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Not surprisingly, Apple Intelligence was everywhere during Apple’s big iPhone event on Monday. There were, of course, new phones (better, faster, AI-ready and arriving Sept. 20). But what was more interesting were the multitude of different ways the company has found where it can make a difference with various breeds of artificial intelligence (AI).

The variety of implementations — from sleep apnea detection in the Apple Watch to the use of AirPods Pro as a full-fledged hearing aid to a multitude of new camera features (including the new Cinematic Slow Motion tool) — all served to underline the message Apple has been giving: there’s more to AI than GenAI, and AI really doesn’t matter at all unless it’s making a difference in people’s lives.

Sweet 16 (and 16 Pro)

As always in early September, the business of the day was new iPhones, the 16 and 16 Pro, about which there were few major surprises. For those more concerned about form over function, this year’s new Pro color is a tawny, brassy, bronzy “Desert Titanium.” The iPhone 16 comes in five colors (if you count black and white as colors), including “Ultramarine”; the Pro and Pro Max come in four: white, black, natural titanium and that aforementioned Desert Titanium.

For those more focused on function and technology, the line-up will look familiar, though the Pro Max does get a slightly larger 6.9-in. display. Storage capacities range from 128GB to 1Tb, depending on model and size. Camera upgrades abound (as does a new Camera Control button on all models). And there are, of course, new processors — the A18 and A18 Pro. In addition to the more efficient and powerful chips, Apple also promises better battery life.

The phones will be available for pre-order on Friday, and will arrive on Sept. 20.

Unleash the upgrade deals?

With that date in mind, an estimated 300 million iPhone users might well be in the frame for a smartphone upgrade this year. And it looks as if the wireless carriers in Apple’s biggest US market are ready to help.

Apple claims some carriers will offer up to $1,000 off on an upgrade, and while we’ve run into some turbulence between carrier launch promises and the reality in the past, those kinds of deals may spur strong upgrades.

Those rebates should also put a little spark into second user sales, which could be good for any enterprise users out there hoping to add Apple Intelligence to their existing fleet. I suspect (but don’t know) one second line beneficiary from all this will be that upgraders of more modest means could see better-than-anticipated second user prices for older iPhone 13s and 14s as upgraders embrace Apple Intelligence.

Speaking of Apple Intelligence…

…AI don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing 

No one is likely to buy anything (even a new iPhone) just because it supports some form of AI. In some cases, buyers might even actively avoid such a purchase. But they will acquire AI devices that actually help them with their lives. (An Apple Watch that translates between languages, for instance, is a good example.)

Looking to show the many benefits of Apple Intelligence while also unveiling its new iPhone line-up was precisely the dance Apple made during the Glowtime product introductions. Put simply: the benefits needed to be explained.

And while Apple Intelligence was certainly a part of the discussion, the company resolutely repeated an additional message — “This is just the beginning.” Anyone who has ever bet against Apple knows what that means: a line in the sand has been drawn, and the company has no intention of staying behind it. 

The fact that the company also mentioned that Apple Intelligence features are to be provided “free” with future software updates also hints that some day not every feature will be gratis.

Core message: Watch this space.

Apple Silicon: A platform development opportunity

Apple Silicon remains strategically critical to Apple’s future. Three bits of news particularly stood out: the inclusion of a 4-core neural engine on Apple Watch, and the new 3-nanometer A18 and 18 Pro chips inside iPhones. 

Other than the expected big benefits in performance and battery life across all three products as a result of the new chips, what matters most is that all three have now been transformed into AI platforms.

The Apple Watch could turn out to be even more interesting, as the challenge for developer and enterprise users (and Apple) will be to find what kinds of useful AI experiences can now be built for it. The introduction of the neural engines means AI will be extended to the Watch — even as Apple explores the extent to which the world’s most powerful smartphone processor can support cutting-edge use cases for mobile AI. 

(For most knowledge workers, the most interesting use case for Apple Intelligence will be sending more professional emails when responding later than you should, and summarizing lengthy messages so understanding them doesn’t make your brain hurt.)

Apple Health: The new frontier?

Health was certainly a major topic during the announcement. Apple CEO Tim Cook has always resolutely spoken up for the benefits his company can bring to health, and that stance did not change this year. The link between Apple, its deep investments in health-related research, and the application of machine intelligence and other forms of AI was made crystal clear. 

New health-related features in both the Apple Watch and across the AirPods range will make a big difference to many people, and Apple is determined to use these platforms to augment health outcomes in quite significant ways. The big challenge to office managers and human resource types might be the need to learn that just because someone is wearing AirPods at work doesn’t mean they are shirking – they might just need help hearing. 

Efficiency for all (but no new iPads or Macs, yet)

If there’s one more thing this year, it’s this: Apple made no explicit mention about iPads or Macs during its iPhone launch (no surprise there). But if it had done so, it might well have pointed to the huge performance and battery life improvements in the new A18/A18 Pro chips. No doubt, company execs will soon be able to point to similar boosts to computational efficiency and battery life/energy consumption in Apple’s other products, too.

Of course, improvements like those are nice if you upgrade your own Mac. But for offices with a few hundred machines in use, a 20% power reduction means a much lower energy bill. Plus, you don’t need to use Crowdstrike and you get to use Apple Intelligence across tablet, smartphone, and PC.

Apple’s AI platform is becoming a reality, and it’s being sold for the real-world benefits it brings, not thrown out as a random buzzword. Then again, extolling the benefits of its platforms has always been how Apple shows its Apple intelligence.

Please follow me on Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

A novel side-channel attack has been found to leverage radio signals emanated by a device's random access memory (RAM) as a data exfiltration mechanism, posing a threat to air-gapped networks. The technique has been codenamed RAMBO by Dr. Mordechai Guri, the head of the Offensive Cyber Research Lab in the Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering at the Ben Gurion University of Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

The proliferation of cybersecurity tools has created an illusion of security. Organizations often believe that by deploying a firewall, antivirus software, intrusion detection systems, identity threat detection and response, and other tools, they are adequately protected. However, this approach not only fails to address the fundamental issue of the attack surface but also introduces dangerous The Hacker Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

The Colombian insurance sector is the target of a threat actor tracked as Blind Eagle with the end goal of delivering a customized version of a known commodity remote access trojan (RAT) known as Quasar RAT since June 2024. "Attacks have originated with phishing emails impersonating the Colombian tax authority," Zscaler ThreatLabz researcher Gaetano Pellegrino said in a new analysis published Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

The China-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) group known as Mustang Panda has been observed weaponizing Visual Studio Code software as part of espionage operations targeting government entities in Southeast Asia. "This threat actor used Visual Studio Code's embedded reverse shell feature to gain a foothold in target networks," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researcher Tom Fakterman said in a Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

When Microsoft Office 2024 launches in October, ActiveX will be turned off by default, according to Bleeping Computer. The change affects desktop versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Visio, and will apply to Microsoft 365 beginning in April 2025.

The reason behind the move: hackers in recent years have used various vulnerabilities in ActiveX to install malicious code on computers.

Launched in 1996, ActiveX is a framework used to embed interactive elements into Office documents.

Microsoft has recently taken other steps to improve security in Office. For example, macros and extensions have been blocked, and support for VBScript will be phased out this fall.

GenAI has become a table stakes tool for employees, due to the productivity gains and innovative capabilities it offers. Developers use it to write code, finance teams use it to analyze reports, and sales teams create customer emails and assets. Yet, these capabilities are exactly the ones that introduce serious security risks. Register to our upcoming webinar to learn how to prevent GenAI data The Hacker Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Designed to be more than a one-time assessment— Wing Security’s SaaS Pulse provides organizations with actionable insights and continuous oversight into their SaaS security posture—and it’s free! Introducing SaaS Pulse: Free Continuous SaaS Risk Management  Just like waiting for a medical issue to become critical before seeing a doctor, organizations can’t afford to overlook the constantly The Hacker Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

As AI adoption continues to soar, corporate executives are being forced to make hard decisions on what IT jobs can be automated by the fast-evolving technology and which ones can’t.

It’s a conundrum — especially because experts believe as many as a quarter of IT jobs could be eliminated and replaced by generative artificial intelligence (genAI) tools.

“There have been a lot of layoffs,” said David Foote, chief analyst and research officer with IT research firm Foote Partners. “Companies are identifying people who may have been solid workers in the past, but they don’t fit into the new world driven by the [emerging] economy and the technology they’re making bets on.”

Foote believes from 20% to 25% of tech jobs could eventually be taken by AI.

While AI will reduce or eliminate altogether the need for human input in some areas, it will also enhance productivity, requiring professionals to reskill and adapt to more strategic and creative roles, according to a research note by Foote.

Along those same lines, a survey of CFOs in June by Duke University and the Atlanta and Richmond Federal Reserve banks found that 32% of organizations plan to use AI in the next year to complete tasks once done by humans. And in the first six months of 2024, nearly 60% of companies (and 84% of large companies) said they had deployed software, equipment, or technology to automate tasks previously done by employees, the survey found.

Organizations are using AI to automate a wide range of business process, including paying suppliers, invoicing, procurement, financial reporting, and optimizing facilities utilization, according to Duke University finance professor John Graham, academic director of the survey. “This is on top of companies using ChatGPT to generate creative ideas and to draft job descriptions, contracts, marketing plans, and press releases,” Graham said in the report.

In particular, Foote said, 11 IT-related roles will be affected by AI adoption over the next several years — some in positive ways, others not so positive. (Other industry experts believe that number could be higher.)

The roles likely to be heavily impacted by AI but not necessarily eliminated: software development, cybersecurity, DevOps, UI/UX design, data administration and management, testing and quality assurance, data scientists and analysts, testing and quality assurance, cloud engineers, technical writers, and IT support and systems administration — including network administration. Ironically AI and machine learning engineering is also becoming more automated through tools like Google’s AutoML, Foote said.

Database administration is also undergoing a seachange as AI-powered systems like autonomous databases (e.g., Oracle Autonomous Database) can self-patch, self-tune, and handle much of the database maintenance that used to require human intervention. Specializing in big data will become more critical for admins.

AI is transforming cybersecurity by automating threat detection, anomaly detection, and incident response. “AI-powered tools can quickly identify unusual behavior, analyze security pattern, scan for vulnerabilities, and even predict cyberattacks, making manual monitoring less necessary,” Foote said. “Security professionals will focus more on developing AI models that can defend against complex threats, especially as cybercriminals begin using AI to attack systems. There will be a demand for experts in AI ethics in cybersecurity, ensuring that AI systems used in security aren’t biased or misused.”

IT support and systems administration positions — especially tier-one and tier-two help desk jobs — are expected to be hit particularly hard with job losses. Those jobs entail basic IT problem resolution and service desk delivery, as well as more in-depth technical support, such as software updates, which can be automated through AI today. The help desk jobs that remain would involve more hands-on skills that cannot be resolved by a phone call or electronic message. “At that point, IT is considering it a unique problem; they’re getting involved in things like code corruption,” Foote said, adding that skills in AI governance and regulation will become more critical as companies face increased scrutiny over the use of AI in security.

Data scientists and analysts, on the other hand, will be in greater demand with AI, but their tasks will shift towards more strategic areas like interpreting AI-generated insights, ensuring ethical use of AI, and working on higher-level model development and validation, according to Foote.

“They will need to focus on building models rather than just analyzing data. This includes ensuring that models are ethical, fair, and explainable, especially when these systems are making decisions in sensitive domains like healthcare or finance. Data scientists will also need deep expertise in the specific industries they work in (e.g., healthcare, finance) to ensure that AI models are aligned with business goals and regulatory requirements,” Foote said.

There will also be a growing demand for data scientists with model selection and optimization tools like AutoML, DataRobot, and H2O.ai which automate much of the machine learning pipeline, from data preparation, process, and analysis to model creation and deployment, according to Foote.

Unlike humans, genAI tools can comb through massive amounts of data quickly, much faster than a technologist could — allowing automated tools to identify problems very easily, according to Jack Gold, principal analyst with J. Gold Associates.

While layoffs among tech firms escalated over the past year, Foote believes companies will begin rethinking their hiring strategies. And that could lead to a hiring sprint over the next several months. “When they embraced automation, they ended up letting people go, but then they decided soft skills and institutional knowledge are important,” Foote said.

That’s because the technology can’t create new product ideas, services, or business strategies; those tasks require critical thinking.

“They thought they could get rid of people, but as it turns out, they need a core of people who understand nuances,” Foote said. “[Organizations] need people who know how to communicate in a collaborative way using verbal and non-verbal skills — particularly people who don’t necessarily have some level of technical skills. These are people who can inspire others and motivate other people.”

Gold agrees: while AI will replace some software developers, mainly those focused on routine or repetitive tasks, humans are still needed to define programs and set parameters. “It means that the software engineer will be more productive and able to write more lines of code, so there might be some reduction in the need to hire software folks. But I don’t see that need fully going away,” he said.

Quality control will still be required, Gold and Foote argued. Gold pointed to the recent CrowdStrike disaster. The security software vendor admitted to using an automated process to push out a bad software update to Windows computers, leading to a cascading crash that affected companies worldwide.

“Remember, AI is only as good as the data set its been trained on,” Gold said.

GenAI will also create new jobs. For example, new tools and machine learning technology must be integrated with traditional enterprise systems — and that will require technologists familiar with both. “Integration is big part of what companies are putting effort into,” Foote said.

In the US and Europe, as many as 300 million jobs are likely to be affected by the arrival of AI, investment bank Goldman Sachs estimated last year. Fully two-thirds of US jobs could be partially automated, with one in four current work tasks completely automated. At the same time, AI is expected to boost global GDP by 7%, Goldman Sachs said in its report.

Career fields with the highest exposure to automation include administrative positions (46%) and tasks in legal professions (44%). Not surprisingly, jobs less likely to be affected tend to be in physically intensive areas such as construction (6%) and maintenance (4%). While automation is expected to disrupt a variety of career fields, including IT, not all jobs will be affected equally. For example, in the legal sector, paralegal jobs are more likely endangered than attorneys — one reason the legal sector’s score is so high, according to Goldman Sachs.

With so many jobs affected globally by AI and machine learning, hiring managers will be on the lookout for candidates with experience in those areas. For example, one recent study indicated programers could more than double the number of projects they complete each week by using AI-assisted code-generation tools.

Those tools are increasingly prevalent in software engineering and, somewhat unexpectedly, have become low-hanging fruit for most organizations experimenting with genAI. Adoption rates are skyrocketing. That’s because even if they only suggest a baseline of code for a new application, automation tools can eliminate hours that otherwise would have been devoted to manual code creation and updates. Tools such as GitHub Copilot, Tabnine, and OpenAI Codex can suggest lines of code, fix bugs, and automate code reviews. This is reducing the need for developers to focus on repetitive coding tasks.

Along those lines, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman recently said that within 24 months “or some amount of time, it’s possible that most developers are not coding.”

While some fear the outright elimination of software developers, others believe genAI automation will allow them and other technologists to be more creative rather than focusing on mundane or repetitive tasks.

Tiago Cardoso, principal product manager at AI-assisted content management company Hyland Software, still believes genAI tools should be used to accelerate programming and coding skills, not replace them. Cardoso pointed to an estimate by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that predicted jobs for software developers will grow by grow by 25% between 2021 and 2031.

“These figures confirm the demand and need for programming skills, but comfort using AI to support coding will be a skill that employers seek out,” Cardoso said. “Developers should lean into upskilling opportunities and see which AI tools can support tasks like debugging and bug fixing and improving code quality by implementing proactive refactoring so they can focus on sharpening skills that AI systems can’t perform.

“Employers will seek out developers with the ability and openness to adapt to the changing tech market,” he continued. “Developers who embrace these changes and seek out ways to strengthen their skills in pace with innovations in AI will be the most valuable as the role continues to evolve.”

Even with widespread adoption of genAI through 2024, the US economy added more than 158 million jobs, and the tech unemployment rate remained at near historic lows.

“More upbeat assessments contend that AI will augment workers — perhaps the least-skilled ones — rather than replace them. Others argue that replacing workers is harder than it seems because jobs are collections of tasks and AI may not be able to do all of them seamlessly,” Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, global chief economist with Boston Consulting Group, wrote recently.

Gold also believes estimates about the number of jobs genAI will ultimately eliminate are overblown. A more likely scenario, he said, is that workers will be more productive, and so companies might not need to hire as many people.

“And it may give companies an opportunity to shift workers to more strategic functions,” he said. “I actually don’t think the elimination of jobs, if it occurs in any big [way], will happen for two to three years, as there is still a lot of debugging to go on in making AI programs responsive, effective, and efficient. It’s not as easy as people think it is.”

Progress Software has released security updates for a maximum-severity flaw in LoadMaster and Multi-Tenant (MT) hypervisor that could result in the execution of arbitrary operating system commands. Tracked as CVE-2024-7591 (CVSS score: 10.0), the vulnerability has been described as an improper input validation bug that results in OS command injection. "It is possible for unauthenticated, remote Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Android device users in South Korea have emerged as a target of a new mobile malware campaign that delivers a new type of threat dubbed SpyAgent. The malware "targets mnemonic keys by scanning for images on your device that might contain them," McAfee Labs researcher SangRyol Ryu said in an analysis, adding the targeting footprint has broadened in scope to include the U.K. The campaign makes useRavie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

A previously undocumented threat actor with likely ties to Chinese-speaking groups has predominantly singled out drone manufacturers in Taiwan as part of a cyber attack campaign that commenced in 2024. Trend Micro is tracking the adversary under the moniker TIDRONE, stating the activity is espionage-driven given the focus on military-related industry chains. The exact initial access vector used

A previously undocumented threat actor with likely ties to Chinese-speaking groups has predominantly singled out drone manufacturers in Taiwan as part of a cyber attack campaign that commenced in 2024. Trend Micro is tracking the adversary under the moniker TIDRONE, stating the activity is espionage-driven given the focus on military-related industry chains. The exact initial access vector used Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

The U.S. government and a coalition of international partners have officially attributed a Russian hacking group tracked as Cadet Blizzard to the General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 161st Specialist Training Center (Unit 29155). "These cyber actors are responsible for computer network operations against global targets for the purposes of espionage, sabotage, and reputational harm

The U.S. government and a coalition of international partners have officially attributed a Russian hacking group tracked as Cadet Blizzard to the General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 161st Specialist Training Center (Unit 29155). "These cyber actors are responsible for computer network operations against global targets for the purposes of espionage, sabotage, and reputational harm Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Linux servers are a far more dominant force in the industry than people give them credit for. Sure, many personal computers run on Windows, but Linux is the operating system behind roughly 81% of all the websites. One reason for this is that it's more resilient to the majority of threats that most of their counterparts face.

While Linux servers are already extremely secure by default, there are extra steps you can and should take if you do have a Linux server instance running. As with any system, vulnerabilities still exist and can wreak havoc if proper prevention and security best practices are not implemented.

Google Chrome continues to evolve with regular updates that bring new features, performance improvements and enhanced security. If you prefer a hands-off approach to updates, you’re in luck. Chrome updates are automatically downloaded and installed in the background, ensuring you’re always using the latest version. While other browsers have followed suit, Chrome was an early adopter of automatic updates.

This approach has helped Chrome become the world’s most popular web browser — by a lot. It commands 65% market share, according to research by Statcounter. Safari is a distant second with about 19%. (See the chart below for a market breakdown.)

Browser market share worldwide for August 2024

Statcounter

Here’s a closer look at how Chrome updates work. (If you haven’t installed Chrome yet, you can download it for free from Google here.)

How Chrome took down Internet Explorer

When it debuted about 16 years ago, Chrome gradually convinced first individuals and then enterprises that it was the best replacement for Microsoft’s once-market-leading Internet Explorer. Microsoft has struggled to recover, and currently the Microsoft Edge browser is used by only about 5% of users.

Despite its popularity, Google’s browser has not been without its critics. Among the sticking points has been Chrome’s automatic updating mechanism, which some criticize for force-feeding unwanted changes or for delivering those changes too quickly for customers to absorb.

Here’s a deeper look at how Chrome updates operate.

Automatic updates vs. manual triggers

Because Chrome updates automatically, most users need to only relaunch the browser occasionally to stay current.

The browser periodically checks for updates and when Chrome detects an available update, it downloads the new code and preps it for installation, although that latter step doesn’t begin until the user starts or restarts the browser.

It’s important to note that your version of Chrome may not receive an update as soon as Google issues one. Instead, the company spreads out the distribution over days, or sometimes even weeks.

To manually trigger an update, follow these steps:  

1. Open Chrome.
2. Click the vertical ellipsis at the upper right.
3. Click Help.
4. Click About Google Chrome.
5. Click Update Google Chrome.
6. Click Relaunch to install the update.

The ensuing page either reports “Google Chrome is up to date” or displays the updating process before presenting a “Relaunch” button (see screenshot below).

IDG

How often does Google update Chrome?

According to Google, it releases a milestone Chrome browser update about every four weeks. Minor updates, such as security fixes and software updates, are more frequent — typically every 2 to 3 weeks.  

Unlike Mozilla, which maintains a more of a set schedule for Firefox, Google does not keep to steady cadence, nor does it do much to publicize each release. Officially, Google recommends that users follow this blog to track just-issued updates, including those security-only fixes that pop up at irregular intervals between each polished edition’s arrival.

The Chromium project, the open-source foundation of Chrome, maintains a schedule for its development builds. While it’s unofficial, it can give you an idea of when major changes are expected.

For individual users: Can you (should you) disrupt Chrome updates?

Although there have been numerous internet-posted instruction sets that purport to show you how to shut down Chrome’s automatic updates, those efforts are mostly misguided.

The goal of all auto-updating is more secure browsing and a lessened chance of malware hijacking the application and planting itself on a PC. Removing the responsibility for updates, particularly security updates, from the user has been a decades-long theme in software for a good reason — it results in a higher percentage of up-to-date devices. (The 2017 WannaCry attacks starkly illustrated the differences between quickly patched and unpatched Windows systems.)

Attempting to disrupt automatic updates can be futile, because Chrome’s updating mechanism cannot be permanently switched off without the business infrastructure of Active Directory. “To prevent abuse of this policy, if a device is not joined to an Active Directory domain, and if this policy has been set to 0 or to a value greater than 77 hours, this setting will not be honored and replaced by 77 hours after August 2014,” a Chrome support document reads, referring to a group policy that allows enterprise IT staffers to disable the feature.

In plainer English, that means attempts to turn off auto updates, including by setting a Windows Registry key — a cornerstone of many of the techniques available on the web — will fail as the time between update checks reverts to 77 hours, or about 3.2 days.

Individuals can disrupt automatic updates on Windows PCs, however, by nixing the executable the browser relies on for its connection to Google’s servers. The simplest way is to locate the file GoogleUpdate.exe — it should be in the folder C:Program Files (x86)GoogleUpdate — and rename it. Any new name will do, say, GoogleUpdate_disabled.exe.

After restarting Chrome, any attempt, whether automatic on the part of the browser or manual by the user, will fail.

To later update Chrome, the executable’s name must be restored to GoogleUpdate.exe.

For IT: How to manage Chrome updates

The Chrome browser for the enterprise, a.k.a. Chrome Enterprise, is the same browser used by consumers. The difference lies in how the browser is deployed and managed. Downloading Chrome Enterprise, IT administrators can install the Chrome browser via MSI.

MSI files can be deployed using tools like Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or Group Policy, allowing IT administrators to manage Chrome installations across multiple devices. MSI files can be installed without requiring user interaction, making it ideal for automated deployments. Admins can manage their organization’s Chrome browsers via group policy to enforce over 200+ policies.

To be clear, centrally managed copies of Chrome do not update from a central location. Rather, they are, like Chrome run by individuals, updated at Google’s inclination and timetable.

However, Chrome does support a number of Windows group policies that can be managed by IT, and Google provides an enterprise bundle that includes tools for managing Chrome through group policies. These tools allow administrators to configure various settings and policies for Chrome, such as automatic updates, extensions, and user permissions. The enterprise bundle includes templates for both .adm and .admx formats, which are used to apply group policies to Windows systems. This enables IT administrators to manage Chrome across their entire organization’s fleet of devices.

Among the policies are those that let admins disable all updates, barring both automatic and manual updates from occurring, and that override the default time between update checks, shortening them to as little as an hour or extending them to as much as 30 days.

Because Chrome management relies on group policies, Active Directory is required.

Where to get .msi packages for Chrome

After turning off Google’s updates, IT must distribute its own update — on its schedule — using an .msi installation package. That package can be deployed with the organization’s standard deployment tools, including Microsoft’s own SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager).

The .msi installation packages for the current version of Chrome for Windows are available from Google’s website.

Other references include the Chrome Help Center, the community-powered Chrome Help Forum, and the Chrome Enterprise and Education Help Center.

Chrome browser update tips

• Check for updates regularly: While Chrome updates automatically, it’s still a good practice to check for updates manually to ensure you have the latest version.
• Pay attention: Keep an eye on Google’s Chrome blog and release notes for information about new features, security updates, and known issues.
• Try beta or dev channels: If you’re comfortable with testing new features and providing feedback, consider using the beta or dev channels.

Threat actors affiliated with North Korea have been observed leveraging LinkedIn as a way to target developers as part of a fake job recruiting operation. These attacks employ coding tests as a common initial infection vector, Google-owned Mandiant said in a new report about threats faced by the Web3 sector. "After an initial chat conversation, the attacker sent a ZIP file that contained