Issue 2310 - Thursday 10 April 2025

The News

Microsoft turns 50, and what a weird 50 years it’s been!

Microsoft is 50 years old! The company threw a big do (ITNews) which — outside of a few workers protesting their work supporting the Israeli military (ABC) — was mostly a love-fest about artificial intelligence. The Verge put out a cool list of the 50 best things that Microsoft has ever made, including the game SkiFree which I wasted a lot of time on as a kid (The Verge). Relatedly, the company’s Windows 95 reboot sound is being added to the US National Recording Registry alongside Elton John and Mary J Blige (Library of Congress).

Microsoft is a complicated company. It’s gone from this near monopoly position where it used its might to lock-out competitors, to being in the wilderness, to transforming into a company that puts its products everywhere. Now, it’s made a fascinating decision to pull back from developing AI and letting OpenAI, which it was a big investor in, and other companies do the hard and expensive work of creating models (The Register). I am very curious to see where it is in 10-15 years. Anyway, here’s Steve Ballmer recreating his famous “developers, developers, developers” moment for good luck (TikTok).

Cybersecurity in the Trump era is uhh not dull!

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order specifically persecuting the government’s former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency head Chris Krebs for his role in protecting the 2020 presidential election (White House). His admin is revoking the security clearance of everyone at his company, too (Mastodon). It might to include some American random public servant being attacked in the Sizzle but Krebs a world-respected cybersecurity expert who is being attacked with the full might of the US government for daring to make sure elections didn’t get hacked (CRN). Last week, Trump also fired the head of “two government organizations that play integral roles for U.S. cybersecurity” (Cyber Security Dive). CISA leadership was cleared out as Trump came in (Meritalk). Various cybersecurity agencies have also stopped efforts to combat Russian cyberattacks and disinformation (Reuters). All this adds up to the US government not taking cyber threats seriously and being unable to respond to them, even if they wanted to.

I had someone cancel their subscription last week because they thought I was being too political in the Sizzle. I get it. this is a tech newsletter. It just so happens that what’s happening in Washington and Mar-a-Lago remains the biggest tech story in the world right now.

Chinese minority-targeted spyware and TikTok GST fraudsters caught

On the topic of cybers, Uighur, Tibetan and Taiwanese communities are being targeted with spyware that’s collecting data on them, says an alert from cybersecurity agencies from Australia, US and a number of other countries (Cyber). The spyware, called MOONSHINE and BADBAZAAR, can access real time data from users and has been found in apps targeting Chinese minority groups in Google and Apple app stores. The agencies don’t name who’s responsible but they did say the data is “of use to China”, so pretty easy to figure that one out (TechRadar). In other crime news, remember that 2021 GST “hack” promising free cash that spread on TikTok (SMH, $)? Well, apparently the ATO has taken action against 57,000 people who used it (ATO). There have been 104 arrests including one bloke who just got jailed for claiming $30 million worth of purchases to get $2.4m in GST.

Leftovers

Oh, Also

A man’s attempt to use an AI-generated lawyer in court does not go well

As someone who has been closely following the use of AI in Australian courts (Crikey, $) I was not surprised to see what happened when a man tried to use an AI avatar in a US court. There’s a full write-up here (The Register) but it’s worth watching the video.

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.

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The Sizzle is created on Gadigal land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.