Windows 8 | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Update —  After reading this article, if you want to know, what has happened so far in past 4 days and how to protect your computers from WannaCry, read our latest article " WannaCry Ransomware: Everything You Need To Know Immediately . "  In the wake of the largest ransomware attack in the history that had already infected over 114,000 Windows systems worldwide since last 24 hours, Microsoft just took an unusual step to protect its customers with out-of-date computers. Also Read —   Google Researcher Finds Link Between WannaCry Attacks and North Korea . Microsoft has just released an emergency security patch update for all its unsupported version of Windows, including Windows XP, Vista, Windows 8, Server 2003 and 2008 Editions. So, if your organization, for some reason, is still running on Windows XP or Vista, you are strongly advised to download and APPLY PATCH NOW ! WannaCrypt , or also known as WannaCry, is a new ransomware that wreaked havoc across th...

Someone is threatening Windows 7 users with a misleading warning. Guess who? Microsoft itself… Microsoft has just issued a clear warning saying Windows 7 users should remain on the aging operating system " at your own risk, at your own peril. " But why particularly Windows 7 Users? Since Windows 7 runs on 55 percent of all the computers on the planet, Microsoft is worried that its goal to reach 1 Billion Windows 10 installations by 2017 could be harder. During a recent interview with the Windows Weekly , Microsoft chief marketing officer Chris Capossela warned about the risks of using Windows 7 and urged users that it's time to switch to the new Windows 10 operating system instead. Capossela also stressed that Windows 7 is apparently less secure than Windows 10, so it is "so incredibly important to try to end the fragmentation of the Windows install base" as well as to get them to a "safer place." Here the so-called saf...

CrowdStrike is named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Endpoint Protection Platforms for the fifth consecutive time, positioned highest on Ability to Execute and furthest to the right on Completeness of Vision.

No plan to install Windows 10 due to Microsoft's controversial data mining and privacy invasions within the operating system? Well, Windows 7 and Windows 8 OS users should also be worried as Windows 10 spying is now headed their way too… Microsoft has been caught installing latest updates onto Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers that effectively introduce the same data collecting and user behavior tracking features used in Windows 10. Under the new updates, the operating systems indiscriminately upload data to Microsoft's servers, which might be a major privacy concern for many users. Creepy Updates The updates in question are: KB3068708 – This update introduces the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service to existing devices. KB3022345 (replaced by KB3068708 ) – This update adds the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service to in-market devices. KB3075249 – This update adds telemetry points to the User Account Control (UAC) feature in order to collect data on ele...

On January 13, 2015, Microsoft's mainstream support for Windows 7 Service Pack (SP) 1 ended, which means the end of free Windows 7's " mainstream support " period, with the operating system now entering "extended support." Many people are still running the aging Windows XP as well as Windows 7. Microsoft already ended its support for Windows XP officially about a year ago on April 8, 2014, and now the company found Windows 7 an old and cranky OS. END OF MAINSTREAM SUPPORT FOR WINDOWS 7 BUT NO WORRIES UNTIL 2020 However, it doesn't mean that the tech giant is going to automatically stop or break your operating system, but it does mean that the company will no longer offer free help and support in case you have any problem with your Windows 7 software. No new features will be added either. Windows 7 is still supported by the company and will continue to receive security updates for at least another five years, i.e. until Jan. 14, 2020. By ...

While US government is always prohibiting the purchase of Huawei products due to suspected backdoors from the Chinese government, China also keep itself totally apart from the US productions. China is a bit famous for using its own operating systems, smartphone application services and lots more, rather than using the US developed Operating Systems, and now China has reportedly banned the installation of Microsoft Corporation's latest operating system, Windows 8 on any of its government computers. The Central Government Procurement Center issued a notice that was posted on its website last week prohibiting the use of Microsoft's latest operating system and the reason behind it is to support the use of energy-saving products, the report said. But the state news agency ' Xinhua ' pointed out a different reason for the ban saying the country wants to avoid any further losing of the support for an operating system like it did recently by pulling out its support from t...

Earlier this week, Microsoft admitted that they have accessed a French Blogger's private Hotmail account to identify a former Microsoft employee who had leaked the company's trade secrets in 2012. Microsoft defined this private investigation as part of " Protecting our customers and the security and integrity of our products ", mentioned in the Microsoft's terms of service, which says that the action was within the boundaries of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. U.S. Authorities arrest Alex Kibkalo , ex-Microsoft employee. The indictment states , Kibkalo " uploaded proprietary software and pre-release software updates for Windows 8 RT as well as the Microsoft Activation Server Software Development Kit (SDK) to his personal SkyDrive account in August 2012. " Kibkalo not only leaked the secret screenshots of Windows 8 , but also provided the information about ' activation of Windows ' that helped the crackers to create a keygen for ...

Microsoft has released advanced notification for the November 2013 security updates that are scheduled to be released on November 12, 2013. The company plans to deliver eight security bulletins for Windows 8.1, three of them are rated critical and five are important. But there's no relief in sight for a zero-day vulnerability ( CVE-2013-3906 ) in how Office handles .TIFF graphics files . The bulletins listed in Microsoft's advanced notification as critical are for remote code execution vulnerabilities in Windows operating system and the remaining vulnerabilities listed as important are said to be remote code execution, elevation of privilege, information disclosure and denial of service flaws affecting Windows operating system, as well as Microsoft Office. A malicious zero day attack capable of hijacking your PC via a vulnerability found in Windows, Office, and Lync is being exploited more widely than originally thought. Some new reports of the security resea...

Windows 8 PCs contain a new technology called Secure Boot that only boots devices that have been verified by Microsoft. Also Microsoft's own Offline Defender won't boot on Windows 8 PCs with Secure Boot on. Neither will Norton's Bootable Recovery Tool. We asked the guys at FixMeStick how their external hardware-based anti-malware device can boot on brand new Windows 8 hardware with Secure boot on, as well as 10 year old PCs with 32 processors running XP. Here's their answer: 1. It got a Master Boot Record. : In other words, it boots on BIOS-based PCs, essentially all PCs prior to Windows 8. 2. and it got UEFI boot partition : It also got a UEFI boot partition, so it will boot on PCs with the latest UEFI firmware too. 3. It's 32 bit : There's a 32 bit operating system on the stick so it will work with 32 bit microprocessors. Most rescue ISOs\disks are 32 bit only, so by default they work on 32 bit processors and 64 bit processors. 4. and it's 64...

A hacker claims to have found a method in the code integrity mechanism in Windows RT, that allow one to bypass security mechanism preventing unauthorized software running on ARM-powered Windows RT tablets. Lets see, How to Run traditional desktop apps on Windows RT in a Hackers  Way! A hacker called ' C. L. Rokr ' explain about the Windows RT exploit on his blog , which requires manipulating a part of Windows RT's system memory that governs whether unsigned apps can run. Windows RT is a special version of Microsoft Windows designed for lightweight PCs and tablets that are based on the ARM architecture, including Microsoft's Surface tablet.  Clrokr said Windows RT inherited a flaw from Windows 8 that makes the workaround possible. " Ironically, a vulnerability in the Windows kernel that has existed for some time and got ported to ARM just like the rest of Windows made this possible, ". Specifically, one needs to inject a blob of ARM code int...

It's be Just hours Windows Phone 8 has been released - and hackers have already dished out a malware prototype for the platform. Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system. Windows Phone 8 Microsoft's latest in mobile OS technology - comes in as a direct competition to rivals Apple and Google. The research firm Gartner indicates that by 2016 the increase in Windows Phone users will slightly fall below Apple`s iOS users. To be showcased at the International Malware Conference, MalCon - on 24th November in India, the prototype has been created by Shantanu Gawde, who has previously created a malware that utilized the famed Xbox Kinect. Windows Phone 8 replaces its previously Windows CE-based architecture with one based on the Windows NT kernel with many components shared with Windows 8, allowing applications to be easily ported between the two platforms. While no further details of the malware are available at this point of time, it will ...

The Windows 8 and Windows RT security updates will be the first shipped since those operating systems' launch on Oct. 26. The latest vulnerabilities include three critical security vulnerabilities for Windows 8, and one critical security vulnerability for the Surface-based Windows RT operating system. These flaws are considered "critical" and could allow remote code execution on vulnerable systems. Among the various flaws, versions from Windows XP (Service Pack 3) all the way through to Windows 8 are affected, including versions of the Office suite, and versions of Windows Server. Released only in September, Windows Server 2012 requires patching to maintain maximum security. If you've enabled automatic updates, the patches will automatically install on Tuesday. As usual, the specific details about what is being fixed in these updates won't be revealed until the patches themselves are available for download in order to not give hacker groups an advance...

French security researcher firm and famous bug hunters at Vupen announced that it had already developed an exploit that could take over a Window 8 machine running Internet Explorer 10, in spite of the many significant security upgrades Microsoft built into the latest version of its operating system. Windows 8 operating system released last week, and now Microsoft itself has not been aware of security vulnerabilities available in release. " We welcome #Windows 8 with various 0Ds combined to pwn all new Win8/IE10 exploit mitigations, " Vupen posted on Twitter . Bekrar's claim follows up on his promise earlier in the month that Vupen would be ready to compromise Windows 8 immediately upon its launch: " Windows 8 will be officially released by MS on Oct 26th, we'll release to customers the 1st exploit for Win8 the same day #CoordinatedPwnage " "T he in-depth technical details of the flaws will be shared with our customers and they can use them to protect their critical i...

Late in August McAfee Labs discovered a Fake Antivirus program that claims to detect infections, and displays alerts to scare users into purchasing protection. On the contrary, this program is not genuine software and has nothing to do with reliable and effective AV tools. The truth is that this is another scam application developed to enter your PC through vulnerabilities in outdated programs. Trend Micro, which detects the threat as TROJ_FAKEAV.EHM said, " After infecting a user's system, this malware scares its victim into buying the "product" by displaying fake security messages, stating that the computer is infected with spyware or other malware and only this product can remove it after you download the trial version. As soon as the victim downloads Win 8 Security System, it pretends to scan your computer and shows a grossly exaggerated amount of nonexistent threats ". This sort of malware is commonplace, with examples existing for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and ...

Windows 8 launched in 37 languages and 140 worldwide markets, as the tech giant unveiled the new version of its computer operating system. The OS is now available in over 30 certified devices, and a broad selection of local apps are already available in the onboard Windows Store. It is also available for download onto PCs and other devices running previous iterations of Microsoft's Windows OS. Microsoft is currently running a special promotion upto 31st of January 2013, under which you can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro Edition for a very small amount. If you have purchased / are going to purchase a Personal Computer which is pre-loaded with genuine version of Windows 7 (any edition), then you are eligible to get Windows 8 Upgrade (Pro Edition) for $14.99 (US Dollar) or £14.99 (British Pounds) or €14,99 (Euros) or INR 699 (Indian Rupees). But because of a flaw in website providing promo code, now anyone is able to get the promo code, using which user can updrade his windows with...

Back in 1991, Microsoft released their first version of Windows, a mouse-driven graphical user interface that revolutionized the way we use computers, both at home and in the workplace. Microsoft's newest operating system has a whole new interface and loads of new features. Windows 8 introduces a new type of application: the Windows Store app. Windows Store apps have a brand new look and feel, run on a variety of devices, and you sell them on the Windows Store. Here is a quick Guide for getting up to speed quickly and getting the most out of Windows 8. Whichever device you end up running Windows 8 on, you'll need to know a few things. How are you going to get the data from your current operating system to the new one? You'll probably be wondering where the famous Microsoft desktop has gone. You might be wondering just what is going on: why did Microsoft discard the Start menu, and why does its replacement look like it was designed for children? Downlo...

Windows 8 is the first operating system from Microsoft to support alternative non-biometric authentication mechanisms such as Picture Password and PIN. A vulnerability discovered by a password security vendor - " Passcape " in Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system that it saves a log on password in plain text and allows any user with admin rights to see the password details. In September, though, some drawbacks of the new authentication method were reported by Passcape Software. The picture password had seemed invulnerable, because whoever tries to guess it must know how and what parts of the image to choose, and in addition, the gesture sequence. However, security experts from Passcape discovered that such a unique password is based on a regular account. A user should first create a regular password-based account and then optionally switch to the picture password or PIN authentication. Notably, the original plain-text password to the account is still stored in ...

Just as you were getting comfortable with Windows 7, Windows 8 seems to be on the horizon for the next two years. Celebrating the one-year anniversary of Windows 7— the fastest-selling OS in history—Microsoft's Dutch website briefly mentioned its successor: "Microsoft is on course for the next version of Windows. But it will take about two years before 'Windows 8' hits the market." Winrumors.com translated and captured this post, and CNET took a screenshot of the text, which unsurprisingly disappeared after making headlines. Now, Microsoft is back to being tight-lipped about Windows 8 and its expected release. Reports from last year suggested Microsoft was developing a 128-bit version of its OS, likely to be Windows 8. Recently, NetworkWorld obtained over 15 confidential slide decks detailing possible features, including body-sensing technology similar to the Xbox Kinect, a desktop app store like Apple's forthcoming Mac App Store, near-instant CPU b...