Meta has announced it's going to test new age verification methods like social vouching and video selfies for INstagram users.
The post Instagram introduces new ways for users to verify their age appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

If Instagram suspects you are fibbing about your age, you’ll currently see the following message:

> “You must be at least 13 years old to have an Instagram account. We disabled your account because you are not old enough yet. If you believe we made a mistake, please verify your age by submitting a valid photo ID that clearly shows your face and date of birth.”

Now Meta has announced it’s testing new options for people on Instagram to verify their age, starting with people in the US. The new options are uploading a video selfie, and social vouching. The old verification method to upload an ID is still an option for those that prefer it.

Users that are unable to verify their age will have their accounts deleted.

**Trigger**

The verification procedure starts when a user attempts to raise their age from under to above 18. This is relevant since Instagram provides users from 13 -17 years old with age-appropriate experiences like defaulting them into private accounts, preventing unwanted contact from adults they don’t know, and limiting the options advertisers have to reach them with ads.

Other reasons Instagram might ask you to verify your age are it receives a report from another Instagram user, or a content reviewers flags your accounts as appearing to be in use by someone underage.

**Social vouching**

The social vouching option allows you to ask mutual followers to confirm how old you are. You might expect this to be an option that can easily be abused, but Meta says it’s built in additional safeguards. Three people must independently confirm the user is over 18, and they all must be at least 18 years old themselves and not be vouching for anyone else at that time.

**Video selfie**

Certainly the option that raises some concerns is the video selfie. You can choose to upload a video selfie to verify your age. If you choose this option, you’ll see instructions on your screen to guide you through the process. The age analysis, an estimate of your age based on your facial features, is done by Yoti, and both Meta and Yoti promise to delete the image once the analysis has completed.

You may have heard of Yoti due to its digital ID app. Yoti is a free consumer app that offers you a way of proving who you are online and in person. In the UK, Yoti is a government-approved digital ID provider, which allows UK citizens to prove their identities with an app instead of physical documents when applying for a job or renting a property.

**Additional AI usage**

In addition to testing the new menu of options to verify people’s ages, Meta uses Artificial Intelligence to estimate people’s ages. This can be very simple indicators, like birthday wishes, or comparing the age of linked accounts, such as your Facebook and Instagram accounts. But it can also look at interactions with other profiles and content. For example, people in the same age group tend to interact similarly with certain types of content. From those signals, the model learns to make calculations about whether someone is an adult or a teen.

Instagram introduces new ways for users to verify their age

The most important and interesting computer security stories from the last week.
The post A week in security (June 20 – June 26) appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

*   Partner Success Story
*   Marek Drummond
    
    Managing Director at Optimus Systems
    
    "Thanks to the Malwarebytes MSP program, we have this high-quality product in our stack. It’s a great addition, and I have confidence that customers’ systems are protected."
    
*   See full story

A week in security (June 20 – June 26)

Before dining over catfish this National Catfish Day, remember another catfish that's also captured the public's attention.
The post 5 ways to avoid being catfished appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Today, many Americans will head out to the water—not to swim, but to catch a catfish in time for National Catfish Day.

But when we talk about catfishing in cybersecurity, we mean something different. Here, catfishing refers to someone who assumes someone else’s identity online in order to harass, troll, or scam someone.

But there are ways to protect yourself:

**1\. **Be suspicious****

Catfishes and romance scammers prowl social media sites and dating apps.

Usually, scammers will message potential targets privately first, through DMs. And when the target bites, they immediately ask them to switch to a more private chat option, such as email or text.

If you suspect you are being catfished, ask them questions that only someone with their background would know. If they’re hesitant, slow to answer, or try to avoid your questions, then be wary.

**2\. Don’t fall too quickly for a pretty face**

Scammers know that people are likely to respond positively if they’re using an image of someone who looks good. But you can use that pretty picture for your own benefit. Do a reverse-image search to check if the face matches the name, or if anyone has mentioned scams alongside that image.

Take note, though, that scammers can entirely steal the identity of someone and use it. They can also use create a deepfake image, which wouldn’t be caught in reverse-image searches.

**3\. Take it slow**

If a love interest ticks all your boxes, remind yourself to slow down. Scammers will want to get you moving, so they can go on to target someone else.

And, since scammers talk to multiple targets, they can make big mistakes, such as forgetting your or their name. Taking it slow may not seem to be the most exciting thing you’d do, but it gives you a chance to build up a bigger picture of the person you are talking to.

**4\. Talk to someone you trust**

An outsider perspective is invaluable if you’re about to fall head first for a scammer.

Let’s face it, sometimes we see the red flags but choose to ignore them. A second or third opinion from someone you trust might be the jolt you need before it’s too late.

**5\. Never send them anything**

Scammers are quick about everything regarding love, revealing too much about “their personal life,” professing their love, or asking something from you. That could be money, cryptocurrency, personal information, banking details, or gift card numbers.

Occasionally, they might ask you to move money on their behalf. Never do this, even if it sounds like they are desperate for your help.

**Finally**

If you suspect someone is a scammer, immediately stop contact and report them to the site where you first met, whether that was on social media or a dating app. If you have mistakenly sent someone money, file a report to your bank ASAP. And don’t hesitate to report your experience to your local law enforcement and FBI office.

Stay safe!

5 ways to avoid being catfished

International cybersecurity authorities have published a Cybersecurity Information Sheet on making it harder to abuse PowerShell
The post Cybersecurity agencies: You don’t have to delete PowerShell to secure it appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Microsoft’s PowerShell is a useful, flexible tool that is as popular with criminals as it is with admins. Cybercrooks like it becasue PowerShell is powerful, available almost everywhere, and doesn’t look out of place running on a company network.

In most places it isn’t practical to block PowerShell completely, which raises the question: How do you stop the bad stuff without disrupting the good stuff?

Cybersecurity authorities from the United States, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom have released a joint Cybersecurity Information Sheet (CIS) on PowerShell that attempts to answer that question.

The National Security Agency (NSA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre (NZ NCSC), and the United Kingdom National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK) hope that “these recommendations will help defenders detect and prevent abuse by threat actors, while enabling legitimate use by administrators and defenders.”

**PowerShell**

Although it’s closely associated with the world of Windows administration, PowerShell is a cross-platform (Windows, Linux, and macOS) automation and configuration tool which, by design, is optimized for dealing with structured data. Initially a Windows component only, known as Windows PowerShell, it was made open-source and cross-platform on 18 August 2016 with the introduction of PowerShell Core.

It allows system administrators and power users to perform administrative tasks via a command line—an area where Windows previously lagged behind its Unix-like rivals with their proliferation of \*sh shells.

Threat actors are equally fond of it because it allows them to “live off the land”, and for the options it provides to create fileless malware or to gain persistence on a compromised system.

**Reduce abuse**

The CIS discusses some security features available in PowerShell which can reduce abuse by threat actors.

**Remote connections**

Remote connections can be used for powerful remote management capabilities, so Windows Firewall rules on endpoints should be configured appropriately to control permitted connections. Access to endpoints with PowerShell remoting requires the requesting user account to have administrative privileges at the destination by default. The permission requirement and Windows Firewall rules are customizable for restricting connections to only trusted endpoints and networks to reduce lateral movement opportunities. Organizations can implement these rules to harden network security where feasible.

Multiple authentication methods in PowerShell permit use on non-Windows devices. PowerShell 7 permits remote connections over Secure Shell (SSH) in addition to supporting Windows Remote Management (WinRM) connections. This allows for public key authentication and makes remote management through PowerShell of machines more convenient and secure.

**AMSI integration**

The Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) feature, first available on Windows 10, is integrated into different Windows components. It supports scanning of in-memory and dynamic file contents using an anti-malware product registered with Windows and exposes an interface for applications to scan potentially malicious content. This feature requires AMSI-aware anti-malware products (such as Malwarebytes). Basically, AMSI works by analyzing scripts before the execution, so the anti-malware product can determine if the script is malicious or not.

**Constrained Language Mode**

Configuring AppLocker or Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) to block actions on a Windows host will cause PowerShell to operate in Constrained Language Mode (CLM), restricting PowerShell operations unless allowed by administrator-defined policies.

**PowerShell methods to detect abuse**

Logging of PowerShell activities can record when cyber threats use PowerShell, and continuous monitoring of PowerShell logs can detect and alert on potential abuses. Deep Script Block Logging, Module Logging, and Over-the-Shoulder transcription are disabled by default. The authors recommend enabling the capabilities where feasible.

**Before you start**

If you plan on following the advice in the CIS, there are a few things you may want to consider first.

*   Execution Policies do not restrict execution of all PowerShell content.
*   AMSI bypasses are found and remediated in a constant whack-a-mole game, and most anti-malware products have different ways of accomplishing the same, or better, results. Therefor you will find that most AMSI-aware anti-malware products do not rely on AMSI alone.
*   If you are a customer of a Managed Service Provider (MSP) you may need to contact them before taking any of the actions listed above, since doing so may hinder them in their remote management.
*   Windows Remote Management/Remote Shell (WinRM/WinRS) connection limitations can become an obstacle in organizations with numerous administrators performing remote management, or that have multiple monitoring solutions connecting to the environment. By default, Microsoft Server limits the number of concurrent users connected to the WinRM/WinRS session to five and the number of shells per user to five. This can, and has often been modified by using an elevated command prompt.

Disabling PowerShell, if you do not need it, is a lot easier and safer than applying policies to make it safer to use. But looking at the options to make it more secure is certainly a good idea if you do need it.

Stay safe, everyone!

Cybersecurity agencies: You don’t have to delete PowerShell to secure it

The leak site essential to the operation of Conti ransomware has disappeared, but everything may not be as it appears.
The post Conti ransomware group’s pulse stops, but did it fake its own death? appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

The dark web leak site used by the notorious Conti ransomware gang has disappeared, along with the chat function it used to negotiate ransoms with victims. For as long as this infrastructure is down the group is unable to operate and a significent threat is removed from the pantheon of ransomware threats.

The Conti leak site is down (June 22, 2022)

Ransomware gangs like Conti use the threat of leaking stolen data on their dark web sites to extort enormous ransoms from their victims, making the sites a vital cog in the ransomware machine.

While the cause of the site’s disappearance isn’t known for sure, and criminal dark web sites are notoriously flaky, there is good reason to suspect that Conti has gone permanently.

However, while anything that stops Conti from terrorising businesses, schools, and hospitals is welcome, the disappearance of its leak site is unlikely to make potential ransomware victims any safer, sadly.

As we explained in our May ransomware review, recent research by Advintel suggests that Conti has spent the last few months executing a bizarre plan to fake its own death. If that is what’s happened, then the gang’s members have simply dispersed to other ransomware “brands” that are either operated by the Conti gang or affiliated to it.

**Conti—as bad as they come**

The gang behind Conti ransomware (called WizardSpider, although rarely referred to by that name) is believed to be based in Russia, and first appeared in 2020. The FBI recently called it “the costliest strain of ransomware ever documented,” and the US Department of State is offering a reward of up to $10 million for “information leading to the identification and/or location of any individual(s) who hold a key leadership position in the Conti ransomware variant transnational organized crime group.”

Conti has been used in a number of high profile attacks, including a devastating assault on Ireland’s Health Service executive on May 14, 2021. The attack disrupted healthcare in Ireland for months and the recovery effort could end up costing the country more than $100 million.

The real cost of the attack was measured in human suffering though. Speaking to Malwarebytes Labs, a doctor in one of the affected hospitals described how a 21st-century healthcare system deprived of it’s computers is brought to its knees. The attack caused enormous unnecessary suffering for both patients and healthcare professionals, and triggered hundreds of thousands of appointments to be cancelled.

The doctor’s brutal assessment of the Conti gang? “I think they lost their humanity.”

**Faking its own death**

According to Advintel, the Conti gang sealed its fate in February when it published a message in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, declaring its “full support of Russian government.” By aligning itself to the Russian state it had made itself the subject of sanctions. Victims were not prepared to run the risk that their ransom payments might be treated as sanctions violations and Conti’s income dried up.

Ransomware gangs often react to trouble by going dark, or with ham-fisted attempts to pretend they’ve retired. These retirements are often quickly followed by the sudden appearance of a brand new ransomware gang that is obviously just the old gang working under a new name.

Advintel’s research suggested that Conti was aware of this pattern and determined to try something different. Instead of disappearing and then popping up a week later under a new name, the group created and operated new brands—Advintel names KaraKurt, BlackByte, and BlackBasta as examples—before retiring the Conti name, to make the transition less obvious. In addition to creating these new brands, it also dispersed parts of its workforce into existing gangs it had a relationship with, such as Hive and ALPHV.

To complete the deception, it maintained a skeleton crew that carried out extremely noisy, headline-grabbing attacks on Cost Rica, and continued to operate the leak site until the last moment.

Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence was able to independently confirm that Conti sent an internal announcement about its retirement to affiliates at the end of May, and that its internal chat servers stopped working around the same time.

The site had been inactive for 28 days before it disappeared, with the last new leak appearing on May 25. As our May ransomware report revealed, despite the noise it generated from its attacks on Costa Rica, Conti’s activity was significantly depressed in May, while the activity of gangs with alleged links to Conti increased, driven largely by the rise of BlackBasta.

Known ransomware attacks in May 2022

Conti ransomware group’s pulse stops, but did it fake its own death?

Cybersecurity experts want a hotline for SMBs to further encourage cyber incident reporting, especially those involving ransomware attacks.
The post Dial 311 for… cybersecurity emergencies? appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Members of the Cybersecurity Advisory Committee of CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) have proposed an emergency cybersecurity call line for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Should the proposition be approved, SMBs would be able to call 311 in the event of a cybersecurity incident.

CISA’s cyberhygiene subcommittee head, George Stathakopoulos, originally floated the idea that CISA should “launch a 311 national campaign, to provide an emergency call line and clinics for assistance following cyber incidents for small and medium businesses.” The communications subcommittee also floated a similar idea.

CISA and other cybersecurity experts have pushed for more robust incident response reporting. In March, President Joe Biden signed the Strengthening American Cybersecurity Act, a cyber incident reporting bill requiring critical infrastructure operators to report a breach to CISA within 72 hours, and 24 hours if they made a ransomware payment.

CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Eric Goldstein bemoaned how damaging it is for CISA to have little data over ransomware attacks in the US. Speaking to attendees in RSA, Goldstein was quoted saying:

> “A tiny fraction of ransomware infections are reported to the government and the problem is getting worse because we don’t even know what that actual number is. We have no idea the actual denominator of ransomware instructions that are occurring across the country on any given day.”

Dial 311 for… cybersecurity emergencies?

We take a look at reports of rogue cryptocurrency billboards out to phish wallet details from unwary victims.
The post Rogue cryptocurrency billboards go phishing for wallets appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Billboards and digital real world advertising has raised many questions of privacy and anonymity in recent years. Until now, the primary concern has been (mostly) legal, yet potentially objectionable geolocation and user profiling. Bluetooth beacons work in tandem with geofenced billboards to send you offers. Stores follow your movements and tailor products accordingly, occasionally with very bad results. It’s such a common practice that you even see digital advertising used to track appearing in video games.

Attacks we’ve seen in the real world typically involve QR code stickers and take two main forms:

*   Letters or emails/chat app conversations which direct victims to Bitcoin ATMs. These attacks can often tie into money mule schemes.
*   Real world alteration/tampering of genuine QR codes. This can involve bogus QR code stickers placed over locations you’d expect to see a real code. Parking meters and car parks generally are prime targets for this type of scam.

We can now add rogue billboards to the list.

**Beware of the party crashers**

NFT NYC describes itself as “the leading annual non-fungible token event”. The 2022 meet-up is the fourth such event to take place. With NFTs hitting boiling point in the media, it’s natural to think scammers would turn their sights on the plundering of incredibly fungible apes and other items of a digital nature.

If you’re up to no good, and you know digital finance is filled with insecure coin-laden wallets and expensive jpegs, this is _absolutely_ something you’re going to take an interest in.

Sure enough:

The screenshot is from a Discord channel, which says:

> _BE ALERT IF YOU ARE AT NFT NYC_
> 
> _Reports of scam billboards in NYC with QR codes leading to Wallet Drainer sites._

This is probably a good time to explain what a wallet drainer site is.

**Of wallets and draining**

Sadly, it seems nobody grabbed a photo of what these scam billboards look like. However, a “wallet drainer” is just another way of saying “phishing website”. There are three ways the majority of cryptocurrency phishes take place:

1.  Airdrop phishing. This can involve entering your wallet’s recovery phrase onto a fake website (don’t do this), or connecting your wallet directly to the phishing portal (don’t do this either).
2.  Bogus giveaways. These claim you’ll double your money, and often say they are endorsed by celebrities or Elon Musk.
3.  Rogue adverts. These bogus advertisements could lead you to either of the above, or even some completely unrelated technique.

People have confirmed in the replies to the original tweet that the theft here depended on victims scanning the code, and then clicking through to the phishing page. The phishing component depended on them manually entering their details into the fake website. It is _not_ the case that simply visiting it would immediately drain funds or cause apes to go walkabout.

**Rogue cryptocurrency billboards: A growing trend?**

I’m wondering if this is the official cementing of rogue billboards as a digital finance scam technique. You may be surprised to learn this _isn’t_ the first time someone has tried this.

Back in May, cryptocurrency exchange Binance warned of a rash of bogus billboards popping up in Turkey. Scam artists “plastered fake Binance billboards throughout the country”, many of which included a phone number answered by criminals behind the scheme.

> 🛑Bir süredir Türkiye’nin farklı bölgelerinde aşağıdaki görsele benzer reklam panoları göze çarpmaktadır.
> 
> Aşağıdaki görselin #Binance ile ilgisi yoktur❗️
> 
> Dolandırıcılık faaliyeti içinde oldukları açıkça belli olan kişiler hakkında gerekli hukuki süreçler başlatılmıştır.#SAFU pic.twitter.com/znvJDLRP7v
> 
> — Binance Türkiye (@Binance\_Turkish) May 8, 2022

The tactic used here was to convince unwary investors to hand over their seed/recovery phrases. Others were asked to register new accounts. Cryptocurrency scams involving new accounts tend to have funds deposited over time. Eventually the scammers have the victim transfer the funds to sites run exclusively by them. No matter which tactic is used, someone pulled in by the billboard has a strong chance of losing out.

This is clearly a technique which is working for phishers no matter the location. If you’re at an event or simply out and about and spot a cryptocurrency billboard, play it safe. Does the billboard mention a digital finance organisation? Check with the organisation if the URL is genuine. If you’re asked for seed/recovery phrases, _don’t_ hand them over. Does the billboard make claims of doubling whatever you deposit? This is almost certainly a scam, especially if tied to a promotion from Elon Musk or TESLA.

Stay safe out there!

Rogue cryptocurrency billboards go phishing for wallets

Europol, the Belgian police, and the Dutch police, have apprehended members of a cybercriminal gang involved in phishing and other fraud.
The post Police seize and dismantle massive phishing operation appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Europol has coordinated a joint operation to arrest members of a cybercrime gang and effectively dismantle their campaigns that netted million in Euros. This operation also led the Belgian Police (Police Fédérale/Federale Politie) and the Dutch Police (Politie) to nine arrests, 24 house searches, and the seizure of firearms, ammunition, jewelry, electronic devices, cash, and cryptocurrency.

The group was involved in fraud, money laundering, phishing, and scams.

According to a Europol press release, the group’s modus operandi started with an email, text message, or private message containing a link to a phishing page.

Once recipients opened the link, they would be directed to a bogus bank website. Here, they were encouraged to enter their banking credentials. Money mules then used these credentials to cash out millions in Euros from victim accounts.

On top of fraud, the group was also involved in drug and possible firearms trafficking.

“Europol facilitated the information exchange, the operational coordination and provided analytical support for investigation,” reads the press release, revealing law enforcement involvement in the arrest operation. “During the operation, Europol deployed three experts to the Netherlands to provide real-time analytical support to investigators on the ground, forensics and technical expertise.”

The takedown of this phishing operation came months after Europol shut down the FluBot Android operation and the seizure of RaidForums, a hacking forum.

Police seize and dismantle massive phishing operation

Swiss researchers debunked MEGA's claims that anyone that would be able to take over MEGA's infrastructure would still not have access to your information and files.
The post MEGA claims it can’t decrypt your files. But someone’s managed to… appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

MEGA, the cloud storage provider and file hosting service, is very proud of its end-to-end encryption. It says it couldn’t decrypt your stored files, even if it wanted to.

“All your data on MEGA is encrypted with a key derived from your password; in other words, your password is your main encryption key. MEGA does not have access to your password or your data. Using a strong and unique password will ensure that your data is protected from being hacked and gives you total confidence that your information will remain just that – yours.”

But there’s a problem. A Swiss team of researchers has just proved those claims wrong.

And that’s not all. The research went one step further, finding that an attacker could insert malicious files into the storage, passing all authenticity checks of the client.

**Cryptography flaws**

Researchers at the Department of Computer Science of the ETH Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland reviewed the security of MEGA and found significant issues in how it uses cryptography.

These findings could lead to devastating attacks on the confidentiality and integrity of user data in the MEGA cloud.

**Key hierarchy**

The MEGA client derives an authentication key and an encryption key from the password. The authentication key identifies users to MEGA. The encryption key encrypts a randomly generated master key, which in turn encrypts other key material of the user. Every account has a set of asymmetric keys: An RSA key pair for sharing data, a Curve25519 key pair for exchanging chat keys for MEGA’s chat functionality, and an Ed25519 key pair for signing the other keys. Furthermore, the client generates a new key for every file or folder (collectively referred to as nodes) uploaded by the user.

Long story short, all the keys are derived in one way or another from the password. And all the keys get stored on MEGA’s servers to support access from multiple devices.

**Ciphertext**

Ciphertext is encrypted text transformed from plaintext using an encryption algorithm. The researchers built two attacks based on the lack of integrity protection of ciphertexts containing keys, and two further attacks to breach the integrity of file ciphertexts and allow a malicious service provider to insert chosen files into a user’s cloud storage.

**Attacks**

Due to the flawed integrity protection, a malicious service provider can recover a user’s private RSA share key (used to share file and folder keys) over 512 login attempts. The number is 512 because of the RSA-CRT implementation used by MEGA clients to build an oracle that leaks one bit of information per login attempt about a factor of the RSA modulus.

As a result the malicious service provider can recover any plaintext encrypted with AES-ECB under a user’s master key. This includes all node keys used for encrypting files and folders. As a consequence, the confidentiality of all user data protected by these keys, such as files and chat messages, is lost.

Based on the first two attacks, a malicious service provider can construct an encrypted file. The user cannot demonstrate that they didn’t upload the forged data because the files and keys are indistinguishable from genuinely uploaded ones. It needs no further explanation that introducing a malicious file in such an attack could further compromise not only the user’s system, but also for those the user has shared their files or folders with.

**MEGA’s response**

MEGA acknowledged the issue on March 24, 2022, and released patches on June 21, 2022, awarding the researchers a bug bounty. But MEGA’s fix differs greatly from what the researchers proposed, patching only for the first attack alone since the other attacks rely on the first one.

Since that does not fix the key reuse issue, lack of integrity checks, and other systemic problems the researchers identified, this remains a source of concern for them.

As a regular MEGA user there is no reason to worry about these flaws, especially if you haven’t logged in more than 512 times. An attacker would need to have control over MEGA’s API servers or TLS connections without being noticed to perform any of these attacks.

Anyone interested in more technical details, can read the researcher’s paper.

MEGA claims it can’t decrypt your files. But someone’s managed to…

Popular zipfile program 7-Zip now supports Microsoft's Mark of the Web feature. What is it, and how does it work?
The post 7-Zip gets Mark of the Web feature, increases protection for users appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

One of the most popular zip programs around, 7-Zip, now offers support for “Mark of the Web” (MOTW), which gives users better protection from malicious files.

This is good news. But what does that actually mean?

In the bad old days, opening up a downloaded document could be a fraught exercise. Malicious files would often have full permission from the system to do whatever they wanted. Compromised PCs were the inevitable end result, and infected attachments were extremely popular. Outside of regular security tools, there often wasn’t much else available to help stop the flow.

Microsoft’s file block feature in 2007 meant network administrators could lock down any attempt to open specific file types. Unfortunately, this was a little too restrictive for some users. Files couldn’t be opened, even in cases where the user knew they were safe.

Microsoft changed things up a little in 2010, with Protected View.

**Protected View: what is it?**

Every time you download a spreadsheet or Word document and open it up, some checking takes place in the background. Downloaded files produce a yellow bar with the following message:

> _Protected View: Be careful. Files from the internet can contain viruses. Unless you need to edit, it’s safer to stay in Protected View._

This isn’t too different to the old file block feature, with a few key differences. Firstly, you can actually look at the document you want to open. As it is locked into a read-only mode, it can’t do anything malicious to your system. Secondly, users now have the option to enable editing. While there are other potentially dangerous aspects to opening downloaded files, Microsoft has solutions for those too. There is, of course, something telling these programs to warn you about potentially dangerous files. This is where MOTW comes into play.

**How does Mark of the Web help?**

MOTW is perhaps most recently known for blocking VBA code from running in Office. When a file is downloaded, Windows adds a ZoneId to the file which is responsible for the warning message(s). When the system detects the mark, the yellow bar is replaced by a red one. Unlike it’s yellow counterpart, there is no enable content button. Those files are done, with no way back.

Right click a file you’ve downloaded, and in General properties you should see a message which reads:

> _This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer._

This exists thanks to MOTW.

The mark doesn’t exist on the file itself, which is left untouched. Originally an Internet Explorer security feature, you’ll now find it keeping you from harm’s way across the Microsoft product range.

**Is this new addition a benefit for a zip program?**

Absolutely. As noted by Bleeping Computer, MOTW didn’t apply to files extracted with 7-Zip. As a result, you’d have Office files opening as if you’d created them yourself with no Protected View in sight.

With this now enabled in the latest version of 7-Zip, some key Windows security precautions are now back in place.

There are some caveats to this story. As we know, not everybody pays attention to security warnings. Computer users routinely ignore all manner of security alerts from their operating system, browser, and security tools. The design and placement of warnings can further deter people paying attention to them. On top of all that, bogus security warnings can further make things confusing for users.

No matter how many warning messages are displayed, some people will still click “Enable” on files they shouldn’t. Even so, opening downloaded files with restrictions applied from the get-go can only be a good thing.

Source

Malwarebytes