The largest spam botnet in the world has a new trick up its sleeve, prompting security outfit Check Point to place it back in its list of the top ten most prevalent malwares. Called Necurs, the botnet dished up more than 12 million emails in a single morning during the Thanksgiving holiday. What makes it even more...
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Microsoft has published a new and official set of standards for consumers who want to ensure they have a "highly secure Windows 10" device. The new standards are for general purpose desktops, laptops, tablets, 2-in-1s, mobile workstations, and good old fashioned desktops. They are broken up into two...
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This morning we talked about a researcher from KU Leuven University in Belgium who had discovered a major security vulnerability in the WiFi Protected Access II (WPA2) protocol that is used to secure wireless internet traffic. That vulnerability could be used to allow a nefarious attacker to glean confidential details...
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Around two years ago, researchers discovered serious firmware vulnerabilities in Mac laptops and desktops, and then developed a proof-of-concept worm to demonstrate how potentially damaging they could be. Since then, Apple has been pretty good about including EFI (extensible firmware interface) updates with its macOS...
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There is a good chance that your Android device is insecure from the get-go. In examining smartphone bootloader firmware, security researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara found vulnerabilities in bootloader components from five major chipset vendors. In each case, these flaws break what is called...
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The Internet of Things (IoT) sounded like a great idea at first glance when it first began picking up steam. However, the problem with giving every single gadget that we come in contact with access to the internet is that no one really thought much about security, leaving many these things vulnerable to viruses and...
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A team of scientists from the University of Washington have figured out how to infect a computer using malicious code inside DNA. This attack vector isn't aimed at your everyday PC sitting on your desk at home or in the office; this hack aims directly at the infrastructure around the DNA transcription and analysis industry. The team behind
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After putting legal pressure on Microsoft to provide antivirus vendors with additional time to test their software prior to new Windows 10 builds being rolled out, security outfit Kaspersky is getting its way. Microsoft announced in a blog post that it has agreed to certain changes in the way it handles third-party AV...
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Barring an unexpected change in strategy, Windows 10 is and will remain the last monolithic release of Windows. With that being the case, it is in Microsoft's best interest—as well as its customers—to ensure that it remains the most secure release. To help with that, Microsoft is upping the ante for bug...
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There are no days off in Redmond, at least not for Microsoft. Hot on the heels of dealing with the WannaCry ransomware outbreak, Microsoft has now addressed reports of a new ransomware making the rounds, one that shares similar code with Petya, a nasty piece of ransomware in and of itself. What makes this new strain...
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Recent ransomware scares such as the WannaCry outbreak have collectively put a spotlight on PC security. It has even prompted Microsoft to release patches for unsupported operating systems, including Windows XP and Windows Vista. However, it is Windows 10 that receives the lion's share of Microsoft's security efforts...
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Computer security has always been somewhat of a hot topic, though it has intensified in recent weeks in the wake of the global WannaCry ransomware outbreak. In response, Microsoft has issued a series of updates to Windows, including legacy versions no longer supported such as Windows XP and Windows Vista. Microsoft...
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Microsoft is not wavering on its decision to stop supporting Windows XP as a whole, though apparently it will on occasion release security updates for the legacy operating system, presumably for the greater good. We saw this just last month when Microsoft patched Windows XP to protect users against the WannaCry...
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Most wireless routers are equipped with a series of LEDs to indicate things like network connectivity and activity, though if a router has been compromised with malware, those blinking lights could reveal more than the owner bargained for. Using specially crafted malware, an attacker could instruct those LEDs to...
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A vulnerability researcher at Google is giving props to Microsoft for issuing a quick fix to what he described as a "crazy bad" remote code exploit in the company's malware protection engine. He also said it was the worst of its kind in recent memory, and that is because prior to the patch, a remote attacker could...
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In less than a month from now Microsoft will stop dishing out security updates for the original version of Windows 10 (build 1507) that was released back in July 2015. Microsoft had actually planned to stop supporting Windows 10 Version 1507 on March 26, 2017, but later decided to push back its end of servicing date...
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As always, be wary of opening email attachments, especially from untrusted sources. Security outfits FireEye and McAfee have both observed malicious Microsoft Office RTF documents in the wild that are exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Windows and Office that has not yet been patched. The samples...
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For over 13 years, Microsoft has been issuing monthly security updates for Windows on what is known as Patch Tuesday, typically the second Tuesday of every month. This month's update would have fell on Valentine's Day, except that Microsoft did something highly unusual—it delayed the Patch Tuesday rollout following...
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Here we go again. For the second time in a mere three months, Google decided to spill the beans on a Windows bug before the engineers in Redmond could release a patch for it. Microsoft has a Google countdown timer to thank for this latest disclosure; one that shows mercy to absolutely no one, or any company.
The...
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When Microsoft first unleashed Windows 10 onto the world, everything seemed hunky-dory at first. It is without question Microsoft's most ambitious OS to date, but more importantly, it's stable, fast, and packed with the latest features and technologies. However, as we discovered not long after launch, the OS also...
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Anyone who is looking for a reason to install the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (build 1607) need only consider that there has never been a more secure version of Windows. So says Microsoft, which made the claim in conjunction with a new white paper detailing the ways in which the latest version of Windows protects...
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What's that in the air? Could it be the smell of egg nog and pine? Nope, it's Microsoft Patch Tuesday, of course! This month's rollout is rather large and notable for a number of reasons. However, what matters most is that if you're not up-to-date yet, you'll want to take a little trip to the Windows Update section...
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