The decision means the end for the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BCAC) – an organisation that formed in 2019 and aimed to create a regulated ecosystem for crypto in India.

Doing so proved too challenging for the IAMAI which last week issued a statement explaining the closure as necessary "in light of the fact that a resolution of the regulatory environment for the industry is still very uncertain and that the association would like to utilize its limited resources for other emerging digital sectors, which make a more immediate and direct contribution to digital India, notably, deepening financial inclusion and promoting a central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC)," the statement read.

The IAMAI and India's government departments at all levels are deeply bought in to startup-driven tech innovation, and the BCAC was no exception. For the IAMAI to have decided it's better off focusing on the Digital Rupee – which remains on the drawing board – is therefore unexpected.

It's also explicable, given current global uncertainty around the future of cryptocurrencies and India's decision to tax crypto profits at twice the rate applied to capital gains on other assets.

Indian crypto outfits have lamented the end of the Council, with ideas already afoot for a replacement.

NASSCOM, India's formidable tech trade association and advocacy group, is already actively promoting crypto, so the sector still has friends in influential places.

One of those places is not, however, Russia. The superpower wannabe last week passed a law the title of which translates as "Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation in Regulating the Circulation of Digital Financial Assets and Utilitarian Digital Rights."

The law bars the use of cryptocurrency and NFTs for payments and prohibits licensed participants in the nation's financial system from allowing such transactions.

It is unclear why the Kremlin and its masters are Putin the boot in to crypto. Pundits have suggested read-only techno-rubles could be an instrument that might help Moscow evade the many sanctions imposed because of its illegal invasion of Ukraine.

On the other hand, autocrats are seldom keen on economic activity they can't observe, but which their enemies can. Cryptocurrency anonymity has been largely debunked, and Moscow can exercise far more control over domestic banks than the globally distributed decentralized finance community. ®

Source

Linux kernel developers have addressed the Retbleed speculative execution bug in older Intel and AMD silicon, but the fix wasn't straightforward, so emperor penguin Linus Torvalds has delayed delivery of the next version by a week.

"When we've had one of those embargoed [hardware] issues pending, the patches didn't get the open development, and then as a result missed all the usual sanity checking by all the automation build and test infrastructure we have," Torvalds wrote in a post announcing the delivery of release candidate seven for version 5.19 of the kernel.

"So no surprise – there's been various small fixup patches afterwards too for some corner cases."

Retbleed is not the only reason for the delay.

"Last week there were two other development trees that independently also asked for an extension, so 5.19 will be one of those releases that have an additional rc8 next weekend before the final release," Torvalds wrote.

"When it rains it pours," he added. "Not that things really look all that bad. I think we've got the Retbleed fallout all handled (knock wood)."

The two other trees that needed more time concern the btrfs filesystem as well as firmware for controllers for Intel GPUs that apparently sometimes unintentionally disabled graphics boosters on some shiny new Intel Alder Lake silicon. Torvalds reported both issues appear to be under control, "So it's not like we have any huge issues, but an extra week is most definitely called for."

Which is a shame, because last week Torvalds expressed his hope that release candidate seven would be the last for this version – in line with his preference for seven release candidates.

Nothing in Torvalds's post suggests further delays can be expected, so a new kernel should debut next week. Next will come version 5.20, which on recent form could be chosen as a Long Term Support release. ®

Source

Also:  A victory has been achieved by the Linux kernel development team. Torvalds advises against bleeding, stating, “Retbleed!”.

What's new in Microsoft OneNote for Android

Home tab

Instead of listing your notebooks, the OneNote Android app has a new startup screen, called the Home tab.  The page displays a rich preview of the note's contents. Tap the button near the top right corner to switch between the List mode and Grid mode. The button next to it lets you Sort and Filter the notes by modified date, created date, or alphabetical order.

The List mode displays more of the contents, while Grid mode places more notes on the screen. The Home tab has a toolbar at the bottom, called the Quick Capture Bar. It has shortcuts to select the input methods: Text, Ink, Voice and Camera. The + Page button allows you to add more notes quickly.  Tap the three-dot button to create a Sticky Note, it will place the note at the top of the screen.

Tap on a note to view it, or edit it. Long-pressing a note marks it for selection, you can choose multiple notes, and perform an action such as delete the notes, organize (move or copy), share them, or add shortcuts to the notes on your mobile's homescreen.

Users who are signing in to the OneNote app for the first time will be prompted with the single sign-on (SSN) experience, which will prompt them to select one of the Microsoft accounts that they are signed in to on their phone using the account picker.

If you want to sync your notebook manually, pull down the screen (swipe down gesture). The image option integrates with Microsoft Lens, for scanning documents and extracting text. The voice input method can be used to dictate notes, and even to format the text. To access the app's settings, tap on your profile picture in the top left corner.

Here's a screenshot that shows the app's old interface for comparison, the new interface looks a lot better, doesn't it?

The new features are available in the Microsoft OneNote for Android app version 16.0.15128.20270 and later. Microsoft says it is rolling out the features in stages, so don't be surprised if you are on a higher version of the app but don't have the new UI yet. You can get the new UI by opting in to the beta of the app on the Google Play Store.

Microsoft has stated that the new interface is not available for Tablets and Dual-Screen phones.

Microsoft OneNote for Mac gets local backup feature

The OneNote app for Mac now supports local backup. In addition to saving the data to the cloud, the app will now automatically save a copy of your notes in a local folder on your Mac. Users can manage the options from the app's Preferences > Backups section. It also allows you to access the backup folder, customize the schedule for automatic backups, and run a backup task manually.

The local backup feature is available in Microsoft OneNote version 16.63, you can download it from the Mac App Store.

Microsoft announces a new design for OneNote on Android, and adds local backup option for OneNote for Mac

For the most part, it worked out for me. It had features that Firefox at the time didn’t, like being able to sync and access tabs from other devices or saving all my bookmarks under a single profile that I could transfer to other PCs.

Then over the years, Google became more invasive. It, like many other major corporations, started tracking and compiling data and creating detailed profiles that it could sell to marketing firms. Lucrative business for them, but a nail in the coffin for internet privacy.

The other nail is the fact that Chrome’s market share has absolutely skyrocketed during this period of time. Back in 2008 when I first made the switch, Google and Mozilla weren’t too far apart but now, thanks to most other browsers using some form of Chromium to power them, the gap might as well be an ocean.

But I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way. I finally switched back to Mozilla Firefox in 2019 and found it to be an incredible browser that had every feature Chrome had and more.

The browser doesn’t track you, which makes using AdBlock actually meaningful

Google Chrome has an array of AdBlock extensions that keeps your data out of the hands of marketing firms looking to compile detailed profiles made of your browsing history. However, the Chrome browser itself does the same and there’s no restricting that access. There are also talks of Google breaking those AdBlock extensions in 2023 with a massive update, which is rather terrifying, to say the least.

However, Mozilla has none of these issues. The browser doesn’t track you in the slightest and even has built-in cookie protection and offers VPN services for a low price. So you can add AdBlock or uBlock Origins or whichever other extension you prefer, knowing the Firefox will not violate your privacy.

There are tons of extensions to protect your internet privacy

While Google Chrome has a good selection of extensions, Mozilla Firefox has far more than that and a sizable amount is devoted to blocking the vast array of internet trackers used by most sites. And unlike Chrome, Firefox is extremely anti-tracking to the point that outside forces (whether work or school) are unable to install tracking extensions and programs into the browser.

These are some Firefox extensions in particular that are, in my humble opinion, vital to the best possible browsing experience:

•  uBlock Origin - Adblock but better and uses less CPU
•  Facebook Container - prevents Facebook from tracking you across sites
•  Google Container - prevents Google from tracking you across sites
•  Multi-Account Container - keeps websites from interacting with each other and from tracking you by putting them in a separate container
•  Disconnect - prevents third-party sites from tracking you
•  Privacy Possum - falsifies tracking data and sends it to tracking companies
•  Privacy Badger - learns how to block invisible trackers
•  HTTPS Everywhere - enables HTTPS encryption automatically
•  DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials - complete privacy protection for your browser

Not only are all of these useful for keeping all your data safe and private, but it’s truly sobering just how much of your online experience is being recorded at any given moment.

You can save profiles and transfer bookmarks, as well as sync tabs

One of the features I needed when I switched to Chrome was the ability to sync and open the same tabs on different devices, a feature that later proved indispensable throughout college and especially when I first began writing professionally as a video game journalist. And being able to save all my bookmarks was vital to me not losing access to them in case of a PC failure, ironically what happened when my laptop broke down and I lost all my Mozilla Firefox bookmarks.

But now Firefox has all of these and it’s incredibly simple to use. The browser itself saves your bookmarks and settings under one profile, which you can transfer to multiple PCs and even the mobile version of the browser. From there you can sync tabs between all your devices and open them wherever you want. You can even send tabs directly from one device to another, allowing you to instantly open them without digging around first. And all bookmarks are saved under your profile, giving you full access to them across any device once you log in.

It’s not a processor hog like Chrome

A huge complaint among even the most stalwart Google Chrome users is that the browser eats through your CPU like a Snorlax at a buffet. While this is an issue for any PC, having a browser that consistently takes up almost half your processing power is especially a problem for laptops or other devices with very little RAM.

Which is why Mozilla Firefox is such a breath of fresh air, as it uses much less of your CPU while still delivering a fast browsing experience. So feel free to have as many tabs open as you want in Firefox, your device will barely feel the effects.

Source

If you are one unlucky insider with no access to the latest stuff from Microsoft, here is how to enable the new taskbar in Windows 11 Dev build 25158.

Disclaimer: Enable experimental features in Windows 11 at your own risk, and always backup important files and data.

How to enable the new search button on the taskbar in Windows 11 Dev:

1. Download the ViveTool app from its repository on GitHub and extract files anywhere you like.
2. Run Windows Terminal as Administrator and go to the ViveTool's folder using the CD command. For example, CD C:ViveTool.
3. Type .\vivetool /enable /id:39072097 /variant:, then place a number after the colon.
   • 1 and 2 - a button with the “Search” word.
   • 3 - a button with a magnifying glass with a globe inside it.
   • 4 - a button with a globe and a small magnifying glass.
   • 5 - a “Search the web” button.
4. Here is an example of a working command: .\vivetool /enable /id:39072097 /variant:4. Note that the app now uses new commands introduced in recent updates.
5. Restart the explorer.exe process in Task Manager, or simply restart your computer.
6. If you want to revert the changes, use the .\vivetool /disable /id:39072097 command.

In case you missed it, Microsoft is also testing a search bar on the desktop, similar to the one Google uses in Android. We have a dedicated guide that describes how to enable search on the desktop in Windows 11.

Which one of the new search icons in Windows 11 build 25158 do you like the most? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Guide: How to enable the updated taskbar in Windows 11 Dev build 25158

You can read the complete official changelog to learn more about the update.

Changelog

In other Office news, Microsoft recently released a plethora of new features for Current Channel subscribers on Windows. The latest Current Channel Office update adds a brand-new visual experience that makes it easier to parse information, improvements to Excel PivotTables that are connected to Power BI datasets, including the ability to create aggregations on the fly by dragging any field into the Values area (including Implicit Measures). Also, Current Channel users can now find key documents in Visio with the Shared with Me list.

Microsoft also introduced several new features for Office Insiders on Mac. PowerPoint users on Mac are getting a new Cameo feature that allows users to insert a live camera feed anywhere in their presentation. To use it in your slide show, you can select Insert > Cameo. To use the feature, go to the Home tab and select Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules. Now, you can simply drag the edges of the dialog box and resize it as needed.

Microsoft releases a new Office update weekly for Beta Channel subscribers on Windows, adding new features and changes. Microsoft is also expected to release a new Office Insider Build for the Beta Channel Insiders next week. We’ll keep you updated if we find anything interesting in the update.

To update the Microsoft Office Insider Preview Build to the latest version, open any Office program and go to File> Account> Update Options> Update Now.

Microsoft releases Office Insider Version 2208 (Build 15511.20000) for Windows users

The built-in Firefox PDF Reader is a popular tool to view PDF documents in the browser. Firefox users may use it to display local PDF documents or PDF documents from the Internet in the browser.

Some Firefox users like the idea of opening PDF documents in the browser, as it is a quick and uncomplicated process. Others prefer to use third-party tools and disable the PDF viewer. External tools may offer better functionality or security features.

The Firefox PDF Reader supports form filling, but that is the extent of its capabilities at this point. Mozilla has plans to improve the functionality of the built-in Firefox PDF Reader by adding light editing tools to it.

Firefox PDF Editor

The editor is in development currently, but Firefox Nightly users may enable it already to take it for a test ride.

1. Load about:config in the Firefox address bar.
2. Confirm that you accept the risk and want to continue.
3. Search for pdfjs.annotationEditorMode and set the value of the preference to 0.

A restart of Firefox is not required. When you load a PDF document in Firefox now, regardless of whether it is a local PDF file or an online one, you find new editing options in the main toolbar.

The following tools are included in the Firefox PDF Editor at the time of writing:

• Text Annotation tool with options to change the font color and size.
• Ink Annotation tool with options to change the link color and thickness.

Closing Words

Mozilla is improving Firefox's built-in PDF viewer; that is a good thing. The PDF Viewer will support text and ink annotations, and maybe other features that Mozilla could introduce at a later stage in development.

Several other browsers, including Microsoft Edge, offer a superior editing experience at the time. Microsoft's browser supports text and ink annotations, but also text highlighting. The new PDF editing options close the gap to browsers like Edge, which is probably one of Mozilla's goals.

Now You: do you prefer to view PDFs in the browser or other tools? What about PDF editing? (via Techdows)

Light PDF Editing is coming to Firefox

However, with the addition of the new widget options, it looks like the weather reporting and reading has broken on the latest build. The issue was noticed first by Twitter user Xeno.

As you can see in the images below, the weather and temperature readings have apparently wildly fluctuated, with Windows saying it's a heat wave at 64 °F (equivalent to 17.78 °C). Meanwhile, on the Celsius scale, it says it's cloudy.

Although the Build 25158 has a few known issues in the widget, none of them seem to acknowledge this one:

[Widgets]

• [NEW] Notification badge number may appear misaligned on the taskbar.
• [NEW] In some cases, the notification banner for some badging will not appear in the widgets board.
• We’re working on the fix for an issue causing Widgets preferences (temperature units and pinned widgets) to unexpectedly get reset to default.

However, Senior Product Manager of Microsoft, Brandon LeBlanc, in a response to Xeno has confirmed that it is indeed a bug, and it is being looked at.

Brandon has also added that there can be a brief pause or freeze in the weather readings when the system is resumed from sleep.

Windows 11 build 25158: Microsoft confirms weather readings are all over the place

KB5015814 was meant to address some issues with PowerShell and patch security vulnerabilities. The update also brought with it quality improvements to the Windows servicing stack, which ensures Windows updates correctly in the future. This is a mandatory security update, and hence, installs automatically through Windows Update. A Windows 11 user merely needs to ensure the PC is connected to the internet.

A few users have claimed the latest Patch Tuesday update for Windows 11 is troublesome, particularly for the Start Menu. Affected users claim the opening of the Start Menu is randomly interrupted by an app opening and closing. According to some Reddit users, Windows 11 PCs running Malwarebytes were more likely to face trouble with KB5015814.

Some Redditors have claimed the update fails to install, but there is no single or common error code. Errors appearing after a failed installation of the KB5015814 update vary between 0x8000ffff, 0x800f0900, 0x8007007e, and 0x80073701. Some Windows 11 PCs, which failed to install the update, have also gone into a boot loop.

As the installation of the KB5015814 update is automatic, needing no user intervention, pausing Windows Updates or uninstalling the security update are the only available workarounds. It is important to note that KB5015814 is a security update. Moreover, the problems aren’t widespread. Hence, Windows 11 users should uninstall the update only if they are facing the aforementioned issues.

Source: BetaNews

Windows 11 Patch Tuesday KB5015814 crashing apps, hindering Start Menu access

According to customers' complaints on Microsoft's official community website and Reddit, July's cumulative updates trigger this issue for MS Access 2016 and MS Access 2013 are KB5002112 and KB5002121, respectively.

"The Access product team is investigating this issue. Thank you for the report, we will update soon," Shane Groff, a software design engineer at Microsoft, said in a Microsoft Answers thread.

The company also acknowledged this as a known issue in the support documents detailing the two buggy Microsoft Office security updates.

"After this update is installed, when you open an ACCDE or MDE file in Microsoft Access, you might receive an error message that states, 'Requested type library or wizard is not a VBA project'," the advisory reads.

"Additionally, the file won't open. Microsoft is researching this issue and will update this article when a fix is available."

Affected users report that the bug affects MS Access compiled databases (e.g., MDE, ACCDE), including on MS Access in Office365.

Remove buggy updates to address this known issue

While Microsoft did not provide a workaround or a temporary fix until they released an update to address this known issue, customers who reported being impacted said that removing the offending updates would resolve the problems.

However, keep in mind that uninstalling these security updates will also remove security updates addressing a medium severity Microsoft Office security feature bypass vulnerability (CVE-2022-33632).

This is because Microsoft bundles all security fixes into a single update. Removing the cumulative updates may fix the bugs but will also remove fixes for security flaws patched during the June Patch Tuesday.

Therefore, uninstalling these problematic updates should be a last resort option and only done if absolutely necessary.

To make sure that the updates won't be reinstalled, you need to download and run the "Show or hide updates" troubleshooter from here, click on 'Next,' select the update that you want to hide, and restart your device if prompted.

Microsoft investigates July updates breaking Access applications

Changelog

Improvements

Windows 11 Build 22000.829 also includes a known issue, which you can’t fix right now.

Known issues

In other Windows 11-related news, Microsoft released Windows 11 Build 25158 for Dev Channel Insiders a couple of days ago, bringing dynamic Widgets content to your taskbar with notification badging for Widgets. Microsoft also introduced some visual treatments for Search on Taskbar. Aside from that, another big news is that Microsoft is said to be moving to a new development cycle for Windows which will see the company releasing major updates every three years.

Meanwhile, you can upgrade to the latest Windows 11 Release Preview Build by navigating the Settings app> Windows Update> Check for Updates. If you are an Insider in the Release Preview Channel, share your experience in the comments section.

Microsoft releases Windows 11 Build 22000.829 (KB5015882) to the Release Preview Channel

Microsoft's initial plan was to limit extended support to three years after support end, but it appears that the company could extend support by another three years, making it six years in total.

Our colleagues over at Deskmodder report that the July security updates KB5015861 and KB5015862 include the required ESU licenses and keys to extend support beyond the first three years. The second extension would guarantee support of Windows 7 until January 2026.

Microsoft creates updates for the following Windows 7 editions as part of the extended security updates program:

• Windows 7 SP1 Enterprise
• Windows 7 SP1 Pro
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Embedded Standard 7
• Windows Embedded POS Ready 7

Microsoft released the monthly and security-only cumulative updates for Windows 7 ESU systems as part of the July 2022 Patch Day. ESU updates can only be installed officially on licensed machines. Bypasses exist to install Microsoft's official updates on Windows 7 Home devices, including Windows 7 Home and Professional.

Microsoft has not confirmed or denied the extension of Windows 7 ESU. Windows 7 holds a sizeable share of the desktop operating system market. Statcounter, one of the third-party companies that is tracking usage statistics, sees it at 11.54% of the Windows market share. Windows 11, Microsoft's newest operating system, sits at 10.96%, which makes Windows 7 the second most used version of Windows according to the company.

It makes sense to extend support if the numbers are close to real usage numbers. Organizations may require more time to move to a new version of Windows, or another operating system. The extension gives organizations that time. Organizations who have devices with ESU can protect the devices for another three years.

Microsoft announced earlier this month that it won't provide Windows 8.1 customers with a similar offer. Windows 8.1's usage share is less than 3% according to Statcounter, even though it is still officially supported.

If Windows 7 support is extended by another three years, it would mean that the operating system will be supported for longer than its direct successor, Windows 8.1, and even Windows 10. Both operating systems will run out of support before 2026. Microsoft could offer support extensions for Windows 10, the most used version of Windows at the time of writing.

Now You: what is your take on this?

It looks as if Microsoft could extend Windows 7 Support by another three years

Microsoft is now rolling out a brand-new visual experience that makes it easier to parse information. The new Outlook also includes better relevance to help you pinpoint the correct results; and changes that help you quickly find the next occurrence in a series of events in your Calendar.

Moreover, Microsoft has added improvements to Excel PivotTables that are connected to Power BI datasets, including the ability to create aggregations on the fly by dragging any field into the Values area (including Implicit Measures). The latest Office release has also introduced reduced fragmentation of conditional formatting rules.

If you use Visio to create diagrams, you can find key documents in Visio with the Shared with Me list. Any documents shared with you will automatically show up in your list. You can read the complete official changelog below to learn more about these changes.

Changelog

In related news, PowerPoint users on Mac are getting a new Cameo feature that allows users to insert a live camera feed anywhere in their presentation. To use it in your slide show, you can select Insert > Cameo. To use the feature, go to the Home tab and select Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules. Now, you can simply drag the edges of the dialog box and resize it as needed.

Microsoft releases a new Office update monthly for Current Channel subscribers on Windows, adding new features and changes. Microsoft is also expected to release a new Office Insider Build for the Current Channel Insiders next month. We’ll keep you updated if we find anything interesting in the update.

To update the Microsoft Office Insider Preview Build to the latest version, open any Office program and go to File> Account> Update Options> Update Now.

Latest Office Insider build for Windows adds a new visual experience to Outlook

It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that the whole world is built on top of the Linux kernel—although most people have never heard of it.

It is one of the very first programs that load when most computers power up. It enables the hardware running the machine to interact with the software, governs its use of resources, and acts as the foundation of the operating system.

It is the core building block of nearly all cloud computing, virtually every supercomputer, the entire internet of things, billions of smartphones, and more.

But the kernel is also open source, meaning anyone can write, read, and use its code. And that’s got cybersecurity experts inside the US military seriously worried. Its open-source nature means the Linux kernel—along with a host of other pieces of critical open-source software—is exposed to hostile manipulation in ways that we still barely understand.

“People are realizing now: wait a minute, literally everything we do is underpinned by Linux,” says Dave Aitel, a cybersecurity researcher and former NSA computer security scientist. “This is a core technology to our society. Not understanding kernel security means we can’t secure critical infrastructure.”

Now DARPA, the US military’s research arm, wants to understand the collision of code and community that makes these open-source projects work, in order to better understand the risks they face. The goal is to be able to effectively recognize malicious actors and prevent them from disrupting or corrupting crucially important open-source code before it’s too late.

DARPA’s “SocialCyber” program is an 18-month-long, multimillion-dollar project that will combine sociology with recent technological advances in artificial intelligence to map, understand, and protect these massive open-source communities and the code they create. It’s different from most previous research because it combines automated analysis of both the code and the social dimensions of open-source software.

“The open-source ecosystem is one of the grandest enterprises in human history,” says Sergey Bratus, the DARPA program manager behind the project.
“It’s now grown from enthusiasts to a global endeavor forming the basis of global infrastructure, of the internet itself, of critical industries and mission-critical systems pretty much everywhere,” he says. “The systems that run our industry, power grids, shipping, transportation.”

Threats to open source

Much of modern civilization now depends on an ever-expanding corpus of open-source code because it saves money, attracts talent, and makes a lot of work easier.

But while the open-source movement has spawned a colossal ecosystem that we all depend on, we do not fully understand it, experts like Aitel argue.

There are countless software projects, millions of lines of code, numerous mailing lists and forums, and an ocean of contributors whose identities and motivation are often obscure, making it hard to hold them accountable.

That can be dangerous. For example, hackers have quietly inserted malicious code into open-source projects numerous times in recent years. Back doors can long escape detection, and, in the worst case, entire projects have been handed over to bad actors who take advantage of the trust people place in open-source communities and code. Sometimes there are disruptions or even takeovers of the very social networks that these projects depend on. Tracking it all has been mostly—though not entirely—a manual effort, which means it does not match the astronomical size of the problem.

Bratus argues that we need machine learning to digest and comprehend the expanding universe of code—meaning useful tricks like automated vulnerability discovery—as well as tools to understand the community of people who write, fix, implement, and influence that code.

The ultimate goal is to detect and counteract any malicious campaigns to submit flawed code, launch influence operations, sabotage development, or even take control of open-source projects.

To do this, the researchers will use tools such as sentiment analysis to analyze the social interactions within open-source communities such as the Linux kernel mailing list, which should help identify who is being positive or constructive and who is being negative and destructive.

The researchers want insight into what kinds of events and behavior can disrupt or hurt open-source communities, which members are trustworthy, and whether there are particular groups that justify extra vigilance. These answers are necessarily subjective. But right now there are few ways to find them at all.

Experts are worried that blind spots about the people who run open-source software make the whole edifice ripe for potential manipulation and attacks. For Bratus, the primary threat is the prospect of “untrustworthy code” running America’s critical infrastructure—a situation that could invite unwelcome surprises.

Unanswered questions

Here’s how the SocialCyber program works. DARPA has contracted with multiple teams of what it calls “performers,” including small, boutique cybersecurity research shops with deep technical chops.

One such performer is New York–based Margin Research, which has put together a team of well-respected researchers for the task.

“There is a desperate need to treat open-source communities and projects with a higher level of care and respect,” said Sophia d’Antoine, the firm’s founder. “A lot of existing infrastructure is very fragile because it depends on open source, which we assume will always be there because it’s always been there. This is walking back from the implicit trust we have in open-source code bases and software.”

Margin Research is focused on the Linux kernel in part because it’s so big and critical that succeeding here, at this scale, means you can make it anywhere else. The plan is to analyze both the code and the community in order to visualize and finally understand the whole ecosystem.

Margin’s work maps out who is working on what specific parts of open-source projects. For example, Huawei is currently the biggest contributor to the Linux kernel. Another contributor works for Positive Technologies, a Russian cybersecurity firm that—like Huawei—has been sanctioned by the US government, says Aitel. Margin has also mapped code written by NSA employees, many of whom participate in different open-source projects.

“This subject kills me,” says d’Antoine of the quest to better understand the open-source movement, “because, honestly, even the most simple things seem so novel to so many important people. The government is only just realizing that our critical infrastructure is running code that could be literally being written by sanctioned entities. Right now.”

This kind of research also aims to find underinvestment—that is critical software run entirely by one or two volunteers. It’s more common than you might think—so common that one common way software projects currently measure risk is the “bus factor”: Does this whole project fall apart if just one person gets hit by a bus?

While the Linux kernel’s importance to the world’s computer systems may be the most pressing issue for SocialCyber, it will tackle other open-source projects too. Certain performers will focus on projects like Python, an open-source programming language used in a huge number of artificial-intelligence and machine-learning projects.

The hope is that greater understanding will make it easier to prevent a future disaster, whether it’s caused by malicious activity or not.

“Pretty much everywhere you look, you find open-source software,” says Bratus.“Even when you look at proprietary software, a recent study showed it’s actually 70% or more open source.”

“This is a critical infrastructure problem,” Aitel says. “We don’t have a grip on it. We need to get a grip on it. The potential impact is that malicious hackers will always have access to Linux machines. That includes your phone. It’s that simple.”

Source

Many websites prompt users to create an account to access content on the site. Some include options to bypass the account requirement, others block access to content until an account is created and used.

When it comes to the creation of accounts, users have two main options: use their own data, including their email address, to create the account, or, use fake or random data to do so. The first option links their data to the account, which some users may not want, especially if they just need to access content once on the site. The second option uses anonymous data to register an account and access the content; this may give users less control over the account.

Sometimes, it may be possible to bypass these roadblocks entirely, either with the help of browser extensions or manual intervention.

Disposable email services are a popular choice when it comes to the registration of temporary or fake accounts. These services provide access to email addresses that anyone may use. Some support private email addresses to give users full control over their emails, but this may include the requirement to create an account at the service or pay a fee. Email forwarding services, such as Firefox Relay, AnonAddy or SimpleLogin are another popular choice. They forward temporary emails to a user's real email account.

Reggy: easier temporary account creations

The browser extension Reggy improves the registration process for users who fall into the second group. It creates fake information with a click and adds an email of one of several temporary email services that it supports to the profile. New profiles are created with a click and the form filling option of the extension fills out most of the fields of registration forms automatically to streamline the account creation process further.

A click on the Reggy icon in the browser's address bar displays the random username and password, and the selected email service. Other information, such as first and last name, gender, date of birth, zip and address, are also created on the fly.

New account data and a new random password can be generated with a click in the interface. The data is created anew each time the button is activated, but is not changed automatically after a successful account registration. The fill form button fills out form fields based on the information, and the check inbox button opens the inbox on the disposable email provider's website to check for verification emails.

Reggy supports several temporary email providers, including Mailinator, Maildrop and Mailcatch. Options to add custom providers to the listing are not provided.

A quick test confirmed that the extension is working as advertised for the most part. Some form fields may not be filled out automatically on some sites, e.g., Reggy failed to fill the Age field of the Pinterest sign-up form, but it worked well on most sites. Captchas need to be solved manually as well.

One downside to Reggy is that it supports just a few disposable email providers. Sites may block email addresses from these providers so that Reggy can no longer be used as effortlessly as before. While it is possible to alter the email address manually, to use a provider that is not blocked, it does add extra time to the registration process.

Reggy does not keep track of the created accounts and the sites the accounts have been used on.

Closing Words

Reggy is a useful extension when it comes to the creation of random user profiles for the registration on Internet sites. The extension is limited by the supported disposable email providers, an option to add custom providers would remove that limitation.

Landing page:   https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/reggy/pnneajlgffpejnabhionnhdfhibijihe/related

Now You: do you use temporary email services or email forwarding services?

Reggy for Chrome: create anonymous accounts with a few clicks

Here are the changes and improvements:

• New! We provided the ability for you to consent to receive urgent notifications when focus assist is on.
• New! We provided the option for eligible devices to update to a newer Windows 11 version during the out-of-box experience (OOBE) when you first sign in. If you choose to update to a newer version, the update process will begin shortly after the update is installed on the device.
• New! We restored functionality for Windows Autopilot deployment scenarios that are affected by the security mitigation for hardware reuse. This update removed the one-time use restriction for self-deploying mode (SDM) and pre-provisioning (PP). This update also re-enabled any User Principal Name (UPN) display in user-driven mode (UDM) deployments for approved manufacturers.
• We fixed an issue in UIAutomation() that causes an application to stop working.
• We fixed an issue that prevents the Startup Task API from working as expected for certain apps.
• We improved the reliability of a push-button reset after an OS upgrade.
• We fixed an issue that makes the tenant restrictions event logging channel inaccessible if you remove the EN-US language pack.
• We fixed an issue that causes certificate-based machine account authentication to fail in some circumstances after you install the May 10, 2022 security updates on domain controllers.
• We fixed an issue that affects the Arm64EC code you build using the Windows 11 software development kit (SDK).
• We updated the Remove-Item cmdlet to properly interact with Microsoft OneDrive folders.
• We fixed an issue that prevents troubleshooters from opening.
• We fixed an issue that causes port mapping conflicts for containers.
• We fixed an issue that causes Code Integrity to continue trusting a file after the file has been modified.
• We fixed an issue that might cause Windows to stop working when you enable Windows Defender Application Control with the Intelligent Security Graph feature turned on.
• We deployed search highlights to devices. To access the policy for search highlights (on a device that has installed the June 2022 Cumulative Update Preview or July 2022 monthly quality update), go to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions and locate admx. For your convenience, we will be publishing an updated version of the Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 11, version 21H2 to the Microsoft Download Center soon.
• We fixed an issue that causes exe to stop working when you use the play and pause keyboard buttons on certain devices.
• We fixed an issue that causes exe to stop working when you use the Start menu’s context menu (Win + X) and an external monitor is connected to your device.
• We fixed an issue that displays a blank window that you cannot close when you hover over the search icon on the taskbar.
• We reduced the overhead of resource contention in high input/output operations per second (IOPS) scenarios that have many threads contending on a single file.
• We fixed an issue that causes the Windows profile service to fail sporadically. The failure might occur when signing in. The error message is, “gpsvc service failed to sign in. Access denied”.

There is just one known issue with this build:

• On some devices, Widgets may crash in the background upon logging in and show the static default icon instead of populating and updating to show the weather.

The official blog post is linked here.

Windows 11 Build 22000.829 (KB5015882) adds urgent notifications bypass and more

Unlike previous versions of Linux Mint, users of Linux Mint 20.3 will be able to upgrade to Linux Mint 21 thanks to the work put into the new graphical Upgrade Tool. Before the introduction of this tool, upgrades were only easy between point releases, and it was preferred that big upgrades were done via a clean installation.

With Linux Mint 21, there are lots of improvements. Improvements include better thumbnails for more file types including AppImages, Epubs, and Webp files, a process monitor to see what’s going on in the background, and the inclusion of the back-up software Timeshift as a XApp. The Cinnamon edition ships with Cinnamon 5.4 which includes a major rebase of the window manager, Muffin.

If you’d like to give the beta images a whirl, check out the blog posts for the Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce editions for comprehensive information about each of the releases and download links. If you’re waiting for the stable version, it should be ready about a fortnight from now.

Linux Mint 21 “Vanessa” beta arrives in three flavours

One other feature that was briefly mentioned in Microsoft's announcement blog post was DNS over TLS (DoT), which is a networking enhancement now available for Insiders.

If you're wondering what DoT is, it's an alternative to DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and is intended for encrypted network traffic. DoH is already present in both Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022 and enables DNS traffic to be routed as an HTTPS stream over port 443. Meanwhile, DoT routes encrypted DNS traffic over a TLS tunnel on a dedicated port 853. While DoT offers better network performance in some use-cases, you do lose some flexibility offered by DoH.

If all of this sounds interesting to you, here's Microsoft's guidance for enabling DoT, currently available for Windows 11 and Windows Server Insiders with build 25158:

1. Go to Settings -> Network (this should load the view for the current default network connection)
2. Click on Wi-Fi or Ethernet (likely the top row)
3. Click "Hardware properties" (likely the bottom row)
4. On the "DNS server assignment:" row, click the "Edit" button
5. Turn on the "IPv4" and/or "IPv6" switches
6. Type the IP address of the DoT server to test into the "Preferred DNS" text box
7. Save and confirm that " (Unencrypted)" shows up on the "IPv4 DNS servers:" row in the list of configurations near the bottom of this view

Finally, run these commands in Command Prompt with admin privileges:

netsh dns add global dot=yes

netsh dns add encryption server=[the-ip-address-configured-as-the-DNS-resolver] dothost=: autoupgrade=yes

ipconfig /flushdns

It is important to note that port 853 is the only port that can be designated for DoT at this time, custom configurations are not currently supported.

Furthermore, you should also remember that build 25158 is the Windows 11 version 23H2 release, which means that if this feature does pass testing, it won't be available before the second half of 2023. The next major version of Windows 11 is version 22H2, which should be available within the next couple of months and won't include DoT.

DNS over TLS is now available for Windows 11 Insiders, here is how to enable it

This is a patch release to fix issues in v0.60.0 to fix a few bugs we deemed important for stability based on incoming rates. See v0.60.0 for full release notes.

Changelog:

• #19253 - Updated the Microsoft Store submission of PowerToys to not show UI while installing.
• #19023 - Fixed a bug causing FancyZones to not apply templates correctly when more than one monitor shared the same serial number.
• #19233 - Fixed the incompatibility not allowing the PowerRename and ImageResizer Windows 11 tier 1 context menus being shown on development insider builds.
• #19219 - The old context menus are now shown on Windows 11 as well, to account for configurations where other third party software might be overriding the Windows 11 context menus.
• #19263 - Fixed a bug making the Find My Mouse overlay hang when activated in the top left corner of the screen.
• #19223 - The FancyZones Editor should no longer crash on configurations where monitors are not detected connected to display devices.

You can download PowerToys 0.60.1 from the Microsoft Store using this link or the official repository on GitHub. If you already have PowerToys installed on your computer, the app will notify you about available updates, or you can manually update from settings. As noted above, you can also learn about changes in the previous 0.60 release.

If you are unfamiliar with PowerToys, it is a set of advanced utilities provided by Microsoft and the open-source developer community. It contains various tools, such as an app launcher, bulk file renamer, color picker, a utility to customize shortcuts, etc. Microsoft frequently updates PowerToys with new features and fixes.

Microsoft PowerToys 0.60.1 includes fix for context menu in Windows 11

Google says you can now turn these 400 Macs, PCs into reliable Chromebooks

The new plan means Microsoft has scrapped a feature update codenamed Sun Valley 3, which Windows users expected to land somewhere in 2023. Instead, Microsoft wants to release a new Windows in 2024.

The software giant also plans to change how it delivers new features to existing versions of Windows. We already see how cumulative updates for Windows 11 often include new features from the main development channel, and users can expect a more or less constant flow of software novelties every few months (about four times per year). This plan is a part of a new engineering effort called "Moments".

If the report is accurate, Windows 11 users will see Microsoft adding new capabilities from the Sun Valley 3 update to version 22H2 in 2023.

Do these changes mean Windows "12" is incoming? For now, not much is known about the next Windows version. The new OS, codenamed "Next Valley", is currently in the early planning and engineering stages. You should also keep in mind that Microsoft officials are yet to confirm the report, so take it with a grain of salt.

What do you think about Microsoft potentially shipping Windows "12" after just two more years?

Source: Windows Central

Source

The latest application to get these features is the Camera app in Windows 11 with version 2022.2206.20. Alongside the visual upgrade, it is also gaining QR core and barcode scanning.

Microsoft today is also releasing an update to its Windows 11 media player. Now, the player has the ability to rip CDs, something that can come in handy if you have a large CD collection and you wish to transfer all that data to some place else.

The full release notes for today's release is given below:

Camera (version 2022.2206.2.0)

The Camera app has been updated to match the beautiful new look and feel of Windows 11. In addition to the existing support for camera, video, document, and whiteboard capture modes, we are excited to introduce QR code and barcode scanning as well.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Apps > Camera.

Media Player (version 11.2206.30.0)

Back in March, we introduced CD playback support to Media Player. With the latest update, we are adding support for CD ripping as well. Supported formats in this release include AAC, WMA, FLAC, and ALAC.

These updates are rolling out to the Windows 11 Dev channel. You can find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 Dev Channel gets CD ripping in Media Player and a new Camera app

The notification was introduced yesterday as part of the Windows 8.1 KB5015874 cumulative update, which includes a new EOSnotify.exe program to display a warning that the operating system will soon be unsupported.

"January 10, 2023 is the last day Microsoft will offer security updates and technical support for PCs that run Windows 8.1. We are reaching out now to thank you for your loyalty and help you prepare for what's next," reads the Windows 8.1 notification below.

When displaying the notification, users can click on the 'Remind me later' option, which will cause the notification to be shown again in 35 days. Users can also click on the 'Remind me after the end of support date' option to only show the notification after Windows 8.1 reaches the end of support.

Clicking on the 'Learn More' link will bring people to a Microsoft.com web page explaining that Windows 8.1 will soon reach the end of support.

Microsoft states that the notification will not appear on managed Pro and Enterprise devices, as well as Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Enterprise and Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro devices.

About EOSnotify.exe

Like the Windows 7 full-screen notifications warning users to upgrade to Windows 10, the new Windows 8.1 notifications use Microsoft's EOSnotify program.

EOSNotify.exe is located under the C:\Windows\System32 folder and is launched via two scheduled tasks named EOSNotify and EOSNotify2.

The EOSNotify task is launched any time a user logs into Windows, and the EOSNotify2 is run once a day.

When the EOSNotify.exe program runs, it will check the LastRunTimestamp value under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\EOSNotify key, and if it has already run that day, it will not show the alert.

When a user clicks on the 'Remind Me Later' link in the notification, EOSNotify.exe will create the 'RemindMeLater' value and set it to 1 to indicate that Windows should not show the alert again for another 35 days.

If a user clicks on the 'Remind me after the end of support date' link, EOSNotify will create the 'RemindMeAfterEndOfSupport' value and set it to 1, causing the notification only to be shown again after Windows 8.1 reaches end of support on January 10th, 2023.

Finally, it is possible to prevent the notification from displaying at all by configuring the 'DiscontinueEOS' value, as shown below.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\EOSNotify]
"DiscontinueEOS"=dword:00000001
 

While these alerts may be intrusive, users should upgrade to a newer version of Windows before it reaches the end of support.

Not doing so will only cause the operating system to become more vulnerable to exploits, malware, and other bugs that may appear over time.

Windows 8.1 now shows full-screen 'End of Support' warnings

The new build adds plenty of new changes and improvements on top of bug fixes. The full changelog for Build 25158 is given below:

What’s new

Notification badging for Widgets

We’re beginning to roll out even more dynamic Widgets content to your taskbar with notification badging for Widgets. Below is an example of a notification badge for Widgets.

Notification badging for Widgets on the taskbar.

When you open the Widgets board a banner will appear at the top of the board providing more information on what triggered the notification badge.

Breaking news notification shown at the top of the widgets board.

[We are beginning to roll those features out, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Widgets.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• Thank you to all the Insiders who gave us feedback on our first exploration of lightweight interactive content on the Windows desktop! Starting with this week’s flight, we are concluding this initial exploration, so if you received this experience, it will be removed on your next reboot.
• As described in our in our blog post here, Windows Insiders who use the Dev Channel may get to try out new ideas, longer lead features, and experiences that are intended to help validate concepts. Starting with this build, some devices will receive different visual treatments for search on the taskbar. We are excited to learn from your feedback on this, so please use the Feedback Hub to provide feedback if you receive this experiment. NOTE: A reboot is required after updating to this build to trigger this experience but please note that not all Windows Insiders will have this experience enabled even after reboot.

Example of new visual treatments for the Search entry on the taskbar.

[DNS over TLS]

• DNS over TLS testing is now available for Windows DNS client query protection. DoT is another protocol in addition to DNS over HTTPS (DoH) which is already supported in Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022. For setup instructions, see this Windows Networking blog post. The setup requires command line use and is recommended for advanced networking users.

[Input]

• The Nyala font has been updated to support syllables for the Gurage language orthography from the Ethiopic Extended-B Unicode range. Also revised and replaced Ethiopic kerning to fix gaps and errors in earlier implementation improving the overall texture of text in Ethiopic languages.

Here are the bug fixes in Windows 11 Build 25158:

[General]

• Fixed an issue causing some Insiders to experience bugchecks with error message KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED in NetAdapterCx.sys in recent flights.
• Fixed an issue which was leading some PCs hanging at black screen when resuming from a low power state in recent flights.
• Fixed an issue believed to generally be impacting performance across Windows shell experiences in the last few flights.
• Fixed an issue where the Mica material and Acrylic blur effect was rendering incorrectly in OS surfaces like the Start menu, Notification Center and other areas sometimes in recent flights.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where closing command bar flyouts could in some rare cases crash explorer.exe.
• Fixed an issue which could lead to explorer.exe crashing when navigating through File Explorer with OneDrive enabled.
• CTRL + F4 should work to close the current tab now.
• Opening a zipped folder in a new tab should no longer have a blank tab name.
• If focus is on the tab row, CTRL + W will no longer unexpectedly close two tabs instead of just the tab in focus.
• Fixed an issue where CTRL + Tab wouldn’t cycle in the correct order after rearranging tabs.
• We made some adjustments so when using “Show full path in title”, the folder name is always visible in the tab at the top of File Explorer.

[Taskbar]

• Fixed an underlying issue which could lead to pinned app icons getting stuck on the taskbar after uninstalling the app in recent flights.
• Fixed a high hitting explorer.exe crash in the last few flights related to loading Widgets.

[Start]

• Start shouldn’t crash anymore when using CTRL + Shift + Right Arrow to move a pinned app into a folder that’s the last item in Start.
• Fixed a crash some Insiders were experiencing when opening Start.
• Narrator will now read the prompt that opens when trying to uninstall an app from Start correctly.

[Search]

• Fixed an issue when using IRowsetPriorititization where setting the scope priority for a query rowset did not properly alter the indexing speed of the rowset, resulting in slower indexing overall.
• Searching for “power mode” should now return an entry for power modes in Settings.

[Settings]

• Updated the “System” entry under Network & Internet > Advanced network settings > Data Usage, to now be called “System and Windows Update” to help make it more clear.
• Made another fix to address an issue where the “Listen to this device” option for audio devices would stop working after a reboot.
• Fixed a crash some Insiders were seeing when navigating Bluetooth & Devices > Printers & Scanners.
• Fixed an issue where the “Allow Bluetooth devices to find this PC” checkbox under Bluetooth & Devices > Devices > More Bluetooth Settings wouldn’t display the correct state sometimes.
• Fixed an issue which was causing Quick Settings to crash for ARM64 PCs when attempting to use the Cast section to cast to certain devices.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the eye icon beside the Wi-Fi password box in Quick Settings to disappear after its first use.

[Input]

• Fixed a crash in textinputhost.exe initialization which was happening in some cases in recent flights.
• Fixed an issue where the “Sync across your devices” option under Settings > System > Clipboard wouldn’t stay enabled.
• Updated the Times New Roman font family so it includes U+061D / ARABIC END OF TEXT MARK.

[Windowing]

• We made some improvements to help with the performance of opening Task View.

[Narrator]

• Made a fix so the two-finger triple tap touch gesture to dismiss context menus with Narrator is working correctly again.

[Task Manager]

• Fixed an issue where some services were being unexpectedly grouped under Microsoft Edge when they weren’t actually child processes.

[Other]

• Fixed an issue which would lead to losing network connectivity after turning on mobile hotspot.
• Addressed an issue that could result in the mobile hotspot button getting unexpectedly stuck in a greyed out state in certain cases.
• Fixed an underlying issue which was leading to Your Phone crashes in certain cases.
• Fixed an underlying issue where Microsoft Defender Application Guard windows weren’t visible in the last few flights.
• Fixed a crash that could happen when using suggested actions.
• Fixed an underlying issue when recording game clips using the Xbox Game Bar, which could lead to the resulting saved video not displaying correctly when viewed later on an iOS device.
• Made some improvements to help address an issue resulting in apps in the Microsoft Store failing to download with error 0x80080204.
• Addressed an underlying issue leading to Microsoft Store app remediation failures with error 0x803FB004.
• Did some work to address an issue where the print dialog wasn’t launching centered in the application (for example, in Notepad).

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Here are the known issues in Windows 11 build 25158:

[General]

• [NEW] We’re investigating reports that SQL Server Management Studio is failing to launch for some Insiders.
• Some games that use Easy Anti-Cheat may crash or cause your PC to bugcheck.

[File Explorer]

• The up arrow is misaligned in File Explorer tabs. This will be fixed in a future update.
• We’re working on a fix to address reports that launching File Explorer in certain ways when using dark mode (for example, from the command line) is showing the body of File Explorer unexpectedly in light mode.

[Widgets]

• [NEW] Notification badge number may appear misaligned on the taskbar.
• [NEW] In some cases, the notification banner for some badging will not appear in the widgets board.
• We’re working on the fix for an issue causing Widgets preferences (temperature units and pinned widgets) to unexpectedly get reset to default.

[Live captions]

• Certain apps in full screen (e.g., video players) prevent live captions from being visible.
• Certain apps positioned near the top of the screen and closed before live captions is run will re-launch behind the live captions window positioned at top. Use the system menu (ALT + Spacebar) while the app has focus to move the app’s window further down.

You can find the official blog post here.

Windows 11 23H2 Dev build 25158 brings different Search styles, fixes Start menu crash

Typically, the beta period lasts about two weeks for any last minute issues to be tested by a wider audience. Following the beta, the final ISOs are made available to the public. In-place upgrades are sometimes enabled soon after the release and other times they are delayed to give more time for testing to be done of the new operating system version.

In our recent coverage, we mentioned that Linux Mint 21 would not ship with the systemd-oom package that aims to kill tasks in very low memory environments to keep the computer running quickly. The team said they received negative feedback about the software and chose not to include it.

Linux Mint 21 will be based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS which came out in April. Similarly to Ubuntu, Linux Mint 21 will receive updates until 2027 before you have to upgrade. This makes Linux Mint an ideal solution for production machines that will hold lots of data that you don’t want to constantly be transferring or backing up.

Linux Mint 21 beta ISOs pass tests meaning their release is imminent