​The BBC has opened the testing phase for its AI-powered voice assistant exclusively with those who routinely test updates to the Windows operating system.

UK members of the Windows Insider Programme can download the virtual assistant by grabbing the ‘Beeb BETA’ app from the Microsoft Store, where they can experiment with features and put the voice assistant through its paces.

These users will need to have installed the Windows 10 May 2020 update, however, which, Microsoft has incidentally warned its users against doing unless it’s shipped to their devices specifically. This is due to the developer identifying a string of issues that could lead to significant errors due to hardware compatibility issues.

The Beeb AI assistant aims to help users in the UK by navigating BBC services and access BBC content. There are no plans to build a device to rival Amazon Echo or Google Home, although Beeb will be built into the BBC website, iPlayer and all smart TVs.

The BBC’s voice team has previously collaborated with Microsoft to build the infrastructure behind Beeb with Azure AI services, as well as working with the industry giant on a number of other projects in the past.

«We’ve built Beeb because we know there is growing demand from people to access programmes and services with their voice – around one in five adults have a smart speaker in their home, and millions more have voice-activated devices in their pockets,” said BBC Design and Engineering’s chief operating officer Grace Boswood. 

“Much like the BBC did with iPlayer, we want to make sure everyone can benefit from this new technology, and bring people exciting new content, programmes and services in a trusted, easy-to-use way.”

The first version of Beeb will allow users to speak to access live TV and radio broadcast as well as programmes on-demand. Developers will add further features in the coming weeks and months, with feedback from Windows Insiders critical to the development path.

Not everything will be working as it should, the BBC added, with developers hoping feedback can shape what this early, stripped-down version will look like in the future when additions are made and compatibility with systems is expanded.

This beta-testing process will precede the rollout of Beeb in beta version to the general public for further testing and experimentation.

A vulnerability in VMware’s Cloud Director platform, used by a host of cloud providers to manage cloud infrastructure, could allow attackers to gain access to sensitive data and seize control of infrastructure.

Rated CVSSV3 8.8, and assigned CVE-2020-3956, the code-injection vulnerability in the cloud service-delivery platform could allow an attacker to gain access to sensitive data and take over the control of private clouds within an enterprise.

Hackers could also exploit the vulnerability to gain control over all customers within the cloud. It also grants access to modify the login section of the entire infrastructure to capture the username and password of another customer, according to Citadelo, an ethical hacking company which discovered the vulnerability.

«In general, cloud infrastructure is considered relatively safe because different security layers are being implemented within its core, such as encryption, isolating of network traffic, or customer segmentations,” said Citadelo CEO Tomas Zatko.

“However, security vulnerabilities can be found in any type of application, including the Cloud providers themself.”

Citadelo was hired this year by a fortune 500 enterprise customer to perform a security audit and investigate their VMware Cloud Director-based cloud infrastructure. 

Using the code injection flaw, researchers with the company were able to view the content of the internal system database, including password hashes of any customers allocated to the information system.

From there, they were able to modify the system database to steal foreign virtual machines (VMs) assigned to different organisations within Cloud Director. The flaw also allowed them to escalate privileges from that of a customer account to a system administrator, with access to all cloud accounts.

Finally, they could read all sensitive data related to customers, like full names, email addresses or IP addresses.

The vulnerability was initially reported to VMware on 1 April, with patches released following towards the end of the month, and during May. Organisations that haven’t yet applied the fixes are still vulnerable.

Those affected include public cloud providers using VMware vCloud Director, private cloud providers using VMware vCloud Director, enterprises using VMware vCloud Director technology, and any government identities using VMware Cloud Director.

​Microsoft has asked Windows 10 users to avoid manually updating to its May 2020 feature update while it investigates ten major issues, despite having only just released it.

The major update to Microsoft’s flagship operating system has finally started to roll out after a two-week delay earlier this month, but Microsoft has identified ten issues severe enough to recommend that users hold off.

The slew of issues includes Windows 10 devices with Realtek drivers being unable to connect to more than one Bluetooth device, and no mouse input with apps and games using GameInput Redistributable.

Some devices using more than one Always On, Always Connected capable network adaptor may encounter errors or unexpected restarts, while enabling variable refresh rate on devices with intel iGPU may not work as expected.

Users may also encounter the infamous blue screen of death (BSOD), meanwhile, on three of the issues. Devices, for example, with certain Conexant or Synaptics audio drivers may encounter such errors during or after these drivers are updated. Errors may also occur when devices using external Thunderbolt docks are plugged in or unplugged. 

Finally, on the BSOD front, there are incompatibility issues with Windows 10 and certain versions of Nvidia display adapter drivers. The fatal error screen may arise if devices are using drivers older than version 358.00.

To safeguard the update experience, Microsoft has held back the May 2020 Update from any devices with hardware or drivers known to suffer from compatibility issues with Windows 10.

More widely, Microsoft recommends users do not attempt to manually update using the ‘update now’ button until the issues have been resolved.

The widely touted May 2020 Update, also known as Windows 10 version 2004, began rolling out automatically, in a phased manner, to users from yesterday. Users, however, are still able to receive the upgrade if they manually check for updates.

Among the new features expected in the biannual upgrade are a faster and easier Bluetooth pairing process with external devices, as well as a mechanism to much more quickly enable a fully-passwordless experience.

When the update is finally deemed ready, users should also except a refined Coronata chatbot experience and smoother synchronicity between smartphones and Windows machines, among other additions.

That Microsoft has encountered several major issues on the release of its latest operating system upgrade should be of little surprise to long-term users who will be familiar with faulty feature upgrades of the past.

The May 2020 Update itself was delayed by two weeks earlier this month after Microsoft discovered a set of bugs that needed to be addressed urgently. This included a zero-day vulnerability relating to the deployment image servicing and management (DISM) tool, used to repair corruption on Windows systems.

The April and October 2018 feature upgrades were so badly received by the community that Microsoft was forced to change the way it delivers its updates, with users now generally waiting longer in light of a new phased approach.

Conventionally, Microsoft would initiate updates automatically once data suggested users would enjoy a safe and frictionless experience. Starting with Windows 10 version 1903, released last year, users are now, instead, simply notified when it’s available to download and install.

Azure Bastion and Confidential Computing are among ten services Microsoft has launched for UK Azure customers to improve security and allow users to take advantage of technologies like IoT.

Bastion, a managed platform as a service (PaaS), first launched in public preview last June and is designed to protect exposed virtual machines (VMs) from outside threats. The service lets users securely connect to VMs without using public IP addresses, reducing exposure to the public internet and cyber threats such as malware.

Meanwhile, Confidential Computing will allow customers to secure information while it’s being used, as opposed to encrypting data while it’s sitting in a data centre or being moved across a network. This real-time encryption feature means multiple organisations can combine data sets and analyse them without being able to access each other’s data.

A prospective use case for the technology could be banks combining transaction data to detect fraud and money laundering, while hospitals could combine patient records for analysis to improve diagnostics.

Among the services being launched are App Configuration, Bot Service, Consumption Plan Linux, IoT Central, Premium Plan Linux, Time Series Insights, and Virtual Network NAT.

The final service being launched, Private Link, offers a secure connection to Microsoft’s cloud with no public internet access. This can also help users meet the demands of regulations in different markets across the world.

“Microsoft continues to invest in our UK Azure regions to meet the growing needs of our customers,” said Michael Wignall, Azure business lead at Microsoft UK.

“Azure is helping organisations, both large and small, adapt to a new way of working, and our cloud experts continue to help them at this challenging time.”

App Configuration allows customers to centrally manage application settings while the Bot Service gives them the capability to develop Q&A bots to improve the customer experience. Time Series Insights collects, processes, stores and analyses data, as well as giving customers the ability to launch queries.

IoT Central, meanwhile, is a secure app platform for IoT devices and software, which can also scale as businesses grow. The product’s main appeal is the offer of industry-specific app templates for sectors ranging from retail to healthcare.

Two of tech’s biggest players have announced sweeping job cuts as the economic effects of COVID-19 continue to take their toll, with IBM and HPE reducing its staff count by potentially thousands.

IBM has already swung the axe, with the number of affected staff thought to be in the thousands, according to people familiar with the company’s plans, speaking to Bloomberg. The publication spoke with a Californian-based worker who lost his job along with his entire team of 12. Job cuts are also being made across sites in other US states including Pennsylvania, Missouri, New York.

The layoffs are thought to affect several divisions across IBM including its Global Technology Services division, which offers IT outsourcing, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) also suggests.

It’s unclear how much of an effect the pandemic has had on IBM’s plans, though the actions represent the first major staffing shakeup since CEO Arvind Krishna took charge in January 2020. Krishna transitioned into the role with an ambition to revive growth at IBM, after recent quarters of declining revenue.

“IBM’s work in a highly competitive marketplace requires flexibility to constantly add high-value skills to our workforce,” an IBM spokesperson told Bloomberg. “While we always consider the current environment, IBM’s workforce decisions are in the interest of the long-term health of our business.”

“Recognizing the unique and difficult situation this business decision may create for some of our employees, IBM is offering subsidized medical coverage to all affected U.S. employees through June 2021.”

HPE, meanwhile, has outlined plans to make severe cost reductions following a collapse in revenue in the latest quarter, falling 16% year-on-year $6 billion. As a result of job cuts, executive pay reductions, and other measures, the company expects to save between $1 billion and $1.3 billion over the next three years.

In an earnings call, the firm announced it would be reducing employees’ base salaries from 1 July through to the end of the year. The CEO and each executive officer at the executive VP level sustaining a 25% pay cut, while the base salaries of each executive officer at the senior VP level will suffer a 20% cut.

HPE will also embark on an immediate “cost optimisation” plan which will involve realigning the workforce to “areas of growth” and implementing measures to simplify the product portfolio, supply chain structures, and digital customer support model.

Each of the company’s divisions suffered losses in the last quarter, with High-Performance Compute & Mission Critical Systems revenue down the sharpest year-on-year, a fall of 18% to $589 million. This was followed by the Storage division which fell 16%, to $1.1 billion. Profit margins in both divisions also declined.

The smallest drop in revenue was in the Intelligence Edge division, which declined 2% to $665 million. This equated with an 11% operating profit margin, however, compared with 5.3% from the prior-year period.

HPE’s recent financial performance, and the resultant cost-saving measures, have been pinned heavily on the coronavirus pandemic, and its effect on demand as well as the supply chain.

As with IBM in recent years, HPE has suffered from consistent falling revenues since splitting from HP in 2015. The firm has, however, made a series of moves in recent years in order to change its fortunes, including the acquisition of supercomputing behemoth Cray last year.

Its CEO Antonio Neri declared in 2019 that his vision for the company is one that champions a “cloudless” future, adding that the cloud wasn’t a destination, rather, an “experience”, where businesses encounter true cloud interoperability.

​The seemingly endless state of isolation we have found ourselves in for the past three months has taken its toll, warping our minds in weird and wonderful ways. For me, this has manifested as a newfound obsession with the bizarre workings of the virtual House of Commons.

Our parliamentarians’ attempt to follow the government’s own advice to work from home has, by all accounts, been a success, barring the occasional sweary glitch. It’s an example of the fascinating dynamics at play, with MPs using Zoom to remote-into parliamentary debates while using a web platform to hold parliamentary votes securely. Surely, in moments like this, therefore, there must be a catch… but none came.

Despite the Palace of Westminster being seen as more old fashioned (and, indeed, just old) than the more modern regional assemblies, the project in London has been by far the most comprehensive. The Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, for example, has implemented video conferencing but hasn’t yet added provision for remote voting.

By all measures, the UK’s virtual parliament has been a success, and our MPs have been able to continue to work and scrutinise the government effectively. Then, scrolling through my Twitter feed for nuggets of news, came the catch. The ‘hybrid’ House of Commons has been such a success that it has been ditched in its entirety.

I’m ashamed to admit, for a moment, that I’d bought into the fantasy that our parliamentarians saw the proverbial light and – in a rare departure from form – embraced the progressive force of digital transformation. In typical fashion, however, as soon as they were given a taste of progress, they agreed to spit it straight back out by 350 votes to 258 – a government majority of 92. 

When the House of Commons returns on 2 June, after a two-week break coinciding with Whitsun, MPs can no longer participate in debates using video conferencing technology, let alone vote remotely using the platform that’s been in place for just a week. This, incidentally, is a system that House of Commons staff have worked tirelessly to build, install and sufficiently test over a short four-week period.

There are myriad reasons why the decision is a travesty; not just for the interests of progress, but the impracticality of asking MPs to travel into London, a COVID-19 hotspot, from across all the constituent parts of the UK. Many of our MPs also fall in the at-risk age groups, while others will have pressing childcare needs due to schools still being shut, not to mention those who should be ‘shielding’ due to medical conditions.

Beyond that, the decision to bin the remote working technology flies in the face of the government’s own advice to “work from home where possible”, based on the false logic that remote working isn’t actually working. This short-sightedness can be neatly summarised by the views of Conservative MP for Crawley, Henry Smith, who tweeted: “Not that I should be surprised by the lazy left but interesting how work-shy socialist and nationalist MPs tried to keep the remote Parliament going beyond 2 June.”

Beyond the sheer incomprehension on display, this also sends a terrible message to many businesses that have embraced the mass shift to remote working and sustained measured benefits as a result. Twitter and OpenText are among companies that will let their staff work from home indefinitely following the pandemic, for example, while workers themselves have also reported feeling more productive as a result of the added flexibility and a lack of commute.

Nevertheless, the fact that our MPs have voted to reject progress doesn’t come as a surprise, despite the fact I readily admit bought into the delusion that they finally turned a corner. British MPs have gained notoriety for neglecting the benefits of technology, best symbolised by the snail-paced rollout of Wi-Fi across the Palaces of Westminster. One former MP, Dr David Drew, for example, was sufficiently moved by the lack of Wi-Fi across the parliamentary estate as near ago as 2018 that he took it on himself to chase up the state of progress on essential works to improve availability and coverage.

Yesterday’s vote to ditch ‘hybrid’ proceedings is a minor hitch, with not even the House of Commons able to escape the inevitability of progress. For MPs to do so now, however, despite the fact it’s proven a success, is like having taken one step forward, only to immediately take two steps back and fall off a cliff.

Dell Technologies and Google Cloud Platform have partnered up to launch OneFS for Google Cloud to allow customers to keep massive amounts of data flowing between private clouds and Google Cloud.

Dell OneFS for Google Cloud offers customers a hybrid cloud storage system that can see up to 50 petabytes of data move seamlessly between cloud environments without needing to make adjustments to their applications.

The system offers a native cloud experience that combines Dell’s scalability and performance with Google Cloud’s analytics services. The advancements will allow customers to move workloads across public and private clouds with greater flexibility while adopting a hybrid approach their suits their particular needs.

«Data and workloads exist everywhere – at the edge, in core data centres and public clouds. And, while data and apps are multiplying, IT resources and budgets are not,» said senior vice president and general manager for cloud platforms & solutions with Dell Technologies, Deepak Patil.

«For companies to turn their data into competitive differentiators, they need a way to manage it seamlessly and consistently, no matter where it resides. Dell Technologies Cloud brings the best of the public cloud to the data centre and the best of the data centre to the public cloud, removing complexity so companies can spend less time managing their infrastructure and more time delivering value to their customers.»

The system has been devised to encourage the movement of file data, which accounts for at least half of an organisation’s on-premise data, to public clouds. Very little of this data is stored in public clouds due to performance and scale limitations.

One clear example of businesses that could benefit from OneFS for Google Cloud is those in the media and entertainment industry, which commonly handle massive video files with 4K resolution. These files demand terabytes of storage and high throughput as well as low latency file storage, meaning it’s difficult for production companies to manage large file workloads in the public cloud.

With the joint hybrid system, Dell claims, these companies can work across private and public clouds with consistent operations, with the added flexibility to scale if needed.

«We’re proud to partner with Dell Technologies to deliver high-performance, scalable cloud storage services to our customers with OneFS for Google Cloud,» said vice president of engineering at Google Cloud Rich Sanzi.

«Through this partnership, customers can more quickly and effectively leverage Dell Technologies storage solutions through Google Cloud and have access to the best of breed file storage solutions, across hybrid cloud environments.»

Remote working arrangements have led to benefits for the majority of UK office workers, despite a handful of employers failing to equip their staff with the technology required.

Most people working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic (55%) have registered a productivity boost due to additional free time in their day, according to research commissioned by Okta.

Remote working has also led to the majority of employees (62%) experiencing an increase in flexibility, which, in turn, allows them to focus more on work.

Despite a radical shift in the way many employees across the economy are working, only a third have felt their productivity levels take a hit as a result. Incidentally, this finding chimes with the proportion of people who feel let down by their employees with regards to being supplied with the technology needed to execute their roles remotely.

For instance, 28% of newly-remote workers reported their businesses had not equipped them with the necessary hardware, such as a laptop, in order to work productively from home. Meanwhile, 24% of remote workers said they couldn’t access the software they needed at the beginning of the pandemic.

The findings culminate in just 24% of respondents indicating they want to return to the office full-time, with a further 35% suggesting they’d prefer a flexible arrangement where they can work from home on a part-time basis.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all to think and act differently”, said Okta’s EMEA VP and GM Jesper Frederiksen. “Businesses have had to learn the hard way about the need to digitally transform to survive, and it is these learnings that will help us emerge from this crisis stronger.”

Drilling down into the detail of changes to peoples’ day-to-day working arrangements, almost 40% said despite their new freedom that they were working the same hours as normal. A further 20% reported working longer hours than normal.

Despite the sudden shift away from in-person meetings to video conferencing platforms, the vast majority of workers have adapted smoothly, with only 5% saying they were not comfortable at all.

With lockdown measures forcing millions of people to work from home, the key question for many is whether it’s been for better or worse. A string of major companies has used feedback from the last few months to make fundamental changes to their working arrangements that could outlast the pandemic.

Twitter, for example, announced it would allow employees to work from home indefinitely beyond the pandemic. This came after OpenText revealed earlier this month that it would close half its offices and consign 15% of its workforce to permanent remote working.

The research, conducted by YouGov, put forward questions to 2,000 office workers across the UK. Beyond changes to productivity, there are aspects of traditional working that many miss sorely. 

Most workers (57%), for example, suggest they miss having in-person conversations with their coworkers, while half miss the relationships they have forged with those in the office.

This touches on an apparent trade-off between productivity gains and the opportunity to build relationships at work. This theme is something Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella referenced in recent comments, suggesting we shouldn’t be so quick to celebrate the productivity gains fuelled by remote working, as the social aspects of office working are too dear to sacrifice.

The research also raised concerns over whether organisations are fitted with sufficient cyber security protocols, with only a third of respondents “completely confident” that remote working security would keep them safe from cyber attacks.

This ranges across sectors, with workers the IT industry unsurprisingly feeling more protected than others. For comparison, just a quarter of respondents in the retail and education sectors shared a similar level of confidence.

Users of the Zoom video conferencing platform reported major issues for several hours on Sunday, with the outage even disrupting the daily Downing Street coronavirus press conference.

Thousands of people began reporting issues from approximately 9 am yesterday, according to the web monitoring service DownDetector, with the company confirming the platform had sustained issues later in the afternoon. 

Zoom confirmed at approximately 3 pm that a portion of its users affected by the issues were unable to host or join meetings and that it was investigating the matter. The outage also hit the Q&A portion of the government’s daily coronavirus press conference, hosted at Downing Street, with journalists unable to field their questions due to the technical difficulties. 

«I think people watching will, I’m quite sure, be aware that Zoom users are encountering some issues at the moment,” said business secretary Alok Sharma, who was standing in for the prime minister. 

«And so, unfortunately, we won’t be able to get any journalists live on-screen. Instead, I’ll be reading out their questions which have been sent in.»

The company issued an update at around 5 pm suggesting the issue had been resolved, with users now able to host, join and participate in Zoom Meetings and Zoom Video Webinars. DownDetector, however, suggests a small number of users were experiencing problems into the evening, and beyond.

IT Pro asked Zoom what the root cause of the issue was, and what steps were taken to rectify the situation.

The video conferencing service has, in a short space of time, become integral to the functioning of many organisations, including arms of the UK government. Even the House of Commons has resumed its function as best it can while observing social distancing rules courtesy of services provided by Zoom.

Therefore, such service disruption, if sustained during working hours and over a far longer time period, could, in turn, affect the day-to-day operations of countless businesses.

The company’s meteoric surge in usage – with more than 100 million users added in a matter of weeks – has been accompanied with a much stronger spotlight thrown onto its relatively lax security and privacy policies. Zoom has consciously been addressing these issues in recent weeks as part of a 90-day security plan, however. 

The latest update, for example, added 256-bit encryption among stronger host controls to prevent incidents such as ‘Zoom-bombing’.

Software giant VMware has said it plans to acquire specialist Kubernetes company Octarine, a deal at the core of VMware’s drive to become a major security provider.

Following the firm’s decision to snap up Carbon Black seven months ago, VMware is hoping to integrate Octarine’s security platform for Kubernetes applications into its broader security services. 

The company’s technology helps simplify DevSecOps and enables cloud-native environments to be more secure from development through runtime, according to Carbon Black’s CEO Patrick Morley.

“The unique properties of the cloud (speed, agility, scale) mean that developers are increasingly using containers to modernize applications. As with any major technology adoption, attackers are not far behind, looking to take advantage of new risk areas,” he said.

“Protecting workloads is critical to the security of applications and data inside every organization. Building Octarine’s innovation into the VMware security portfolio will present a major opportunity for our team to further simplify and improve security for our customers.”

The move is seen as a leap forward for VMware, which has launched a significant push into the security market through investments and acquisitions.