New Malware Scam Disguises Itself as a Windows 10 Update

We should start by noting that any Windows 10 updates will, in the significantly vast majority of instances, only be offered directly through the operating system and they will come either automatically (generally meaning you have to wait 5 minutes when you next attempt to shut down your PC) or via their manual update checker. In other words, if you ever get a notification from ‘Microsoft’ through mail or a website claiming that a major update is required on your system, it’s 99.99% almost certainly a scam.

Well, in something that hammers that point home, a report via TechRadar has found that a new Windows 10 ‘update’ malware scam is making the rounds and it’s specifically targeting people through their e-mail accounts.

Windows 10 Update Scam

So, what’s this new scam all about? Well, users have reported receiving an e-mail, purporting to come from Microsoft, suggesting that ‘your’ Windows 10 PC needs an ‘urgent security update’. As per most scams, this may well be misspelled or very poorly worded, but any e-mail or communication such as this (that doesn’t come directly from within the operating system) should already have the alarm bells ringing.

From there, the email will either ask you to open a word document or download the update file with one or both coming attached. Now, in regards to the latter, this is quite straight forward. Put simply, you’re not downloading a Windows 10 update, you’re getting some kind of malware and probably ransomware. In regards to the former, however, this one is a little more unusual.

Malware Macros

In regards to the former issue, this one is mildly more complicated in how the malware is installed, but either way, it largely gives you the same results. A document, such as a ‘Word’ or ‘Excel’ is included in the e-mail and when you open it, through a security exploit involving macros, this will by proxy look to install either malware or ransomware on your system.

So, the short version is, if you get any kind of e-mail telling you that your Windows 10 operating system needs an urgent update. Bin it, delete it, ignore it, but whatever you do, do not open or download the attachments!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!