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On the platform side, Zoom’s big announcements included features like Zoom Docs, an AI-powered workspace for docs, wikis and work management. This is in addition to new Zoom AI Companion features such as the ability to generate ideas on a digital whiteboard and organization them into categories and expanded access to Zoom AI Companion for education and healthcare customers.

However, the company also made several announcements related to hybrid meetings at Zoomtopia, which is especially important to integrators that serve both residential and enterprise markets.

New Zoom Features for Hybrid Meetings

Following Zoomtopia, Zoom will begin rolling out name tags for each in-office meeting participant, so remote users will be able to identify people by name during the meeting and in meeting transcripts.

The company will also be adding a wayfinding feature next year, providing a map showing a route to the seat a hybrid worker reserved in the office.

In addition, Zoom will be rolling out new features next year for its virtual co-working tool Huddles, including “my office view,” which will help workers know when colleagues are in a virtual huddle or in the physical office along with their presence and location.

Zoom will also be rolling out this December Dynamic Layouts for Zoom Rooms, a feature designed to make it easier to follow a conversation between on-screen colleagues. Now available in beta, users will see video frames shift dynamically in real time as participants raise their hands or begin speaking so remote workers know here to focus their attention.

At Zoomtopia, Zoom also announced the general availability of Intelligent Director, a new feature designed to optimize the conference room experience for hybrid work, using multiple cameras to give every participant their own frame and best visual angle in Zoom Meetings. It supports up to three cameras with the ability to set it up for small, medium and large rooms.

Other hybrid meeting features include a new note-taking feature, improvements to continuous meeting chat, asynchronous video clips and a new scheduling tool.

Specific to AV teams, Zoom is rolling out later this year Pro AV for Zoom Rooms, a new tool for AV professionals to manage multiple physical and virtual audio and video streams. It features a wide range of hardware support and partners for cameras and controllers and is designed for AV experts integrating Zoom into large, custom events.

Zoom Partner Program Updates at Zoomtopia

The videoconferencing and collaboration provider also announced updates to the Zoom Up Partner Program while at Zoomtopia. This update adds three new levels to the partner program: Silver, Gold and Platinum. Partners can onboard to the Zoom Up program in just a few hours of training and move up to higher levels by demonstrating knowledge and skill of the Zoom portfolio.

Rewards re-tiered in accordance with the Zoom Up level achieved, the company says.

Zoom is also adding new offerings and resources, such as a partner customer success program, a partner support program, a new partner licensing program and more.

New Zoom Hardware

Meeting room hardware manufacturers have been helping integrators support their customers’ Zoom Room environments for many years, and many of those manufactures used Zoom’s event to announce new products, features and offerings of their own.

That includes Crestron, which announced Zoom certification for the Videobar 70 and intelligent video cameras and a new Zoom Phone Appliance and Scheduling Panel with Zoom Rooms software.

Meanwhile, HP and subsidiary Poly also announced several new offerings and products, including the Poly Studio Bundle, which the company says is designed to leverage the Zoom Rooms Intelligent Director feature by applying AI to create more equitable meeting experiences in large rooms. The bundle includes three Poly Studio E70 cameras, a Poly TC10 controller, and an HP Mini Conferencing PC.

In addition to the recently announced Poly Voyager Surround 85 UC Bluetooth headset, the company also announced two new HP webcams with 1080p resolution, automatic focus, lighting and color correction, two new wireless keyboards and a Bluetooth mouse.

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister-site CEPro on October 10, 2023. It has since been updated for My TechDecisions’ audience.

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Every hybrid meeting space has the same fundamental needs. Of course, it goes without saying that audio is a critical component of any hybrid meeting. In-person participants must be able to hear remote participants clearly, while also ensuring that their own audio is captured and delivered reliably. But high-quality video and an easy-to-use meeting interface are equally critical to collaboration success. 

Each meeting space needs the right mix of products to deliver an excellent experience. Huddle spaces, boardrooms, training facilities and auditoriums all need specific solutions optimized for the events and activities that they contain. Meanwhile, clients want a consistent and seamless experience across every room in the workplace. Clients expect technology to help maximize their productivity and collaboration effectiveness while enhancing their overall experience. To achieve those ends, technology must be scalable and flexible, requiring minimal setup time. 

Grand Technology Refresh 

Erica Carroll, director, product marketing and training, Mersive Technologies, reflects on the beginning of the pandemic. “There was a mad scramble to make businesses and education institutions operational again,” she recalls. Indeed, COVID-19 forced even the most recalcitrant institutions into the digital world. In a sense, then, the pandemic paved the way for what Carroll describes as “a grand technology refresh.” She continues, “The investments made during that time were thoughtful, and [many organizations had] the time and space to truly plan for the future and what it might hold.” 

So, let’s try to differentiate thoughtful technology implementations from slapdash deployments. If you ask Beau Wilder, head of future customer experiences and product portfolio management, HP| Poly, the first step in finding the right solution is to do your homework on what hybrid work means in your client’s business. “I think with that understanding of what a day [or a week] in the life is like,” he continues. “It’s about choosing purpose-built solutions to meet those needs.” Wilder declares that, if integrators don’t understand and empathize with the client’s needs on a deep level, there’s no way to effectively futureproof. 

As Wilder puts it, “You may have the best technology that can last five to 10 years, but, if you don’t have the [vision of] what they’re trying to accomplish, you’re [just] making an expensive investment. Even if it holds up hardware-wise, it’s not going to deliver the right experience.” Thus, while upgradability is, of course, important to futureproofing, it’s equally important to comprehensively understand the client’s vision, needs and pain points. 

On the topic of upgrading and systems growth, Carroll speaks about how today’s hybrid approach, which combines hardware and software resources, can provide the best of all worlds as clients anticipate manufacturers migrating toward cloud-based collaboration solutions. “The hardware/software approach gives facilities the option to upgrade the hardware or software independently, allowing for more granular control over the system’s evolution,” she says. This, Carroll notes, helps stakeholders pace systems with the demands of work and education environments. 

If you ask Jeff Bethke about the concept of futureproofed technology, you’ll be met with some skepticism. The chief business officer at Level 3 Audio Visual (L3AV), a leading communications solutions provider, says, “Unless you have a crystal ball, there are no assurances that any technology is futureproofed.” However, he adds that one way to avoid costly “rip and replace” cycles is to lean into standards. “This is pretty much the case when you invest in a UCaaS appliance running Android or Windows,” Bethke explains. “If your business pivots from Teams to Zoom for video, you can change the application mode and be up and running on a new platform. Taking a different approach and focusing on USB connectivity for organizations embracing BYOD allows whatever the user brings in to connect to the room,” he says. 

According to Bethke, L3AV has worked with customers who don’t yet have a clear UCaaS platform strategy. “But,” he notes, “Zoom is on the roadmap. So, starting with a Zoom-certified appliance like a Poly Studio X Series that also supports BYOD is a great way to improve the meeting-room experience on day one. [It also] allows for an easy transition to a native Zoom Room experience when the organization is ready.” 

Interoperability  

Aligning with his advocacy for standards-based approaches, Bethke also points to interoperability as key. “Interoperability is a critical decision point and should be part of every discovery session with a customer,” he declares. “We’re seeing cloud video interop (CVI) discussions fade away as the major UCaaS platforms are releasing their own native interop. The best scenario for most is to have your native UCaaS experience but also [support] defined workflows to join meeting invites from other platforms with native interoperability from the main UCaaS provider.” It’s still a one-touch-to-join experience, Bethke reasons, if your organization’s main platform is Teams but if you can still forward a Zoom or WebEx meeting to that room. “Making sure end users understand that is key,” he underscores. 

Wilder further emphasizes the value of interoperability, especially amid the ascent of the cloud service provider model. “I think there’s an opportunity for companies like HP that sit at the edge to be able to bring a more seamless experience,” he says. In fact, if you ask Wilder, interoperability isn’t so much a technology problem anymore; it’s more a matter of business and politics. It’s incumbent on integrators, then, to recenter conference-room design on customer needs and wants, bringing gear into the room that will streamline the front-end experience for users. 

After all, employees have gotten used to entering and exiting multiple applications with the click of a button. If we can do that in our personal environment, why not in an office environment? And yet, as return-to-office efforts continue, many of us are still finding dedicated rooms optimized for specific types of meetings. “There’s a whole bunch of opportunities there to remove all that friction…take away all those pain points,” Wilder says. Now might be the ideal time to upgrade those pandemic-built spaces for a more worker-friendly future. 

Evolution of Meeting-Space Design 

Are the days of dedicated offices and desks nearly over? According to Wilder, today’s offices seem to be much more about hot-desking than about dedicated personal space. Bethke agrees that today’s workers are constantly on the move, and that fact manifests itself in conferencing and collaboration settings. He’s seeing more desire for video-first focused rooms and less desire for long rectangular tables. According to Wilder, “People are probably going into more antiquated conference rooms than they want to be.” 

There’s good reason to believe that future meeting environments will be very fluid. “Most companies are asking for help right now on what the future of meeting spaces can and should be,” Wilder notes. “I think where we’ll ultimately wind up is the spaces will become intelligent enough to adapt to the people in [them] versus forcing the people to learn the spaces that they walk into.” Already, spaces are starting to bend to the individuals who occupy them, rather than requiring team members to learn a new room every time they encounter one. “If one room has different gear, one room is set up for a Microsoft Teams call and another is set up for a Zoom call, we have to remove all that friction,” he declares. “We have the capability now with the technology in our hands to do that.” 

AI Investments 

Another element of futureproofing to bear in mind is AI, which most everyone expects to be a long-term disruptive force and whose evolution is moving incredibly fast. “The horse has already left the barn,” Wilder says. That being said, although AI is the shiny object capturing everyone’s attention, it’s still just another tool in the toolbox, enabling us to deliver better experiences. To that point, it’s incumbent on integrators to leverage AI so that companies can better understand how their workforce is working. For too long, stakeholders have had to guess when people were coming in, how they were using collaboration spaces, which spaces were successful, who was actually working in those spaces (and with whom), etc. 

“I think, with AI and the pace that it’s moving, we’re going to have just a whole other set of insights that, frankly, we can’t really anticipate just yet,” Wilder says. “It’s moving that fast. I think it’ll be everywhere.” 

Bethke agrees, adding that AI and automation will have an impact by moving beyond simply monitoring systems and toward creating micro-services and edge applications to gather data to drive reporting on whatever KPIs the organization values. “This type of thinking and architecture allows for any problem statement to be processed into a set of data to be gathered and processed to ultimately bring more value from our services to our customers,” he states. 

A Brighter, More Connected Future 

As AI continues to advance, today’s conferencing technology can identify where people are situated in a room, thus helping to deliver very human experiences. Remote employees can have an equal experience, bringing about the best of meeting equity. “We can now do that in a mixed environment, as well,” Wilder says. “I think that’s just the tip of the iceberg.” 

“Everyone has been forced to innovate and reimagine what could be and how people interact within these collaborative spaces,” Carroll remarks. “The industry has already laid the groundwork for what’s to come. We see a technology hybrid model that combines hardware and software continue to be the standard in education and corporate environments. Now, it’s about hardware and software working to create an experience out of a solution. We’re catapulting forward into a future that’s brighter and more connected.” 

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister-site Commercial Integrator on July 26, 2023. It has since been updated for My TechDecisions’ audience.

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“As more people return to the office, it’s no longer enough to deliver the best remote worker experience; every business needs a solution to deliver the best hybrid meeting experience,” says Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom. “Even with some employees in the office, oftentimes other team members are dispersed, so meeting equity and inclusion become more important than ever. Intelligent Director is the solution that can bring employees together, regardless of location, so they can truly connect face-to-face.”

Intelligent Director is specifically designed for medium- to larger-sized rooms and helps avoid the “bowling alley effect.” Intelligent Director can individually frame up to 16 participants in a Zoom Room using multiple cameras, choosing the best video stream via a Zoom-designed AI, and send that stream to the gallery view of the Zoom Meeting.

An evolution of Zoom’s Smart Gallery feature, which uses a single camera and AI to give each person in a small to medium-sized room their own space in a Zoom Meeting, Intelligent Director takes this same technology for larger conference rooms.

For bigger meeting spaces, it is easier to be hidden by others when only using a single camera; Intelligent Director’s multi-camera configuration and use of video AI technology provide meeting equity to everyone in the room, selecting the best view of each individual, even if they move around or turn their heads. Remote participants can now have face-to-face conversations with each Zoom Rooms participant, allowing in-room participants to be seen and heard.

Intelligent Director is made possible through the support of Zoom’s hardware partner ecosystem. Manufacturers, including Apple, AVer, Dell, HP | Poly, Intel, Logitech, and Yealink have supported Zoom with the computer, controller and camera solutions necessary to produce this major advancement.

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister-site Commercial Integrator on June 27, 2023. It has since been updated for My TechDecisions’ audience.

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The company, largely known for its line of all-in-one videoconferencing bars, announced the Poly Studio X52, a new all-in-one device designed for the mid-sized meeting space.

According to the company, new Poly DirectorAI smart camera technology in the X52 offers automated camera framing modes like group, speaker, and people framing. The 4K, 20MP camera is designed to provide clear visibility of every participant, even those far away from the camera in the farthest corners of a conference room.

Updates to the AI-driven software for group and speaker framing capabilities include the new Poly DirectorAI Perimeter feature and other audio enhancements. The Poly Studio X52 is certified for Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Zoom, with pending certification for native support for BlueJeans by Verizon, GoTo, and RingCentral.

The Poly Studio X52 is expected to be available late summer, starting at $4,300.

The company also announced an update to its Poly Video OS software, launching version 4.1 to enable IT administrators to leverage Poly DirectorAI Perimeter technology to input room dimensions and define parameters accurately and prevent capturing faces beyond glass walls or windows.

Poly Video OS 4.1 is expected to be available worldwide across the Poly Studio X Series of video bars and the Poly G7500 modular video conferencing systems in late summer.

Additionally, Sound Reflection Reduction minimizes echo and reverberations caused by glass and hard surfaces, the company says.

Other video announcements include the ability to connect the Poly Studio E70 smart camera to the Poly G7500 modular videoconferencing systems via a standard Ethernet cable for flexible room configurations and easier installation, according to Poly.

The company’s TC10 touch control panel now supports meeting control for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android, and it can also function as a room scheduling panel for Microsoft Teams, the company adds.

For large rooms, Poly announced a new bundle with the G7500 Modular Video Conferencing System and the Shure Microflex Large Room, which are jointly certified for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android. This gives customers a multi-vendor solution that integrates video, compute and DSP audio solutions.

In addition, the Poly Studio E70 and HP Mini Conferencing PC have been certified for Zoom for large meeting rooms, the company says.

For audio features, Poly announced the Poly Voyager Surround 80 UC headset, which it calls the first boomless headset cerified for Microsoft Teams Open Office. The headset features the company’s audio and adaptive noise cancelling features with a more comfortable headset design, according to Poly.

The Poly Voyager Surround 80 is expected to be available worldwide in August, starting at $449.95.

To manage these devices, Poly offers its Poly Lens tool for remote device management so IT professionals can monitor and troubleshoot Poly devices, and the company is adding to that by expanding its API integration partners with Ubiqisense and Vyopta to deliver insights for customers leveraging Poly Lens on the Poly Studio X30 and Studio X50 video bars.

“HP is committed to delivering solutions that eliminate the barriers inside and outside the room so you can look and sound your best,” says Andy Rhodes, Division President of Hybrid Systems at HP. “We are thrilled to offer the next generation of audio and video technology, enhanced with innovative AI capabilities so everyone can be seen and heard with total clarity.”

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In between calls while I’m nose-deep in a Word document, I typically throw on some tunes to put me in the zone. However, my home’s acoustics are a little wonky. Noise from my speakers travels very clearly from my home office down the stairwell to the rest of the house.

I’ve experimented with a few different headset/earbud solutions. My first experiment to equip myself for remote working was a gaming headset that I rarely used. In all honestly, it did the trick for a few weeks during the initial lockdown phase of the pandemic. However, the gaming headset was huge and didn’t have the luxury of Bluetooth. I tried a few different other headsets from audio and collaboration manufacturers, which were significantly better. Despite all that, I wanted something that could transition conveniently from taking work calls at my desk, to quickly leaving the house to walk my dogs while listening to podcasts.

About the Poly Voyager Free 60 Series

Poly has an extensive portfolio of videoconferencing and collaboration devices for a variety of different scenarios, but much of the company’s new releases center around one idea: simplicity and flexibility. The Voyager Free 60 earbuds are no different.

The Voyager Free 60 series are wireless earbuds designed for work, but are equally suited to be taken on walks, bike rides, or the gym. (Poly doesn’t recommend hard workouts with these in your ears, but they seem to hold up just fine.) These earbuds are versatile enough to replace multiple sets of earbuds or headsets that hybrid or remote workers usually have for different scenarios.

The company’s newest earbuds come in three versions:

• Poly Voyager Free 60 with a standard charge chase, support for premium calls and music.
• Poly Voyager Free 60 UC with the same standard charge case but equipped with enterprise-grade audio and music and certifications for Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
• Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC with the same features as the Free 60 UC but with a touchscreen charge case.

Poly Voyager Free 60+ features

For our purposes here, we’ll focus on the Voyager Free 60+. Poly markets these as built for work, but designed for everyday life, and I’d say that is a very accurate assessment.

The Voyager Free 60+ earbuds feature a stem design with six microphones, as well as noise cancelling technologies that makes the user’s voice the focus of work calls. Specifically, they feature the company’s NoiseBlockAI and Acoustic Fence technology that blocks out unwanted noises and focuses only on the user’s voice.

The Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds come with a dongle but can also be connected to another device via Bluetooth, so users can seamlessly transition from a work call from their desktop to music streaming from a mobile device.

The company claims up to five hours of talk time with ANC on, and the charge case provides another 10 hours of talk time. I’d say those claims ring true, as I rarely need to charge the charge case itself. However, it seems to charge quickly.

With the company’s Poly Lens app, users can customize their experience with a range of tools, with the ability to change settings such as wearing sensor, active call audio, auto-answer, auto-pause, noise cancellation and a range of other settings.

For control features on the earbuds themselves, the Voyager Free 60+ UC includes gesture controls for volume, ANC, mute and more. A physical button can pause music or start and answers calls.

However, the charge case itself has a touchscreen with even more functionality, such as call control, media playback control, battery status and other features.

If you’re like me and have a few dozen pairs of airline earbuds because you live in 2023 and don’t own any wired headphones to watch in-flight entertainment, the Voyager Free 60 earbuds have you covered! The earbuds come with an option to plug the charge case into a headphone jack that will stream audio to the earbuds.

Another great feature is transparency mode that allows you to hear your surroundings without having to remove an earbud. If you find talking with earbuds or headphones weird, then this feature can help you to hear your own voice. This really does make a difference. It can be configured to pick up any sounds in your environment or just voices.

Seamless Audio Connectivity

Essentially everything Poly says about these earbuds rings true, and they could compete with other earbuds on the market in terms of sound quality. However, what makes these stand out from others is just how simple and intuitive they are in work scenarios, especially with the charge case.

I’ve had some Bluetooth headsets and earbuds that routinely lose connection and can’t easily transition from my laptop to my mobile device, but the Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds do so seamlessly. This helps me leave the house to run a quick errand with them still in my ears, but also allows me to hop on a work call when I return.

Earbuds can be uncomfortable to wear for more than a few hours. The Voyager Free 60 earbuds have three conical-shaped earbud tip sizes and are comfortable enough to use all day, if you find the right size.

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The Tech Challenge

The corporate boardroom is used daily, which made it difficult to find a time on the schedule to complete the installation. While the director was abroad, the team had just two weeks to complete all major installation work. The client also wanted a clean, stylish installation that was powerful, yet largely invisible to the end user. In addition, the new system had to incorporate user-friendly, intuitive control, reliable, seamless AV switching among multiple formats, and efficient, remote system monitoring.

The Extron NAV Pro AV over IP Solution

The boardroom features two professional displays along the side walls and a four-display videowall at the front of the room, Extron NAV Pro AV over IP encoders, scaling decoders, and system manager, as well as AV switching and control systems, room automation and sound reinforcement products.

In the boardroom table, four Extron Cable Cubbies, equipped with Show Me cables, connect to Extron SW HD 4K switchers to provide HDMI content switching for source signals up to 4K resolution. Room control is handled with an Extron IPCP Pro 250 IP Link Pro control processor and Extron NAVigator System Manager conveniently accessed wirelessly via an Apple iPad running the Extron Control app.

Installing the Extron NAV Pro AV over IP System

Given the need for a discreet installation and very tight deadline, the ability to minimize cabling was critical to the project. Using LAN cabling, the installation was done using existing raceways, which saved the time and expense associated with running new cables. The team used Extron’s NAV Pro AV over IP encoders for their ability to stream ultra-low latency, high-quality video, audio, and control signals to NAV Pro AV over IP scaling decoders located by the Panasonic videoconferencing system and behind each display.

The compact, one-inch (2.5 cm) high, half rack width form factor of the NAV enclosures were easy to conceal beneath the conference table and behind the displays for a discreet installation. NAV endpoints also accept PoE+, eliminating the need for bulky power supplies and making concealment even easier for an aesthetically appealing installation.

Remote Monitoring Made Easy

The end user reported they were delighted to find that the entire system could be monitored and managed via LAN without affecting the main network, allowing the IT professional (located in another building) to monitor systems without needing to travel to UFlex’s headquarters and enter the boardroom.

The post Extron NAV Pro AV over IP Modernizes Corporate Boardroom appeared first on My TechDecisions.

However, new research shows that some organizations are prioritizing defending against those trending, newsworthy threats at the expense of the threats actually facing their organization.

According to Mike DeNapoli, director of cybersecurity architecture at security posture management platform Cymulate, organizations are focusing on those headline-grabbing threats too often.

While staying current on new and emerging attack techniques is essential for any IT and security professional, organizations are doing so at the expense of the threats they are more likely to encounter on a daily basis, DeNapoli says.

Citing the company’s “2022 Cybersecurity Effectiveness Report,” DeNapoli says 40% of the exploits vulnerability managers are discovering are over two years old. New attacker tools and techniques such as AI-assisted polymorphic ransomware attacks should of course garner attention, but not at the expense of proven attack vectors.

“(Polymorphic ransomware) is not something we should be ignoring in any way, but at the same time, ProxyShell and ProxyNotShell vulnerabilities are still visible on Exchange Server,” DeNapoli says. “Attackers…are going to go for the low-hanging fruit when it’s available.”

What organizations are testing for vs. what is actually being exploited

According to Cymulate’s research, 40% of the top CVEs identified most by vulnerability management platforms were over two years old, and a significant number of organizations are not testing against more widely recognized threats such as those Exchange Server vulnerabilities and malware such as Emotet.

Other known vulnerabilities in organizations’ environments include poorly configured identity and access management and privileged access management, as well as reliance on legacy infrastructure.

However, the top 10 immediate threats simulated last year share many characteristics, including being carried out by known threat actors; using phishing, watering hole and supply chain attacks; using known attack tools; having a clear motive; and being highly sophisticated and evasive.

Another top characteristic is that they were all abundantly reported on in specialized and mainstream press.

According to Cymulate, the top 10 most tested threats include:

• Manjusaka: a cyber-attack framework of Chinese origin, likely created for criminal use, it includes Windows and Linux implants and a ready-made command and control server.
• Powerless Backdoor: a cyber threat popular among Iranian hackers, designed to avoid detection by PowerShell, and can download a browser info stealer, keylogger, encrypt and decrypt data, execute arbitrary commands, and kill processes.
• APT 41 targeting U.S. State Governments: a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group that has been targeting US state governments using various tools and techniques such as Acunetix, Nmap, and SQLmap, and attack methods like phishing, watering hole attacks, and supply-chain attacks.
• Lazarus Phishing Attack on DoD Industry: a phishing campaign carried out by the North Korean hacking group Lazarus, targeting job applicants in the US defense sector with malicious documents containing macros.
• Industroyer 2: An APT-style malware that specifically targets industrial control systems (ICS) and critical infrastructure. A spinoff of the 2016 attack on Ukraine power grid.
• Spring4Shell: Exploiting the Spring Framework vulnerability (CVE-2022-22965), it allows for remote code execution without authentication.
• Follina Office Attack: Weaponizing Microsoft vulnerability (CVE-2022-30190), it allows for remote code execution without authentication.
• Ransomexx: A ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model, financially motivated and believed to be related to the sprite Spider ransomware group based in Russia.
• Quantum Ransomware: One of the fastest cases of time-to-ransom ever observed with initial access to domain-wide ransomware in just 3 hours and 44 minutes. The initial access vector for this attack was an IcedID payload delivered via email.
• Mikubot: A new variant of bot malware that is being offered for sale in threat actor forums, written in C++ and works on Windows operating systems from Vista to Windows 11. The malware is standalone and is being sold for $1300 for 1.5 months of access or $2200 for a three-month subscription.

However, the company’s list of most detected vulnerabilities configured by vulnerability management tools includes bugs that keep making appearances in threat research, such as Exchange Server vulnerabilities, PrintNightmare, and others.

• CVE-2022-30190 – Microsoft Windows Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) remote code execution vulnerability. Used in Follina attacks.
• CVE-2021-34527 – A remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability that allows threat actors to remotely inject DLLs. Used in conjunction with CVE-2021-1675 in PrintNightmare attacks
• CVE-2013-3900 – A WinVerifyTrust signature validation vulnerability that allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via specially crafted portable executables by appending the malicious code snippet while still maintaining the validity of the file signature.
• CVE-2022-2190 – Microsoft HTTP protocol stack remote code execution vulnerability
• CVE-2021-1675 – Allows an attacker with low access privileges to use a malicious DLL file to escalate privilege. Used in conjunction with CVE-2021-34527 in PrintNightmare Attacks.
• CVE-2021-31956 – Windows NTFS Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
• CVE-2018-0798 – A Microsoft Office memory corruption vulnerability that allows remote code execution due to the way objects are handled in memory.
• CVE-2018-0802 – A Microsoft Office memory corruption vulnerability that allows remote code execution due to the way objects are handled in memory.
• CVE-2017-11882 – A Microsoft Office memory corruption vulnerability that allows an attacker to run arbitrary code in the context of the current user by failing to properly handle objects in memory.
• CVE-2022-3786 – A buffer overrun can be triggered in X.509 certificate verification, specifically in name constraint checking. An attacker can craft a malicious email address in a certificate to overflow an arbitrary number of bytes containing the character (decimal 46) on the stack and cause a denial of service.

Assess your environment first

When IT and security professionals see these new attacks making headlines, they should first assess whether they have the vulnerable assets in their environment, and if they would be a target of the threat actor, if one was identified.

According to DeNapoli, that means getting a handle on shadow IT and cloud sprawl, which is admittedly difficult to do.

“But, it’s necessary, because if there is something like a Log4J, you don’t know what is running within the environment and it becomes incredibly difficult to determine if you could be attacked by that type of technique,” DeNapoli says. “Having those sort of catalogs or inventories of what’s there and what could be a target is going to help a lot.”

However, organizations should not be ignoring the things that came before, as threat actors have proven that leveraging old vulnerabilities–some of which are more than a decade old–is still successful.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog is a prime example of this issue, as 481 of the 914 vulnerabilities on the list are from before 2020.

“Nation-state actors are using this backlog to successfully attack organizations,” DeNapoli says. “Always compare what’s coming out in the news to what you’ve got running to determine if this is something you should deal with immediately, or if it can be put on the backburner in favor of something much more likely to happen.”

The post Is Your Organization Testing Against the Right Cyber Threats? appeared first on My TechDecisions.

With the company’s AI-powered software, the camera view will automatically switch between cameras to capture the best view of in-room participants to bring more natural face-to-face conversations to remote participants.

However, the new Owl Bar device can also work as a standalone device, similar to other all-in-one conferencing bars from providers such as Poly, Cisco, Logitech and others.

Like other Owl Labs devices, the Owl Bar uses the company’s Owl Intelligence System software to automatically focus on in-room attendees as they speak and move.

The device is compatible with all major videoconferencing platforms and can be paired with other devices such as the Meeting Owl, Whiteboard Owl and Expansion Mic to scale and support different room types and sizes.

The Owl Bar features a 114-degree, 4K, 30-megapizel camera, as well as four omnidirectional microphones and integrated speaker that can be paired with eight smart mics in the Meeting Owl.

It can be mounted on a wall, television screen or placed on a table, the company says.

IT can support and manage the Owl Bar and other Owl Labs devices via a tablet phone or desktop app with remote fleet management capabilities through the Nest customer portal.

Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs, says the company has been focused on making 360-degree conferencing products for nearly a decade, and is now the first to combine front-of-room and center-of-room views from every angle.

“Our goal is to take the stress out of managing hybrid teams with industry-leading technology solutions and we’re looking forward to doing that even more effectively for organizations of all sizes by expanding our product ecosystem with the Owl Bar,” Weishaupt says.

Organizations can purchase the Owl Bar for $1,999 or bundle it with a Meeting Owl 3 for $2,999 on OwlLabs.com or through third-party resellers and distribution partners. Both the Owl Bar and the Meeting Owl 3 bundle will also be sold on Amazon in the coming months, according to the company.

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New DECT IP devices

The company’s newest additions to the Rove family of DECT IP devices are the Rove 20 wireless DECT IP phone and the B1 base station.

According to the company, the Rove 20 wireless DECT IP phone is an entry-level single cell DECT handset with a 2-inch color display, 4-line keys, duplex speakerphone with up to 35 hours of talk time. The device is designed to be an entry-level option to other existing phones in the Rove lineup, which includes the Rove 30 and Rove 40.

The Rove 20 is designed for small and medium-sized businesses, but also offers the flexibility to scale to the needs of any sized organization, according to Poly. The Rove 20 and B1 are specifically meant for warehouse staff, retail staff, clinic staff and other vertical shift-based or front-line workers.

Poly’s new devices in the Rove family also feature security, leveraging the latest standards in DECT wireless security, such as end-to-end encryption.

The Rove 20 is also designed to be interoperable with other Rove devices, allowing the new solutions to work with existing Poly DECT phones in an organization.

For IT departments, the Rove 20 and B1 allow for easy IT management due to their scalability and compatibility with the Poly PDMS-SP, a device management platform designed for IT teams.

Both devices are expected to be available globally April 5, with the Rove 20 starting at $139.95, and the B1 starting at $279.95.

More certifications

The company also announced new certifications for its collaboration devices with major videoconferencing platforms, including Google Meet and Microsoft Teams.

According to Poly, the company’s Studio X family of Android-based all-in-one video bars are now certified for Google Meet, enabling organizations to leverage the devices in Poly’s first room solutions for Google Meet.

All of the Poly Studio X devices are now certified under the Works with Google Meet program, which essentially guarantees compatibility of conferencing devices with Google Meet. These are the first Android-based video appliances to deliver a comprehensive meeting experience for Google Meet users, the company says.

The Google Meet app is built into the Poly Studio X family of video bars, allowing users to launch Google Meet meetings right from  the TC8 and TC10 touch interface.

For Microsoft Teams Rooms, Poly’s lineup now includes the newly certified Poly Studio X70 video bar for large rooms and the G7500 modular room solutions, both of which are designed to support hybrid meetings.

These certifications make Poly Studio X70 the only video bar for large rooms certified for Microsoft Teams on Android, according to Poly.

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