul Fletcher also rallied behind Bing, saying that in the event Google left, he expected to see investment from other players in the local market.

Microsoft in response has said it is committed to

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SolarWinds patches three newly discovered software vulnerabilities

SolarWinds customers are being urged to apply newly released security patches after the discovery of three previously undisclosed severe vulnerabilities which could allow attackers to abuse the enterprise IT administration tools take control of Windows systems.

The disclosure of the two vulnerabilities in SolarWinds Orion and one in SolarWinds Serv-U FTP comes following December’s discovery that SolarWinds had been hacked – likely by a Russian operation – and its software updates compromised in order to distribute malware to 18,000 Orion customers.

The hack was part of a wider campaign against other tech vendors that represents one of the biggest cyber incidents in recent years and it led to cybersecurity researchers at Trustwave to further examine SolarWinds products for further vulnerabilities – and they found three.

The most severe vulnerability (CVE-2021-25275) could allow attackers to exploit a vulnerability in how Orion works with Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) to gain access to

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EE 5G mobile usage increases by 40% over last quarter of 2020

In its latest Mobile network index report, EE claims that as it rolls out the 5G network to more places, it is clear that customers are starting to use it more and are making the most of its faster speeds and increased reliability.

The bottom-line findings of the study reveal that usage on EE’s network has shown an increased appetite for the latest mobile technology, with 5G traffic growing more than 40% month-on-month between October and December 2020, and more than doubling across the three months.

YouTube, Facebook, Netflix and Instagram retained the top spots as the most popular apps and services on the 5G network, and month-on-month have seen traffic grow by at least 30%. Perhaps not surprisingly, three of EE’s 5G launch cities – London, Birmingham and Manchester – are the top three for 5G usage on EE’s mobile network in the UK. In Scotland, Glasgow topped the

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