Microsoft Offering Up to $250,000 for Identifying Chip Bugs Like Spectre, Meltdown

Microsoft is offering up to $250,000 for identifying bugs that are similar to the Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws.

The offering is part of Microsoft's new limited-time bug bounty programme for "speculative execution" side-channel vulnerabilities.

"This new class of vulnerabilities was disclosed in January 2018 and represented a major advancement in the research in this field," Microsoft said in a blog post on Wednesday.
"In recognition of that threat environment change, we are launching a bounty programme to encourage research into the new class of vulnerability and the mitigations Microsoft has put in place to help mitigate this class of issues," it added.

"Speculative execution is truly a new class of vulnerabilities, and we expect that research is already underway exploring new attack methods," said Phillip Misner, a security group manager at Microsoft.
The bug bounty programme is open till December 31.
Intel recently confirmed a report about a potential security flaw in its chips that is vulnerable to hacking.

According to security researchers, two CPU-level vulnerabilities Spectre and Meltdown have affected most chips made in the last two decades by Intel, as well as some by AMD and ARM Holdings.
Following the news of the bugs getting out, all major tech players such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, including Intel, released security patches to help protect users from potential data theft.

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Microsoft to Bring 'S Mode' to Existing Windows 10 Versions in 2019

Microsoft is set to move Windows 10 S from a dedicated operating system to merely a mode for existing Windows 10 versions in 2019. The new development, which was initially a part of the rumour mill, has now been confirmed by Microsoft VP Joe Belfiore. The Redmond giant launched Windows 10 S in May last year as a lightweight version of Windows 10 - targeting schools and other institutions - to take on Google's Chrome OS.

Belfiore, in a tweet on Wednesday, said, "Next year, 10 S will be a 'mode' of existing versions, not a distinct version." By switching to the new 'S Mode', your Windows 10 system will no longer be able to install apps from any third-party sources and will instead only accept apps from Microsoft Store. Also, the apps will run in a limited nature, just as they perform operations on Windows 10 S operating system.

The tweet posted by Belfiore also confirms that Microsoft is planning to bring the S Mode to all existing Windows 10 versions, including Windows 10 Home, Enterprise, and Pro. It was previously rumoured that Windows 10 Home users with the by default enabled S Mode will be able to switch to the full-fledged Windows 10 Home for free, while the users with S Mode will need to pay $49 to get access to Windows 10 Pro.

It is worth pointing out here that Windows 10 S machines already have the option to switch to a full Windows 10 version. Microsoft even last year offered a chance to all Windows 10 S users to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for free. That free upgrade was recently extended until March 2018.

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Intel Asks Customers to Halt Patches for Meltdown, Spectre Chip Bugs, Citing Flaw

Intel said on Monday that patches it released to address two high-profile security vulnerabilities in its chips are faulty, advising customers, computer makers and cloud providers to stop installing them.

Intel Executive Vice President Navin Shenoydisclosed the problem in a statement on the chipmaker's website, saying that patches released after months of development caused computers to reboot more often than normal and other "unpredictable" behaviour.

"I apologise for any disruption this change in guidance may cause," Shenoy said. "I assure you we are working around the clock to ensure we are addressing these issues."

The issue of the faulty patches is separate from complaints by customers for weeks that the patches slow computer performance. Intel has said a typical home and business PC user should not see significant slowdowns.

Intel's failure to provide a usable patch could cause businesses to postpone purchasing new computers, said IDC analyst Mario Morales.

Intel is "still trying to get a handle on what's really happening. They haven't resolved the matter," he said.

Intel asked technology providers to start testing a new version of the patches, which it began distributing on Saturday.

The warning came nearly three weeks after Intel confirmed on January 3 that its chips were impacted by vulnerabilities known as Spectreand Meltdown, which make data on affected computers vulnerable to espionage.

Meltdown was specific to chips from Intel, as well as one from SoftBank's ARM Holdings. Spectre affected nearly every modern computing device, including ones with chips from Intel, ARM and Advanced Micro Devices.

Problems with the patches have been growing since Intel on January 11 said they were causing higher reboot rates in its older chips and then last week that the problem was affecting newer processors.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Intel asking customers to halt using the patches.

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Microsoft Education Announces 4 Budget Laptops, Free Office 365 Access, and More

Microsoft on Monday announced the launch of four new school-focused Windows 10 laptops. The company also unveiled plans to offer free access to Office 365 Education to school teachers in 146 countries globally and several developments for STEM - including new curricula for Computer Science with Minecraft, partnerships for Mixed Reality headsets, and a new Chemistry update.

New laptops
Microsoft unveiled four new laptops - two from Lenovo and two developed by JP.

With a budget oriented approach for school students, the Lenovo range starts at just $189  for the Lenovo 100e. It is powered by an Intel Celeron Apollo Lake processor, coupled with a minimum of 2GB LPDDR4 RAM. It sports a 11.6-inch HD (1366x768 pixels) antiglare display. The laptop also boasts a battery life of up to 10 hours, and has a weight of 1.22 kg.

The Lenovo 300e 2-in-1 convertible PC has also been announced in the Microsoft Education range. The laptop is powered by an Intel Pentium processor, coupled with a minimum of 4GB LPDDR4 RAM and a minimum of 16GB eMMC storage. The laptop sports a 11.6-inch HD (1366x768 pixels) 10-point multitouch display with Active Pen display. It boasts a battery life of up to 8 hours.The Lenovo 300e has been priced starting at $279.

There are two laptops, in the Microsoft Education range, from JP that have been launched. The Classmate Leap T303 laptop with Windows Hello support starts at $199 and the Trigono V401 2-in-1 starts at $299. The latter comes with pen and touch support.

Office 365 Education
Microsoft also announced that it would be extending free access to Office 365 Education to teachers in 146 countries. Apart from that, a number of new education-based updates are set to arrive on Microsoft Office next month. These include Microsoft Learning Tools to help students improve their comprehension skills, assignment and grade integration on OneNoteClass Notebook, access to classroom digital hub Teams on iOS and Android, and enabling teachers to publish PowerPoint slides to Teams classrooms.

STEM announcements
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) is an important area of focus for Microsoft Education. The Redmond giant announced several new developments on the STEM front. Microsoft is partnering with BBC Worldwide to bring the natural history film Oceans: Our Blue Planet to classrooms and museums.

A partnership with LEGO Education will also incorporate a new free online hacking STEM lesson plan that enables students to do things like measure topography in 2D/ 3D space, build tools with LEGO bricks, create transportation plans, and more.

Microsoft has also partnered with other education providers that will roll out compatible curriculum for Windows Mixed Reality headsets and Microsoft HoloLens headsets. A limited period pricing will be available for academic students and professors from January 22 till May 31. Commercial and Developer HoloLens variants will be available for a 10 percent discount in select markets where the headset ships.

Lastly, a new Chemistry Update will be rolled out for STEM in Spring 2018. It will enable teachers and students to use Minecraft to help learn the subject better.

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