14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8 will go on sale next month and Microsoft already describes it as one of the most important products in the company’s history.
But what’s more important is that Windows 8 comes with a long list of security improvements that’s very likely to put an end to a widespread legend claiming that Windows is a very unsafe operating system.
Windows 8’s security layers were brought in the spotlight at the Black Hat and DEF CON security conferences in Las Vegas, with the conclusion being a rather positive one: the new OS is a very secure working environment.
Sung-ting Tsai of Trend Micro tried to break into Windows 8, but in the end admitted that only vulnerable third-party apps could allow hackers to infiltrate the system.
Metro apps are based on a restricted sandbox, itproportal.com writes, while Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, two of the Microsoft products that are very likely to be installed on Windows 8 workstations, cannot be exploited without the user noticing it.
Hackers may come down to ClickOnce, which is the installation service packed into Windows 8 and, while Microsoft admitted that this is indeed one of the vulnerable areas, it promised to launch a fix in the next update of the OS.
In the end, it proved that Windows 8 is indeed a very safe operating system and with more and more viruses aimed at OS X computers, it has all the chances to keep you on the safe side no matter what.
There is however a very important issue to be resolved: Windows RT, the Windows 8 version to be installed on tablets, may block the installation of third-party security apps. Symantec is one of the first companies that encouraged users to install such a security solution on the upcoming Windows RT, claiming that Microsoft’s revised Windows Defender may not be able to protect users and their data.