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Stability AI’s new text-to-audio tool is like a Midjourney for music samples
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Stability AI is taking its generative AI tech into the world of music as the developer has launched a new text-to-audio engine called Stable Audio.

Similar to the Stable Diffusion model, Stable Audio can create short sound bites based on a simple text prompt. The company explains in its announcement post that the AI was trained on content from the online music library AudioSparx. It even claims the model is capable of creating “high-quality, 44.1 kHz music for commercial use”. To put that number into perspective, 44.1 kHz is considered to be CD quality audio. So it’s pretty good but not the greatest.

Stable Audio user interface

(Image credit: Stability AI)

A free version of Stable Audio is currently available to the public where you’re allowed to generate and download 20 individual tracks a month. Each sound bite has a 45 second runtime so they won’t be very long.

Prompting music

The text prompts you enter can be simple inputs. Listening to the samples provided by Stability AI, “Car Passing By” sounds exactly as the title suggests – a car driving by in the distance although it is a little muffled. Conversely, you can also stack on details. One particular sample has a prompt involving Ambient Techno, an 808 drum machine, claps, a synthesizer, the word “ethereal”, 122 BPM, and a “Scandinavian Forest” (whatever that means). The result of this word combination is an ambient lo-fi hip-hop beat.

We took Stable Audio out for a quick spin. We were able to enter one prompt asking the AI to create a fast-paced garage rock song from the early 2000s and it sort of accomplished the goal. The generated track matched the style although it sounded really messy. 

Personal Stable Audio input

(Image credit: Future)

Unfortunately, we couldn’t go any further besides the single input. At the time of this writing, Stable Audio is seeing a huge influx of traffic from people rushing in to try out the model. The developer recommends trying again later or the next day if you’re met with nothing but a blank screen.

There is a catch with the free version – it’s for non-commercial use only. If you want to use the content commercially, then you’ll have to purchase the $ 12 Stable Audio Professional monthly plan. It also offers 500 track generations a month, each with a duration of up to 90 seconds. There’s an Enterprise plan too for custom audio duration and monthly generations. You will, however, have to contact Stability AI first to set up a plan.

Imperfect tool

Do be aware the technology isn’t perfect. The content sounds fine for the most part, however certain aspects will seem off. The mix in that Ambient Techno song mentioned earlier isn’t very good in our opinion. It was like the bass and synthesizer are fighting over what will be the dominant sound, resulting in just noise. Additionally, it doesn’t appear the AI can do vocals. It only does instrumentals. 

Stable Audio is interesting for sure, but not something that should be totally relied on. We should note the company is asking for feedback from users on how to improve the AI. A contact email can found on the official announcement page.

If you plan on utilizing this tech for your own purpose, we recommend checking TechRadar’s list of the best audio editors for 2023 to fix any flaw you might come across. 

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Google’s new AI tool can help organize your messy Google Docs files
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Google is launching yet another large language model (LLM) with the purpose of helping people organize their messy Google Docs accounts.

Say you’re a college student who typed in a series of notes into a Google Docs file for class, but you didn’t put a lot of thought into the page’s structure. It’s all one big mess of randomly organized ideas. Now, you can ask the new NotebookLM tool to generate a short summary to read so you have a better idea of what you wrote. The original file will still be there for reference. It’s not going anywhere. The generative AI will even throw in some “key topics and questions” based on the summarized information to help users gain “a better understanding of the material.” What’s more, you are not limited to a single document. Notebook LM is able to pull from multiple sources for its content.

Directing the AI

Like Bard, Google’s other generative AI, you can ask NotebookLM questions to better direct its response if you want to know something in particular. In an example given, a student can upload an “article about neuroscience” and then tell the AI to construct a list of “key terms related to dopamine” from that particular piece.

NotebookLM isn’t only for summarizing your school notes. It can, according to Google, generate ideas, too. Google states a content creator can give the LLM their idea for a new video and then instruct it to write up a rough draft for a script or help a businessperson come up with questions to ask at an investors’ meeting.

As helpful as it may sound, there is one major problem. Believe it or not, NotebookLM can still hallucinate. Even though the main source is your own personal Google Docs account, there's still the possibility it could create false information. The company recommends double-checking the generated responses “against your original source material” just to be safe. If the AI is grabbing from multiple sources, Google states each response will have citations so you’ll know exactly where everything is coming from. 

Future release

NotebookLM is currently seeing a limited release as it is still experimental technology. If you want to try it out yourself, head on over to the Google Labs website and sign up for the waitlist. Once a spot opens up, Google will shoot over an email letting you know. The company is asking the lucky few who gain access to please provide feedback so it can improve the AI.

NotebookLM actually made its world debut during Google I/O 2023 when it was originally known as Project Tailwind. The event saw the tech giant tease a lot of upcoming devices and software; most of which have been released with a few stragglers remaining. Universal Translator, for example, is still missing in action. If you don’t recall, it’s an “AI video dubbing service” that has the ability to translate speech in real-time. There also isn’t a lot of information out there regarding the Sidekick panel, a Google Docs feature that can create text prompts while writing.

We asked Google if it could provide any insight on the missing I/O 2023 tech plus when it will release the final version of NotebookLM. This story will be updated at a later time.

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Windows 11 gets a troubleshooting tool for one of its most controversial spec requirements
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Windows 11 requires the TPM 2.0 security feature (at least officially), but what if you’re having trouble with that particular chip (which remains a controversial system requirement)?

Well, help could soon be at hand, at least going by a new feature spotted in testing – by ever-present leaker PhantomOfEarth on Twitter – with Windows 11’s latest build (25905) in the Canary channel.

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As you can see, the Windows Security app now carries a ‘TPM troubleshooter’ option. As the text for the feature lets us know, this is useful for finding and fixing problems with your TPM 2.0 module.

For the uninitiated, TPM (which stands for Trusted Platform Module) can be a separate hardware chip, or firmware TPM (fTPM) that uses your CPU, and it’s a system that provides tighter security for your PC. (There’s a lot more to it than that, mind, but that’s the gist).

Why is TPM 2.0 so controversial, then? Because a lot of older PCs don’t have it – or even not-all-that-old machines – and people feel that being forced to upgrade (either their motherboard and CPU, or adding a TPM security chip) is an unfair stipulation to get Windows 11. (Windows 10 does not have this requirement, of course).

Microsoft, however, has made it quite clear that beefing up security requires TPM 2.0, and argues that this is something implemented for the good of users, and protecting them against being exploited by hackers.

Analysis: A handy extra to help with TPM woes (we hope)

What might this troubleshooter actually do, then? Well, as Neowin, which spotted the tweet revealing the presence of this feature in testing, points out, it’s possible to encounter odd errors with TPM. For example: “Can’t get TPM information. Contact your device manufacturer.”

That’s not a very helpful error message, and with the new feature, what you’ll be able to do is fire up a Windows troubleshooter to look further into the issue. Hopefully, that might give you further clues as to what’s gone awry (and maybe even solve the problem, with any luck – though Microsoft’s troubleshooters are not always that reliable).

Whatever the case, having some help on-hand is certainly better than nothing (plus there’s another option here to reset your TPM back to default settings, too). Provided, of course, this feature makes the cut for the release version of Windows 11, if it proves useful and well-received in testing. Currently, we’re told that this capability is a limited rollout, so not every Canary channel tester is seeing the TPM troubleshooter.

That’s not unusual, as with many features, Microsoft deploys them to only a small subset of testers to begin with, just to check if there are any major problems, and to monitor early feedback.

Given the controversy around TPM 2.0 – and the fact that it’ll definitely be a requirement for Windows 12 too – we can guess that this troubleshooter is likely to be something that’ll appear in the finished version of Windows 11. Because anything that makes running TPM a smoother experience has to be useful.

This functionality could even pitch up in the 23H2 update, which we’ve just heard some news on – something that makes us think that the Copilot AI, which is rumored for inclusion in 23H2, won’t actually be part of that upgrade due later this year.

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ChatGPT is now a brilliant tool for winding up telemarketers and scammers
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If there’s one thing most people on the internet can agree on is we all hate those annoying telemarketing scams calling us at all hours of the day. Software developer Roger Anderson decided to fight fire with fire as he recently equipped his robotic voice service with OpenAI’s GPT-4 large language model to fool them into wasting time.

And the best part is you can get in on it. 

Anderson’s service is called Jolly Roger Telephone which sells AI personalities to engage in ridiculous conversations with scammers. A recent Wall Street Journal report details one of these engagements where a telemarketer claiming to be from Bank of America called a potential mark only to be answered by Whitey Whitebeard, one of the AIs. Whitey, as a character, has a habit of speaking circles. The AI was so effective at its job the scammer eventually hung up out of sheer exhaustion about six minutes into the call. 

How it all works

The Wall Street Journal states Jolly Roger Telephone has been around for almost a decade. However when ChatGPT launched late 2022, Anderson saw an opportunity to upgrade his service. He claims GPT-4 “does a pretty good job of saying dumb things that are somewhat funny” to keep caller engaged.

The way the service works, according to the report, is, when a scammer calls, the AI proceeds to “[stall] for time at the start” by saying a bunch of absurdities. It does this to give GPT-4 some time to process what it hears before generating responses. Once done, the text is then “fed into a voice cloner” where the digital personality proceeds to have a ridiculous conversation.

Customers can connect either a landline or mobile phone number to one of the AIs. Personalities include Whitey Whitebeard as mentioned earlier; Salty Sally, a distracted, scatterbrained mother; and Whiskey Jack who often goes into non-sequiturs. Demos are available on Jolly Roger’s website. Be warned: some of the samples have scammers get so angry they begin throwing out expletives so listen with some headphones on. Users will also be given a choice of two numbers – one will record the call while the other won’t. 

Availability

Jolly Roger Telephone is available in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and NewZealand. People in the United States get access to 10 robot voices while everyone else gets six. A subscription costs only $ 1.99 a month. Once you’re in, Jolly Roger Telephone will take you through a multi-step process involving convincing your phone company to allow the service onto your connection as well as whitelisting the numbers of those in your contacts list. 

We reached out to Jolly Roger for information on what kind of voice cloner the company uses plus prices in other countries. This story will be updated at a later time.

Truth be told, these personalities are shockingly lifelike. They’re not perfectly human, but the combination of GPT-4 alongside the voice cloner gets pretty close to a real voice. Listen to Jolly Roger’s demos and you can easily see how these scammers got fooled. 

As funny as the AI personalities may be, we recommend getting more robust protection for your personal information. Be sure to check out TechRadar’s guide of the best identity theft protection software for 2023. 

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YouTube video translation is getting an AI-powered dubbing tool upgrade
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YouTube is going to help its creators reach an international audience as the platform plans on introducing a new AI-powered dubbing tool for translating videos into other languages.

Announced at VidCon 2023, the goal of this latest endeavor is to provide a quick and easy way for creators to translate “at no cost” their content into languages they don’t speak. This can help out smaller channels as they may not have the resources to hire a human translator. To make this all possible, Amjad Hanif, vice president of Creator Products at YouTube, revealed the tool will utilize the Google-created Aloud plus the platform will be bringing over the team behind the AI from Area 120, a division of the parent company that frequently works on experimental tech.

Easy translation

The way the translation system works, according to the official Aloud website, is the AI will first transcribe a video into a script. You then edit the transcription to get rid of any errors, make clarifications, or highlight text “where timing is critical.” From there, you give the edited script back to Aloud where it will automatically translate your video into the language of your choice. Once done, you can publish the newly dubbed content by uploading any new audio tracks onto their original video.

A Google representative told us “creators do not have to [actually] understand any of the languages that they are dubbing into.” Aloud will handle all of the heavy lifting surrounding complex tasks like “translation, timing, and speech synthesis.” Again, all you have to do is double-check the transcription. 

Future changes

It’s unknown when the Aloud update will launch. However, YouTube is already working on expanding the AI beyond what it’s currently possible. Right now, Aloud can only translate English content to either Spanish or Portuguese. But there are plans to expand into other languages from Hindi to Indonesian plus support for different dialects.

Later down the line, the platform will introduce a variety of features such as “voice preservation, better emotion transfer, and even lip reanimation” to improve enunciation. Additionally, YouTube is going to build in some safeguards ensuring only the creators can “dub their own content”.

The same Google representative from earlier also told us the platform is testing the Aloud AI with “hundreds of [YouTube] creators” with plans to add more over time. As of June 2023, over 10,000 videos have been dubbed in over 70 languages. 

You can join the early access program by filling out the official Google Docs form. If you want to know what an Aloud dub sounds like, go watch the channel trailer for the Amoeba Sisters channel on YouTube. Click the gear icon, go to Audio Track, then select Spanish. The robotic voice you’ll hear is what the AI will create. 

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Meta says its new speech-generating AI tool is too dangerous to release
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Meta has unveiled a new AI tool, dubbed ‘Voicebox’, which it claims represents a breakthrough in AI-powered speech generation. However, the company won’t be unleashing it on the public just yet – because doing so could be disastrous.

Voicebox is currently able to produce audio clips of speech in six languages (all of which are European of origin), and – according to a blog post from Meta – is the first AI model of its kind capable of completing tasks beyond what it was ‘specifically trained to accomplish’. Meta claims that Voicebox handily outperforms competing speech-generation AIs in virtually every area.

So what exactly is it capable of? Well, for starters, it can spew out reasonably accurate text-to-speech replications of a person’s voice using a sample audio file as short as two seconds, a seemingly innocuous ability that holds a huge amount of destructive potential in the wrong hands.

The dubious power of AI

Even setting aside the dodgy stuff that creeps on the internet have been doing with ChatGPT and other AI tools (Voicebox certainly sounds like it could be a boon for anyone making fake revenge porn), this is the sort of technology that could quite literally start a war.

After all, most major public figures, including politicians, have plenty of audio recordings floating around the internet. It wouldn’t be hard to collate some speech clips of an incumbent political leader and use Voicebox to produce a startlingly realistic replication of their voice – something that could then be used for nefarious purposes.

Mark Zuckerberg

Big Zuck (sorry, ‘Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’) has been investing heavily in AI development at Meta for years now. (Image credit: Facebook)

Such tools exist already, of course, but they’re less convincing; you may have seen amusing videos on social media featuring the likes of Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama supposedly playing Fortnite together. It’s good for a laugh, but the audio is hardly convincing. It mimics the mannerisms of each presidential gamer enough that they’re recognizable, but not so well that anyone with a brain would actually believe it’s them.

Meta clearly believes its new tool is good enough to fool at least the majority of people, though – since it’s explicitly not releasing Voicebox to the public, but instead publishing a research paper and detailing a classifier tool that can identify Voicebox-generated speech from real human speech. Meta describes the classifier as “highly effective” – though notably not perfectly effective.

Speaking machines

Of course, while Meta is keen to stress that it recognizes the “potential for misuse and unintended harm” surrounding tools like Voicebox, it’s important not to lose sight of the potential benefits AI speech generation could have in the future.

Voicebox – befitting its name – could provide far more naturalistic speech to people who are mute or otherwise unable to communicate, removing some of the barriers to interaction caused by the existing text-to-speech ‘robot voice’ made famous by physicist Stephen Hawking. It could also perform real-time translation, bringing us one step closer to the sort of ‘universal translator’ devices that currently exist only in science fiction.

Instagram app logo on iOS

Instagram – which is owned by Meta – could prove to be a successful home for Voicebox, improving and translating videos for a wider audience. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

There are other applications too; smaller, but no less useful. Meta explains in its blog post that Voicebox can be used to edit and improve recorded speech. If you’ve recorded some audio but you mispronounced a word or were interrupted by background noise, Voicebox can isolate the offending segment and ‘re-record’ a snippet of speech using your voice. Impressive, and only slightly terrifying.

In any case, it’s good to see Meta taking a serious, considered approach here. Microsoft’s frantic eagerness to shove Bing AI into everything has landed it in hot water more than once, and OpenAI unleashing ChatGPT on the world has led to all sorts of weirdness over the past year. We’re in an AI gold rush, and these tools are making their way into every part of our lives.

A little caution, patience, and respect for the magnitude of this technology is a welcome sight – although I doubt Meta will sit on Voicebox for too long, since the shareholders will no doubt be wondering how much money it can make them…

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Adobe Illustrator gets its first Firefly AI tool
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Adobe Illustrator is the latest app to get Firefly capabilities, with the update aimed at letting designers rapidly experiment with colors using simple text prompts. 

Generative Recolor is the first example of an Adobe Firefly-powered tool inside the popular graphic design software. Designers can use text prompts to create and save custom themes for recoloring vector artwork, so there’s no need to spend time altering individual elements of a commercial design. 

The move comes days after rolling out Adobe Express and Firefly for Enterprise, as the company ramps up integration of its AI art generator.  

Setting Illustrator alight 

If there’s one thing we learned at Adobe Summit 2023, it’s that the firm is keen to push its AI as a co-pilot for creators of all experience levels, at every level of an organization. The latest Firefly-powered tool is no exception, with the company highlighting diverse uses from marketing graphics to mood-boarding.  

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> Adobe makes Express and Firefly for Enterprise happen

> The best laptops for graphic design tested

> Adobe rival launches major update update to creative suite 

Still in beta and built directly into Illustrator, Generative Recolor lets designers capture the mood of a piece based on text prompts – the examples used by Adobe include “noon in the desert” and “midnight in the jungle”. Users can then quickly experiment by swapping out colors, palettes, and themes, and produce multiple color variants for a wide range of uses, like seasonally appropriate advertising.  

Adobe Illustrator infused with Firefly's AI capabilities

(Image credit: Adobe)

“Adobe Illustrator is the tool behind many of the world’s most iconic designs, from brand logos to product packaging. Firefly will help customers accelerate their creative process and save countless hours, while facilitating rapid ideation, experimentation and asset creation,” said Ashley Still, senior vice president, digital media at Adobe.

But it’s not the only new update to the digital art software, which also added the font tool Retype, new Layers functionalities, and improvements to Image Trace.

As we reported last week, Adobe reconfirmed future plans to let businesses train Firefly with custom assets to create brand-aligned content. Enterprise users will soon be able to get an IP indemnity from Adobe to guard against copyright claims and help make the AI-generated content “commercially safe” for businesses.

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This video maker’s new AI editing tool picks your best takes for you
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Artificial intelligence may already be a staple in the best video editing software, but now Veed is launching what it calls an “industry-first editing tool” for its video maker platform. 

Every second counts when making online video, especially on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where brands only have a few seconds to capture the audience. Presumably, Veed thinks our “umms” and “aahs” are wasting valuable time – with Magic Cut set to clean up content. 

The AI tool streamlines one of the most time-consuming (read: soul-destroying) parts of video editing – removing all the filler words and pauses. At the touch of a button, users can chop out all hesitation, deviation, or repetition. It’s joined by several other video editing tools aimed at polishing up post-production.

Critical content creation 

With its video maker service, Veed is no stranger to simplifying content editing. Unlike even the best free video editing software and video editing software for beginners, these services let businesses create a lot of content fast. It’s not Emmy award-winning material. But the videos are professional enough for social media channels. 

The arrival of AI tools like Magic Cut hardly comes as a surprise as developers streamline production processes in the drive for total accessibility. 

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> Adobe Premiere Pro update lets you edit videos like it's a word doc

> These are the best video editing apps around

> Apple wants you to produce an 8K blockbuster with its $ 50 video app

According to Veed's own research, over a third of consumers struggle with editing videos. It’s those users without the time or experience that tools like Magic Cut are really pitched at – an easy way to automatically clip the best takes for TikTok, Shorts, and Reels. 

“Magic Cut means people don’t have to worry about getting the perfect take or spend hours trying to cut out the bits they don’t want. This allows people to spend more time on the creative, fun parts of content creation,” said Veed CEO and co-founder Sabba Keynejad. 

The AI editor isn’t the only tool to find its way onto the platform. Generating subtitles, scripts, and images, removing background noise, and converting text to audio are all now featured. 

Veed’s toolset was one of the few areas we thought the platform really shone for us during our review. Green screen keying and a free screen recorder were two highlights. So, we’ll be interested to see how well Magic Cut performs in the line-up, especially once the fuller featured Clean Edit drops. Users can try it out for themselves by signing up for early access.  

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This new Google Flights tool will help you buy the cheapest plane tickets
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As the weather warms up, people will naturally begin planning their next vacation. Google, in response, is adding four new features across several platforms on smartphones in an effort to help users find good travel deals and build an itinerary.

Arguably the most impactful addition, Google Flights is getting a new price guarantee badge to indicate the current price of a ticket is the lowest it will be for that day. That price point will be monitored “every day until departure, and if it does go down,” Google states it will pay you back the difference via Google Pay. The badge is part of a new pilot program so its reach will be limited. It’ll only show information on flights departing from the United States. 

Google Search, on the other hand, is getting a new Stories-like feature for hotel listings where you can swipe through a series of images to give you an idea of what to expect. User reviews and the location’s website will be present on-screen for more information alongside a booking button. The third Search feature adds prices for local tourist attractions and tour companies with an accompanying booking link. Famous locations in particular will have suggestions underneath the listing “for related experiences”, almost like a mini “city-wide tour”.

And finally, Google Maps will be getting a Recents tab for desktop displaying recently searched locales on the left-hand menu. You can then place everything in a new list to be saved for the future or to be shared with friends. Recents will be available “globally starting next week” with no word on a mobile version yet. That same Maps post does mention other notable travel tools, but it’s all stuff we’ve seen before like Immersive View and the AR-based Live View

Availability

The Google Search update is currently rolling out to mobile with some already online. We were able to try out the hotel Stories slideshow, but neither the flight guarantee badge nor tourist attraction prices were available at the time of this writing. Additionally, we asked Google if the company has plans to expand its badge pilot program to other countries and flights arriving in the US. This story will be updated at a later time if we hear back.

Before you go on vacation, there are a couple of other tools we recommend you become familiar with. Google recently launched extreme heat alerts to Search to let people know of upcoming heat waves and what to do to stay cool. There's also the tracking tool on Maps allowing users to share their location with friends in case they get lost.

You can learn more about this tracking feature and more by checking out TechRadar’s list of the 10 things you didn’t know Google Maps could do.

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This malware tool is still successfully exploiting Internet Explorer vulnerabilities
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The notorious exploit-as-a-service RIG Exploit Kit, targeting users of the positively ancient, vulnerability-ridden web browser Internet Explorer, is still going strong, experts have warned.

Per a report by security research firm Prodaft, installs of the kit are attempting around 2,000 intrusions a day, and succeeding 30% of the time, allowing it to spread infostealers and other forms of malware to users in over 207 countries.

Despite warning against the rise of cybercrime-as-a-service in 2022’s Microsoft Digital Defence Report, and RIG being known to also distribute ransomware, millions of users (mostly in enterprise) just won’t stop using Windows Explorer, having apparently no regard for data privacy.

Update your browser, please God

Internet Explorer has been old news since around 2015, when the now Chromium-based Edge was put into development, and completely depreciated since August 2021. 

And in February 2023, Microsoft announced that it’s finally getting around to scrubbing every last bit of it from existence, such an embarrassment it is in this day and age, and making you use Edge anyway (although you can still do a lot better).

We keep writing about it, and we keep getting emails from burgeoning violent criminals swearing at us over why we bother doling out security posture advice for businesses at all. (Hugs and kisses to all our readership, even if they’ve fled an institution. xox)

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 > Google says North Korea targeted an Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability

> Microsoft prepares for Internet Explorer’s retirement by making Edge better

> We’ve also listed the best endpoint protection services 

But, do you know what, we’re going to do it again: buy new laptops running Windows 11, and enjoy all the advancements in UI that have come on in the last 28 years, you wanton maniac.

And then maybe you won’t have to keep a straight face in front of IT when threat actors known only as “Bean Meme Gang” steal the private medical records of a million people, and we could write about something else.

Via BleepingComputer

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