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Google, Microsoft plan to spend billions on cybersecurity after assembly with Biden

Google, Microsoft plan to spend billions on cybersecurity after meeting with Biden

Business leaders in sectors ranging from technology to insurance pledged billions of dollars to step up cybersecurity efforts at a White House meeting with President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

The meeting comes in the wake of several high profile cyberattacks, including those on state software company SolarWinds and the Colonial Pipeline, which have made such security issues even more pressing.

Commitments range from working on new industry standards to providing stronger security tools for other companies to training workers to fill the roughly 500,000 vacant U.S. cybersecurity jobs. Biden recently signed an executive order requiring US authorities to use two-factor authentication for logins, which can help prevent cyberattacks.

The White House said Apple will create a program dedicated to improving security in its technology supply chains, including working with suppliers to introduce multi-factor authentication and security training.

Google said it will invest more than $ 10 billion over five years to strengthen cybersecurity and promised to train 100,000 Americans in technical areas like IT support and data analysis as part of its career certificate program. Google’s financial commitment will be used to strengthen the software supply chain and open source security, among other things.

Microsoft has allocated $ 20 billion over five years to provide more advanced security tools, CEO Satya Nadella tweeted after the meeting. He added that Microsoft will invest $ 150 million to help government agencies update their security systems and develop cybersecurity training partnerships. Microsoft has spent $ 1 billion annually on cybersecurity since 2015.

IBM said it will train more than 150,000 people in cybersecurity skills in three years, while working with traditionally black colleges and universities to help diversify its workforce. The company also announced a new data storage solution for critical infrastructure businesses and said it was working to develop secure encryption methods for quantum computing.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told CNBC ahead of the meeting and in front of the White House on Wednesday that cybersecurity was “the topic of the decade”. He said he hoped for better coordination between the public and private sectors emerging from the meeting and said IBM would do its part to support professionals in the field.

Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud computing division, plans to provide account holders with free multifactor authentication devices to better protect their data. There are also plans to offer “safety awareness training” to organizations and individuals.

A spokesman for financial services firm TIAA pointed to several ongoing initiatives being taken to train more cybersecurity workers. This includes a partnership with New York University that enables TIAA employees to complete a fully reimbursed master’s degree in cybersecurity.

Leaving the White House, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called the meeting “a very productive, collaborative discussion.”

“Hopefully we will follow up and do a good job of protecting our country from a really complex problem,” he said.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the event “brought the right people together to have a good discussion.”

Two water company executives who left the meeting told CNBC that the discussion emphasized collaboration between sectors. American Water CEO Walter Lynch said there was an “understanding that we must work together to tackle the country’s cyber threats.”

– CNBC’s Mary Catherine Wellons and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.

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WATCH: Colonial Pipeline hackers reportedly received $ 90 million in bitcoin before being shut down

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Politics

Microsoft challenges NSA cloud contract reportedly awarded to Amazon

Microsoft challenges NSA cloud contract reportedly awarded to Amazon

President Donald Trump speaks on Jan.

Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Microsoft has filed a protest against the National Security Agency at the Government Accountability Office and challenged the award of a cloud computing contract.

The protest filed on July 21 is intended to challenge the NSA’s decision to award the $ 10 billion contract to Amazon, the journals Nextgov and Washington Technology reported on Tuesday.

The NSA deal with Amazon follows the Pentagon’s decision to terminate its $ 10 billion cloud contract known as JEDI, or Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure. The JEDI deal, embroiled in a lengthy legal battle between tech giants Amazon and Microsoft, had become one of the most tangled contracts for the Pentagon.

The NSA contract, which is also up to 10 billion US dollars, is code-named “WildandStormy” and is intended to modernize the agency’s secret data storage, reported Nextgov.

In a statement to CNBC, a spokesman for the NSA said the agency “recently placed a contract for cloud computing services” and declined to elaborate on the matter.

“The unsuccessful provider has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office. The agency will respond to the protest in accordance with applicable federal regulations,” added the spokesman.

A Microsoft spokesman told CNBC in a statement: “Based on the decision, we are filing an administrative protest through the Government Accountability Office. We exercise our legal rights and will do so carefully and responsibly. “

Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing unit, referred questions to the NSA.

The lucrative JEDI cloud contract was intended to modernize the IT operations of the Pentagon for services provided for up to 10 years. Microsoft received the cloud computing contract in 2019, beating the market leader AWS.

A month later, AWS filed a lawsuit in the US Federal Court to protest the JEDI decision.

The company argued that former President Donald Trump was biased against Amazon, and that its then CEO Jeff Bezos lobbied the Pentagon to give the contract to Microsoft.

Last year the Pentagon inspector general released a report that the award did not appear to have been influenced by the White House.

However, the Inspector General noted in the 313-page report released in April 2020 that he had limited cooperation with White House officials throughout his review and was therefore unable to complete his assessment of the ethical misconduct allegations.

A Pentagon official said on a call with reporters that the litigation itself is not necessarily the main reason for the change in approach. Given that the landscape had changed in the meantime, the agency found that their needs had changed too.

– CNBC’s Jordan Novet and Lauren Feiner contributed to this article.

WATCH: Department of Defense Chief Information Officer on the decision to terminate the JEDI program

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Politics

US to Accuse China of Microsoft Hacking

US to Accuse China of Microsoft Hacking

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Monday is expected to formally accuse the Chinese government of breaching Microsoft email systems used by many of the world’s largest companies, governments and military contractors, according to a senior administration official. The United States is also set to organize a broad group of allies, including all NATO members, to condemn Beijing for cyberattacks around the world.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, added that the United States was expected to accuse China for the first time of paying criminal groups to conduct large-scale hackings, including ransomware attacks to extort companies for millions of dollars. Microsoft had pointed to hackers linked to the Chinese Ministry of State Security for exploiting holes in the company’s email systems in March; the U.S. announcement will offer details about the methods that were used, and it is the first suggestion that the Chinese government hired criminal groups to work on its behalf.

Condemnation from NATO and the European Union is unusual, because most of their member countries have been deeply reluctant to publicly criticize China, a major trading partner. But even Germany, whose companies were hit hard by the hacking of Microsoft Exchange — email systems that companies maintain on their own, rather than putting them in the cloud — cited the Chinese government for its work.

Despite the broadside, the announcement will lack concrete punitive steps against the Chinese government such as sanctions similar to ones that the White House imposed on Russia in April, when it blamed the country for the extensive SolarWinds attack that affected U.S. government agencies and more than 100 companies.

By imposing sanctions on Russia and organizing allies to condemn China, the Biden administration has delved deeper into a digital Cold War with its two main geopolitical adversaries than at any time in modern history.

While there is nothing new about digital espionage from Russia and China — and efforts by Washington to block it — the Biden administration has been surprisingly aggressive in calling out both countries and organizing a coordinated response.

But so far, it has not yet found the right mix of defensive and offensive actions to create effective deterrence, most outside experts say. And the Russians and the Chinese have grown bolder. The SolarWinds attack, one of the most sophisticated ever detected in the United States, was an effort by Russia’s lead intelligence service to alter code in widely used network-management software to gain access to more than 18,000 businesses, federal agencies and think tanks.

China’s effort was not as sophisticated, but it took advantage of a vulnerability that Microsoft had not discovered and used it to conduct espionage and undercut confidence in the security of systems that companies use for their primary communications. It took the Biden administration months to develop what officials say is “high confidence” that the hacking of the Microsoft email system was done at the behest of the Ministry of State Security, the senior administration official said, and abetted by private actors who had been hired by Chinese intelligence.

The hacking affected tens of thousands of systems, including military contractors.

The last time China was caught in such broad-scale surveillance was in 2014, when it stole more than 22 million security-clearance files from the Office of Personnel Management, allowing a deep understanding of the lives of Americans who are cleared to keep the nation’s secrets.

President Biden has promised to fortify the government, making cybersecurity a focus of his summit meeting in Geneva with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last month. But his administration has faced questions about how it will also address the growing threat from China, particularly after the public exposure of the Microsoft hacking.

Updated 

July 16, 2021, 7:55 p.m. ET

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the senior administration official acknowledged that the public condemnation of China would only do so much to prevent future attacks.

“No one action can change China’s behavior in cyberspace,” the official said. “And neither could just one country acting on its own.”

But the decision not to impose sanctions on China was also telling: It was a step many allies would not agree to take.

Instead, the Biden administration settled on corralling enough allies to join the public denunciation of China to maximize pressure on Beijing to curtail the cyberattacks, the official said.

The joint statement criticizing China, to be issued by the United States, Australia, Britain Canada, the European Union, Japan and New Zealand, is unusually broad. It is also the first such statement from NATO publicly targeting Beijing for cybercrimes.

The National Security Agency and the F.B.I. are expected to reveal more details on Monday about Chinese “tactics, techniques and procedures” in cyberspace, such as how Beijing contracts criminal groups to conduct attacks for the financial gain of its government, the official said.

The F.B.I. took an unusual step in the Microsoft hacking: In addition to investigating the attacks, the agency obtained a court order that allowed it to go into unpatched corporate systems and remove elements of code left by the Chinese hackers that could allow follow-up attacks. It was the first time that the F.B.I. acted to remediate an attack as well as investigate its perpetrators.

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World News

Microsoft Bethesda Starfield, Ubisoft Avatar recreation

Microsoft Bethesda Starfield, Ubisoft Avatar game

Bethesda’s Todd Howard introduces Starfield at the 2018 E3 Show.

Christian Petersen | Getty Images

The annual trade fair for the video game industry went virtual this year and offers publishers a new format for presenting upcoming titles.

The E3 gaming expo started on Saturday and will last until Tuesday, when Nintendo is expected to showcase its new releases. Microsoft, Ubisoft and Square Enix were among the major publishers who presented over the weekend.

E3 has lost momentum in recent years, Sony pulled out of the event for the first time in 2019, and longtime host Geoff Keighley skipped the event for the first time in 25 years in 2020.

Still, E3 is often used as a platform for large video game companies to generate hype for their new blockbusters. And there were some highlights of this year’s event.

Microsoft teases Starfield

The biggest reveal of the weekend was undoubtedly Starfield, an upcoming science fiction epic from Microsoft’s Bethesda.

Microsoft bought the parent company of legendary publisher ZeniMax Media for $ 7.5 billion in an industry-shaking deal announced last year. One of the key results analysts were anticipating from the acquisition was Xbox exclusivity for some Bethesda titles.

Microsoft released the big guns without delay and announced in a joint press conference with Bethesda on Sunday that Starfield will appear exclusively on the Xbox Series X and S consoles and the PC on November 11, 2022.

Microsoft has long lagged behind Sony when it comes to exclusive games – games that only run on one system. AAA franchises like The Last of Us and God of War were key to the success of Sony’s PlayStation 4, and the company is pursuing a similar strategy with the PS5.

Here are a few more highlights from Microsoft’s E3 showcase:

  • We’ve taken our first look at online multiplayer for Halo Infinite, the latest in the Halo franchise. Microsoft also announced that the game would be released around Christmas 2021 after being postponed last year due to criticism of the graphics.
  • There was an official trailer for the Forza Horizon 5 racing title and a release date of November 9th.
  • Microsoft has unveiled Redfall, a new multiplayer shooter from the developers behind Dishonored and Prey, and announced a release window for summer 2021.
  • Some popular titles, including Hades and Among Us, are coming to Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s Netflix-like gaming subscription service; Starfield will be available on Game Pass from the day it is released.
  • Sea of ​​Thieves: A Pirate’s Life is an expansion pack for the original game inspired by “Pirates of the Caribbean” and, thanks to a partnership with Disney, even includes the popular protagonist of the film series, Captain Jack Sparrow; the expansion will be released as a free update on June 22nd.
  • A new zombie survival co-op shooter from the makers of Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood, will be released on October 12th this year.
  • Age of Empires IV, the fourth entry in the real-time strategy game franchise, hits October 28th.

Ubisoft unveils Avatar game

Ubisoft made some big announcements on its E3 show on Saturday. The French publisher gave fans a closer look at the history of Far Cry 6, the sixth main part of the popular Far Cry series. The game with Giancarlo Esposito from Breaking Bad will be released on October 7th.

But a big surprise from the Ubisoft showcase was a game based on James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi film “Avatar”. It’s called Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and features colorful creatures and environments from the Avatar universe.

Ubisoft also showed Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Extraction, the newest entry in the Rainbow Six tactical shooter franchise. The game was originally supposed to be called Rainbow Six: Quarantine, but Ubisoft changed it due to controversy amid the coronavirus pandemic. Extraction debuts on September 16.

Another big reveal was a new mashup of Nintendo’s Mario and Ubisoft’s Raving Rabbids, called the Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. As a sequel to Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle from 2017, the game will be released on Nintendo Switch next year.

Elden Ring and other great revelations

Geoff Keighley may have broken up with E3, but he’s not done broadcasting video games yet.

The host hosted his new, digital-only Summer Game Fest last week, which ended with a reveal trailer for Elden Ring, the highly anticipated role-playing title created in collaboration with Game of Thrones creator George RR Martin.

Elden Ring will be released on January 21, 2022. The game will be published by Bandai Namco.

Meanwhile, Square Enix unveiled a new game on Sunday based on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. It will be a single-player title, unlike another game based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel’s Avengers, which received mixed feedback when it was released in September.

Categories
World News

Russia’s Nobelium utilizing USAID’s electronic mail system for hack, Microsoft says

Russia's Nobelium using USAID's email system for hack, Microsoft says

Annette Riedl | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

The Russian hackers believed to be behind the catastrophic SolarWinds attack last year launched another major cyberattack, Microsoft warned Thursday.

Microsoft said in a blog post that the hacking group known as Nobelium attacked over 150 organizations worldwide in the past week, including government agencies, think tanks, consultants and non-governmental organizations.

They sent phishing emails – fake messages designed to trick people into disclosing sensitive information or downloading malicious software – to more than 3,000 email accounts, the tech giant said.

At least 25% of the target organizations are involved in international development, humanitarian and human rights work, wrote Tom Burt, corporate vice president of customer security and trust at Microsoft.

“These attacks appear to be a continuation of Nobelium’s multiple intelligence-gathering efforts to target government foreign policy agencies,” Burt said.

According to Microsoft, organizations in at least 24 countries have been affected, with the US receiving the largest share of attacks.

The violation was discovered three weeks before President Joe Biden’s scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva.

It also comes a month after the US government explicitly stated that the SolarWinds hack was carried out by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), a successor to the KGB’s overseas espionage operations.

The Kremlin said Friday it had no information about the cyber attack and Microsoft needed to answer more questions, including how the attack relates to Russia, Reuters reported. The Kremlin did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The hack explained

According to Microsoft, Nobelium has gained access to an email marketing account used by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the federal government’s aid agency. The account is managed on a platform called Constant Contact.

Burt said Nobelium used the account to “distribute phishing emails that looked authentic but contained a link that inserted a malicious file when clicked”.

The file contains a backdoor, which Microsoft calls NativeZone, which “can enable a wide variety of activities from stealing data to infecting other computers on a network,” Burt said. Microsoft is in the process of notifying customers who have been targeted.

The SolarWinds attack uncovered in December turned out to be much worse than initially expected. It gave the hackers access to thousands of companies and government agencies that were using SolarWinds IT software.

Microsoft President Brad Smith described the attack as “the biggest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen”.

Earlier this month, Russia’s spy chief denied responsibility for the SolarWinds cyberattack, but said he was “flattered” by US and UK allegations that Russian foreign intelligence was behind such a sophisticated hack

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Business

Epic trial reveals Apple negotiations with Netflix, Fb, Microsoft

Epic trial reveals Apple negotiations with Netflix, Facebook, Microsoft

Apple und Epic Games stehen sich seit Jahren in einem der am genauesten beobachteten Kartellverfahren in der Technologiebranche gegenüber.

Epic Games hat diese Woche seinen Fall vorgestellt, und Apple wird seinen Fall in den kommenden Wochen vorstellen. Schließlich wird Richterin Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers eine Entscheidung treffen, ob Apple Epic erlauben muss, einen eigenen App Store auf iPhones zu installieren und die 30% App Store-Gebühr von Apple zu umgehen.

Als Teil von Epics Argument, dass Apples App Store wettbewerbswidrig ist, hat die Studie viele interne Apple-Überlegungen zu Verhandlungen ergeben – Gerichtsausstellungen, einschließlich E-Mail-Threads füllen Dokumente im Wert von 60 Ordnern – mit einigen seiner wichtigsten Partner.

Die Dokumente zeichnen ein Porträt eines Unternehmens, das sich seiner umsatzstärksten und wichtigsten Apps sehr bewusst ist und regelmäßig Verhandlungen mit Unternehmen wie Netflix, Microsoft, Facebook und sogar Epic Games selbst führt, deren Fortnite-Spiel eine der Top-Apps bei Apple war Appstore.

Während die E-Mails nicht zeigen, dass das App Store-Team Kompromisse bei den Apple-Regeln bezüglich der zulässigen Inhalte im Store eingeht, haben sie andere Zugeständnisse gemacht, darunter die Platzierung auf der Titelseite im App Store, Koordination und Werbung durch Apple-Produkteinführungen sowie Zugriff auf exklusive Programme Funktionen und Versuche, leitende Angestellte einzuschleifen, um Kompromisse zu finden.

Apple hat Netflix Kompromisse angeboten

Im Februar 2018 traf sich ein Apple-Manager mit Mitarbeitern von Netflix und schrieb anschließend eine E-Mail an seine Kollegen, in der er das Meeting zusammenfasste.

Er schrieb, dass der Video-Streamer besorgt über die “freiwillige Abwanderung” oder die Anzahl der Netflix-Abonnenten war, die über Apple zahlten und beschlossen, das Abonnement einzustellen. Infolgedessen wollte Netflix in einigen kleinen Märkten einen Test durchführen, um zu sehen, was passieren würde, wenn keine In-App-Käufe mehr akzeptiert würden, von denen Apple eine Kürzung um 15% bis 30% vornimmt.

Der Apple-Manager schrieb, dass der geplante Test von Netflix Fragen für Apple aufwirft, einschließlich der Frage, ob “Strafmaßnahmen” ergriffen werden sollen, z. B. die Einstellung der Werbung für Netflix im App Store oder die Eskalation von Bedenken gegenüber Netflix-Führungskräften.

Die E-Mail löste bei Apple-Managern ein Durcheinander aus. Zu dieser Zeit gehörte Netflix zu den erfolgreichsten Apps im App Store von Apple.

Pete Distad, ein Apple-Vizepräsident, der sich auf das Streaming-Geschäft von Apple konzentrierte, entsandte Mitarbeiter, um mit seinem früheren Arbeitgeber Hulu über ähnliche Themen zu sprechen. Ein Apple-Mitarbeiter sagte, dass Eddy Cue, Apples Chef für Onlinedienste, mit Reed Hastings, CEO von Netflix, sprechen wollte.

In den nächsten zwei Monaten trafen sich Apple-Mitarbeiter mit Netflix, um über den Test zu sprechen, und aktualisierten ihre Vorgesetzten über die Pläne von Netflix, als Apple laut E-Mails versuchte, ein Executive Meeting zu planen.

Bis Juli 2018 hatten Apple-Mitarbeiter eine Präsentation zum Netflix-Problem erstellt. Das Dia-Deck enthielt “Pie in the Sky-Ideen”, die nicht genehmigt worden waren, warnte ein Apple-Mitarbeiter.

Auf dem Dia-Deck stand, dass Apple Netflix bereits “benutzerdefinierte APIs” oder nicht öffentliche Software angeboten hatte, mit denen es Systeme erstellen konnte, mit denen Apple-Abonnements geändert, kostenlose Testversionen durchgeführt oder Daten für die automatische Verlängerung verlängert werden konnten. Es würde auch Funktionen erstellen, die direkt auf Netflix-Anforderungen basieren.

Es wurde auch auf die Leistungsfähigkeit von Apples App Store-Inhalten hingewiesen, die Downloads fördern können. Es führte seine eigenen Tests durch und stellte fest, dass die Download-Conversions bei der Werbung für Netflix in seiner App Store-App um 6% bis 7% zunahmen. Netflix erhielt mehr App Store-Placements als jeder andere Partner und erzielte 330.000 Downloads oder eine Conversion von 2% Bewertung. Apple berechnet keine Gebühren für “redaktionelle” Platzierungen von App Store-Inhalten.

Schließlich schlug das Dia-Deck vor, dass Apple seine Partnerschaft mit Netflix vertiefen könnte, einschließlich der Verwendung der von Apple gesammelten Netflix-Provision, um App Store-Suchanzeigen zu kaufen, um Downloads zu fördern oder Netflix zusammen mit Apple-Diensten zu bündeln. Eine andere Möglichkeit bestand darin, Netflix “Vorteile für Videopartnerprogramme” anzubieten, was einem Vertrag ähnelt, den Apple mit Amazon Prime Video abgeschlossen hat, mit dem Kunden direkt belastet werden können.

Trotz der offensichtlichen Bemühungen von Apple hat Netflix im Dezember 2018 neue Abonnements über Apple eingestellt, um die Kürzung von In-App-Käufen durch Apple zu umgehen. Die Netflix iPhone-App öffnet derzeit die Meldung: “Sie können sich in der App nicht für Netflix anmelden. Wir wissen, dass dies problematisch ist.”

Facebook und Apple hatten eine Geschichte von Konflikten

Facebook hatte einen langen Konflikt mit Apple wegen seines Wunsches, soziale Spiele in seine Apps aufzunehmen, was im Widerspruch zu den Apple-Regeln für das Vorhandensein von Sammlungen von Apps oder Software in Apps steht. Im vergangenen Jahr hat Facebook seine Kritik verstärkt und erklärt, dass Apple seine Kontrolle über seine Plattform nutzt, um Entwicklern und Verbrauchern Schaden zuzufügen.

In einem E-Mail-Austausch von 2011, der im Rahmen der Testversion in einem Dokumenten-Repository veröffentlicht und anschließend entfernt wurde, diskutierten Apple-Führungskräfte, darunter der frühere CEO Steve Jobs, einen Kompromiss in Bezug auf Spiele in der Facebook-iPad-App, nachdem der frühere Software-Chef Scott Forstall mit dem Facebook-CEO Mark Zuckerberg gesprochen hatte.

Die Dokumente enthalten nicht die Bedingungen des Kompromisses. Als die Facebook iPad-App im Jahr 2011 herauskam, enthielt sie webbasierte Spiele wie Farmville, mit denen Apples Regel gegen App Stores im App Store verstoßen wurde. IPhone- und iPad-Nutzer konnten jedoch nicht mit der Spielewährung Credits von Facebook bezahlen.

Interne Facebook-Beratungen, die im Rahmen der Epic Games-Studie veröffentlicht wurden, zeigen, wie sich diese Verhandlungen in den Jahren seitdem auf die Unternehmensbeziehungen ausgewirkt haben.

In einer E-Mail aus dem Jahr 2017, die als Teil von Gerichtsdokumenten eingereicht wurde, fügte ein Facebook-Mitarbeiter vor dem Treffen eines Facebook-Geschäftsführers mit Apple auf der jährlichen Geschäftskonferenz von Allen and Company in Sun Valley eine kurze Analyse hinzu.

Bis dahin wollte Facebook Klarheit oder Anleitung zur Entwicklung von “Sofortspielen” in seiner Facebook Messenger-App, die durch den Überprüfungsprozess von Apple verlangsamt wurde. Der Kompromiss von 2011 war jedoch immer noch groß.

“Ende 2016 genehmigte Apple Facebook, die Einführung von ‘Instant Games’ in Messenger und der FB Blue App voranzutreiben”, schrieb der Facebook-Mitarbeiter. “”[Former Apple marketing chief] Phil Schiller zog eine E-Mail aus dem Jahr 2011 heraus, in der an eine Vereinbarung erinnert wurde, die wir getroffen haben, damit FB HMTL5-Spiele streamen kann, solange wir keinen App Store erstellen oder In-App-Zahlungen tätigen. “

Das Ergebnis des Sun Valley-Treffens ist aus Gerichtsdokumenten nicht ersichtlich, aber bis 2020 kämpfte Facebook erneut mit dem Überprüfungsprozess von Apple um eine eigenständige Gaming-App. Nach einer Ablehnung von Apple im März 2020 beschrieb ein Facebook-Mitarbeiter in E-Mails Frustration über den Prozess und sagte, dass es “eine Überraschung ist, da FB Gaming keine eindeutige Funktionalität enthält, die noch nicht auf der Registerkarte” Spiele “in der Facebook-App genehmigt wurde . “

Laut den E-Mails musste Facebook den gleichen Berufungsprozess wie jeder andere Entwickler durchlaufen, einschließlich der Berufung an eine Apple-Stelle namens App Review Board. Der Social-Media-Riese konnte jedoch Anrufe mit Trystan Kosmynka und Bill Havlicek, den Leitern der Apple-Überprüfungsgruppe, und später mit Ron Okamoto, dem für die Gruppe zuständigen Vizepräsidenten, planen, bevor er dieses Jahr in den Ruhestand ging.

Als Facebook Gaming Ende 2020 veröffentlicht wurde, war klar, dass Facebook und Apple keinen Kompromiss finden konnten.

“Leider mussten wir die Gameplay-Funktionen vollständig entfernen, um die Genehmigung von Apple für die eigenständige Facebook-Gaming-App zu erhalten. Dies bedeutet, dass iOS-Benutzer eine schlechtere Erfahrung als Android-Benutzer haben”, sagte Sheryl Sandberg, COO von Facebook, in einer damaligen Erklärung.

Microsoft verhandelte 2012 über Office für iPad

Ein E-Mail-Thread aus dem Jahr 2012 zeigt, dass Top-Führungskräfte von Apple, darunter Schiller und Cue, über den bevorstehenden Start von Microsoft Office für iPhones und iPads durch Microsoft informiert wurden.

Okamoto, der zu dieser Zeit Apple VP war und sich auf Entwicklerbeziehungen konzentrierte, traf sich mit Microsoft. In seiner E-Mail an seine Chefs heißt es, Apple wolle wissen, ob Microsoft an der jährlichen Entwicklerkonferenz WWDC teilnehmen könne. (Microsoft lehnte ab und sagte, es sei noch nicht bereit, über seine Pläne zu sprechen.)

Microsoft hatte zwei Anfragen. Zunächst wollte Apple, dass Benutzer für In-App-Käufe auf die Microsoft-Website umgeleitet werden. Microsoft würde die Zahlung abwickeln und die 30% ige Gebühr von Apple für In-App-Käufe umgehen.

Zweitens wollten sie, dass Schiller und Cue sich mit Microsoft-Kollegen treffen, insbesondere mit Kirk Koenigsbauer, der derzeit Senior Vice President von Microsoft ist.

Schiller stimmte dem Treffen zu, goss aber in einer E-Mail kaltes Wasser auf den Zahlungsvorschlag von Microsoft. “Wir führen den Laden, wir sammeln die Einnahmen.”

Microsoft veröffentlichte Office erst 2014 für das iPad, nachdem Satya Nadella Steve Ballmer als CEO des Unternehmens übernommen hatte.

Epische Spiele und Marshmello

Bevor Apple Epics Shooter-Spiel Fortnite aus dem App Store entfernte, war es eine der erfolgreichsten Apps im Store, und Mitarbeiter beider Unternehmen arbeiteten daran, Cross-Promotion-Deals zu besiegeln, wie Gerichtsakten belegen.

Epic lieferte Demos bei Apple-Startveranstaltungen, in denen neue Technologien, Zitate zu Apple-Spielefunktionen und Heads-up zu den großen Veranstaltungen und Werbeaktionen in Fortnite vorgestellt wurden.

Im Gegenzug wurde Epic Games über den Apple App Store sowie über andere Apple Media-Eigenschaften wie Apple Music für Fortnite beworben. Es nutzte auch seine Beziehung zu Apple-Mitarbeitern, um eine Fortnite-Abzocke aus dem App Store zu starten.

Eine E-Mail von Epic Games 2019 enthält Mitarbeiter, die über ein Konzert 2019 im Fortnite-Spiel mit Marshmello, einem DJ, sprechen.

Apple wollte eine Partnerschaft eingehen – aber erst nachdem sichergestellt wurde, dass Marshmellos Mix keine Schimpfwörter enthält -, heißt es in den E-Mails und enthielt einen Vorschlag für eine Cross-Promotion mit Apples Marke Apple Music, einschließlich Werbetafeln in New York und Los Angeles, digitaler Werbung und Posts von Apples Social-Media-Konten.

Apple benötigte die Erlaubnis, den Namen Fortnite in seinen Apple Music-Wiedergabelisten und -Anzeigen zu verwenden, aber die Mitarbeiter von Epic waffelten. Man befürchtete, Apple würde nach Epic “kooptieren und zeichnen”.

Ein anderer Mitarbeiter wies auf die Vorteile von Epic Games hin, darunter, dass das Unternehmen wollte, dass Apple künftige Fortnite-Events sponsert, und dass sie eine große Chance für das Wachstum des Spiels bei den iPhone-Spielern sahen.

“Apple-Werbespots sind immer geschmackvoll und cool”, schrieb ein Mitarbeiter von Epic. “Sie würden damit nichts anfangen.”

Apple schien besonders daran interessiert zu sein, dass Epic Games ARKit unterstützt, eine Software für iPhones, die ihre 3D-Sensorhardware verwendet, um die reale Welt und Computergrafiken zu integrieren.

In epischen E-Mails aus dem Jahr 2017 wurde ein Treffen mit Apple besprochen, um die Gesichtsverfolgung des iPhones zu integrieren und animierte Charaktere zu erstellen.

Die Partnerschaft zwischen den beiden Unternehmen wurde bis 2020 verlängert. Kurz nachdem Apple ein High-End-iPad-Modell mit einem neuen 3D-Scanner herausgebracht hatte, bot ein Apple-Mitarbeiter Epic Games ein Treffen mit dem ARKit-Team von Apple an, das die Software dafür herstellte, und ließ später die Möglichkeit aufkommen Förderung auf seiner jährlichen Entwicklerkonferenz.

Im Jahr 2018, nachdem Fortnite veröffentlicht worden war und an Dynamik gewonnen hatte, antwortete Epic Games-Mitbegründer Mark Rein auf eine E-Mail und fragte: “[I]Können wir irgendetwas tun, damit Apple in erheblichem Maße hinter uns bleibt? “

Rein sagte, er habe bereits ein Treffen mit Apple im Februar geplant und Apple sei “SEHR” daran interessiert, die Smartphone-Version von Fortnite zu sehen.

Apple hatte Fortnite seit 2015 beworben, als auf der WWDC-Konferenz von Apple eine frühe Version des Spiels auf der Bühne auf einem Mac demonstriert wurde.

Die Beziehung zwischen den beiden Unternehmen bedeutete jedoch nicht, dass die Verhandlungen jemals das Niveau von Apple-CEO Tim Cook erreichten. Im Jahr 2015, Wochen nach der Präsentation von Epic Games auf einer Apple-Veranstaltung, schickte Tim Sweeney, CEO von Epic Games, eine E-Mail an Cook, in der er sich über die Regeln des App Store beschwerte.

Cook fragte seine Leutnants: “Ist das der Typ, der bei einer unserer Proben war?”

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Business

Microsoft to Purchase Synthetic Intelligence Supplier for $16 Billion

Microsoft to Buy Artificial Intelligence Provider for $16 Billion

Microsoft announced Monday that it would buy Nuance Communications, a provider of artificial intelligence and speech recognition software, for approximately $ 16 billion to expand its healthcare technology services.

With the acquisition of Nuance, whose products include the Dragon transcription tool, Microsoft hopes to improve its offering for the rapidly growing field of medical computing. Nuance has an established customer base and a wide range of health care-related voice and text data that is often an integral part of building new systems.

Microsoft and Nuance have been working together since 2019, but the acquisition signals that Microsoft has greater ambitions for Nuance technology. Microsoft has made major investments in industry-specific cloud technologies, including healthcare, finance, and retail.

Microsoft said the acquisition would double the size of the healthcare market in which it competed to nearly $ 500 billion.

The deal is Microsoft’s largest acquisition since it acquired LinkedIn in 2015 for $ 26.2 billion.

“Nuance provides the AI ​​layer at the point of delivery in healthcare and is a pioneer in the real-world application of enterprise AI,” said Satya Nadella, Microsoft executive director, in a statement.

Typically, when Microsoft buys a company, its executives believe they can do more with the technology than the company it is buying, a model that fits the Nuance deal, said Brad Reback, an analyst at investment bank Stifel. Nuance’s proven track record in healthcare with its technical and complex vocabulary means Microsoft could adopt other types of businesses.

“Being able to solve this problem makes it a lot easier to use terminology from other industries,” said Reback.

Nuance’s tools are also mainly used in the United States. Selling to a global powerhouse like Microsoft allows the company to sell internationally much faster. “We saw the opportunity to transcend how we transform an industry,” said Mark Benjamin, Nuance CEO, in an interview.

Microsoft’s profitable business means it has money to spend. It ended up with $ 132 billion in cash in 2020 and was looking for big deals to take advantage of that money. In September, a deal was announced to spend $ 7.5 billion on ZeniMax Media, the parent company of game studios that make big titles like Doom and Quake.

However, other potential acquisitions were not always planned. Last year, a blockbuster offer to buy TikTok, the viral social network, turned into a political soap opera and fell apart. Microsoft has also considered buying Discord, a live chat community primarily used by gamers, although the status of these conversations is unclear.

In business today

Updated

April 12, 2021, 2:03 p.m. ET

Under the agreement, Microsoft will pay $ 56 per share in cash, up 23 percent from Nuance’s closing price on Friday – a total of around $ 16 billion. Including the assumed debt, the transaction is valued at Nuance at approximately $ 19.7 billion.

Nuance was a pioneer in speech recognition. It led the market in the 1990s and 2000s, providing some of the underlying technology for Siri, the talking digital assistant that debuted on the Apple iPhone in 2011. Licensing technology for Apple and other companies was an integral part of his business.

Li Deng, who headed speech recognition research at Microsoft for nearly two decades, said in an email interview that he asked his bosses to take over Nuance in 1999, but Microsoft shrank because the price was too high.

Speech recognition changed radically in 2010 when a team of researchers at a Microsoft research lab outside Seattle built a new type of speech recognition system using a method called deep learning. Far more effective than previous technologies, this method quickly spread throughout the industry, with companies like Microsoft, Google, and IBM in the foreground.

This technology enables Siri, Google Assistant, and other digital assistants to recognize spoken words with near-human accuracy. Companies such as Microsoft and Google also sell the technology to other companies via so-called cloud computing services.

Following this move, Nuance revamped its own business, offering speech recognition and other technologies for specific markets, particularly healthcare.

During a conference call with investors, Mr. Benjamin, Nuance’s chief executive officer, who will remain in the role after the acquisition, said his company’s healthcare business grew 37 percent over the past year and that he anticipates additional growth. According to Microsoft, Nuance technology has been used by more than 55 percent of physicians and 75 percent of radiologists in the United States and 77 percent of hospitals in the country.

“The deal gives Microsoft access to half a million doctors and some of the largest hospitals in the world,” said Dan Ives, managing director, equity research, Wedbush Securities.

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Business

1000’s of Microsoft Prospects Could Have Been Victims of Hack Tied to China

Thousands of Microsoft Customers May Have Been Victims of Hack Tied to China

U.S. corporations and government agencies using a Microsoft email service have been compromised in an aggressive hacking campaign likely sponsored by the Chinese government, Microsoft said.

The number of victims is estimated at tens of thousands and, according to some security experts, could rise if the investigation into the breach continues. According to Volexity, the cybersecurity firm that discovered the hack, the hackers secretly attacked multiple targets in January, but their efforts escalated in recent weeks as Microsoft fixed the vulnerabilities exploited in the attack.

The US government’s cybersecurity agency issued an emergency warning on Wednesday fearing that the hacking campaign had hit a large number of targets. The warning prompted federal agencies to patch their systems immediately. On Friday, cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs reported that the attack hit at least 30,000 Microsoft customers.

“We are concerned that there are large numbers of victims,” ​​said White House press secretary Jen Psaki during a press conference on Friday. The attack “could have far-reaching effects,” she added.

Federal officials struggled to understand how the most recent hack compares to last year’s penetration by Russian hackers into a variety of federal agencies and corporate systems in what is known as the SolarWinds attack. In this case, the Russian hackers put code in an update to the SolarWinds network management software. While around 18,000 customers of the company have downloaded the code, so far there is only evidence that the Russian hackers have stolen material from nine government agencies and around 100 companies.

In the hack Microsoft attributed to the Chinese, it is estimated that around 30,000 customers were affected when the hackers exploited vulnerabilities in Exchange, an email and calendar server created by Microsoft. These systems are used by a wide range of customers, from small businesses to local and state agencies to some military contractors. The hackers were able to steal email and install malware to continue monitoring their targets, Microsoft said in a blog post, but Microsoft said it had no idea how extensive the theft was.

The campaign was spotted in January, said Steven Adair, founder of Volexity. The hackers quietly stole emails from multiple destinations, exploiting a flaw that allowed them to access email servers without a password.

“This is what we consider to be really secret,” Adair said, adding that the discovery sparked a frantic investigation. “It made us tear everything apart.” Volexity reported its findings to Microsoft and the US government, he added.

The attack escalated at the end of February. The hackers began weaving multiple vulnerabilities together and targeting a wider group of victims. “We knew that what we had reported and seen as very secret was now being combined and chained to another exploit,” said Adair. “It just got worse and worse.”

According to a cybersecurity researcher who investigated the U.S. investigation into the hacks and who has no authority to speak publicly about the matter, the hackers attacked as many victims as possible online, hitting small businesses, local governments and large credit unions. The errors used by the hackers, known as zero-days, were previously unknown to Microsoft.

“We are closely following Microsoft’s emergency patch for previously unknown vulnerabilities in Exchange Server software and reporting possible compromises between US think tanks and defense companies,” said Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor to the White House.

“This is the real deal,” tweeted Christopher Krebs, former director of the US agency for cybersecurity and infrastructure. (Mr. Krebs is not related to the cybersecurity reporter who posted the number of victims.)

Mr Krebs added that companies and organizations using Microsoft’s Exchange program should assume they were hacked sometime between February 26th and March 3rd and should work on it quickly that past week Install patches published by Microsoft.

Microsoft said a Chinese hacking group called Hafnium, “a government sponsored group that operates out of China,” was behind the hack.

Since the company announced the attack, other non-hafnium hackers have started exploiting the vulnerabilities for target organizations that haven’t patched their systems, Microsoft said. “Microsoft continues to see increased use of these vulnerabilities when multiple unpatched systems are attacked by multiple malicious actors,” the company said.

Patching these systems is not an easy task. Email servers are difficult to maintain, even for security professionals, and many companies lack the expertise to securely host their own servers. For years, Microsoft has been pushing these customers to move to the cloud, where Microsoft can manage security for them. Industry experts said the security incidents could encourage customers to move to the cloud and be a financial boon to Microsoft.

Because of the scale of the attack, many Exchange users are likely to be at risk, Adair said. “Even people who fixed this asap, there is an extremely high chance that they have already been compromised.”

Nicole Perlroth contributed to the reporting.

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Health

Microsoft, Salesforce and Oracle engaged on Covid vaccination passport

Microsoft, Salesforce and Oracle working on Covid vaccination passport

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

LONDON – A digital Covid vaccination record is being jointly developed by a group of health and technology companies who believe governments, airlines and other companies will soon be asking people to prove they have been vaccinated.

A coalition known as the Vaccination Credential Initiative, which includes Microsoft, Salesforce and Oracle, as well as the nonprofit Mayo Clinic for Healthcare, was revealed on Thursday.

The VCI wants to develop a technology with which individuals can receive an encrypted digital copy of their vaccination data, which can be stored in a digital wallet of their choice such as the Apple Wallet or Google Pay. It has been suggested that anyone without a smartphone can get paper with QR codes that contain verifiable credentials.

The coalition said it will also try to develop new standards to confirm whether or not a person has been vaccinated against the virus. Citizens used to use vaccination books to keep track of their travel vaccines, but authorities rarely ask about them.

“The goal of the Vaccination Credential Initiative is to give individuals digital access to their vaccination records,” said Paul Meyer, CEO of The Commons Project, a coalition member, in a statement.

He added that technology should enable people “to return to travel, work, school and life safely while protecting their privacy”.

Bill Patterson, executive vice president and general manager of enterprise software company Salesforce, said his company aims to help organizations “adapt all aspects of the vaccination management lifecycle and integrate closely with other coalition members’ offerings, which will help us all get back to it.” . ” public life.”

“With a single platform that helps ensure safe, continuous operations and instill customer and employee trust, this coalition will be vital to public health and wellbeing,” added Patterson.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Vaccine shares opinion

While many people can’t wait to protect themselves from the virus, some firmly believe they won’t get the sting, so populations will be divided into vaccinated and unvaccinated populations. One in five people in the UK say they are unlikely to receive the vaccine. This is the result of a YouGov study published in November, which gives various reasons.

Millions of people around the world still do not want to be vaccinated, according to opinion polls. Some fear needles, others believe in baseless conspiracy theories, and others are concerned about possible side effects. Others just don’t feel it is necessary to get vaccinated and prefer to risk catching Covid.

Due to the different views, a debate could start in 2021. Should restrictions be placed on people who do not wish to be vaccinated as they can catch and spread the virus?

It’s a touchy subject, but governments are already looking into putting in place systems that will allow authorities and possibly businesses to determine whether or not a person has received a Covid vaccine.

In December, it emerged that Los Angeles County is planning to save Covid vaccine recipients a vaccination record in the Apple Wallet on their iPhone, which can also be used to store tickets and boarding passes in digital form. Officials say it will first be used to remind people to get their second shot of the vaccine, but it could eventually be used to gain access to concert venues or airline flights.

China has launched a health code app that shows whether a person is symptom-free to check into a hotel or use the subway. In Chile, citizens who have recovered from the coronavirus have been issued “virus-free” certificates.

On December 28, Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa said the country would create a register to show who refused to be vaccinated and that the database could be shared across Europe.

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said in April that immunity passes could be used to help airmen feel more secure in their personal safety while traveling.

A Ryanair spokesperson said “Vaccinations are not required when flying Ryanair” when CNBC asked if it would ever prevent unvaccinated people from flying its planes. British Airways, Qantas and easyJet did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Isra Black, professor of law at the University of York, and Lisa Forsberg, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford who studies medical ethics, told CNBC that it is “not easy to say whether this is ethical for a state . ” Impose restrictions “on people who refuse a push.

The scientists said in a joint statement via email that the answer will depend on factors such as vaccine supply, vaccination levels in the population, the nature of restrictions on vaccine objectors, and the implementation of the restrictions.

“We might think that there are strong, if not necessarily decisive, reasons for restricting the regaining of freedoms before the pandemic for people who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19, for example with regard to their freedom of assembly,” said Black and Forsberg. “There is potential for unvaccinated individuals to contract a serious case of coronavirus that we believe would be bad for them but could also negatively affect others, such as if health resources were diverted from non-covidic care have to.”

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Business

Microsoft Says Russian Hackers Considered A few of Its Supply Code

Microsoft Says Russian Hackers Viewed Some of Its Source Code

Microsoft said Thursday that the far-reaching Russian hack by US government agencies and private companies had penetrated its network further than the company had previously understood.

While the hackers, who presumably work for the Russian secret service SVR, apparently did not use Microsoft’s systems to attack other victims, they were able to view the Microsoft source code through an employee account.

Microsoft said the hackers couldn’t get into email or their products and services, and that they couldn’t change the source code displayed. No information was given on how long hackers had been on the networks or what source code of the products was displayed. Microsoft originally said it was not injured in the attack.

“Our investigation of our own environment has revealed no evidence of access to manufacturing services or customer data,” the company said in a blog post. “The ongoing investigation also found no evidence that our systems were used to attack others.”

The hack, which may still be ongoing, appears to have started as early as October 2019. At the time, hackers breached SolarWinds, a Texan company that provides technology monitoring services to government agencies and 425 of the Fortune 500 companies. The compromised software was then used to break into the Commerce, Treasury, State and Energy departments, along with FireEye, a leading cybersecurity company that first exposed the breach last month.

Investigators are still trying to understand what the hackers stole, and active investigations suggest that the attack is more widespread than originally thought. Last week, CrowdStrike, a FireEye competitor, announced that it had been unsuccessfully attacked by the same attackers. In this case, the hackers used Microsoft resellers, companies that sell software on Microsoft’s behalf, to try to gain access to their systems.

The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed that SolarWinds was just one of several ways the Russians attacked American agencies, tech and cybersecurity companies.

President Trump has publicly suggested that China, not Russia, may have been the culprit behind the hack – a finding that has been denied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other senior members of the administration. Mr Trump has also privately referred to the attack as a “joke”.

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has accused Mr. Trump of downplaying the hack, saying his administration will not be able to trust the software and networks that federal agencies rely on to do business.

Ron Klain, Mr Biden’s chief of staff, said the administration was planning a response beyond sanctions.

Economy & Economy

Updated

Dec. Dec. 23, 2020 at 8:59 p.m. ET

“Those responsible will have consequences,” Klain told CBS last week. “It’s not just sanctions. There are also steps and things we could do to reduce the ability of foreign actors to repeat this type of attack or, worse, carry out more dangerous attacks. “

Security experts said the scope of the hack cannot be fully known yet. SolarWinds has announced that its compromised software has found its way onto 18,000 networks of its customers. While SolarWinds, Microsoft, and FireEye believe the number of actual casualties could be limited to dozens, ongoing research suggests the number could be much larger.

“This hack is far worse and more powerful than we realize today,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator and former chief technology officer at CrowdStrike. “We should be prepared for the fact that many more shoes will fall in the coming months.”

American officials are still trying to understand whether the hack was traditional espionage, similar to what the National Security Agency does with foreign networks, or whether the Russians built so-called backdoors into systems at government agencies, large corporations, the power grid, and the United States have nuclear weapons labs for future attacks.

Officials believe the hack stopped on unclassified systems but are concerned about sensitive unclassified data that the hackers may have obtained.

Microsoft said Thursday that its investigation found unusual activity on a small number of employee accounts. It was then found that one was used to display “a number of source code repositories”.

“The account did not have permission to change any code or technical systems, and our investigation also confirmed that no changes were made,” the company said on its blog post.

Unlike many technology companies, Microsoft does not rely on the secrecy of its source code to keep its products safe. Employees can easily view the source code, and the risk models assume that attackers can access it immediately, which suggests that the consequences of the breach could be limited.

Some government officials have been frustrated that Microsoft, which for a private company may have the largest window into global cyber activity, did not recognize the government and alerted them to the hack sooner. Federal agencies and intelligence agencies learned of the SolarWinds breach from FireEye.

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, said the hack was a government failure to share threat intelligence intelligence between government agencies and the private sector. In a December interview, he called the hack a “moment of reckoning”.

“How will our government react to this?” Asked Mr. Smith. “It feels like the nation has lost sight of the lessons of September 11th. Twenty years after something terrible happened, people forget what they need to do to be successful. “