GUEST RESEARCH: WatchGuard Technologies, a global leader in unified cybersecurity, today announced findings from its most recent Internet Security Report, which details the top malware trends and network security threats analysed by WatchGuard Threat Lab researchers in Q2 2022. Key findings from the data include a reduction in overall malware detections from the peaks seen in the first half of 2021, an increase in threats for Chrome and Microsoft Office, the ongoing Emotet botnet resurgence, and much more.
Microsoft, the company that produces Windows which is the target of practically every ransomware attack, is now offering paid products to fight those very ransomware attacks.
Microsoft's Windows operating system is the target of a massive majority of the malicious software that abounds these days. And it has adopted the same strategy for avoiding blame as it did with the problem of viruses and worms: presenting itself as part of the solution, not the problem.
Romanian security company Bitdefender has signed an agreement with Microsoft, whereby the latter will use its technology to provide security for endpoints in organisations that use mac OS and Linux.
Cyber security vendor Kaspersky Lab has dropped its anti-trust actions against Microsoft after the latter agreed to make changes to address the concerns the former had raised in its plaints to Russian, German and European Commission authorities.
A security researcher has created a means of running Windows Defender within a sandbox so that any attacks on it do not take down the entire Windows system on which it is running.
Microsoft will introduce a feature in its next build of Windows 10 to allow users to protect folders in order to prevent their contents being encrypted in the case of a ransomware attack.
Microsoft has admitted that it disabled some third-party anti-virus software at the time of the Windows 10 Creators Update due to compatibility reasons, though it did not mention any vendor by name.
Cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab has complained to the European Commission and the German Federal Cartel Office against what it calls Microsoft's abuse of its dominant position in the operating system market and its unfair competition in the anti-virus market.
A 15-year-old flaw in every version of Windows right from XP to Windows 10 allows a malicious attacker to take control of a system through the anti-virus software running on the system.
Windows has, by virtue of its 90% market share of desktop operating systems, has been the prime virus and malware target. Windows 10 set out to stop that.
As expected, Microsoft has released seven security bulletins covering issues with Windows and other software, notably Internet Explorer. There's also a policy change regarding vulnerabilities in software sold through the company's various online stores.
Microsoft intends to release seven security bulletins this week. Affected products include Windows, Office, and Windows Defender.