Security News

Security experts detailed a litany of concerns following an announcement on Monday from the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the official end of life for Windows 7. "As time passes, Windows 7 becomes more vulnerable to exploitation due to lack of security updates and new vulnerabilities discovered. With fewer customers able to maintain a patched Windows 7 system after its end of life, cybercriminals will continue to view Windows 7 as a soft target," the FBI notice said.

With world+dog on Zoom these days, news of a zero-day attack against the videoconferencing app would cause a stir, but relax - it's only if you're on Windows 7 or older. An independent researcher told ACROS Security about the flaw that would allow for remote code execution on any Zoom Client for Windows used by Windows 7, even with extended support after the OS was shuttered in January.

With world+dog on Zoom these days, news of a zero-day attack against the videoconferencing app would cause a stir, but relax - it's only if you're on Windows 7 or older. An independent researcher told ACROS Security about the flaw that would allow for remote code execution on any Zoom Client for Windows used by Windows 7, even with extended support after the OS was shuttered in January.

A zero-day vulnerability has been discovered in Zoom video conferencing software for Windows that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on a victim's computer running Microsoft Windows 7 or older. The vulnerability has been discovered by a researcher who reported it to Acros Security, who then reported the flaw to the Zoom security team earlier today.

In January 2020, Microsoft officially ended its extended support and discontinued patching of Windows 7. Despite the long lead time and repeated reminders, numbers since the COVID-19 pandemic have shown a slight uptick in Windows 7 deployments.

For the 2020 Webroot Threat Report, researchers analyzed samples from more than 37 billion URLs, 842 million domains, 4 billion IP addresses, 31 million active mobile apps, and 36 billion file behavior records. Surge in malware targeting Windows 7 93.6 percent of malware seen was unique to a single PC - the highest rate ever observed.

They can still upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for free, but those who continue to use Windows 7 now that support has ended are simply more vulnerable to security risks. In addition to that, the good news is that some browser and many AV manufacturers will continue to offer Windows 7 support.

Businesses continuing to run Windows 7 should tread carefully and keep Windows 7 at their peril. Compatibility should not be a big issue as Windows 10 can run on most systems that supported Windows 7.

Among 60,000 large companies analyzed by security ratings company BitSight, almost 90% still have Windows 7 PCs in their environment. Among the 60,000 organizations studied over the past 60 days by BitSight's data science team, 70% were using Windows 7 in some capacity.

To prepare for the transition into Windows 7 End of Life, Cynerio is offering hospitals a complementary risk assessment until February 14, 2020. Connected medical devices are the weakest link in healthcare security and the prevalence of devices running on the Windows 7 operating system puts hospitals at even greater risk of cyber attack.