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

After DAILY having to deal with support scam pop ups getting past my Windows Defender while using a Windows 8.1 operating system, I finally switched to Windows 10.  The very first day my wife was on line, the support scam popped up again.  Windows Defender is USELESS in defending our computer from these attacks.

Yes Thomas, that's because most of these are simply browser popups and nothing more, so there's no malware present for Defender or any other AV or antimalware app to detect.  You might personally consider these "malicious", but in reality they're just text and HTML screen formatting attempting to catch the stupid and uninformed.

Since the most common method the malicious actors use today in order to deliver these is via advertising networks and browser redirection, the top methods for blocking them involve the use of advertising blockers or privacy settings within the browser or Windows itself.

As Microsoft and the app developers have closed the door on most direct attack vectors such as vulnerabilities within the operating system and apps, the malicious actors had moved first to directly invoking popups within the browsers and then to this current redirection delivered via ad networks.  Only the impending end of desktop Windows itself holds some promise that most of these attacks will eventually end, since its the multitude of vulnerabilities and legacy code that still exists that continues to enable this never-ending arms race.

I personally never receive any of these popups myself unless I purposefully browse the darker corners of the Internet in an attempt to experience them.  That's due to the fact that I chose relatively excessive Privacy settings in both the Edge and IE11 bowsers, as well as Windows 8.1 and 10 within days of initially buying or installing the Windows upgrades to these systems.

Ad blockers and other programmatic attempts at stopping these attacks as simply playing with fire, good privacy settings just dump cold water on the match before the fire can be lit.

Rob

Yup. That's why you need to set your Ransomware Protection:

I can't access this option thanks to an ongoing problem currently with Directly:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/in-red-some-settings-are-managed-by-your-own/f51289c9-9247-4261-aa11-ad836decfb41

I've added this Settings problem to that thread.

Perhaps not...but who uses Outlook?

400m/500m

I don't know what was it used for

Fair enough 😁