Archive for September, 2023

Major Data breach – new Windows malware.

September 28th, 2023

Usernames and passwords of billions of users have been exposed online after the digital risk protection company DarkBeam left an online database unprotected.

Unfortunately over 3.8 billion user records were accessible to anyone during the period in which the database was exposed. The leaked email addresses and passwords contained on the database actually came from previous data breaches. Ionically DarkBeam had collected this information to alert its customers in regards to future data breaches, though it’s highly likely that this leak will affect non-customers as well.

Any such leak contains usernames and passwords from both reported and unreported data breaches, and there is a chance that your login credentials could be compromised, even though you had never heard of DarkBeam. it’s likely that hackers downloaded it to use in future attacks. For instance, they could use exposed email addresses in targeted phishing attacks. It’s more likely that  cybercriminals with this data will try and use the usernames and passwords at a number of different sites to see if any of the victims reused the same passwords. Password reuse is a big problem and when you use the same password and username for multiple accounts, hackers use stolen credentials to login to your other accounts. Create strong, complex , unique for all of your accounts. 

If that is not bad enough there is also a new open-source Windows malware Exela Stealer uses Discord to send stolen data back to hackers. Besides stealing login credentials, personal data and financial information, the malware can also steal session details from popular apps and online services including social media and gaming platforms. Once downloaded on a computer, Exela’s builder will run when there is a compatible version of Python (version 3.10.0 or 3.11.0) is installed on the machine and  the builder can create a.exe file.

When the malware’s builder batch file inside the Exela setup folder is executed, a Discord webhook URL is required, and when a victim doesn’t provide this URL, an error message is displayed until they do. The Exela Stealer uses this Discord webhook URL to act as a remote server for the hackers who deployed the malware. to send all of a victim’s stolen data back to the hackers.

After installation on a victim’s PC, Exela Stealer persists by copying itself into a new directory in the local app data folder. It adds a startup entry in Windows Registry so that the malware continues to run even after the infected PC is rebooted.

Exela Stealer then targets any Chromium-based web browsers like Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera or Vivaldi that are installed on a victim’s computer. Besides credentials, the malware can also steal credit card information, cookies and other browser data while logging keypresses and taking screenshots of the system. Exela Stealer can steal l info from social media platforms including Instagram, X, TikTok and Reddit along with data from both Steam and Roblox.Stolen data is sent back to the hackers behind Exela Stealer who can use it to commit fraud or identity theft.

You risk a bad malware infection should you try to download games or software illegally.. The Exela Stealer is distributed through phishing pages and websites offering free software downloads. However, given the malware’s capabilities, cybercriminals could devise new distribution method so be ever more vigilant about phishing emails, strong passwords, multi factor authentication, ant virus updates etc. Whenever there is  a big data leak like this one, check whether your own credentials are compromised. T Cybernews has its own personal data leak checker, or  use Troy Hunt’s popular HaveIBeenPwned ,or Mozilla’s Firefox Monitor.

Power Automate plugin for ChatGPT – ask Synergy Software Systems

September 27th, 2023

OpenAI’s ChatGPT, AI-powered chatbots captured the world’s imagination because these enable users to gain knowledge, understand nuances around complex topics, and be creative using a simple chat interface.

This experience aligns directly with Power Automate’s goal for everyone to benefit from the power of automation.

We now have a preview of a dedicated plugin for ChatGPT that lets users leverage the automation capabilities of Power Automate, directly from the ChatGPT experience!

Power Automate plugin for ChatGPT

Power Automate plugin for ChatGPT enables users to create, list and run flows from ChatGPT.

It leverages Power Automate’s natural language to flow authoring experience to help users create flows directly from ChatGPT.

The brand new “Skills Connector” and “Run a flow from Copilot trigger” helps you to discover and to invoke flows from the ChatGPT interface.

The plugin always ensures that you can either review the created flow, or which flow was selected to be run before it is executed. This human-in-the-loop oversight is critical to help users benefit from the power of generative AI responsibly.

Enabl3 makers to author no-code skills for ChatGPT

The new Copilot trigger, makers can create custom flows to be invoked directly from within ChatGPT, to increase ChatGPT’s capabilities without writing any code.

A maker can write flows that use the power of 1000+ connectors, together with desktop automation, and AI-based intelligent automation, and invoke those from the familiar ChatGPT experience. Or they can combine this plugin with other plugins to build transformative experiences.

ChatGPT is the first chat-based Large Language Model (LLM) experience that uses this new integration.

Getting Started with the Power Automate plugin for ChatGPT

The Power Automate plugin for ChatGPT is available for all ChatGPT Plus users. Once you have a Power Automate account and a ChatGPT Plus account, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your ChatGPT account and go to the Plugins section
  2. Find and install the Power Automate plugin
  3. Log in to your Power Automate account and authorize the plugin

To start conversing with ChatGPT, use a prompt such as “Create a flow to post a notification to a Teams channel when a new file is added to a SharePoint folder”.

Use prompts such as “Show my flows” or “What are all my flows” to see a list of flows ChatGPT knows about. Only flows that use the new trigger are exposed to ChatGPT.

Create and run your first Flow from ChatGPT

Use Power Automate Plugin for ChatGPT to run flows. Any flow that has the “Run a flow from Copilot” trigger can be invoked from within ChatGPT. – these Flows are called “Skills”. Follow the steps below to author your first Flow-based skill:

  1. Login to the Power Automate portal, and use the Default environment
  2. Select Create on the left side menu
  3. Choose “Instant cloud flow
  4. Choose “Run a flow from Copilot” as the trigger
  5. Add any inputs to the trigger that you want to collect as part of the run. For example, if your flow will perform an approval, what’s the Title, Description, etc.
  6. Add any actions to the flow, based on what you want the flow to do. All the power of Power Automate is at your disposal! For example, to just create an approval, just add that action to the flow
  7. Save the flow with a name that signifies what the flow does Ex: “Create an approval”
  8. Test the flow to ensure it does what you’ve intended using the Test or Run Flow option

Run this flow from ChatGPT with prompts relevant to the title and description of your flows, for example “Create an approval” or “Start an approval”. ChatGPT will reply with a link to run the flow where you enter and review any inputs to the flow before submitting the flow run.

Flow run experience from ChatGPT

 

Co-Pilot for Process Mining – ask Synergy Software System

September 27th, 2023

Last month Microsoft  announced the general availability of Microsoft Power Automate Process Mining. .

Customers are able to unlock recommendations for automations and solutions to address inefficiencies. 

This month they announced the availability of new Copilot capabilities in Power Automate Process Mining (in limited preview—US only). You can try it for free with a Power Automate trial license.

How Copilot is democratizing process mining

Identifying opportunities for automation or adoption of transformative technology, like generative AI, needs understanding your process or and a clear way to prioritize investments.

Power Automate Process Mining enables organizations to identify inefficiencies and to accelerate digital transformation of their processes.

Use Copilot in Power Automate Process Mining, to arrive at such insights and empower everyone in your organization to make data-driven decisions.

Copilot in Power Automate Process Mining helps you discover processes from your event logs and to then map attributes to the required data schema. Uncover your top insights with a quick exchange with Copilot, which iteratively works with you to answer questions on your data, and then surfaces automatization or optimization recommendations. Copilot even surfaces one-click suggestions of other Copilots, passing along context of your process goals to get to automations and solutions faster.

Generative AI is transformational, and with Power Automate Process Mining, organizations can quickly pinpoint where to apply it first, second, and subsequently for maximum ROI.

 Use Copilot in Power Automate Process Mining to reduce ‘time to value’ to achieve process excellence in the organization. It can help to identify the process and subsequently with data ingestion, to uncover the key process insights into inefficiencies and provide one-click suggestions of other Copilot-assisted automations and solutions. 

The entire flow is powered by low-code and AI to drastically reduce both time and skills needed to tackle complex processes in your organization.

  • Copilot in Power Automate Process Mining uses large language models to recognize attributes and data in your event log to aid with process identification and automapping to the required data schema. In our example, a procure-to-pay (P2P) process is identified directly from the event log stored in Azure Data Lake. Copilot then guides in mapping these attributes for analysis. Web portal for Process Mining, file selection highlighted with Copilot card describing the process as “Process discovered! The most likely process mining business process given the file headers and data is the Procure-to-Pay (P2P) process. Once the process is analyzed, Copilot can accelerate your journey by providing top insights on the bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the process. Without having to analyze the visual process map or variants, and without digging deep into the root cause analysis, you can identify process bottlenecks and the most important facts about your current process. Traditionally, it could take process analysts weeks or months to define a process, depict it, and then identify opportunities for automation. In our P2P process example, not only did Copilot identify that the longest variant of the process is a week longer than the second-longest variant, indicating that it is a high ROI area for optimization, but Copilot also flagged a compliance issue of purchase orders being created without purchase requisitions in place.
Desktop application representing a process map with activities and sequence lines of those activities. Copilot has summarized the top statistics for the process following the “Provide the top insights” prompt given to Copilot.
  • Copilot then identifies other Copilot experiences in your enterprise that can help deploy solutions and automations to achieve process excellence. In our P2P process example, Copilot has offered two suggestions to solve the bottleneck of purchase orders being created with purchase requisitions and causing churn for the business:
    • A Power Automate cloud flow that will send a Microsoft Teams alert any time this compliance issue arises which can be implemented by using Copilot in Power Automate.
    • An update to an existing Microsoft Power Apps app, created by using the P2P enterprise application template, to include a list of at-risk purchase orders that can be implemented using Copilot in Power Apps.
Desktop application representing a process map with activities and sequence lines of those activities. Copilot has surfaced recommendations for addressing bottleneck through a Power Automate “create a flow” card and an Power App “update your app” card

With the native integration of Power Automate Process Mining with Microsoft Power BI, users track through custom Power BI reports and dashboards how implementation of optimizations impact process efficiency and other essential business metrics. Integrate these key performance indicators as Goals in Power BI scorecards. Unlock other powerful AI features like Power BI Q&A via natural language capability in Power BI to enable business users across the organization to quickly get answers from their data .

Get started with Copilot

The preview of Power Automate Process Mining Copilot is available in the US and will roll out to other countries over the next several weeks.

If you already have a Power Automate license, then to check out Copilot in Power Automate Process Mining preview by logging into the Power Automate portal.

Or try Power Automate Process Mining for free with the Power Automate trial license.

Power Automate Process Mining is available for sale via all channels and in all regions where Microsoft Power Platform is currently sold. Please contact Synergy Software Systems 0097143365589

For licensing information, please visit Overview of process mining and task mining in Power Automate.