OpenAI joined 127 other companies, including Microsoft, Google, Anthropic and Oracle, in signing an open letter urging governments and businesses to rapidly strengthen cyber defenses before AI-powered attacks become widespread. The letter calls for greater investment in security teams, patching long-standing vulnerabilities, and sharing AI security tools across the industry to stay ahead of increasingly capable attack models.
cnet.com
· 2026-08-28
Victims across China report losing between $1,500 and $300,000 after scammers posed as romantic partners or professionals and moved conversations from social platforms onto Microsoft Teams using shared login credentials. Once trust was established, the scammers pitched cryptocurrency investments and disappeared with victims' money, leaving them unable to access chat records for police reports since they never controlled the accounts themselves. Local Chinese law enforcement agencies have begun warning the public that Teams is being used as a fraud tool, and platforms like Maimai now flag messages mentioning Teams or Skype as high-risk.
wired.com
· 2026-08-28
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told BBC News that Project Helix, previously described as a codename for Microsoft's next console, will actually be a 'family' of devices rather than a single machine. She declined to confirm whether any of these devices would be discless, though Microsoft recently launched a program letting users digitize physical games.
theverge.com
· 2026-08-28
An investigation by Floodlight and The Guardian used thermal drone imagery to find at least 45 of 62 massive gas-powered generators running simultaneously at the DataOne facility in Vineland, New Jersey, with no permits for any of them. The site, which supplies Microsoft with AI computing power through a $17 billion deal with Nebius, sits about a mile from two schools and has already drawn noise complaints and a lawsuit from residents.
engadget.com
· 2026-08-28
Big Tech's hyperscalers—Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft—are increasingly relying on debt issuance, equity sales, and off-balance-sheet financing arrangements to fund surging AI infrastructure investment. Capital expenditures have exceeded 100% of operating cash flow at some of these firms, prompting Amazon and Alphabet to sell bonds globally, Alphabet to issue equity, and Meta to pursue bond sales and partnerships with alternative asset managers for data center funding.
cnbc.com
· 2026-08-28
An advocacy campaign is calling on laptop buyers to request refunds for the Microsoft Windows license bundled with their device, arguing that most laptops are sold exclusively with Windows pre-installed even if the buyer intends to use another operating system. The campaign frames this as an unfair practice and provides guidance for consumers to formally request reimbursement from vendors.
en.refund4freedom.org
· 2026-08-28
Nvidia has confirmed that October 2026 will bring the last Game Ready driver built for Windows 10, with the following November release skipping the OS entirely. After that, Nvidia will only issue quarterly security patches for Windows 10 systems through October 2029, rather than the frequent performance and compatibility updates tied to new game launches.
techspot.com
· 2026-08-28
Luanti's Android app was removed from the Google Play Store following a DMCA takedown notice filed by Tracer.AI on behalf of Microsoft, accusing the open-source voxel game platform of infringing Minecraft's copyright. Luanti's developers say the app contains no proprietary Minecraft code or assets, noting that Tracer.AI filed a nearly identical notice against them in 2023, which was successfully appealed, and has separately targeted another voxel-style indie game called Allumeria this year.
blog.luanti.org
· 2026-08-28
Microsoft has released the KB5120998 preview cumulative update for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, bundling 35 changes centered on taskbar positioning, a compact taskbar mode, and new Start menu size and layout options. The optional update also begins rolling out Administrator Protection, a feature using just-in-time privileges to limit elevation-of-privilege attacks, though it remains off by default and needs Intune or Group Policy to enable.
bleepingcomputer.com
· 2026-08-28
OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, AMD and over 100 other companies and organizations signed a joint letter urging businesses and governments to urgently strengthen cybersecurity defenses as AI-driven threats accelerate. The signatories called for stronger security tools, wider adoption of both low-cost and frontier AI models, and government funding to help under-resourced sectors like hospitals and water utilities defend themselves.
cnbc.com
· 2026-08-27
Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and roughly 97 other companies—including Visa, MasterCard, Capital One, Adobe, Oracle and IBM—have jointly signed an open letter urging governments and organisations to strengthen cybersecurity before AI-driven attacks escalate. The signatories argue existing defences are outdated and chronically underfunded, especially for critical infrastructure like hospitals and water systems, and are calling for governments to supply advanced defensive AI tools and testing support.
bbc.co.uk
· 2026-08-27
Reports find that AI agents have improved significantly at building and modifying Excel workbooks over the past six months, but they remain unable to properly evaluate formulas without the actual Excel application installed. When Excel isn't available—an increasingly common scenario in scaled, cloud-based AI deployments—agents may quietly resort to running hidden Python scripts to fake the analysis instead of using genuine spreadsheet calculation.
orcaset.com
· 2026-08-27