Bonum Certa Men Certa

Kaspersky Slams Windows for Insecurity, Microsoft Delivers Bad Patches and Leaves Windows Exposed

Eugene Kaspersky



Summary: Security guru Eugene Kaspersky has harsh words for Microsoft, which still fails to secure its platform and even patch software without breaking it

IT HAS been another tough week for Windows, which simply cannot be secured, not even with 'snake oil' software that's called "anti-virus" (unless the placebo effect counts).



A few months ago we wrote about Microsoft being allowed into Ford cars. There are already security concerns about that at Ford. They worry about Windows/WiFi in the car getting hijacked.

“Sadly, we live in a world where Microsoft pressures journalists to misreport incidents.”We wish to discuss for a moment an interesting phenomenon. When a car breaks down (let us say a Toyota), the news will say a Toyota car is having issues, it won't say that cars in general have issues. That's because the market is full of choices. Yes, choices, diversity, not "fragmentation" as Microsoft would probably put it. If "Windows" is embedded in PCs, then Windows can become interchangeable and synonymous with "computing". Then, people would not realise what's really wrong and that they also have better choices. Sadly, we live in a world where Microsoft pressures journalists to misreport incidents. Taken from a long discussion we've had by E-mails for a few days now, consider the fact that we have documented examples where journalists received mail from Microsoft's PR agencies (e.g. W-E) to tell them off and ask them to change articles about Windows security. The Inquirer is good in that regard because without much reluctance it spilled the beans when that happened. We have given articles from them where content was being tempered by Microsoft PR agencies, whose job was to spin the vulnerabilities in Vista.

Reporters who are contacted because they describe Windows security problems as just "computer problems" often cite the "popularity" myth of Windows as the cause. It's PR. Given the widespread use of GNU/Linux in servers and devices everywhere, people should struggle to reason about lack of cracking as related to "popularity". Windows is not popular by the way, it's just ubiquitous*. Moreover, Microsoft commissions and manufactures its own 'studies' where it hides flaws and reports bogus numbers. There are many examples to that effect.

Here is what Eugene Kaspersky said about Windows earlier this month:

Security chief Eugene Kaspersky has launched a scathing attack on Microsoft's security record.

[...]


There are already some new examples of Microsoft's poor patching. Last week Microsoft delivered broken/rogue security patches and later admitted the problem which had the following effect:

Microsoft confirmed today that a security update for its Excel spreadsheet had turned English text in an important Windows tool into Chinese.

The admission was the second in the past two days from Microsoft's Office team of a gaffe involving a recent security update.


How does Microsoft break languages while fixing a security problem? One might remark that this implies poor software design.

Speaking of Office, this area is in a state of transition in an economy where people use Free software or access software in the form of a service. Don Reisinger, typically a troll/baiter who writes bizarre reversals of truths at CNET, explains some of the issues and Microsoft resorts to more AstroTurfing by offering money to those who create "viral Office 2010 videos" for YouTube.

Want a chance to win $10,000 for your small Seattle business or start-up? The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and Microsoft have partnered up in a contest for making videos about Office 2010.


In case it sounds familiar, it should. Microsoft also hires people to post comments favourable to Windows in social networking sites.

Anyway, going back to the subject of insecurity, someone writes a guest post at ZDNet about "the cadence of Microsoft security patches" and ECT notes that Windows is already vulnerable again, as usual.

The expected batch of patches wasn't the only thing Windows users got with Microsoft's latest Patch Tuesday update. The set of fixes was accompanied by a warning about an unpatched zero-day exploit for Internet Explorer.


All that Microsoft can offer is a workaround:

Microsoft has revised their advisory for the newest IE 0Day vulnerability to note that working exploit code is now available and that they are aware of "targeted attacks attempting to use this vulnerability." They have also created "Microsoft Fix it" links to disable and re-enable the vulnerable software components.


The Inquirer wrote:

The flaw in Internet Exploder versions 6 and 7 allows an attacker to take control of a victim's computer.


Internet Explorer was the cause of a lot of damage earlier this year [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. In 4 countries, authorities recommended that citizens abandon Internet Explorer. ____ * It's more about reminding reporters that people choose to buy a computer, they don't choose to buy Windows. Calling Windows "popular" is like calling cockroaches "popular" because there are many of them out there. It ought to be one of those things that people should train themselves to avoid saying because Windows is not "popular".

Recent Techrights' Posts

Next Step: Find Out Who's Funding the 'Hulk Hogan of UEFI' to SLAPP Us
We now have the 'Hulk Hogan of UEFI' working alongside a strangler of women, who as a Microsoft employee spent time in prison for it
Web Sites That Are Independent Are Also Like Software Projects (Sometimes Literally So)
Roll out your own 'stack'
The Register MS (Situation Publishing) is Participating in a Ponzi Scheme
The market in "tech" seems awful when a lot of it sells a fraud and journalism about this market is part of the fraud
Mass Layoffs in Starbucks... and Society Loses Nothing of Value
Society might even be better off if Starbucks shuts down entirely
Matthew J. Garrett Behaved in a Similar Fashion to 4Chan and Kiwi Farms
Opposites attract? Are they opposites at all?
Drew DeVault Suggests "CoC Enhancement", Starts Trolling Projects in Microsoft GitHub
And it backfires immediately
 
Links 27/09/2025: Squashing Software Patents and When Hospitals Become For-Profit
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/09/2025: Young Feet and Online Bots
Links for the day
GNU Project Turns 42
In 2033 it'll be 50
Pieter Hintjens on Codes of Misconduct a Decade Ago
original is still online
Links 27/09/2025: Australia Might Ban Microsoft GitHub for Young People, Likely Illegal Executive Order Turns TikTok Into Cheeto Propaganda
Links for the day
Repeating the Lies to Promote a Ponzi Scheme is Not OK Because "Many Other Sites Do This" (Including Slopfarms)
They already work on the next Ponzi scheme
Glimmer of Hope: More People Realise and Come to Accept "AI" is Just a Giant, Elaborate Ponzi/Pyramid Scheme That Will Leave Everyone Worse Off (Except the "Top of the Pyramid")
quoting Einhorn and some comments
Do Your Job and Demand Your Compensation - But in That Order.
We'll do our best to convince the Judge to award all costs to us (lawyers, barrister, LIP bills etc.) plus judgements against them, for abusive litigation and needless suffering associated with that abuse
Like Nazi Germany and Volkswagen
Tell us all about "freedom" when your government runs a Ponzi scheme
Microsoft Sponsored This Man, Microsoft Sponsored His Behaviour (and He Controls Microsoft)
They get what they paid for
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 26, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 26, 2025
He Talks Too Much, He Says Dumb Things
only British when that suits him
Slopwatch: FUD and Plagiarism (Working Against Linux) Promoted and Rewarded by Google News
Shame on Google News
Reminder: We're Unloading Some Publications to Tux Machines
About 15 years ago I was struggling to keep up with TechDirt
The E-mail Protocol is for Text
bad netiquette
Gemini Links 26/09/2025: Slop in OpenStreetMap and MOPML (My Own Private Markup Language)
Links for the day
Links 26/09/2025: More Provocations Against NATO by Russia (Near Alaska, USA), Microsoft Booster Accenture Has Mass Layoffs
Links for the day
Links 26/09/2025: Hardware, Security, Health, and Nuclear Armament
Links for the day
Links 26/09/2025: "Digital Fatigue" and Slop Frenzy (Hype) Ruining Work Productivity, Culture, Languages
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Unwilling to Disclose or Explain How 'Hulk Hogan of UEFI' Pays for His SLAPPs Against Us (He Cannot Afford These), So We Are Escalating
Escalated in the British authorities
What 'Hulk Hogan of UEFI' Could Learn From Jimmy Kimmel About the 'Streisand Effect'
Lawyering up is risky and is usually doesn't work
Linux is Replacing Apple
Apple is money down the drain. Not only are the gadgets overpriced; they cost a lot to maintain and keep going over time
"We don't have that kind of relationship with Microsoft. The only public key that every UEFI firmware is guaranteed to have is Microsoft's, and only Microsoft owns the private key."
This is how to sabotage GNU/Linux distros that Microsoft does not control
Slopwatch: linuxconfig.org, linuxsecurity.com, and Google's Promotion of the Worst and Most Prolific Slopfarms
Over in Google News it has been quite chaotic this past day
Gemini Links 26/09/2025: Reading RSS Feeds, ROOPHLOCH 202
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 25, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 25, 2025
Links 25/09/2025: More European Airports Shut Down Due to What Seems Like Russian Drones
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/09/2025: Amiga Revived and Hackers (UTF-8)
Links for the day
Purchasing Concert Tickets in 2025 in Manchester: The "Modern" Experience
I recently spent a couple of days here testing the "terrain" in order to better understand how large public venues, for concerts rather than sporting events like football, currently "work"
Links 25/09/2025: French Unions Want Another Strike, Super Typhoon Ragasa Kills Many
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Secure Boot' and Shim as Barrier or Obstacle to New GNU/Linux Users Trying to Escape Microsoft
Just as intended all along
Lovers and Haters
Always beware hate preachers and demagogues (or how they frame issues or whose fault they distract from)
Focusing on What People Have in Common Instead of Killing and Cancelling One Another
Men and women of both "wings" stand to gain a lot by working together on common interests
'Cancel Culture' Isn't About Enforcing Ethics (and It's Done by People on the Right, Not "The Leftists")
Smarter folks would leave social control media
Russia's Attack on Europe (and NATO) Will Worsen Censorship and Corruption in Europe
Can we still debate issues that predate the invasion of Crimea?
Lawyers Should Permanently Lose Their Licence (and Worse) for Using Chatbots in Legal Work
They not only waste people's money and time. They pollute the literature with falsehoods. They commit perjury. [...] Brett Wilson LLP sent the Judge nearly 1,000 pages of material (mostly mine, copied without proper permission) shortly before a short Hearing, which lasted less than an hour
GAFAM and MATA (Mythical, Metaphor) as Explained by analognowhere.com
They're instruments of suppression that sponsor the oppressor
We've Already Mentioned Who Nowadays Funds Garrett's SLAPP Against Us (Not Garrett), Let's Examine Who Sponsored His Litigation Partner (Other Than Microsoft Salaries There's a Buddy of Bill Gates)
it's alleged that the Serial Strangler from Microsoft got money from him
Florian Müller: Using Software Patents to Attack Software Developers, Agitate Against Patent Reform
He also promotes attacks on the German Constitution and laws
Reliance on Typepad Seems to Have Doomed the Voice of Software Patents and Patent Maximalists in PatentDocs
Follow the money
UEFI 'Secure Boot' is Potential Mayhem to the Environment (Older and Leaner Distros Stop Working)
creating new problems, disguised as "solutions" to problems that do not exist
Sometimes 'Cancel Culture' Backfires Badly
There's no such thing as "too much" coverage
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 24, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Links 25/09/2025: Jimmy Kimmel Returns to Air (With Limitations) and London Stansted Airport Latest to Have Incident (Fire)
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Fake Articles, SPAM With Slop, and Google News Directs People to Read Slopfarms
why does Google News insist on still linking to prolific slopfarms?
Gemini Links 25/09/2025: New Game for Gemini Protocol, Eleven, and Network Solutions Woes
Links for the day