Bonum Certa Men Certa

Eye on Security: Windows Malware, Emergency Patches, and BeyondTrust's CEO from Microsoft

Summary: Security holes -- some of which highly critical -- continue to be found in Microsoft software; Justification of skepticism when it comes to new 'research' from former Microsoft staff, based on Microsoft-supplied data

OVER the past few days we have gathered more evidence to show that security problems only affect/target Windows and that those who flatter Windows for security are often tied to Microsoft (Window Snyder is just one example).



Windows-only Threats



Download Squad has this new post which compares Norton's Security Scan to malware (it sure takes up a lot of resources). Those who think it's bizarre should check out this minor piece of FUD and the rebuttal from The Source.

Right, so the Murphy’s Law headline is “Stop Supporting Open-Source Bloat“, where the author goes on to decry shady tactics of several programs, like:

* Revo Uninstaller * Digsby * ImgBurn

…NONE OF WHICH ARE OPEN SOURCE


Ignorance or deliberate deception? Either way, it looks bad for Maximum PC. Windows problems are now being described as "Open-Source" for no apparent reason.

TechDirt shows how copyright scare is being used to install malware/back-doors on people's Windows machines. This relies on the infamous click-to-execute mentality that's so prevalent in the Windows world. Actually, Microsoft software also tends to execute arbitrary code when one just visits a Web page (Active X is notorious for this reason).

Microsoft Emergency



The security flaws are so serious that Microsoft has just released an "emergency" patch for no less than 10 holes in Internet Explorer (which Microsoft neglected to patch for many months, leading to otherwise-preventable chaos [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]).

From The Inquirer:

SOFTWARE INSECURITY SISYPHUS Microsoft has released an out-of-cycle patch for users lazy or ignorant enough to still be using an old version of Internet Explorer.

It's generally rare that threats are deemed serious enough for Microsoft to not wait until its next Patch Tuesday, which would be April 13th now, but a vulnerability hit Internet Explorer 6 and 7 that left them open to potential remote code execution.


More at CNET:

Microsoft issued an emergency security update on Tuesday to plug 10 holes in Internet Explorer, including a critical vulnerability that has been exploited in attacks in the wild.

The cumulative update, which Microsoft announced on Monday, resolves nine privately reported flaws and one that was publicly disclosed. The most severe vulnerabilities could lead to remote code execution and a complete takeover of the computer if a user were to view a malicious Web site using IE, Microsoft said in the bulletin summary.


Internet Explorer 8 is also affected.

BeyondTrust is Hard to Trust



BeyondTrust logo



Judging by previous incidents, past Microsoft employees who become 'researchers' typically produce output that's biased in Microsoft's favour. That's why we decided to take a careful look at BeyondTrust. Their web site is all Microsoft stack-based (showing the lower probability that they understand security) and their CEO "spent seven years at Microsoft Corporation in a variety of executive sales and marketing positions," according to the company's own pages. "Sales and marketing," eh? Now, we have already covered security problems Vista 7 suffers from, in a wide range of posts including:



“Statistics must not depend on Microsoft's own data and presented in a favourable way by design.”This brings us back to BeyondTrust (wow, what a name!). Their latest promotion of Windows for security is quoted a lot by Microsoft boosters like Emil this week. They are measuring the wrong thing by wrongly assuming that Microsoft tells the truth about its patches. Microsoft is patching its software secretly a lot of the time. We saw that many times before and thus we urge people to be skeptical. Statistics must not depend on Microsoft's own data and presented in a favourable way by design. Remember that there are "lies, damned lies, and statistics," according to Benjamin Disraeli and others. There may also be reason for bias here.

Speaking of potential connections to Microsoft, an anonymous reader told us to "beware that TurboHercules might be financed by Microsoft". This reader has not produced evidence to show what led to such suspicions (it may give away the identity), but as we recently showed, TurboHercules did join a Microsoft front. It aligned itself with Microsoft and companies/campaigns that are partly owned by Microsoft.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Case is a Very Easy Win, the SLAPPs From Microsofters Were a Grave Error, and Censoring Information Won't Work (It'll Only Ever Backfire)
Censoring is what people do when they lose the argument
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 04, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Slopwatch: Mindless Slop Pieces, Fake Images and Text, Linux FUD on the Cheap
spewed out by Microsoft-controlled LLMs
Links 04/06/2025: Workers' Strikes, Sudan Exodus
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: Linux Foundation PR Spam and Lee Jae-myung Wins Election
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Future Leaders of the World and Platforming Jordan Peterson
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: WSL Backfiring on Microsoft and "Disney, Microsoft Announce Massive Layoffs"
Links for the day
Say the Truth, the Rest Will Follow
There's no guarantee that writing the truth will result in an audience (or readership), but over time - in the long run - people generally gravitate towards what they know or feel to be crude truth, not just what's comforting (albeit false or self-deluding, usually groupthink dictated from above)
How to Expose High-Level Corruption Without Getting in (Too Much) Trouble
Democracy depends on free press and freedom of the press depends on being able to safely publish (and keep available) material that bad people don't want to be known to anybody
In-Depth EPO Coverage at Techrights Turns Eleven
11 years is a very long time
Windows Measured Below 10% in Afghanistan, GNU/Linux Gaining a Lot
about 80% are Android (Linux) users, compared to only about 10% for Windows
Poland's Political Predicament and Social Control Media
Democracy and fake "tech" don't mix well; the latter tends to interfere with the former and that's why we get more "Putins" out there
EPO: Taking Away From the Staff to Give More to the Rich
The Central Staff Committee (CSC) wrote to EPO staff earlier this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 03, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part I: It's a Lot Like the EPO
we can commence a series soon
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Inescapable Questions and Quitting All "Oligarch Tech"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linux FUD From Slopfarms, Blaming Linux for Microsoft Issues; Even WebProNews Has Become a Slopfarm (Googlebombing "Linux" With Slop Images and Fake/Plagiarised Text)
The Web is really getting bad; it's also overwhelmed by fake material or plagiarised material, wherein the plagiarism gets disguised/hidden by LLM sausage factories
Links 03/06/2025: Tiananmen Square Massacre Censorship and Growing Military Activities Around Taiwan
Links for the day
Linux is Already Dominant (Android), Let's Make GNU/Linux Dominant in Desktops/Laptops as Well
"Dr. Stallman recently warned everybody about Microsoft."
The Loyalty to Microsoft and the Salaries From Microsoft (Funding SLAPPs Against Techrights and Tux Machines)
Garrett always knows better. He knows everything best.
Windows Falls in Italy as GNU/Linux Jumps to 5%
Italy knows a thing or two about digital autonomy
Nigeria is All Android and Google
Windows down to almost nothing in Africa's largest population
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Second Wave) Not Limited to Redmond
"More layoffs at Microsoft as axe falls in Washington and California"
Gemini Links 03/06/2025: Forth System and "Common Lisp is a Dumpster"
Links for the day
The Leaks Were Right: Mass Layoffs at Microsoft in May, Then Another Wave in June
Just as we've been saying for over a month
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 02, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 02, 2025