Are Windows 8 PCs Vulnerable to Cyber Threats?

Microsoft Windows 8 is trending in all over the world, and many users have already been using it in their own PC. It seems those users now surely need to give it a proper thought whether to continue with it (Windows 8) or not.

Recently a reputed German government technology agency has said that new security technology which has presently been running on Microsoft's Windows 8 PCs may convert the computers into more vulnerable to the various cyber threats, including sabotage.

Germany's Federal Office for Information Security, which is popularly known as BSI, published a statement on its official website to put lights on this particular topic. It requested that critical infrastructure operators and federal government agencies should treat it with optimum priority in order to deal with this risk in correct ways.

Earlier in May 2013, Microsoft announced that its Windows 8 update would not cost, and as per promise it unveiled the preview edition in June. It is undoubtedly a very big name in worldwide IT-computing market, and this news may disappoint a large chunk of windows lovers all over the world.

It is worth mentioning here that around a week back U.S. surveillance programs were leaked, which creates quite a buzz among ther web world. Germany has even witnessed a serious public indignation over these leaks. In fact the spying scandal has transferred into a headache for the present Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is preparing for the upcoming election that is scheduled to be held on 22^nd September.

We published here that Microsoft is likely to roll out Widows 8.1 from October 18, and it’s easily understandable that millions of people are eagerly waiting for that to happen. However, the news of Microsoft Windows 8 PCs being vulnerable to cyber threats might discourage them from upgrading.

In the statement BSI explained the problem with simple words. It said, Windows 8 computers generally use a small computer chip named Trusted Platform Module or TPM 2.0, which may create the problem of vulnerability. Surprisingly the TPM 2.0 is developed to enhance the overall protection measures of the PCs by frequently interacting with several security applications.

But the BSI warned that using TPM 2.0 chips in Windows 8 computers might lead to unwanted loss of control over both the hardware and much important operating system. Though BSI didn’t mention exactly how this problem could occur in real time.

BSI offers advice on advanced technology and security measures to German government and the common public as well. It is very good at its job, and considered one of the top most entities in its base.

Here is a small excerpt from the statement,

"As a result, new risks occur for users, especially for federal and critical infrastructure. The new mechanisms in use can also be used for sabotage by third parties. These risks need to be addressed.”

However, the IT major Microsoft didn’t comment on the statement published by BSI. The statement added that the tech giant has added an option to turn off TPM technology when needed. It will surely help targeted customers who are looking forward to buy PCs with the feature disabled.

A leading non-profit organization named Trusted Computing Group designed the TPM technology. It is eventually supported by a few leading tech firms such as IBM, Microsoft, Intel and Hewlett-Packard. BSI concluded by saying that it was working with the operating systems producers and the Trusted Computing Group to find out a proper solution to it.

Final Words

The question is still the same are Windows 8 PCs Vulnerable to Cyber Threats? We can’t simply ignore the words of BSI. I think we should wait a little bit more to check out what Microsoft has to say about it.

We would love to check your thoughts on this topic. Your comments are very much precious to us, so please feel free to put up your opinion here.