Holes in Microsoft Teams, the year is closing on a high, a new “omicron” assessment and one-click gifts

Important vulnerabilities were found in the popular corporate messenger Microsoft Teams. This is another reminder that public services do not provide security guarantees in principle.

German cybersecurity group Positive Security has released four vulnerabilities in Microsoft Teams. It follows from the message that the developer was notified about them back in March, notes Kommersant . Moreover, Microsoft underpaid for the discovery of one critical vulnerability and did not fix the rest, the company claims.

• The most obvious vulnerability is the ability to spoof the link preview and take the user to a phishing site or hide a malicious link. In addition, the messenger on the Android platform allows third-party agents to obtain the user's IP address and service information.
• Microsoft told Kommersant that they have studied all four vulnerabilities and "they do not pose an immediate threat that requires fixes in the security system." And the leak of IP addresses on Android is closed.
• Microsoft Teams is the fourth most popular platform among messengers and the fifth among video conferencing services among Russian corporate users (according to TrueConf, 6% and 9%, respectively). Originally an enterprise product, it is considered to be more secure than leading WhatsApp or Zoom.
• The biggest threat of these vulnerabilities is the substitution of previews, Kommersant quotes Boris Larin, senior researcher of information security threats at Kaspersky Lab: “As a result, insufficiently attentive users can become victims, for example, of a phishing attack.”

What do I get from this?

In terms of significance and scope, the discovered vulnerabilities cannot be compared with the Apache Log4j disaster, which we talked about in the tech newsletter. Once they go public, Microsoft will have to shut them down, but, as always, the question remains how many security holes are left. In a broad sense, this once again demonstrates that only standalone video services and instant messengers within the company can be truly secure. However, they require significant costs and qualified IT specialists, which are lacking in Russia .

ADVERTISING

What's next for retail in 2022

Online food shopping, healthy eating, conscious consumption, organic and farm products - until recently these were small, niche trends, and in 2021 they have become full-fledged long-term trends in Russia. , spoke about the difficulties that food retail will have to solve next year in a new media column for Shopper's . Jan Dunning, the CEO of Russia's largest retail chain

MONEY

The year closes on peaks

The pre-Christmas short trading week (on Friday American exchanges do not work) closed with a record for the S&P 500 index - it rose by 2.3% in four days. Both the technological Nasdaq 100 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are in the black. After a turbulent past week, investors were "relieved from their hearts" as studies came out that the omicron strain is not as dangerous as many initially feared, and should not slow down the US economy much and for a long time. Asian markets picked up this mood, growth on Friday is expected in European markets.

"Omicron" was examined for hospitalization and revaccination

The FT and Bloomberg are today laying out the findings of a study that will have a clear impact on the markets - it is public and conducted in the UK, the second after South Africa to face an outbreak of "omicron". It turned out that the proportion of hospitalizations with this strain is 50-70% lower than with the "delta", and the probability of getting into intensive care is 31-45% lower. But it turned out that while the revaccination is effective against Omicron, its protection decreases much faster and becomes 15-25% lower after 10 weeks. So far, the best combination seems to be a cocktail of mRNA vaccines - Moderna boost after two doses of Pfizer, whose effectiveness remains at the level of 70-75% after 10 weeks. British experts are considering whether to recommend a fourth dose, the authorities - whether to introduce a lockdown for Christmas.

Wages rise due to inflation

Wage growth in Russia accelerated by the end of the year, the labor market ceased to be an employer's market - these are the main conclusions of a study by Sberbank and Rabota.ru, which quotes RBC . The top 3 in terms of growth for the year are finance with insurance (+17.7%), IT with telecoms (+16.7%) and the construction sector (+12.9%). Wages increased faster towards the end of the year due to rising inflation and in median terms reached RUB 36,644 in November (+10.2% yoy). The nominal wage fund recovered to pre-pandemic levels, the offer from employers increased by 29% over the year. In 2022, researchers predict a shortage of personnel in construction, IT and mass specialties (drivers, sellers, order pickers, and others).

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PRACTICE

Christmas gifts in one click

For those who do not have time to go to the mall for gifts or wait for them from the online store, WSJ has compiled a selection of digital options that can be a great replacement for a banal gift card or transfer. One option is to gift a loved one a session on the Intro app, which allows users to have one-on-one video chats with celebrities and experts. The issue price is from $50 to $200. Another option is the MasterClass service (from $15), which offers to learn skills in various fields from the most famous professionals (for example, there is a master class on how to make a beautiful portrait from Annie Leibovitz). For those who want to finally go in for sports from January 1, a good option would be to subscribe to the Aaptiv service, which offers thousands of online running, yoga and even weightlifting classes. You can find all gift subscription ideas here .

Virtual Church for the Metaverses

Large organizations and brands have already begun to create footholds in the emerging metaverses. And denominations are no exception, writes Quartz. The pioneer in this category is VR Church, which has been in existence for five years. Its founder, a Virginia pastor and former Pennsylvania preacher, says the pandemic has convinced some skeptics of the real potential of virtual churches. The VR Church is already hosting three online Sunday worship services at the same time each week across two time zones for Europe and America. This weekend, VR Church will hold a Christmas service - it is planned that the parishioners of the church will find themselves in a night field, where the pastor will lead the service, reading and explaining the biblical "Christmas Story". Parishioners will be able to take an active part in the service - during the service they will walk along the road to Bethlehem - of course, like virtual avatars.