Microsoft’s recent $17.4 billion investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure has captured global attention and underscored how demand for high-performance computing is reshaping the digital economy. While Bitcoin consolidates near record levels, institutional investors are shifting focus toward platforms that combine ​AI-driven efficiency with sustainable blockchain mining​.

In this context, ​RI Mining​, a UK-registered cloud mining company operating across more than 190 countries, today announced the launch of its ​next-generation mining contracts​. The new model integrates ​AI-optimized hashrate scheduling and renewable energy infrastructure​, enabling users to secure daily digital income with greater consistency and transparency.

RI Mining Cloud Mining: AI and Blockchain Convergence

Analysts note that both AI and crypto mining now compete for the same energy-intensive infrastructure, while also driving each other’s growth. Microsoft’s bold bet on AI highlights the need for scalable, efficient computing resources—a shift that aligns with RI Mining’s platform upgrades.

“Artificial intelligence is transforming global infrastructure,” said ​Robert Chen​, spokesperson for RI Mining. “Our next-gen contracts are built to reflect this reality. By combining automation, compliance, and renewable energy, we give users—from Bitcoin and Ethereum investors to XRP and Dogecoin holders—an accessible path to stable returns without hardware or technical barriers”.

Highlights of RI Mining New Contract

• ​AI Smart Scheduling​: Contracts use automated algorithms to reallocate hashrate when network difficulty or energy costs shift, ensuring more stable output.
• ​Real-Time Settlement Engine​: Income is distributed every 24 hours, with a verified ledger that users can audit directly in their dashboards.
• ​Flexible Contract Design​: Options range from short-term “experience” plans to longer strategic packages, allowing both beginners and advanced users to tailor participation.
• ​Integrated Risk Controls​: Multi-layer wallet isolation and transparent on-chain reporting help protect user funds while enhancing trust.
• ​Cross-Asset Coverage​: Contracts extend beyond Bitcoin to include Ethereum, Dogecoin, XRP, and USDT, giving users diversified exposure in a single platform.

How to Join RI Mining

1. Sign Up — It only takes seconds, just an email address, and you’ll get $15.
2. Deposit — Add funds in BTC, ETH, SOL, DOGE, XRP, or USDT.
3. Choose a Contract — Select from short trials or long-term AI-optimized plans.
4. Start Mining — Earnings are settled daily and shown in your dashboard.
5. Withdraw or Reinvest — Transfer profits to your wallet or compound returns.

About RI Mining

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in London, RI Mining has grown from a niche company specializing in mining services to one of the most recognizable brands in digital infrastructure. The platform operates a distributed network of data centers across Europe, North America, and Asia, all powered by renewable energy to reduce operating costs and meet increasingly stringent ESG standards.

RI Mining’s new AI-powered contracts are designed to be easily accessible—requiring no hardware or technical barriers—and offer automatic daily settlement.

Looking forward, RI Mining plans to expand its presence in emerging markets and deepen the application of its AI-driven optimization, positioning itself at the intersection of sustainable energy and blockchain innovation. The company’s long-term goal is to provide everyday investors and institutions with a reliable framework for transforming digital assets into a stable source of passive income.

Visit the website for more information or download the mobile app.

TL;DR: Replace Microsoft 365 with a Microsoft Office 2024 Lifetime License on sale now for $169.97.

Probably one of the only things everyone on the internet can agree about is that software subscriptions are the worst. So I guess it’s pretty good news that one of the most popular software subscriptions anywhere is finally getting an alternative. Instead of paying $99.99 per year every single year for Microsoft 365, now you can get Microsoft Office 2024 for Mac or PC for $169.97 (it’s usually $249.99).

Microsoft apps you pay for once

This license works for Mac or PC, has no recurring costs of any kind, and is really easy to set up.

Here’s what you get:

• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• Outlook
• OneNote

These are the recent versions too, so you get all the cool AI improvements. Word can suggest phrasing as you write, Excel can crunch through huge spreadsheets without freezing, and PowerPoint now lets you record presentations with video and narration.

The apps also look and feel more polished. Office 2024 has a unified design across all programs, which makes switching between them less clunky. If you are using a tablet or a touchscreen laptop, the improved pen and touch support actually makes sketching notes or editing slides easier. Outlook even has a smarter search tool and a built-in accessibility checker to keep your emails clear and professional.

The real selling point, though, is the lifetime license. Paying once means you can use Office 2024 for years without another bill. Updates are still included, so you are not stuck with an outdated version, but you also avoid the endless subscription cycle.

Right now, it’s only $169.97 to get Microsoft Office 2024 Home and Business, but it won’t stay that way.

Microsoft Office 2024 Home & Business for Mac or PC Lifetime License

See Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

See other items in the shop. 

Microsoft is working to resolve an ongoing Exchange Online outage affecting customers throughout North America, blocking their access to emails.

“We’re investigating an issue affecting a portion of infrastructure in North America, where users may be unable to access their mailbox via any Exchange Online connection method,” the company explained earlier today.

According to user reports on DownDetector, the issue began impacting Microsoft’s customers more than six hours ago and is causing server connection problems, affecting users who attempt to log in to their accounts and access Teams, Outlook, and Hotmail.

While the root cause has yet to be determined and Microsoft hasn’t shared the number of customers affected by this outage, the company said that it’s currently investigating telemetry data and working to mitigate the impacted infrastructure.

“We’re continuing to evaluate service telemetry for potential system irregularities contributing to impact, and in parallel we’re applying some changes to optimize affected mailbox infrastructure,” Microsoft added in a recent update.

Earlier this week, Redmond resolved another issue that caused an anti-spam service to quarantine some emails and mistakenly block Exchange Online and Microsoft Teams users from opening URLs.

The company is also rolling out a fix to address an Exchange Online issue that triggers email access problems for Outlook mobile users who use Hybrid Modern Authentication (HMA).

The issue began impacting Android and iOS users on August 17, causing mailboxes to crash and preventing them from accessing their email and calendars.

Update September 11, 18:12 EDT: According to an admin center update, the outage also impacts customers in South America. Microsoft says it’s seeing signs of recovery after implementing a configuration change to some of the impacted infrastructure.

“We’ve seen some steady improvements in service quality as our manual database optimizations and configuration changes have reduced the impact of the high service utilization on the environment,” the compay notes.

“Additionally, we’re looking into a potential build versioning issue with a subset of machines supporting the service that may be contributing to impact.”

This is a developing story…

Microsoft has resolved a known issue that caused Windows upgrades to fail with 0x8007007F errors on some Windows 11 and Windows Server systems.

Although this issue impacts both Windows client and server platforms under specific upgrade paths, it will not affect customers attempting to upgrade their devices to Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2025, the latest Windows versions.

“Starting August 12, 2025, some Windows upgrades might fail with error code ‘0x8007007F’ when performed via ‘Windows Setup > Upgrade’ installation,” the company noted in a new entry on the Windows release health dashboard.

The list of upgrade paths impacted by this bug includes:

• Upgrades from Windows 10 1809, Windows 10 21H2, and Windows 10 22H2 to Windows 11, versions 23H2 and 22H2
• Upgrades from Windows Server 2016 to Windows Server 2019 or Windows Server 2022
• Upgrades from Windows Server 2019 to Windows Server 2022

While the company didn’t share what was causing these upgrade problems, Redmond says the bug triggering them is now fixed.

Users who experienced issues while trying to upgrade their systems are now advised to retry the upgrade process.

“This issue was resolved as of August 15, 2025. Devices upgraded after this date should no longer encounter this error. If you do experience error ‘0x8007007F’, retrying the upgrade process will typically resolve the issue,” Redmond added.

This week, Microsoft has also released emergency out-of-band updates to address a bug that caused Windows reset and recovery to fail after installing the August 2025 security updates.

Additionally, Microsoft rolled out a Known Issue Rollback (KIR) fix last week for a bug that triggers Windows update failures when installed from a network share using the Windows Update Standalone Installer (WUSA).

​The company also resolved a separate issue triggered by the installation of the KB5063878 update, which caused the August 2025 security updates to fail with 0x80240069 errors on Windows 11 24H2 systems when delivered via Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).

TL;DR: Upgrade to Windows 11 Pro and get Microsoft Office for life for just $54.97 (86% off).

Keeping your computer up to date can be expensive. Your PC needs the latest operating system for speed and security, but you also need the tools to actually get work done. Too often, that means paying for each upgrade separately or locking yourself into monthly subscriptions that add up fast. This bundle solves both problems with one purchase, and it couldn’t come at a better time.

Windows 10 support officially ends in October 2025, which means no more security updates or patches. If you’re still running it, you’ll be more vulnerable to cyberattacks and software incompatibilities. Upgrading to Windows 11 Pro now ensures you’ll have the latest features, security protections, and full compatibility with future updates, while pairing it with Office 2021 Pro gives you the productivity powerhouse to match.

Full Microsoft Office suite

 Word – Write, edit, and format everything from resumes to reports.
 Excel – Build budgets, track data, and automate workflows.
 PowerPoint – Create polished presentations that grab attention.
 Outlook – Manage your email, calendar, and contacts in one hub.
 OneNote – Keep all your notes synced and organized.
 Publisher – Design flyers, brochures, and newsletters with ease.
 Access – Manage databases and streamline information storage.
 Teams (Free) – Chat, call, and collaborate in real time.

Windows 11’s pro features

 Copilot AI – Summarize web pages, generate text, and automate daily tasks.
 DirectX 12 Ultimate – Realistic graphics and better gameplay for PC gamers.
 Performance Boost – Faster load times and smoother multitasking.
 Snap Layouts & Multiple Desktops – Organize work like a pro.
 Enterprise-Grade Security – BitLocker encryption, Smart App Control, and TPM 2.0 keep your data locked down.

Lock in Windows 11 Pro + Office 2021 for just $54.97 (MSRP $418.99).

The Ultimate Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime License + Windows 11 Pro Bundle

See Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

See other items in the shop.

Akira ransomware is abusing a legitimate Intel CPU tuning driver to turn off Microsoft Defender in attacks from security tools and EDRs running on target machines.

The abused driver is ‘rwdrv.sys’ (used by ThrottleStop), which the threat actors register as a service to gain kernel-level access.

This driver is likely used to load a second driver, ‘hlpdrv.sys,’ a malicious tool that manipulates Windows Defender to turn off its protections.

This is a ‘Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver’ (BYOVD) attack, where threat actors use legitimate signed drivers that have known vulnerabilities or weaknesses that can be abused to achieve privilege escalation. This driver is then used to load a malicious tool that disables Microsoft Defender.

“The second driver, hlpdrv.sys, is similarly registered as a service. When executed, it modifies the DisableAntiSpyware settings of Windows Defender within \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\DisableAntiSpyware,” explain the researchers.

“The malware accomplishes this via execution of regedit.exe.”

This tactic was observed by Guidepoint Security, which reports seeing repeated abuse of the rwdrv.sys driver in Akira ransomware attacks since July 15, 2025.

“We are flagging this behavior because of its ubiquity in recent Akira ransomware IR cases. This high-fidelity indicator can be used for proactive detection and retroactive threat hunting,” continued the report.

To help defenders detect and block these attacks, Guidepoint Security has provided a YARA rule for hlpdrv.sys, as well as complete indicators of compromise (IoCs) for both drivers, their service names, and file paths where they are dropped.

Akira attacks on SonicWall SSLVPN

Akira ransomware was recently linked to attacks on SonicWall VPNs using what is believed to be an unknown flaw.

Guidepoint Security says it could neither confirm nor debunk the exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability in SonicWall VPNs by Akira ransomware operators.

In response to reports about elevated offensive activity, SonicWall advised disabling or restricting SSLVPN, enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA), enabling Botnet/Geo-IP protection, and removing unused accounts.

Meanwhile, The DFIR Report has published an analysis of recent Akira ransomware attacks, highlighting the use of the Bumblebee malware loader delivered via trojanized MSI installers of IT software tools.

An example involves searches for “ManageEngine OpManager” on Bing, where SEO poisoning redirected the victim to the malicious site opmanager[.]pro.

Bumblebee is launched via DLL sideloading, and once C2 communication is established, it drops AdaptixC2 for persistent access.

The attackers then conduct internal reconnaissance, create privileged accounts, and exfiltrate data using FileZilla, while maintaining access via RustDesk and SSH tunnels.

After approximately 44 hours, the main Akira ransomware payload (locker.exe) is deployed to encrypt systems across domains.

Until the SonicWall VPN situation clears up, system administrators should monitor for Akira-related activity and apply filters and blocks as indicators emerge from security research.

It is also strongly advised to only download software from official sites and mirrors, as impersonation sites have become a common source for malware.

A threat actor has been abusing link wrapping services from reputed technology companies to mask malicious links leading to Microsoft 365 phishing pages that collect login credentials.

The attacker exploited the URL security feature from cybersecurity company Proofpoint and cloud communications firm Intermedia in campaigns from June through July.

Some email security services include a link wrapping feature that rewrites the URLs in the message to a trusted domain and passes them through a scanning server designed to block malicious destinations.

Legitimizing phishing URLs

Cloudflare’s Email Security team discovered that the adversary legitimized the malicious URLs after compromising Proofpoint and Intermedia-protected email accounts, and likely used their unauthorized access to distribute the “laundered” links.

“Attackers abused Proofpoint link wrapping in a variety of ways, including multi-tiered redirect abuse with URL shorteners via compromised accounts,” the researchers said.

“The Intermedia link wrapping abuse we observed also focused on gaining unauthorized access to email accounts protected by link wrapping“ – Cloudflare Email Security

The threat actor added an obfuscation layer by first shortening the malicious link before sending it from a protected account, which automatically wrapped the link.

The researchers say that the attacker lured victims with fake notifications for voicemail or shared Microsoft Teams documents. At the end of the redirect chain was a Microsoft Office 365 phishing page that collected credentials.

In the campaign that abused Intermedia’s service, the threat actor delivered emails pretending to be a “Zix” secure message notification for a viewing a secure document, or impersonated a communication from Microsoft Teams informing of a newly received message.

The link allegedly leading to the document was a URL wrapped by Intermedia’s service and redirected to a fake page from digital and email marketing platform Constant Contact hosting the phishing page.

Clicking on the reply button in the fake Teams notification led to a Microsoft phishing page that would collect login credentials.

By disguising the malicious destinations with legitimate email protection URLs, the threat actor increased the chances of a successful attack, the Cloudflare researchers said.

It should be noted that abusing legitimate services to deliver malicious payloads is not new but exploiting the link-wrapping security feature is a recent development on the phishing scene.