Windows 10 is under attack over default settings which users say compromise their privacy, just days after the operating system’s successful launch saw more than 14 million installs in the first 24 hours.

Hundreds of commenters on sites have criticised default settings that send personal information to Microsoft, use bandwidth to upload data to other computers running the operating system, share Wi-Fi passwords with online friends and remove the ability to opt out of security updates. Many of the complaints relate to the new personalised adverts embedded in Windows 10. When the OS is installed, Microsoft assigns the user a unique advertising ID.

After months of hype and media attention, Windows 10 is almost here. That means it’s decision time: Do you upgrade as soon as you can? Or do you wait?

Hard as it may be to resist the immediate promise of a better computing experience, upgrading to a new operating system as soon as it’s available isn’t always the best idea. July 29 will be the next version of the operating system Windows 10. Users of Windows 7 and 8.1 in 190 countries will be able to update it for free. A tempting offer. However, there are at least 6 reasons not to rush to “release” and wait for the following assemblies novelties. Don’t get confused by the fact that there are only 6 “AGAINST reasons”.

Public Wi-Fi networks — like those in coffee shops or hotels — are not nearly as safe as you think. Even if they have a password, you're sharing a network with tons of other people, which means your data is at risk. Here's how to stay safe when you're out and about.

Just because most wireless routers have a firewall to protect you from the internet doesn't mean you're protected from others connected to the same network. It's remarkably easy to steal someone's username and password, or see what they're doing just by being on the same network. Don't take that chance. We're going to show you which settings are the most important ones.

A new type of malware resorts to crippling a computer if it is detected during security checks, a particularly catastrophic blow to its victims. The malware, nicknamed Rombertik, is designed to intercept any plain text entered into a browser window. It is being spread through spam and phishing messages.

Rombertik goes through several checks once it is up and running on a Windows computer to see if it has been detected. That behavior is not unusual for some types of malware, but Rombertik is unique in that it actively attempts to destroy the computer if it detects certain attributes associated with malware analysis. 

Microsoft has announced an ambitious plan to replace passwords with biometric identifiers in it’s yet to be released Windows 10 operating system. The race to replace passwords has been on for years, it offers the most realistic chance of eradicating the archaic.

The difficultly with password alternatives to date has been primarily a problem of adoption and practicality. Tattoos as passwords, for example, is a ridiculous idea. In body chip implants are promising but I imagine many people would be squeamish about having a computer chip injected into their bodies. Windows Ten may put biometric technologies within the reach of all computer users.

Computers running all supported releases of Microsoft Windows are vulnerable to FREAK, a decade-old encryption flaw that leaves device users vulnerable to having their electronic communications intercepted when visiting any of hundreds of thousands of websites.

The flaw was previously thought to be limited to Apple's Safari and Google's Android browsers. But Microsoft warned that the encryption protocols used in Windows were also vulnerable to the flaw. The FREAK flaw surfaced a few weeks ago when a group of researchers discovered they could force websites to use intentionally weakened encryption, which they were able to break within a few hours.

Unkillable nasty still climbs out of the grave to this day. The Asprox botnet was responsible for about a lot of attack sessions recorded during October 2014, impacting different organisations.

The Asprox malware family is continuing to plague businesses, despite multiple attempts to disrupt its infrastructure. The Asprox botnet, which first surfaced around six years ago in 2008, has been linked to phishing scam messages as well as the distribution of secondary malware infections. The zombie network also acts as a platform for hack attacks. Asprox spreads through vulnerable websites, using SQL injections attacks to plant malicious code.

Researchers have uncovered an extremely stealthy trojan for Linux systems that attackers have been using to siphon sensitive data from governments and pharmaceutical companies around the world.

The previously undiscovered malware represents a missing puzzle piece tied to Turla, a so-called advanced persistent threat disclosed in August. For at least four years, the campaign targeted government institutions, embassies, military, education, research, and pharmaceutical companies in more than 45 countries. The unknown attackers have infected several hundred Windows-based computers by exploiting a variety of vulnerabilities. 

More and more, governments are using powerful spying software to target human rights activists and journalists, often the forgotten victims of cyberwar. Now, these victims have a new tool to protect themselves. It scans a person's computer for traces of surveillance software, or spyware.

A coalition of human rights organizations launched it, with the goal of equipping activists and journalists with a free tool to discover if they've been hacked. The open-source tool was developed by security researcher who has been investigating government abuse of spyware for years. The tool designed to discover malware developed both by commercial firms, as well as popular spyware used by cybercriminals. 

The critical vulnerability in the Schannel technology in Windows that Microsoft patched is ripe for exploitation, experts say, and continues the long line of severe vulnerabilities in major SSL/TLS implementations in recent months.

The technology is in every supported version of Windows, and it can be exploited remotely by unauthenticated attackers. The company said that the vulnerability was found during a “proactive security audit”. That vulnerability enables an attacker to read the memory of systems protected by vulnerable versions of the software under certain circumstances.