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

Once Again Linux Foundation Makes It Clear It's Being 'Absorbed' by Bill Gates
Linux Foundation devotes about 2% of its budget to Linux
Links 08/10/2024: Australian Fines for Twitter (X), Fake Patent Courts Still Not Scuttled
Links for the day
World Wide Slop
If it quacks like a duck...
[Meme] Driver Issues
Where do you want to drive today?
Another Dose of Fake 'Articles' About Linux
Don't give visibility to the nonsense of Microsoft
 
[Meme] Bill Gates With a Side of "Linux"
Linux Foundation is trolling us with Bill Gates
IBM is a Boys' Club
If IBM collapsed, the Red Hat engineers who work on GNU and Linux would simply work elsewhere (on the same projects)
The Miserable State of GAFAM
Looking for government handouts
Microsoft is Acting Like a Company That's Running Out of Money (But Still Pretends to be Wealthy in Order to Attract or Retain Shareholders)
Azure has had mass layoffs every year since 2020, yet Microsoft keeps telling shareholders that "clown computing" is growing
Dr. Andy Farnell's Article on Societal Disorganised Attachment and the Role of Social Control Media
The article is quite long and typos were still being fixed as recently as last night
Smear Alert: Linus Torvalds Asking for Better Commit Messages Makes Linus a (Grammar) Nazi
Maybe the "mainstream media" is looking for clickbait or maybe it's actively looking to make a scandal - a phony controversy with which to make the job of coordinating Linux unpleasant
Gemini Links 09/10/2024: Climate Doom and Clagrange
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 08, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 08, 2024
Dr. Andy Farnell's Article on Why Passwords Still Rock
"Seven for a secret never to be told"
The Problem Isn't That New Cars Use Electricity But That They Use Too Many Bits of Electronics
"...and proprietary software wrapped in proprietary APIs and protocols all without a modicum of compartmentalisation," an associate adds
We're Turning 18 in 30 Days
30 days from now the site turns 18
GNOME Foundation Says It's Nearly Broke (Again), It's Getting Rid of More People (Only Women Get the Boot), and It Will Improve Communications and Transparency Even Though It Secretly Ousts People From the GNOME Foundation Board (for Secret Reasons)
It only talks about this months later (under strict gag orders, only public shaming of a person)
Gemini Links 08/10/2024: Guilt by Association, Workers vs Owners
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2024: War Updates, Samsung's Layoffs, and Gemini
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2024: Microsoft Deleting Office Documents Instead of Saving Them, "Threads Still Sucks"
Links for the day
gemini.techrights.org and techrights.org (Same Server, Not the Same Protocol)
We're reminding readers that everything in this site is fully accessible via gemini.techrights.org in Gemini Protocol
X Has Axed Itself. This is Great News and Further Affirmation of Everything We've Said About Social Control Media.
Don't waste any more time on social control media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 07, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, October 07, 2024
Gemini Links 08/10/2024: Contingency Begets Complexity, Playing With Bezier Curves
Links for the day
Almost Half the Web Users Connecting to Your Site Are Using Linux
almost 1 in 2 Web-connected devices runs Android and about 2% run "proper" GNU/Linux
The Web Has Severe Amnesia Problems, But We Still Remember How Gilberto Gil Promoted Free Software in Brazil
The Digital Tipping Point (DTP) is years behind us now
Synthesised Voices Aren't a New Technology (the Hype Might Be, They Call It "Hey Hi" Now)
I still consider this an extension of the "hey hi" (AI) hype
LLM Hype is Already Descending, Apple Stopped Investing in the Money Furnace
Wall Street is a perverse force in the technology market, incentivising the most harmful (and mostly useless) things
Change Control and What Will Come After Git (If That's Still Possible at All)
It would be wrong to believe (at least misguided) Git can be a "standard" skill 30 or 50 years from now.
On the Web, HTTPS Has Actually Become a Privacy Problem (Broadcasting Usage/Access to the All-Seeing CA Eye). Geminispace Doesn't Have This Problem.
Down to 23 capsules: the rapid demise of Certificate Authority (CA) Let's Encrypt in Geminispace
Links 07/10/2024: Politics, Education, Wars, Financial Crunch
Links for the day
Munich Was Having Real Difficulties Moving From GNU/Linux to Windows
How many are still using GNU/Linux?
Links 07/10/2024:China’s 'Deflation' (Price Decreases), Brazil Still Bars Twitter ("X")
Links for the day
Links 07/10/2024: "Creative Computing" Turns 50, Long War in Middle East Turns 1
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/10/2024: Luck and Dishonesty, Gaming Getting Worse
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 06, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, October 06, 2024