FBI Warns Gmail, Outlook, AOL, Yahoo Users; Dangerous New Phishing Campaign Infects Windows Devices; Microsoft Will Charge Windows 10 Users $30 per Year; Windows 11 24H2 Misery Continues… and more!
Every day, we scan the tech world for interesting news, sometimes from outside the tech world. Every Thursday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Thursday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
FBI Warns Gmail, Outlook, AOL And Yahoo Users—Hackers Gain Access To Accounts
“Cybercriminals are gaining access to email accounts,” the FBI warned this week, even when accounts are protected by multifactor authentication (MFA). Attacks begin when users are lured into “visiting suspicious websites or click on phishing links that download malicious software onto their computer.”
Email access itself comes by way of cookie theft. Not the devilish tracking cookies that we read so much about, and which caused havoc when Google reversed its promise to eradicate them from Chrome. These are session cookies or security cookies or “remember me” cookies. They store credentials to stop you having to log in every time you visit a website or access one of your accounts.
The threat affects all email platforms providing web logins, albeit Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and AOL are by far the largest. The same threat clearly impacts other accounts as well, including shopping sites and financial platforms…
Dangerous new phishing campaign infects Windows devices with malicious Linux VM
Hackers find new ways to avoid triggering AV solutions
A creative new phishing technique has been spotted that looks to trick victims into downloading and installing a virtual Linux machine on their Windows endpoints. The virtual machine comes preloaded with a backdoor, granting the crooks unabated access to the compromised devices.
A report from cybersecurity researchers Securonix dubbed the campaign ‘CRON#TRAP’. It starts with a fake “OneAmerica” survey which distributes the VM installation file (285 MB), and a fake error popup image.
If the victims fall for the trick and trigger the installer, it will run in the background, while showing the fake error message in the front. That way, the victims will think that the survey was unavailable at the time. In the background, though, a fully legit version of a Linux VM, called TinyCore, will be installed via QEMU, a legitimate, open-source virtualization tool that allows for emulating various hardware and processor architectures.
Tricking the AV
Since QEMU is legitimate, no antivirus programs flag it as malicious…
Microsoft will charge Windows 10 users $30 per year for security updates
Microsoft has published a short guide on preparing for Windows 10’s end of support in about a year. The guide notes, among other things, the possibility of purchasing an Extended Security Updates (ESU) subscription that will keep Windows 10 PCs secure for a fee of $30 per year. For the first time, this service will be accessible to both individual consumers and business clients, as outlined a year ago.
The ESU program enables users to receive essential monthly security patches after October 14, 2025, ensuring that systems remain protected from evolving cyber threats. Unlike previous ESU offerings limited to commercial clients, this new subscription will also include consumers on personal devices. This subscription will run annually, with monthly updates addressing only critical security issues as identified by Microsoft’s Security Response Center. No additional features, improvements, or updates beyond essential security patches will be released for Windows 10 after October 2025.
For individuals who cannot move to Windows 11 due to hardware…
Printers are suddenly not working, drivers are disappearing, and more besides
Windows 11 24H2 is continuing its run of trouble with bugs and this time we’re hearing about various difficulties with printers, which are mostly hitting Arm-based Copilot+ PCs, but also other computers (with x86 Intel and AMD chips) too.
Neowin reports that there are quite a number of complaints from those with printers who have upgraded to Windows 11 24H2 and are finding their device is no longer working. This is affecting all the best-known printer manufacturers, the likes of Brother, Canon, HP and so forth.
The issue is mainly being experienced by those with a Copilot+ PC powered by an Arm processor, as mentioned, and it either completely derails the printer, leaving it non-functional, or breaks certain features. In other cases, Windows 11 users can’t install the printer driver.
As noted at the outset, these gremlins in the works…
Mozilla Foundation (developer of Firefox) crumbles as third of staff cast off
he Mozilla Foundation is laying off about a third of its staff. The non-profit org, which oversees the corporation that develops the Firefox web browser, insists it will continue its advocacy mission, though its approach may change.
“The Mozilla Foundation is reorganizing teams to increase agility and impact as we accelerate our work to ensure a more open and equitable technical future for us all,” said Brandon Borrman, VP of Communications at Mozilla, in a statement to The Register Tuesday.
“That unfortunately means ending some of the work we have historically pursued and eliminating associated roles to bring more focus going forward. We’re not sharing a specific number, but it represents about 30 percent of the current team.”
While Mozilla Foundation declined to quantify the number of people being let go…
Thanks for reading this week’s Thursday Newbytes. We hope these articles were informative, interesting, fun, and helpful. Darcy & TC
