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• Another 3 New vendors Teammate, Figma and BCC hub are added.
• Microsoft EoL section Updated for January 2027 - Update in April
• DarkWeb Weekly Intelligence Report #5 - The Bad Guys are really busy!
• Seems 75 Shades of CoPilot for entertainment is OK! - Microsoft is Fun!
• License Mobility for Windows Server and SQL Server - Licenses on the move!
• Win 10 LTSB gets an ESU - You get a welcome reprieve!
• We can't Hear you - you're Muted! - Nothing to See here
• Now you get VENOM on your phone - Jumped there from your Computer!
• Your "Phish" is talking back! - Vishing is more popular.
• You can Clone yourself on YouTube - more of you incoming!

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 at 6:00pm Sunday.

Teammate, Figma and BCC hub have been added for this week.
See below for Linkedin

Try out our AI to see whats been added since launch.

Get all the releases for the next 4 weeks in South Africa.
Super Mario Galaxy is now screening - will even keep an ADHD kid glued to the screen!

Devil Wears Prada 2 and Michael are looking to excellent movies as well

Update for rest of 2026 coming in April

Microsoft News This Week

75 Shades of CoPilot is (NOT) just for entertainment!

This entry in the Microsoft product terms did not go as planned. Most AI companies are very cautious to imply that AI can be taken seriously for real work because they are prone to hallucinations, but unfortunately, this got a lot of attention because the product terms state that Copilot is ONLY for entertainment!

I think it is important to note that most of CoPilot is based on OpenAI and Claude in Researcher, and you SHOULD be taking it seriously with a "Trust, but verify" attitude, just like you would be if you have subscribed to OpenAI, Gemini and Claude directly. 
It should further be noted that CoPilot is the only AI that is most securely embedded into the M365 ecosystem, and you should be VERY careful about connecting your tenant to external AIs.

If you are going to be experimenting with AI, which I URGE you to start deploying to certain select users in your company, PLEASE consider CoPilot the most seriously from a security perspective! Contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our CoPilot experts across our different divisions to how they can help you start your journey.

License Mobility for Windows Server and SQL Server subscriptions

License Mobility through Software Assurance has long been one of the key differences between these two purchasing routes, allowing eligible licences to be used in Azure or on shared infrastructure hosted by an Authorised Mobility Partner. Microsoft has now widened that outsourcing option to include SQL Server, along with the External Connectors for Windows Server and RDS. The bit worth paying attention to is that Listed Providers such as Amazon, Google, and Alibaba are currently also registered as Authorised Mobility Partners, which makes this change more interesting than it might look at first glance. Note that System Centre also qualifies for License Mobility.
Please contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our Licensing specialists to assist in taking advantage of this relaxation in rules.

Extended Support Updates for Windows 10 2016 LTSB Available

If you still have Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB hanging around, Microsoft has now opened the door to paid Extended Security Updates for it. Support for that release still ends on 13 October 2026, but from 1 April 2026 organisations can buy up to three extra years of security-only updates to buy themselves some breathing room. This is not a magic extension of full support though, it does not bring new features, general technical support, or non-security fixes, and the bill gets uglier each year because the price doubles annually. In other words, it is a temporary bridge for customers that cannot move fast enough, not a reason to stay put.

There must be a special reason for running these old versions that are still stuck in your environment, and if they are that stuck, knowing that ESUs are available could be quite important! Please contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our licensing experts to assist with seeing how this can help you (finally) move on....

We can't hear you, you're muted!!!

Microsoft is finally fixing one of Teams’ most embarrassing daily annoyances, the ritual of joining a meeting only to discover your mic or speakers are not working. 
A new pre-join audio test will let you record a short sample and play it back before entering the call, so you can confirm the right devices are selected and that people will actually hear you.

It is a simple change, but long overdue, and it should cut out a lot of the “can you hear me now?” nonsense that wastes time at the start of meetings.

Microsoft’s roadmap shows the feature starting to roll out in May 2026 for desktop and Mac users.

"Nothing to See Here"

Together with the neat "You're muted" feature, Microsoft has released a very handy feature BEHIND A CoPilot License, which is the ability to get an AI recap without leaving a transcript or recording lying around afterwards.
In other words, you may soon be able to have the usual hour-long meeting, produce the usual five minutes of actual value, and then let the evidence quietly evaporate.
For compliance-heavy customers, this is actually useful, because Microsoft says the recap can be generated from live meeting context without saving the transcript or recording as a permanent artefact.


Please contact your First Technology Group account manager to connect with our Teams experts to help you prepare for this new feature, and to maybe revisit who needs a CoPilot license for this "Nothing to see here" feature (in addition to getting all the other benefits of CoPilot).

Security

New VENOM phishing shifts attack to mobile devices.

A new phishing campaign called VENOM is targeting senior executives’ Microsoft 365 logins, but the clever part is that it pushes the attack away from the desktop and onto the phone. The emails masquerade as SharePoint sharing notices, are heavily personalised, and include QR codes designed to dodge some scanning tools.
Once scanned, the victim is pushed through a filtering stage and then into a fake but live Microsoft sign-in flow, or a rogue device-code process, allowing attackers to capture credentials, MFA input, and ongoing session access.
That shift to mobile is the bit worth paying attention to. It reduces the chance that users will spot something odd on a full desktop screen and helps the attackers slip past some traditional email security checks.

This is again a reminder - ATTEND TRAINING that teaches you to be aware the attacks are not limited to a single device - the hackers can intentionally "jump" to your phone where your guard lowered, and you might not be able to spot how you are being tricked.
PLEASE contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our training specialists to help ensure your staff are educated in dealing with these spear phishing attacks that could have taken you out!!!.

Voice Phishing is a Growing Social Engineering Threat

The "phish" has stopped hiding in your inbox and started talking back!

Knowbe4 has published an article noting that voice phishing is becoming a much bigger problem, and not because the trick is clever in some magical new way.
It is growing because a live human on the phone can adapt in real time, push harder when challenged, and get around security controls that would have stopped a dodgy email cold.

Mandiant says vishing surged to 11% of observed intrusions in 2025, overtaking email phishing, which dropped to 6%.

That should worry anybody running a help desk or supporting Microsoft 365. 
Recent campaigns have shown attackers calling staff, impersonating employees, and persuading them to reset passwords, change MFA settings, or approve access to SaaS data.

Again, the human remains the weakest link, and employees need training to understand how to deal with a convincing technician on the phone, and worse, one that might be deep faking somebody's voice that you know! 
PLEASE contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our training specialists to help ensure everybody is kept up to date on how to handle these increasingly sophisticated attacks.

Cloud & AI

You can Clone Yourself on YouTube

YouTube is rolling out a new AI avatar feature that lets creators build a digital version of themselves for Shorts. After recording a live selfie and a few voice prompts, you can generate short clips in which the avatar looks and sounds like you, without you having to be on camera every time. 
For now it is rolling out to adults with an existing YouTube channel, through the main YouTube app and YouTube Create, with Europe excluded at launch.

YouTube has now given creators a cleaner, more official way to deepfake themselves. To its credit, the company says these clips will be clearly marked as AI-generated, with watermarking and provenance labels such as SynthID and C2PA, and it says nobody else can use your avatar to make original Shorts. 
Useful? yes. 
Slightly creepy? Also yes.

Are we going to see more of this? BIG Yes!