Windows 8: Malware-free?
We always loved Microsoft’s operating systems as most of them are adopted very well in the whole world and security has been improving since years. The new incarnation of Windows 8 is somewhat different to the former ones as the interface underwent some notably big changes.
Windows 8 offers the same interface on many devices: Xbox, via desktop to tablet PCs and smart phones. Microsoft tries to make a user experience that is almost universal. Nevertheless, it appears that the app functionalities under Windows RT (the one for ARM tablets) and the program of the desktop version are not always the same.
You might think that having a very similar interface on the different devices enables you to do the same things on different hardware, but that doesn’t seem to be true in all the cases. Sometimes, the decision to change the user experience and the usability is a matter of security, and that is to be welcomed, but all in all, it creates confusion for the user.
A good example is Skype, from Microsoft. You can use it on any Windows device, but it is impossible to send over files under Windows RT – most possibly because of the security restrictions, due to the sandboxing approach. That is an ambiguous feature, from a user’s point of view. And that’s not the only critical view we have.
The AVAR conference 2012 in Hangzhou, China
IT security specialists discuss and shape their industry’s future
This year’s AVAR Conference is covering a lot of trending topics ranging from mobile malware to botnets. Seji Murakami, Chairman of AVAR, traditionally opened the conference with a warm welcome speech. This year, the keynote speeches were focused on Android security product testing (AV-Test), preventive actions concerning malware in China (CERT China) and malware trends (Microsoft).
IT security specialists now gathered for the 15th edition of the conference and it always tried to highlight the specific problems related to Asian malware. One of the main topics over here is “working all together against cybercrime” which is, unfortunately, not always an easy thing to do.
If you are interested in the agenda and information about the other topics discussed, you can find a lot of information on the AVAR Conference 2012 website. Furthermore, more info about the next conference’s venue and future topics will also follow on the official AVAR homepage.
This article can be found also on the G Data Blog.
