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You might have heard the latest news about Microsoft blocking new security patches and updates for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users running the latest processors from Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and others. Don't panic, this new policy doesn't mean that all Windows 7 and 8.1 users will not be able to receive latest updates in general because Microsoft has promised to support Windows 7 until 2020 , and Windows 8.1 until 2023. But those who have upgraded their machines running older versions of Windows to the latest processors, or manually downgraded their new laptops to run Windows 7/8.1 would be out of luck. A recently published Microsoft Knowledge Base article suggests that if you are running the older version of operating systems on your computers that feature new processors, including Intel's 7th generation Core i3, i5 and i7 ("Kaby Lake"), AMD Ryzen ("Bristol Ridge") and Qualcomm 8996 chips or later, the security updates will not install. Inste...

Zoom has been there for nine years, but the immediate requirement of an easy-to-use video conferencing app during the coronavirus pandemic overnight made it one of the most favorite communication tool for millions of people around the globe. No doubt, Zoom is an efficient online video meeting solution that's helping people stay socially connected during these unprecedented times, but it's still not the best choice for everyone—especially those who really care about their privacy and security. According to cybersecurity expert @_g0dmode , the Zoom video conferencing software for Windows is vulnerable to a classic ' UNC path injection ' vulnerability that could allow remote attackers to steal victims' Windows login credentials and even execute arbitrary commands on their systems. Such attacks are possible because Zoom for Windows supports remote UNC paths that convert potentially insecure URIs into hyperlinks when received via chat messages to a recipient in a...

Update: Most of the exploits made publicly available (mentioned in this article) by the Shadow Brokers group are already patched by Microsoft in the last month's Patch Tuesday update. So, it is always recommended that you keep your systems up-to-date in order to prevent you from being hacked. The Shadow Brokers – a hackers group that claimed to have stolen a bunch of hacking tools from the NSA – released today more alleged hacking tools and exploits that target earlier versions of Windows operating system, along with evidence that the Intelligence agency also targeted the SWIFT banking system of several banks around the world. Last week, the hacking group released the password for an encrypted cache of Unix exploits , including a remote root zero-day exploit for Solaris OS, and the TOAST framework the group put on auction last summer. The hacking tools belonged to " Equation Group " – an elite cyber attack unit linked to the National Security Agency (NSA). ...

Microsoft on Tuesday released fixes for 58 newly discovered security flaws spanning as many as 11 products and services as part of its final  Patch Tuesday of 2020 , effectively bringing their CVE total to 1,250 for the year. Of these 58 patches, nine are rated as Critical, 46 are rated as Important, and three are rated Moderate in severity. The December security release addresses issues in Microsoft Windows, Edge browser, ChakraCore, Microsoft Office, Exchange Server, Azure DevOps, Microsoft Dynamics, Visual Studio, Azure SDK, and Azure Sphere. Fortunately, none of these flaws this month have been reported as publicly known or being actively exploited in the wild. The fixes for December concern a number of remote code execution (RCE) flaws in Microsoft Exchange (CVE-2020-17132), SharePoint (CVE-2020-17118 and CVE-2020-17121), Excel (CVE-2020-17123), and Hyper-V virtualization software (CVE-2020-17095), as well as a patch for a security feature bypass in Kerberos (CVE-2020-16...

Security researchers revealed that series of " Watering Hole " has been conducted exploiting a IE8 zero-day vulnerability to target U.S. Government experts working on nuclear weapons research. The news is not surprising but it is very concerning, the principal targets of the attacks are various groups of research such as the components of U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Energy, the news has been confirmed by principal security firms and by Microsoft corporate. The flaw has been used in a series of "watering hole" attacks, let's remind that "Watering Hole" is a technique of attack realized compromising legitimate websites using a " drive-by " exploit. The attackers restrict their audience to a individuals interested to specific content proposed by targeted website, in this way when the victim visits the page a backdoor Trojan is installed on his computer. The website compromised to exploit the IE8 zero-day is the Dep...

Microsoft on Friday said it will disable its much-criticized artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Recall feature by default and make it an opt-in. Recall , currently in preview and coming exclusively to Copilot+ PCs on June 18, 2024, functions as an "explorable visual timeline" by capturing screenshots of what appears on users' screens every five seconds, which are subsequently analyzed and parsed to surface relevant information. But the feature, meant to serve as some sort of an AI-enabled photographic memory, was met with instantaneous backlash from the security and privacy community, which excoriated the company for having not thought through enough and implementing adequate safeguards that could prevent malicious actors from easily gaining a window into a victim's digital life. The recorded information could include screenshots of documents, emails, or messages containing sensitive details that may have been deleted or shared temporarily using disappearing ...

As part of June's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has released security patches for a total of 96 security vulnerabilities across its products, including fixes for two vulnerabilities being actively exploited in the wild. This month's patch release also includes emergency patches for unsupported versions of Windows platform the company no longer officially supports to fix three Windows hacking exploits leaked by the Shadow Brokers in the April's data dump of NSA hacking arsenal . The June 2017 Patch Tuesday brings patches for several remote code execution flaws in Windows, Office, and Edge, which could be exploited remotely by hackers to take complete control over vulnerable machines with little or no interaction from the user. While two of the vulnerabilities have been exploited in live attacks, another three flaws have publicly available proof-of-concept (POC) exploits that anyone could use to target Windows users. Vulnerabilities Under Active Attack The two vul...

After last month's postponement, Microsoft's Patch Tuesday is back with a massive release of fixes that includes patches for security vulnerabilities in Windows and associated software disclosed and exploited since January's patch release. Meanwhile, Adobe has also pushed out security updates for its products, releasing patches for at least seven security vulnerabilities in its Flash Player software. Microsoft patched a total of 140 separate security vulnerabilities across 18 security bulletins, nine of them critical as they allow remote code execution on the affected computer. Microsoft Finally Patches Publicly Disclosed Windows Flaws Among the "critical" security updates include a flaw in the SMB (server message block) network file sharing protocol, which had publicly disclosed exploit code since last month. The original patch released last year for this flaw was incomplete. The flaw is a memory corruption issue that could allow remote code execu...

Microsoft kicked off 2025 with a new set of patches for a total of 161 security vulnerabilities across its software portfolio, including three zero-days that have been actively exploited in attacks. Of the 161 flaws, 11 are rated Critical and 149 are rated Important in severity. One other flaw, a non-Microsoft CVE related to a Windows Secure Boot bypass ( CVE-2024-7344 , CVSS score: 6.7), has not been assigned any severity. According to the Zero Day Initiative , the update marks the largest number of CVEs addressed in a single month since at least 2017. The fixes are in addition to seven vulnerabilities the Windows maker addressed in its Chromium-based Edge browser since the release of December 2024 Patch Tuesday updates. Prominent among the patches released by Microsoft is a trio of flaws in Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration VSP ( CVE-2025-21333 , CVE-2025-21334 , and CVE-2025-21335 , CVSS scores: 7.8) that the company said has come under active exploitation in the wild. ...

Why shouldn't you protect your Android phone? Why to use an Antivirus for your Android? So that users can protect their devices from trojans, viruses, spyware, and other types of malware. Most people carry a lot of sensitive data on their phones. Recently an SMS Trojan horse posing as a media player began infecting Android phones on Russian networks. Once the victim installed the malicious app, it began sending text messages to premium numbers, leaving the user with a huge phone bill. Also Security researchers from Kaspersky Labs have intercepted a scareware variant targeting Android users, distributed as an Opera Virus Scanner. If the user clicks on the link, they'll be asked to download VirusScanner.apk, which is currently detected as Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.Scavir. If the user is using a non-Android device, they'll be asked to download VirusScanner.jar currently detected as Trojan-SMS.J2ME.Agent.ij. With this in mind we at The Hacker News have list down the top 5 an...

If you have an account with Microsoft's popular free email service Outlook.com, and using Outlook app for Android, then there is a bad news for you. Microsoft's Android app for Outlook.com,  provides users to access their Outlook emails on their Android devices, fails to provide security and encryption. LOOPHOLES DISCOVERED Researchers from ' Include Security ' firm claims to have found multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Outlook app for Android, that leaves users' email data vulnerable to hackers and other malicious third party apps. By default, Email attachments are stored into easily accessible folders on the Android filesystem Email Database ( Body, Subject ) is stored locally in an unencrypted manner App's 'Pin Code' feature doesn't protect or encrypt email data. EMAIL ATTACHMENTS ARE ACCESSIBLE TO ANY OTHER APPS Today almost every applications available at Google Play Store generally ask for  READ_EXTERNAL_STORA...

Ever wonder what happens when attackers don't break the rules—they just follow them better than we do? When systems work exactly as they're built to, but that "by design" behavior quietly opens the door to risk? This week brings stories that make you stop and rethink what's truly under control. It's not always about a broken firewall or missed patch—it's about the small choices, default settings, and shortcuts that feel harmless until they're not. The real surprise? Sometimes the threat doesn't come from outside—it's baked right into how things are set up. Dive in to see what's quietly shaping today's security challenges. ⚡ Threat of the Week FBI Warns of Scattered Spider's on Airlines — The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned of a new set of attacks mounted by the notorious cybercrime group Scattered Spider targeting the airline sector using sophisticated social engineering techniques to obtain initial access. Cybersecurity vendors Palo Alto Networks Unit 4...

The secure messaging app used by staffers in the White House and on Capitol Hill is not as secure as the company claims. Confide, the secure messaging app reportedly employed by President Donald Trump's aides to speak to each other in secret, promises "military-grade end-to-end encryption" to its users and claims that nobody can intercept and read chats that disappear after they are read. However, two separate research have raised a red flag about the claims made by the company. Security researchers at Seattle-based IOActive discovered multiple critical vulnerabilities in Confide after a recent audit of the version 1.4.2 of the app for Windows, Mac OS X, and Android. Confide Flaws Allow Altering of Secret Messages The critical flaws allowed attackers to: Impersonate friendly contacts by hijacking an account session or guessing a password, as the app failed to prevent brute-force attacks on account passwords. Spy on contact details of Confide users, incl...