Microsoft’s Scary Windows Update—Change Your Settings Now After FBI Warning

In a refreshing change from recent negative sparring with Google, Microsoft has just confirmed a critical update for Windows PC users that should make everyone safer. The Windows-maker is asking users to change their settings now, given this new update targets a threat the FBI has warned costs victims “over a billion dollars per year.”

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“You’ve seen it yourself,” Microsoft posted, “There are more scams than ever before, on your phone, in your inbox, and in your browser. In fact, our data shows that in 2024, Edge blocked five times more scams on average than it blocked just three years earlier.” And while “Edge uses Microsoft Defender SmartScreen to block known scams as people encounter them,” Microsoft says, “what if you’re the first person to see a new scam before it can be blocked?”

This latest update addresses so-called “scareware,” which can be especially convincing and urgent. “They use aggressive web pages to convince victims into thinking their system is infected with malware, pressure them to call a fake tech support number, and try to gain access to the computer.” We saw just how powerful such scams can be this week, with a security savvy engineer nearly caught out by a fake Google support call that mimicked all the right phone numbers and email addresses.

“Tech support scammers continue to impersonate well-known tech companies,” the FBI has warned, “offering to fix non-existent technology issues, renewing fraudulent software, or security subscriptions.”

And it’s this threat that Microsoft has addressed: “Scareware blocker uses a machine learning model to recognize the tell-tale signs of scareware scams and puts users back in control of their computer. We call on users who want to combat scams to help us test our preview.” And you can do that with a simple settings change.

As Crowdstrike says, “generally speaking, scareware is the gateway to a more intricate cyberattack and not an attack in and of itself. Scareware is often part of a multi-prong attack which incorporates social engineering techniques and spoofing to heighten the sense of urgency and drive the desired behavior. Scareware attacks, like many forms of malware attacks, are especially troublesome in that the scammer may gain access to the user’s account information or credit card details, which can put the user at risk of identity theft or other forms of fraud.”

Blocking such threats in real-time is critical because “scams have become more sophisticated, often moving after a few hours to evade detection. This makes early detection crucial for protecting users. Scareware can appear unexpectedly, especially in rogue online advertisements. For example, you might accidentally click on a misleading banner ad while searching for a product manual, leading you to a scareware site instead of the PDF file you were trying to download.”

Microsoft also warns that such scareware can mimic the threat it promises to fix, automating to full-screen so as to fake a device malfunction, playing sounds, blocking your keyboard or mouse, locking your screen.

So, how does the new scareware blocker work? “Most people who land on a scam in Edge will be protected by Defender SmartScreen," Microsoft says. "Once an abusive site is detected, SmartScreen can protect users worldwide within minutes. Scareware blocker adds a new, first line of defense to help protect the users exposed to a new scam if it attempts to open a full screen page. Scareware blocker uses a machine learning model that runs on the local computer. The model uses computer vision to compare full screen pages to thousands of sample scams that the scam-fighting community shared with us. The model runs locally, without saving or sending images to the cloud.”

When a threat is detected, “Edge will put users back in control by exiting full screen mode, stopping aggressive audio playback, warning the user, and showing a thumbnail of the page they were just viewing.” It won’t always get it right, but it’s a warning not a lockdown. “Users can also report when scareware blocker makes a mistake and blocks a legitimate page.”

Clearly this is Edge not Chrome, but for those using Microsoft’s browser, “scareware blocker is rolling out now as a preview for all Edge users on Windows PCs. To enable in Edge, first make sure that previews are allowed by your administrator and also that Edge is fully up to date. You may want to restart the browser once more to make sure your Edge client has the preview. After making sure you have the latest updates, you should see the scareware blocker preview listed under ‘Privacy Search and Services’.” This is on-device AI, so your feedback will help them hone their model.

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This is good for a number of reasons, especially the on-device, privacy-preserving methodology. As I’ve commented before, especially when it comes to email threats, we need much more of this AI-fueled local detection and prevention.