Microsoft rewarded for security failures with another US government contract Microsoft, the latest tech firm to agree to big software discounts for the US government, is digging even deeper into its bargain bin than the competition by offering a year of free Copilot access to government agencies willing to put up with its other problem products. The General Services Administration (GSA) announced its …
I love how Co-Pilot integrates with Sharepoint document stores, then MS sell you cheap access to all their tools and storage, get your company hooked just like drug-dealers do, then said tools generate a huge cesspit of grade-A business bullshit, and if there's one thing businesses need then it's more bullshit documents based off the decades of bullshit documents they have already amassed!
In future businesses won't collapse under the weight for economic mismanagemnt, they'll just sink slowly into the shit-pits of documentation these AI and "document management" systems are creating.
I went copy a file on my windows 10 machine yesterday and right on the top of the "right mouse click" options was ""analyse with Copilot "" !!
FFS ! Get out of my machine!! (and my office 2010 VM)
A few moments of app deletion and it was gone, along with Cortana that like a hydra had re-installed itself, never used a M$ account (all local) so not sure if it would have worked or just nagged me to log on
Icon for the event at my keyboard when I discovered it....
"A few moments of app deletion and it was gone, along with Cortana that like a hydra had re-installed itself, never used a M$ account (all local) so not sure if it would have worked or just nagged me to log on"
When I worked in aerospace, we were required to abide by ITAR regulations so just about anything technical was an issue and controls had to be in place to make sure it didn't leak out. If the frickin' OS is blabbing all over the place, that's an obvious risk for the company. I've been working on a new book and the last thing I want is to "share" it before it's done and the copyright registered. That's easy enough if it sits on my computer(s). If the OS (MacOS in this case) was "backing up" the files to some online server, I'd have an issue with that. The book isn't something that going to compete with the next James Patterson novel and make me a gazillion credits, but it would suck for there to be a data breach somewhere and all of my hard work available for free on some filelocker sites.
I'm no financial expert, but I'm pretty good with numbers....
So have Microsoft just confirmed the real value/cost of its products with a $0 price tag, or will every other MS customer have to pay twice as much to maintain the bottom line?
Either way, as a small business, I'm feeling screwed.
for a guy who recons he is a shrewd business person (only he believes that) he makes some terrible decisions
as in the article, 1 year contracts give enough time to migrate to a new platform and be locked in with rip off prices you can't avoid in later years
it seems a lot of his MAGA followers are having "buyer regret" mid term elections should be interesting to see how much support he has retained
Most large software companies have security failures, the question is how many and who else better has the capability they require. If the applications need a high-level of security then it should be deep and not just relying on the software. Similar regarding foreign employees, there should be audited approaches to show access to secret sauce only possible by vetted staff.
So all possible, the question is; is Microsoft trustworthy to implement the necessary security and maintain it?
>Microsoft will likely have to burn some capital to reap the monetary rewards from government agencies who grow dependent on its cheap or free software in the next year
microsoft has never published free software - every time microsoft claims that they're released something as "free" or "open source", I look and soon determine it contains proprietary binaries without source code and/or has proprietary restrictions that sublicense MIT expat.
It isn't ever cheap either - as soon as you are handcuffed in, they jack the prices up without fail.
microsoft has never published gratis software either - each time microsoft offers gratis "licenses" - they go and claim a significant fraction of the huge "license value" as a "goodwill donation" off tax - then wait a year or so and then it's time to pay.
"What looks cheap today will leave the government with higher costs, fewer options, and greater risk tomorrow."
Will each agency be getting separate and isolated AI servers set up to keep no prompt history, physically situated only in the US, disconnected from each company's international internal networks, and staffed only by US support? Otherwise I would worry about a great risk today. It couldn't get any worse is not a valid defense.
