 Security researchers have discovered a precursor of the notorious Proton macOS malware. This supposed precursor appears to have been developed back in 2016, a year before Proton and uploaded on VirusTotal, where it remained undetected for nearly two years until May 2018, when Kaspersky researchers stumbled upon it. Researchers who analyzed the malware used the term "raw" to describe its code and capabilities. It was clear in their analysis that the malware was still under development and did not have the same capabilities as the Proton remote access trojan. Proton became a household name in the infosec community in March 2017 when threat intelligence analysts from Sixgill found it being sold on an underground hacking forum for steep prices ranging from $1,200 to $820,000. Two months later, Proton was seen in the wild for the first time when someone hacked the website of the HandBrake app and poisoned the official app with the malware. Proton was used again in October 2017 when hackers breached the website of the Eltima Player and injected the malware in that app as well. More details can be found on OUR FORUM.  With Gmail’s new design rolled out to more and more users, many have had a chance to try out its new “Confidential Mode.” While many of its features sound promising, what “Confidential Mode” provides isn’t confidentiality. At best, the new mode might create expectations that it fails to meet around security and privacy in Gmail. We fear that Confidential Mode will make it less likely for users to find and use other, more secure communication alternatives. And at worst, Confidential Mode will push users further into Google’s own walled garden while giving them what we believe are misleading assurances of privacy and security. With its new Confidential Mode, Google purports to allow you to restrict how the emails you send can be viewed and shared: the recipient of your Confidential Mode email will not be able to forward or print it. You can also set an “expiration date” at which time the email will be deleted from your recipient’s inbox, and even require a text message code as an added layer of security before the email can be viewed. Unfortunately, each of these “security” features comes with serious security problems for users. Read this article and more on our Forum  If you have been avoiding Windows 10 because you are concerned about Microsoft spying on you via its telemetry services, the company has just made your life slightly more difficult. Microsoft has just classified KB2952664 and KB2976978, for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, respectively as Critical Updates, meaning their installation is now compulsory. The updates have been available earlier but were then Optional. The updates bring a telemetry service to the operating systems, as explained in their descriptions. The updates automatically activate DoScheduledTelemetryRun, a process that records and sends telemetry data, even on devices that do not participate in the Windows Software Usage Analysis program. Windows 8.1 is already unsupported and Windows 7 is leaving support in 2020. With the updates now marked as Critical, we assume the majority of Windows 7 and 8.1 users will soon also be letting Microsoft know how healthy their PCs are, which is a good thing, after all, isn’t it? Read the description on OUR FORUM. |
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