The BlackByte ransomware gang appears to have made a comeback after targeting at least three U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, according to an advisory from the FBI and the Secret Service.

BlackByte is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that leases out its ransomware infrastructure to others in return for a percentage of the ransom proceeds. The gang emerged in July 2021 when it began exploiting software vulnerabilities to target corporate victims worldwide. While BlackByte had some initial success—security researchers tracked attacks against manufacturing, healthcare, and construction industries in the U.S., Europe, and Australia—the gang hit a rough patch months later when cybersecurity firm Trustwave released a free decryption tool that allowed BlackByte victims to recover their files for free. The group’s simplistic encryption techniques led some to believe that the ransomware was the work of amateurs; the ransomware downloaded and executed the same key to encrypt files in AES, rather than unique keys for each session.

Despite this setback, it appears the BlackByte operation is back with a vengeance. In an alert posted in mid-February, the FBI and the Secret Service (USSS) warned that the ransomware gang had compromised multiple U.S. and foreign businesses, including “at least” three attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure, notably government facilities, financial services, the food industry, and agriculture.

The advisory, which provides indicators of compromise to help network defenders identify BlackByte intrusions, was released just days before the ransomware gang claimed to have encrypted the network belonging to the San Francisco 49ers. BlackByte disclosed the attack the day before the Super Bowl by leaking a few files it claims to have been stolen.

Brett Callow, a ransomware expert and threat analyst at Emsisoft, says that while BlackByte isn’t the most active RaaS operation, it’s been steadily racking up victims over the past few months. However, he adds that because of recent action by the U.S. government against ransomware actors, the gang might take a cautious approach.

“The FBI and Secret Service advisory states that BlackByte has been deployed in attacks on at least three U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including government. Interestingly, no such organizations are listed on the gang’s leak site, which could indicate that those organizations paid, that no data was exfiltrated or that BlackByte chose not to release the exfiltrated data,” he said. “That final option is not unlikely: since the arrests of members of REvil, the gangs seem to have become more cautious about releasing data, and especially with U.S. organizations.”

Callow said that while all signs suggest BlackByte is based in Russia, since the ransomware, like REvil, is coded not to encrypt the data of systems that use Russian or Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) languages. That “shouldn’t be taken to mean the attack was carried out by individuals based in Russia or the CIS.”
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“Affiliates may not be located in the same county as the individuals who run the RaaS,” he added. “They could be based anywhere—including the U.S.”

Here are a few FinTech firms that are emblematic of how technology innovation is shaping the future of money across a variety of financial services.

Versapay—Accounts receivable
In its quest to rid companies of paper checks, Toronto-based Versapay has developed one of the first collaborative accounts receivable platforms, combining advanced invoicing, automation, and payments technology to deliver improvements and efficiencies for its 250,000 business clients. It has mushroomed during the pandemic, which fueled a demand for digital payments, including the digitizing of accounts receivable services. In a recent interview, Versapay CEO Craig O'Neill said a large majority of finance leaders will adopt digitized payments in the next few years. "Surveys show that 93% of finance leaders are saying they're going to digitize how they do business on both the accounts payable and accounts receivable side. There's going to be a sea change over the next couple of years, which will really change the face of business: paper goes away completely, including check stock, and will set people free to work wherever they want," he said.  

BestEgg—Personal lending and financial management resources
This Wilmington, Del.-based FinTech, is on a mission to help people feel more confident about their everyday finances by making money accessible through fast, simple, and easy personal loans. BestEgg has created a proprietary AI platform to deliver digital products including loans for debt consolidation, credit card refinancing, home improvement, moving, vacation and baby adoption. BestEgg recently introduced an online financial health platform to bolster confidence for consumers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a debilitating effect on many peoples' finances. "The future of digital finance is human," says Sabrina DeVito, chief strategy officer for Marlette Holdings, which operates BestEgg. "Digital can come across as cold, but the winners are going to be those who not only use digital to create extraordinary experiences but also are human in how they come across," she said.

Kabbage—Small business financing
Small businesses took a beating during the coronavirus pandemic—large numbers shut down permanently, crippling local communities both economically and socially. Fortunately, more small businesses are forming in the shadow of the pandemic, and one FinTech is helping to make that possible. Kabbage, backed by American Express, is a one-stop FinTech resource for small businesses, providing access to cash flow solutions such as business checking, flexible funding, and payment processing services. It recently launched Kabbage Funding, which provides flexible lines of credit between $1,000 and $150,000, and Kabbage Checking for online business checking accounts.
"We saw a technology opportunity; a way to use an API to automate serving a business that couldn't have been served previously," said Kathryn Petralia, co-founder of Kabbage. Petralia says what she's seeing with small businesses is that there's more support by many other companies to serve these unserved small businesses. "They're a vital part of the economy—a vital part of job growth and so now we can do that using technology where we couldn't do it before because it was always hard to market to small business. But thanks to the data and these new technology platforms, we can do it," Petralia said.

UpTip—Cashless tipping
This new startup replaces cash tipping with an e-payment platform and enables users to provide ratings on service providers such as wait staff and limousine drivers. Companies are given a QR code after registering with UpTip. Customers scan the code on their smartphone to view the company's profile, give a star rating, leave feedback and, of course, provide a tip. Tips are deposited directly into a debit card or bank account of choice.
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The travel and hospitality industry is still struggling in the wake of COVID and so are the people whose lives and livelihoods have depended on tipping. Eric Plam, UpTip's founder, believes the pandemic has been a catalyst to help people figure out how much they value people who serve them and the services they provide. UpTip will help collect the data used to determine how much service staff are valued. "We really believe that personality, enthusiasm and merit should be rewarded and so this is one reason we enjoy tipping and that's one thing we do with our service and ratings platform—we try to raise people who are doing a great job because we want to help them advance in their careers", Plam said.

SeaTable is software for combined information management. The software allows data of different types to be collected, prearranged, and analyzed. It uses an in-built spreadsheet web interface with customizable web forms for its data entry. 

SeaTable offers over 20 different column types, sorting, filtering, and grouping for its data organization. Besides the charts and pivot tables as traditional evaluation tools, it also offers application-oriented visualizations, including map views, gallery, Gantt charts, and Kanban.

The SeaTable software is available in 3 different versions, including on-premises, dedicated, and cloud variants. The on-premises variant is designed for large and medium-sized companies that don't want to outsource their data but prefer to store their own data center. Besides this, it offers a spreadsheet solution for teams that want flexible ways of working on projects, tasks, and ideas.

The spreadsheet solution doesn't limit users to texts and numbers; it also captures all information and stores documents, emails, URLs, check boxes, images, drop-down lists, etc. According to the CEO & Founder, Christoph Dyllick-Brenzinger, "SeaTable generates enormous added value for teams that want to work together on ideas, tasks or projects. With SeaTable, you have all your data in one place and can access it flexibly from anywhere. Since our launch in July 2020, we have developed rapidly. We generate many new customers every day who have the goal of working in a structured and, above all, more efficient way."

SeaTable Offers Unique Use Cases
SeaTable has different use cases. It can work as a bug, survey software, tracking system, project management tool, archiving solution, and a collaboration platform. Therefore, everyone, including agencies, developers, content creators, project managers, and market researchers, can use SeaTable to consolidate their project details.

The software can work as a collaborative database application. It offers advanced functions beyond what traditional spreadsheets can do. As a web application, it doesn't require any program installation, download, or configuration. All users require is to register on the platform and get their data organized.

"Over 100,000 downloads via Dockerhub and high customer satisfaction speak for our first-class and innovative software. With the development of SeaTable, it is always important to us to offer our spreadsheet solution across as many areas and industries as possible. Our spreadsheet & database hybrid supports many businesses around the world every day, either in the cloud or in their own data center," said Philipp Braun, CMO at SeaTable GmbH.
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As a collaborative tool, it allows the exchange of data with third parties in several ways. Through efficient management and organization, the collaboration between customers and the team is well facilitated and optimized. It allows users to switch to five languages, including English, Russian, Chinese, German, and French. Versions are available from free to €148 per year.

1Password, a leader in enterprise password management, recently launched Secrets Automation, an easy-to-use way to secure, manage and orchestrate the rapidly expanding infrastructure secrets required in a modern enterprise. Secrets such as corporate credentials, API tokens, keys and certificates can number in the hundreds for midsize businesses and many thousands for enterprises. This scale and complexity lead to huge security risks. Besides the new product launch, 1Password also completed the acquisition of SecretHub, a secrets management company that protects nearly 5 million enterprise secrets a month. The SecretHub team and CEO Marc Mackenbach will join 1Password immediately, adding expertise and engineers to speed up the 1Password Secrets Automation roadmap. 1Password Secrets Automation launches with a host of partnerships and integrations that will make it easy for developers and DevOps teams to integrate with the mission-critical tools and libraries they already use.  

1Password is the first line of defense for over 80,000 businesses worldwide protecting their employees, customers and intellectual property by securing passwords, financial details and other sensitive information. Today's launch and SecretHub acquisition signal a major expansion of 1Password, helping enterprises secure their infrastructure and machine-to-machine secrets alongside their human passwords. 

"Companies need to protect their infrastructure secrets as much as their employees' passwords," said Jeff Shiner, CEO of 1Password. "With 1Password and Secrets Automation, there is a single source of truth to secure, manage, and orchestrate all of your business secrets. We are the first company to bring both human and machine secrets together in a significant and easy-to-use way." 

Secrets Security Not Keeping Pace. With the massive expansion of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, infrastructure secrets are multiplying as never before, scattered across multiple services and cloud providers. Companies often try to protect these secrets through a combination of home-grown solutions and awkward hacks. Human error within IT and developer organizations happens all the time and is compounded by risky shortcuts taken in the name of speed and productivity. 

Leaked secrets can have widespread ramifications; when an engineer accidentally placed a secret key into source code at Uber, the names, driver's licenses, and other private information of 57 million users were stolen. A recent GitGuardian report detected over 2 million infrastructure secrets exposed on code sharing platforms, growing 20% over the previous year. This underscores the massive and growing issue of properly managing secrets and protecting sensitive customer data. 

1Password Secrets Automation was developed to address directly these challenges. Key features include:

• The security of 1Password--store credentials, tokens and other secrets fully encrypted, using the same security that made 1Password the No. 1 enterprise password manager. 
• A single source of truth for all your secrets--gain complete visibility and auditability in a way that you can't when secrets are spread across multiple services. 
• Granular access control--define which people and services have access and what level of access they are granted. 
• Ease of use--built on 1Password's intuitive user interface, Secrets Automation delivers administrative simplicity, providing for good secrets hygiene. 
• Integration with your existing tools--Secrets Automation integrates with HashiCorp Vault, Terraform, Kubernetes and Ansible, with more integrations on the way. You'll also find ready-to-use client libraries in Go, Node and Python.

1Password and GitHub are also announcing a partnership: "We're partnering with 1Password because their cross-platform solution will make life easier for developers and security teams alike," said Dana Lawson, VP of partner engineering and development at GitHub, the largest and most advanced development platform in the world. "With the upcoming GitHub and 1Password Secrets Automation integration, teams can automate fully all of their infrastructure secrets, with full peace of mind that they are safe and secure."

A Roadmap Driven by Customer Demand. Kira Systems, an AI-based contract review and analysis software company, was one of many customers that requested 1Password expand its offering to solve their secrets management problems. 
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"We've been a 1Password customer for six years and have long wanted to centralize our secrets management," said Joey Coleman, Kira Fellow and director, systems with Kira Systems. "We store terabytes of sensitive data across many deployments, so it is critical for us to have a secure and efficient way of managing the credentials that give access to that data. Secrets Automation delivers an extra level of security while also removing the manual labor required to manage the volume of passwords and credentials."

Microsoft's new, flat-price version of its Office productivity software will arrive on Oct. 5—the same day Windows 11 begins rolling out, according to a company blog post Thursday. 

Microsoft previously emphasized that while its major focus remains in its subscription offering, Microsoft 365, it will release the onetime purchase Office 2021 for those who aren't ready to move to the cloud.

Office 2021 arrives in two versions: one for commercial users, called Office LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel), and one for personal use. Office LTSC is available now, the post said, and includes enhanced accessibility features, performance improvements across Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and visual improvements, like dark mode support across apps. It's meant for specialty situations, as opposed to for an entire organization, such as process control devices on the manufacturing floor that are not connected to the internet. 

Meanwhile, Office 2021 for personal use will arrive on Oct. 5, though Microsoft has not yet announced pricing information. 

Both versions of Office will be supported on Windows and Mac, and will ship with the OneNote app. They will also ship both 32- and 64-bit versions, according to the post. Microsoft will support the software for five years and said it does not plan to change the price at the time of release. 

In April 2020, Microsoft transitioned Office 365 into Microsoft 365, a subscription service that added more features to the suite of software tools, but required a monthly payment of $7 for an individual plan or $10 for a family of up to six people (that price will be increasing in March 2022). The company said that its focus will continue to be on the cloud, but it understands that not everyone is ready to take that step. While you can use Microsoft 365 apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel online for free with limited functionality, you'll need either a perpetual version or a subscription to take full advantage of their capabilities.
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Some wondered if Office 2019 would be the last perpetual version of the software since Microsoft 365 came along. But then, Microsoft announced its plan for a perpetual release of Office in a September blog post.

What if you could run the full Windows 10 or Windows 11 experience on the iPad you’re carrying around everywhere with you? Microsoft actually has a product that does that: The brand-new Windows 365 lets you create and customize a Cloud PC. You can then access it securely from any device that supports internet browsers. Even an iPad or a Mac.

Windows 365 is a cloud-based Microsoft experience that targets businesses. The product might help companies rethink their strategies for upgrading their fleet of Windows devices. Rather than continuously investing in new hardware, some businesses might want to keep their current PCs and get Windows 365 PCs for their employees.

The Windows 365 Cloud PC comes with customizable hardware. You can choose how many cores, how much RAM, and how much storage a workstation requires. It can all be changed after the fact, in real-time, if a particular Cloud PC needs more resources to get the job done.

That PC is tied to a single user who can then access their remote desktop from anywhere in the world.

How to get the Windows 365 Cloud PC. After configuration, the Cloud PC is always there, ready to let you pick up where you left off. You can access it via a browser or an app. To get back to the iPad example, you can choose between Safari and a dedicated iOS app.

You’d access your Windows 365 PC similarly from any other device that can run browser apps.

The Cloud PC is encrypted, and the data is encrypted as it’s streamed to you. That’s the key thing about Microsoft’s Cloud PC. You need an active internet connection to use it. Microsoft explains that if you can stream video on your current device, then Windows 365 works. And the Cloud PC’s connection is more formidable than most home setups.

But once set up, the Cloud PC will offer you an instant-on experience. You’ll get all your documents just as you left them the last time you “opened” your work PC. And you’ll be able to roll back the Cloud PC to previous states if you’ve deleted anything by mistake.

Windows 365 launched on August 2nd, but it’s only available to businesses. You can expect a per-user monthly subscription cost, in line with what’s available from other 365 experiences.

It’s unclear when commercial users will ever get access to the product. There might be regular Windows users who might want a similar Cloud PC experience without getting one from their employer.

What does a Cloud PC cost? Things aren’t as easy as with Microsoft 365.

You’ll be able to customize the Cloud PC’s hardware depending on your organization’s needs. Or have your company’s IT department configure your virtual Cloud PC based on the performance you require for getting work done.

Cloud PCs start at a single-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage, but they can go up to an eight-core CPU, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.

The idea of running Windows in the cloud isn’t new, and Microsoft already offers an alternative to interested customers. But Windows 365 is going to make the entire thing a lot simpler. IT departments can customize a Cloud PC within minutes, and users can log into their remote workstation as soon after that initial setup.
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You can check out Windows 365 in great detail at this link. There are three configurations priced at $31, $41, and $66 per month per user. A more detailed Microsoft Mechanics video gives you an actual look at what the Windows 365 experience will look and feel like, including on the iPad.

​Microsoft and Google have reportedly ended a six-year truce on legal battles. The Financial Times reports that Microsoft and Google formed an unusual truce in 2015, which expired in April. The pact was reportedly forged to avoid legal battles and complaints to regulators. It meant we haven’t seen Microsoft and Google complaining publicly about each other since the days of Scroogled, a campaign that attacked Google’s privacy policies.

Now the gloves appear to be off once again, and we’ve seen some evidence of that recently. Google slammed Microsoft for trying to “break the way the open web works” earlier this year, after Microsoft publicly supported a law in Australia that forced Google to pay news publishers for their content. Microsoft also criticized Google’s control of the ad market, claiming publishers are forced to use Google’s tools that feed Google’s revenues.

The rivalry between the two has been unusually quiet over the past five years, thanks to this legal truce. Microsoft was notably silent during the US government’s antitrust suit against Google last year, despite being the number two search engine.

The Financial Times reports that the agreement between Microsoft and Google was also supposed to improve cooperation between the two firms, and Microsoft was hoping to find a way to run Android apps on Windows. That obviously didn’t pan out, and Microsoft has turned to Amazon instead to get Android apps running on Windows 11.

Some battles between Microsoft and Google were intense before this agreement, and they’re likely to get heated once again. During the height of Windows Phone in 2013, there was a bitter battle between Microsoft and Google over YouTube. Months later, Microsoft was out selling anti-Google mugs and T-shirts, and acting rather nervous about Chromebooks.
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A lot has changed for both Microsoft and Google since the days of Scroogled — including new leadership on both sides — but Google’s scathing attack on Microsoft earlier this year proves that these tech giants are ready to battle once more.

The biggest change to Microsoft’s Office documents in decades is coming to life soon, as the company’s Fluid framework arrives in Microsoft Teams, OneNote, Outlook, and Whiteboard. Microsoft first unveiled Fluid last year, showing how the framework allows blocks of Office content to live independently across the web. That idea is now becoming a reality, with collaborative content that can be copied, pasted, and shared with others.

Instead of tables, graphs, and lists that are static and bound to specific documents, Fluid components are collaborative modules that exist across different applications. They will begin showing up in Microsoft Teams first this summer, embeddable in meetings and chats. 

The launch of Fluid documents coincides with employees returning to their offices and the rise of a new hybrid work experience. “We were excited about going hard and fast with Fluid, and then the pandemic hit,” says Jared Spataro, head of Microsoft 365. “So we largely put a lot of our energy onto Teams, and we think of Teams as the scaffolding that creates the connection, but now as we move back to hybrid, we increasingly believe we need more innovation in what I call the canvas that gets collaboration done.”

What Microsoft has created with Fluid is the biggest change to Office in decades. While Fluid seemed like a great future-facing concept during its reveal last year, watching Microsoft demonstrate it recently has really highlighted how transformative this could be. 

Every Microsoft Teams meeting will soon come with a built-in notes experience that’s collaborative. Notes will show up within a Teams meeting or in an Outlook calendar, and anyone on the invite can just start typing away in real time. If you add a task, it immediately syncs to your other tasks across Microsoft 365, and the meeting notes are automatically synced to your Outlook calendar where you can also edit them in real time.

“We want collaboration to be able to start before the meeting starts, so as soon as the invite goes out,” explains Ron Pessner, a director of program management working on Fluid at Microsoft. As the meeting notes in this example are live and real time, you can even copy them into an app like OneNote and you’ll still see everyone making edits to them.

This living Fluid component has the potential to shift how everyone gets work done across Microsoft Teams and Office. It’s impressively quick, with no sync time, just like Google Docs. Microsoft has had similar collaboration tools in Office for a while now, but they’ve been restricted to static documents and nothing on this level of freedom.

“We’re going to be launching the components in Teams this summer,” says Pessner. The meeting notes experience will be available in preview later this year, alongside some tests integrating it into the desktop version of Outlook. It’s likely that as we see Fluid components roll out, they’ll appear first in Teams and on the web parts of Office before making their way to desktop.

Microsoft is also transforming its Whiteboard app into a canvas to host Fluid components. Whiteboard has long existed as Microsoft’s first big collaborative tool, and this summer it’s being overhauled with the help of Fluid.

New collaboration cursors will appear in Whiteboard, letting you see coworkers’ additions to a document in real time. There’s even a new virtual laser pointer that you can use to get people’s attention, or reaction stickers to make the Whiteboard canvas feel a little more alive.

Fluid components like tables or task lists can also be embedded into Whiteboard, and the entire app will now look and feel the same across all devices and platforms. With Whiteboard, you could almost use the app as a dashboard to watch colleagues editing Fluid components in real time.
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This is just the start of Fluid making its way to Microsoft 365, and we expect to see more throughout this year and beyond. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft integrates Fluid more deeply into both Teams and Outlook, the main communications tools used by businesses that rely on the Office suite. If Microsoft gets the integration of Fluid right, it will forever change the way documents are created, shared, and, ultimately, how work gets done.

Microsoft officially confirmed the name for the next release of Windows this week: Windows 11. After months of teases, hints of the number 11, and a giant Windows 11 leak, Microsoft’s new operating system is official. The big focus for Windows 11 is a simplification of the Windows user interface, a new Windows store, and improvements to performance and multitasking. Windows 11 will also include support for running Android apps for the first time.

The first thing you’ll notice about Windows 11 is that it includes a new Start menu and updated Start button that are both centered on the taskbar. This UI is very similar to what we first saw in Windows 10X, a project originally planned for dual-screen devices that Microsoft eventually canceled. A lot of the UI work that went into Windows 10X is appearing in Windows 11.

The new Start menu drops the Live Tiles that were originally introduced with Windows 8 and opts for more of the typical launcher you’d find in Chrome OS or Android. There are apps, recent documents, and a separate search interface. Much of the centered appearance is clearly influenced by macOS and Chrome OS, and Windows 11 also includes the rounded corners we’ve seen in both Android and iOS.

Windows chief Panos Panay says “the team has obsessed over every detail.” The new version of the OS will also include updated dark and light modes that look a lot better than what we’ve seen in Windows today.

Windows 11 Snap Layouts. There’s also something Microsoft is calling Snap Layouts, which allow you to quickly snap apps into the various modes that Windows 11 supports. This new version of Windows 11 will also remember where your apps are stored, thanks to something called Snap Groups.

It looks like a useful way to support multiple monitors and ensure that apps always open on the correct screen. That’s particularly helpful if you’re using a laptop hooked up to a monitor or a traditional desktop machine with multiple displays.

Performance is also a big focus for Windows 11. Windows updates are 40% smaller and more efficient as they now happen in the background. Hopefully that will mean Windows 11 doesn’t disturb you in the middle of your work.

Microsoft Teams in Windows 11. Microsoft is also integrating Microsoft Teams directly into Windows 11 for consumers. Teams is integrated directly into the taskbar, allowing Windows 11 users to call friends, family, or co-workers. It’s clear that this is a big shift away from Skype, which was bundled as part of Windows 10, and there’s even a universal mute button in the system tray so you can easily mute your microphone across all apps.

Windows Widgets. Windows Widgets and touch gestures are also a big part of Windows 11. Widgets is a personalized feed, powered by AI, and it builds on the widgets we’ve seen Microsoft introduce in Windows 10. It slides in from the left-hand side of Windows 11, and you can also make it full-screen. Built-in widgets include a news feed, weather, and maps.

Interestingly, these widgets also include one that lets you tip local creators directly from within Windows 11. 
Microsoft is also improving the gestures you can use on tablets and the touch targets. Instead of flipping into a tablet mode, Windows 11 simply adapts to allow you to touch the OS easily.

Coupled with this are improvements to inking and voice typing. With certain pens, Windows 11 will also support haptic feedback here. That could mean we’ll see a lot of new hardware that will support these stylus changes in Windows 11.

The New Windows 11 App Store With Android Apps. One of the biggest parts of Windows 11 is the new store and support for Android apps on Windows. The Microsoft Store is redesigned and will support many apps that haven’t typically been available in the Windows app store. That includes apps from Adobe Creative Suite, and Android apps including TikTok and Instagram. 

Developers can use their own “commerce engines,” and Microsoft won’t take a cut; developers can even use their own payment systems if they wish. “Windows has always stood for sovereignty for creators,” says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

The biggest news here is that Windows 11 will also run Android apps. Microsoft has partnered with Amazon and Intel to make this a reality, and Windows 11 will use Intel Bridge technology to bring this to life. Microsoft showed TikTok and other Android apps running alongside Windows apps on Windows 11, and the company plans to share more information on this “in the coming months.”
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There’s no release date for Windows 11 yet, but Microsoft has promised to make it available as a free upgrade to Windows 10 users this fall. We’re expecting Windows 11 to appear at some point in October, alongside new hardware running the operating system.

Microsoft is working on a version of Windows it plans to detail in the near future. "Soon we will share one of the most significant updates to Windows of the past decade to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told people watching the company's Build 2021 keynote last week. The executive said he's been personally testing the latest iteration of the OS for the past several months. "I’m incredibly excited about the next generation of Windows," he said. 

"We will create more opportunity for every Windows developer today and welcome every creator who is looking for the most innovative, new, open platform to build and distribute and monetize applications," Nadella stated. As The Verge points out, Nadella's comments appear to lend credence to a recent report that said Microsoft is working on an updated version of the Microsoft Store that will offer developers more flexibility for distributing their software. Among the changes the company reportedly has planned include allowing companies to use their own payments system to collect fees for in-app purchases. That's something that would enable developers to avoid sharing revenue.
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The teaser comes just one week after Microsoft confirmed it was ending development on Windows 10X, a slimmed-down version of its operating system designed for dual-screen devices. Microsoft said it would integrate elements of Windows 10X into Windows 10 proper. At least some of the interface changes Microsoft piloted with Windows 10X are expected to make their way to Windows 10 with its Sun Valley update later this year.