Security News
Microsoft is rolling out a new update to the Microsoft Edge Stable Channel over the coming days to improve the web browser's security defaults when visiting less popular websites. Starting with version 104.0.1293.47, Edge will toggle on the "Basic" level of security when the "Enhance your security on the web" optional browsing mode is enabled in settings.
Microsoft says Microsoft Edge users will notice improved performance and a smaller disk footprint because the web browser now automatically compresses disk caches. "Beginning with Microsoft Edge 102 on Windows, Microsoft Edge automatically compresses disk caches on devices that meet eligibility checks, to ensure the compression will be beneficial without degrading performance," the Microsoft Edge Team said Wednesday.
The rapid growth of personal and Internet-of-Things devices connecting to enterprise networks has increased the need to have fine-grained control over what is allowed into the network and with what permissions. Network access control solutions can ensure only devices that should attach to the network do, and can restrict what they have access to.
"This sector has a lot of proprietary IoT and industrial automation at the edge but it's not very easy for them to manage. Now they're evolving the application they got from equipment makers such as ABB, Bosch, or Siemens to run on a mainstream compute platform." Hood calls this the industrial 'device edge', an incarnation of edge computing in which large numbers of devices are connected directly to local computing resources rather than having to backhaul traffic to distant datacenters.
Apple has disgorged its latest patches, fixing more than 50 CVE-numbered security vulnerabilities in its range of supported products. As usual with Apple, the Safari browser patches are bundled into the updates for the latest macOS, as well as into the updates for iOS and iPad OS. But the updates for the older versions of macOS don't include Safari, so the standalone Safari update therefore applies to users of previous macOS versions, who will need to download and install two updates, not just one.
Microsoft has followed Google's lead and issued an update for its Edge browser following the arrival of a WebRTC zero-day. Microsoft remained tight-lipped on the matter, merely saying that since Edge "Ingests" Chromium, the vulnerabilities had been addressed.
Microsoft says it addressed a known issue that was causing all Microsoft Edge tabs running IE mode to stop responding if one of the opened sites displayed a modal dialog box after issuing a window. The IE mode problems affect devices running Windows 11, Windows 10, and Windows Server 2022 after installing the KB5014019, KB5014023, and KB5014021 optional preview cumulative updates.
Microsoft wants to make Edge the go-to browser for gaming, with new features unveiled today, including a new gaming portal and the public release of its Clarity boost upscaling feature when using Xbox Cloud Gaming. Those using Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming service to stream games to their PCs may have noticed a difference in graphics quality compared to playing the game on the console.
Microsoft is testing a new feature in the latest Windows 11 preview build that displays an Internet search box directly on the desktop. The problem is that it does not honor your default browser and only uses Bing and Microsoft Edge instead. This new feature is currently being tested with a small subset of Windows Insiders running the Windows 11 build 25120 on the 'Dev' channel.
Microsoft appears to be planning a VPN-like solution for its Edge browser judging by a support page for the upcoming feature. The change is described as a "Preview feature." It has yet to show up on our Canary and Dev versions of Microsoft's browser, however.