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• Another 3 New vendors Kemp Loadmaster, MOVEit and Whatsup Gold are added.
• Microsoft EoL section updated for April 2027 - New update coming in August
• DarkWeb Weekly Intelligence Report #180- bad guys are busy, AI powered.
• Microsoft Promotions - Some are out, and surprisingly they have to do with AI.
• IT Infrastructure shortages are here to stay - every time you delay it costs more!
• The Merge Begins - There will be only one (CoPilot).
• Windows PC's get more expensive - Now it's a licensing increase.
• Delta Fast WiFi - Sounds Great, Let's connect!
• Google themed Phishing - Now you get phished with a voice message.
• Your intimate photos in the cloud - maybe... not......
• Intel nabs a win with Fortinet - Intel gets to fabricate Fortinet silicon.
• Musk Bets on AI for profit - As if $1 Trillion is not enough!

We scan the DarkWeb continuously for Hacker signals and Ransomware attacks.

Click above for the report from our live dashboard that we will publish weekly (but actually updated continuously).
This is part of the DarkWeb monitoring services included with many of BUI's managed services offerings. This report is live, and this is a "snapshot" of the top 10 events as of Sunday Afternoon.

Kemp Loadmaster, MOVEit and Whatsup Gold have been added for this week.
See below for Linkedin

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The Odyssey, Moana and Spiderman are bringing in record numbers, and then there is a drought till December

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It's in Beta so it could make mistakes.

Microsoft New Promotions

The promotions are here! See the link below!

IT infrastructure shortages are real and lasting

If you are waiting for hardware prices and lead times to return to normal, stop waiting!

Network World reports lead times stretching from 6 to 18 months, PC prices rising by 35% to 45%, some server prices by more than 125%, and

Gartner expects network equipment prices to rise by more than 20% during 2026.

Worse, this is not another temporary supply-chain problem. AI infrastructure is consuming enormous amounts of memory and manufacturing capacity, and the next AI inference wave is only getting started.

The advice is pretty simple. Plan 12 to 24 months ahead, sweat the hardware you already own, be more flexible about brands and configurations, consider cloud where appropriate and involve your finance team much earlier.

Prices may eventually stabilise, but don't expect them to simply fall back to where they were.

If you want some equipment arriving in 12 months, you may need to order it today.

Please contact your First Technology Group account manager to connect you with our hardware and infrastructure specialists to help plan your roadmap well ahead, extend the useful life of your existing estate, consider alternative configurations and suppliers, and make sure shortages don't end up making your technology decisions for you.

Microsoft News This Week

Microsoft Merges Its Two Copilot Apps Into One


Remember the Copilot “super app” we spoke about a couple of weeks ago? 
It is starting to happen.

Microsoft is merging the consumer Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot apps into one Copilot app, giving users one place for personal and work AI, while keeping corporate and personal data separated. 
This is another important step towards Microsoft making Copilot the front door into its entire ecosystem.

Podcasts, Deep Research and Group Chat are being retired as Microsoft concentrates on the features it believes belong in the unified platform.
Deep Research effectively moves towards the Researcher experience for Microsoft 365 Premium users.

As I keep saying, even if you think you are NOT buying Copilot today, you need to keep watching this very carefully. Microsoft owns an enormous part of your corporate control plane, and Copilot is increasingly becoming the AI interface sitting on top of it.

Please contact your First Technology Group account manager to connect you with our Microsoft and AI specialists to understand where Copilot is heading, what you are already entitled to use, and what you should be planning for next.

Windows 11 PCs are about to get even more expensive

Just when you thought PC prices could not get much worse, Microsoft is reportedly increasing Windows OEM licence fees by around 7% to 10%, on top of already painful RAM, SSD and processor increases.

IDC expects average PC selling prices to rise by 18.3% during 2026.

There is an ironic upside. Keeping perfectly good older hardware alive for longer is becoming increasingly sensible, particularly as Microsoft works to make Windows 11 lighter and more efficient. This continues the theme from last week, sweat the old hardware, but do NOT use that as an excuse to buy badly specified new hardware with less RAM. 32GB remains the recommended corporate target.

Please contact your First Technology Group account manager to connect you with our hardware specialists to optimise your existing fleet and plan replacements around the shortages, new processors and increasingly unpleasant prices.

Security

Would You Connect to “Delta WiFi Fast”?

We all know that aeroplane Wi-Fi can be unreliable and slow, so if you saw a WiFi on the plane with "Fast" in the name ofthe company, would you connect in a heartbeat?
Many would - and that's the problem.


A passenger on Delta Flight 591 allegedly set up a fake Wi-Fi network called “Delta WiFi Fast” while the legitimate onboard Wi-Fi was disrupted.

To everybody else it looked legit - and even better, FAST. 
Connect to an “evil twin” like this, and you can be redirected to fake login pages, have credentials stolen, or potentially expose your device to further attack.

We literally covered hotel Wi-Fi being hijacked to steal Microsoft 365 credentials last week. Similar trick, different location.

The attacker relied on somebody seeing a familiar Wi-Fi name and trusting it. Once again, the human ends up being the weakest link.

Users travelling with corporate devices need constantly updated security training. Verify the Wi-Fi name, do not automatically connect to open networks, use your corporate VPN or Zero Trust access controls, and if a Wi-Fi portal suddenly wants your Microsoft, Google or other credentials, STOP!

Please contact your First Technology Group account manager to connect you with our security specialists to review your travelling-user security controls and, just as importantly, keep your users trained on the latest tricks

Google-themed Credential Phishing Attempt.

Another phishing attack, with a reminder that the human remains the weakest link.

This campaign arrives as a harmless looking “New Audio MSG” with a Play Audio button. No dodgy attachment. Click it and you are redirected through several legitimate-looking services before landing on a convincing fake Google Workspace or Google Voice login page, even personalised with your email address.

The technology is getting cleverer, but the attack still needs one critical thing to work, you have to type in your credentials.

A voicemail should play audio, it should not suddenly need your Google password!

Security tools remain essential, but they cannot replace people being regularly trained on the latest tricks. Please contact your First Technology Group account manager to connect you with our security specialists for customised, role-based security training that is continually updated as the attacks change.

Think twice before storing THAT photo online!

The FBI is warning that hackers are no longer just breaking into accounts for passwords and money.

They are actively looking for private photos and videos that can be published, sold or used for extortion.

The attacks are depressingly familiar, fake support messages, phishing pages and requests for verification codes. The technology may protect the account, but the human still has to be tricked into opening the door.

There is another lesson here. Think very carefully about what you store online in the first place. A password can be changed. Once a compromising photograph escapes onto the internet, getting it back is almost impossible.



Once again, the human being remains the weakest link, not only because we can be phished, but because the information and photographs we choose to keep online can provide criminals with powerful leverage against us.

Please contact your First Technology Group account manager to connect you with our security specialists to review identity protection, phishing-resistant MFA and, most importantly, continually updated security awareness training. The tricks keep changing, and so must the training. 

Intel Foundry Nabs A Custom ASIC Win with Fortinet

Fortinet and Intel are developing the new Fortinet Security Processor 6, with Intel helping design, package and manufacture the purpose-built security ASIC.

Fortinet has designed its own security processors for more than 20 years, allowing FortiGate firewalls to inspect encrypted traffic and deliver advanced protection without the performance penalty associated with relying only on general-purpose CPUs.

This collaboration gives Fortinet access to Intel’s advanced semiconductor technology and global manufacturing capability.



It is a powerful reminder that Fortinet is not just here to stay, it remains a cybersecurity technology leader investing in the silicon behind its products.

Please contact your First Technology Group account manager to connect you with our Fortinet specialists to assist in addressing your requirements for the future.

Cloud & AI

Musk Bets on AI for Revenue

Last week we wrote that Qwen3.8 had changed the AI leaderboard again.

Now Grok 4.6 has pushed SpaceXAI right back to the frontier, essentially level with GPT-5.6 Sol on Artificial Analysis and behind only Anthropic overall, while competing particularly aggressively on cost.

This continues exactly the theme from TOP STORIES #179, the leaderboard is changing faster than most companies can raise a PO!

The bigger story is where the money is going. Musk now expects AI revenue to overtake SpaceX’s other businesses, potentially as soon as September. 
Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Alibaba and Musk are all making ENORMOUS bets on AI.

The AI race is not slowing down, it is actually speeding up!

However, the lesson is consistent, don’t bet your business on whichever model happens to be winning this week. Build a governed AI environment where you can safely use the best model for each workload and change models as the leaderboard changes.

Please contact your First Technology Group account manager to connect you with our Cloud, AI, data and security specialists to help build that environment around your business, rather than around somebody else’s AI model.