14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8 is a forbidden product on government computers in China and the local authorities are also asking some other provinces to give up on this OS version, but it appears that a number of security companies in the country are still helping Microsoft keep Windows secure.
This month's Patch Tuesday cycle brought fixes for a total of 59 security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, many of which have been fixed with help coming from Qihoo security experts.
Qihoo is a Chinese security vendor that has already launched several products, including an anti-virus solution that tries to compete with the existing leaders on this particular side of the market using a powerful detection engine, fast scanning and real-time protection.
The “Acknowledgments” section of the MS14-035 security bulletin points to several tips received from security researchers working for Qihoo, including Liu Long, Yujie Wen, Zhibin Hu, and Yuki Chen, all of which have thus helped Microsoft make Internet Explorer more secure.
This shouldn't come as a surprise though, as Microsoft has recently signed a deal with Qihoo that could help them continue efforts in mobile Internet products and artificial intelligence technologies offered to Chinese users.
In the meantime, the software giant is also discussing with the Central government on ways to unban Windows 8, while also offering Windows 7 as a replacement until these talks come to a conclusion.
The company told us in a statement last month that it was “surprised” with China's decision to ban Windows 8, but explained that it's working to address all issues and demonstrate that its new OS is indeed much more secure and no back-doors are hiding in its code.
“We were surprised to learn about the reference to Windows 8 in this notice. Microsoft has been working proactively with the Central Government Procurement Center and other government agencies through the evaluation process to ensure that our products and services meet all government procurement requirements. We have been and will continue to provide Windows 7 to government customers. At the same time we are working on the Window 8 evaluation with relevant government agencies,” a company spokesperson told us.
In the meantime, everyone is recommended to deploy this month's Patch Tuesday updates especially because they're addressing so many vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. Most of the patches developed with help from Chinese researchers address memory corruption issues, so it's critical for everyone using Windows 7 or Windows 8 to deploy these fixes as soon as possible.