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Ransomware Exposes The Risks of Update Policies

By Vigilize | Thursday, November 10, 2016 - Leave a Comment

Allowing employees to apply operating system updates can lead to trouble down the road


An article review.


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The story by now is nothing new: ransomware is making the rounds and it’s causing companies and individuals untold amounts in lost time, productivity and data.

What this latest bit of malware, named Fantom, does differently is that it presents itself as a legitimate Windows 10 update, right down to the “Configuring Windows Update” full-screen message. While masquerading as legitimate system applications has been common in the past, this is the first example seen targeting Windows 10 specifically.

Fantom comes at a time when we have been suggesting a move away from user-initiated system updates, and is a perfect example of why such practices have become so risky. The time and energy saved by delegating that authority to your users could easily be outweighed by the damage caused to your business and reputation.


Original article by Valeria Titova writing for Kaspersky.


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