Windows 8 Upgrades and Downgrades Part of Windows Intune 2012

One easy way for customers to make sure that they’ll be able to make the jump seamlessly to Windows 8 in 2012 without paying a single cent to license the operating system is to subscribe to Windows Intune.

Windows Intune is Microsoft’s Cloud-based PC management and security offering, which offers upgrade benefits as part of a comprehensive collection of services for just $11 per computer per month.

The first version of Intune went live earlier this year, and Microsoft is cooking the second release, which is in Beta development state at this point in time.

The upcoming iteration of Windows Intune will be made available to customers by the end of 2011, and will also cost $11 per PC per month, despite the evolution from the first version.

Windows 7 Enterprise upgrade rights are an inherent benefit of a Windows Intune subscription today.

“All of your managed PCs covered by Windows Intune may be upgraded to Windows 7 Enterprise as long as the qualifying OS is one of the following business editions of Windows: Business, Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise,” the Redmond company notes.

One of my Microsoft contacts confirmed to me that Windows 8 upgrade benefits will inherently be included into Windows Intune 2012.

At the same time, the software giant also mentions downgrade rights as a part of the Windows Intune subscription.

Windows downgrades, as some Softpedia readers might know, allow customers to run an older version of Windows and then upgrade to the latest release through the same license agreement, and without paying anything extra. Companies can get two versions of Windows at the price of one, so to speak.

“In addition to Windows 7 upgrade rights, Windows Intune customers will have rights to upgrade to future versions of Windows, as well as downgrade rights to older versions. As long as your subscription is active, you will have access to the best version of Windows for your business to standardize on—making your PC environment easier to manage,” Microsoft notes.

The thing to remember is that with Windows Intune 2012, the Windows 7 Enterprise upgrade benefits will become Windows 8 upgrade benefits.

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SecurID Data Breach Cost RSA $66 Million

A data breach that resulted in the theft of information related to its SecurID authentication product cost RSA Security and its parent company EMC $66 million so far.

According to the Washington Post, the sum was revealed in an earnings call on Tuesday. "We incurred an accrued cost associated with investigating the attack, hardening our systems and working with customers to implement our remediation programs," EMC’s executive vice president David Goluden said.

The costs included expenses associated with monitoring the networks of customers who expressed concerns over the integrity of the product after the breach.

The intrusion occurred in March and was the result of a spear phishing attack against RSA employees which exploited a zero-day Flash Player vulnerability.

The company was very vague following the breach saying only that information regarding its SecurID product was targeted, but that its customers are not at risk.

SecurID is a two-factor authentication solution consisting of a hardware token that generates unique one-time use codes. It is estimated that there are over 40 million SecurID tokens in existence, the product being used by thousands of companies, organizations and government agencies around the world.

RSA was criticized by the information security community for its lack of transparency regarding this incident and in May it was reported that a cyber attack against Lockheed Martin involved cloned SecurID devices.


Read More : At Softpedia

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