Security News
Microsoft is rolling out a new version of the Paint application on Windows 11 Insider builds that can remove the background from any picture with the click of a button. You can see a demonstration of the background removal below using the Windows wallpaper.
Cybercriminals are leveraging a legitimate Windows tool called 'Advanced Installer' to infect the computers of graphic designers with cryptocurrency miners. The attackers promote installers for popular 3D modeling and graphic design software such as Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk 3ds Max, and SketchUp Pro, likely through black hat search engine optimization techniques.
Microsoft says Storm-0558 Chinese hackers stole a signing key used to breach government email accounts from a Windows crash dump after compromising a Microsoft engineer's corporate account. While investigating Storm-0558's attack, Microsoft found that the MSA key was leaked into a crash dump after a consumer signing system crashed in April 2021.
MSI has released BIOS updates to fix a known issue that triggers blue screens of death on Windows computers after installing August 2023 preview updates. "The new BIOS coming will include an update on the Intel CPU uCode which will prevent any more messages regarding the 'UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR' issues. This upcoming update will correspond to both 13th-generation and newer ones," MSI said on Wednesday.
The risk of running obsolete code and hardware was highlighted after attackers exfiltrated data from a UK supplier of high-security fencing for military bases. The initial entry point? A Windows 7 PC. While the supplier, Wolverhampton-based Zaun, said it believed that no classified information was downloaded, reports indicated that attackers were able to obtain data that could be used to gain access to some of the UK's most sensitive military and research sites.
Microsoft has reminded users that TLS 1.0 and 1.1 will soon be disabled by default in Windows. SQL Server 2008 R2 finally dropped out of Extended Security Updates in July, although Microsoft has published instructions for adding TLS 1.2 support.
The highly anticipated Windows 11 23H2 update is around the corner, and Microsoft has released its best features to testers in the Beta Channel. Windows Copilot: The AI Assistant Unified in PC. Taking a step forward in the integration of artificial intelligence, Windows 11 is set to debut Windows Copilot, an AI assistant that unifies Bing Chat and additional plugins.
Microsoft reminded users that insecure Transport Layer Security 1.0 and 1.1 protocols will be disabled soon in future Windows releases. The original TLS 1.0 specification and its TLS 1.1 successor have been used for nearly two decades, with TLS 1.0 initially introduced in 1999 and TLS 1.1 in 2006).
Microsoft announced today that it will deprecate WordPad with a future Windows update as it's no longer under active development, though the company did not specify the precise timing of this change. "We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like.doc and.rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like.txt."
Microsoft has reminded customers that systems running Windows 11 21H2 will be force-updated before the end of servicing next month. Since Windows 11 21H2 devices will no longer receive security updates starting October 10, 2023, they will be updated to Windows 11 22H2 to continue receiving the latest updates, security updates, and improvements.