I’m seeing Trojan:JS/Flafisi.D detections and Tech Support Scams on the Edge browser Start page

I'm just as frustrated at these issues as most of you are. My team has been working on trying to identify the culprit - we believe an ad is at play, but the ad creatives have been sneaky in hiding their tracks and we're sifting through terabytes of telemetry data that could potentially lead into finding the culprit. Once we do, we'll block it and go after the folks who designed it so we can prevent from happening. 

I apologize for the delay in getting this resolved. It has proven trickier than I expected. For those who do get this often, the idea thing would be have fiddler running at the same time and save the trace for my team to review, but it's a hard to ask of anyone so I'm pursuing the route of telemetry data analysis instead.

Greg,

We were both looking on the wrong direction here, focusing on the current malvertising symptom while the deeper issue was occurring inside Microsoft itself.

After Thursday's announcement and it's obvious side effects, I did a quick search today regarding layoffs and found the second article below.

Windows boss Terry Myerson leaving Microsoft amid huge reorganization - Business Insider

Microsoft Layoffs in 2018 Impact Windows and Device Group

"Although the most severely impacted part of the business is the Windows and Devices Group, several other divisions faced job cuts as well. Employees were shed from product groups like “Bing”—the company’s oft-maligned search engine answer to “Google.”"

Since the MSN moniker is really just a legacy label that's likely now nothing more than a logo, I'd guess that most of the remaining portions of this advertising were driven by the Bing group mentioned in the previous excerpt.  If that group was already being reduced earlier this year before the announcement last Thursday, then I'd bet there's no plan to retain these legacy components for the long term, since as I mentioned these were nothing more than a reformatted set of 3rd-party news blogs anyway.

So I think that assuming Microsoft truly cares what happens to these pages is the mistake here, while it's the larger issues of where Windows itself is really headed and what form it takes in the future of Microsoft itself that's truly of concern at the moment.

"Terry Myerson, the executive vice president of Windows who has long been a leader at Microsoft, will leave the company "in the coming months" as part of a big reshuffling of executive leadership announced on Thursday. "

So if I'd taken the time to research deeper at the beginning, I'd have realized this entire discussion was pointless from the start, except as a warning that Windows users should assume that ad blocking is now the only effective method to protect yourself from malvertising on the legacy Windows platform.

Rob

here

With the way things are going in general-I am so UNSURPRISED by this revelation.  Some companies drain every penny out of their creation, invention, or whatever.  They then let everything go to hell and move all their cash to some island.  NOW-I'm not suggesting that MS has done anything like this or anything illegal. 

Just remember seeing a post on management and maybe even ownership changes at Malwarebytes!!!!!!  

Is switching to Google any type of usable option as a replacement???  Anyone ???

Greg,

We were both looking on the wrong direction here, focusing on the current malvertising symptom while the deeper issue was occurring inside Microsoft itself.

After Thursday's announcement and it's obvious side effects, I did a quick search today regarding layoffs and found the second article below.

Windows boss Terry Myerson leaving Microsoft amid huge reorganization - Business Insider

Microsoft Layoffs in 2018 Impact Windows and Device Group

"Although the most severely impacted part of the business is the Windows and Devices Group, several other divisions faced job cuts as well. Employees were shed from product groups like “Bing”—the company’s oft-maligned search engine answer to “Google.”"

Since the MSN moniker is really just a legacy label that's likely now nothing more than a logo, I'd guess that most of the remaining portions of this advertising were driven by the Bing group mentioned in the previous excerpt.  If that group was already being reduced earlier this year before the announcement last Thursday, then I'd bet there's no plan to retain these legacy components for the long term, since as I mentioned these were nothing more than a reformatted set of 3rd-party news blogs anyway.

So I think that assuming Microsoft truly cares what happens to these pages is the mistake here, while it's the larger issues of where Windows itself is really headed and what form it takes in the future of Microsoft itself that's truly of concern at the moment.

"Terry Myerson, the executive vice president of Windows who has long been a leader at Microsoft, will leave the company "in the coming months" as part of a big reshuffling of executive leadership announced on Thursday. "

So if I'd taken the time to research deeper at the beginning, I'd have realized this entire discussion was pointless from the start, except as a warning that Windows users should assume that ad blocking is now the only effective method to protect yourself from malvertising on the legacy Windows platform.

Rob

here

Hello all, 

I had this same experience 3 times this week.  Always when I have clicked on an article from my MSN homepage.  Two times it just came up that a severe threat was found and to restart.  Yesterday, I heard someone talking and a message popped up in the middle of the screen and I couldn't go to another page, as my screen had frozen.

I just wanted to give you the information in hopes it would help stop this from happening.

Thanks for the info. (KimberlyS1).

I'm doing what Malwarebytes (TODAY) - and (I believe) even Microsoft suggested and downloading that app uBlock origin.

I have thought about even going back to IE 11, but who knows how long that will be around.

I'd like to go back to Windows 7, when I actually understood what the hell was going on.  My PC now seems to be on it's own, telling me what to do and when it wants me to do it.

Anyway, my replies are all on commentary. The latest - I chose to follow this suggestion:  

which is dated 04/30/18 covers a lot of the back and forth between me and MBytes and Micro Comm.  I'm waiting for one more reply from Malwarebytes which I'll probably add as my last posting here.

I remember when having a PC used to be fun & exciting.  Now it's more of a headache than anything else.  We won't even get into Smartphones!!!!

RickC

Hello all, 

I had this same experience 3 times this week.  Always when I have clicked on an article from my MSN homepage.  Two times it just came up that a severe threat was found and to restart.  Yesterday, I heard someone talking and a message popped up in the middle of the screen and I couldn't go to another page, as my screen had frozen.

I just wanted to give you the information in hopes it would help stop this from happening.