Be careful with Windows 11 Alpha, it can be very expensive

Surely by now we have all heard of Windows 11, Microsoft‘s new operating system that will succeed the current Windows 10. If all goes well, this new system will reach all users within a few weeks, and will mark a before and an after in Windows history. However, as it was not going to be less, hackers are trying to make their own taking advantage of the popularity of this new system. And so, falling into the new campaign known as ” Windows 11 Alpha ” can be very expensive.

Be careful with Windows 11 Alpha

How Windows 11 Alpha Malware Works

Hackers, as usual, are taking advantage of people’s ignorance about this new system to be able to deceive them, make them download malware from the Internet, and take control of the PC and all the victim’s data.

Taking advantage of the tests that Microsoft is carrying out of its system, this group of hackers distributes a document supposedly created with Windows 11 Alpha. And, to be able to open it in older versions of the OS, it is necessary to carry out a series of steps that the document itself indicates. By performing these steps, the malicious code (hidden by macros) is executed on our computer. And with it, hackers get full control over the PC.

Windows 11 Alpha

Some fun facts about malware are:

  • It detects the system language, and if it is Russian, Ukrainian, Moldovan, Sorbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Estonian or Serbian, the malware stops.
  • Detects if it is running in a virtual machine, and kills the process to avoid being scanned.
  • If there is less than 4GB of RAM, it doesn’t work.
  • Use LDAP to validate the RootDSE.

Once malicious JavaScript is executed on your computer, the first thing hackers do is steal all personal and banking information from your computer, information that is subsequently sold on hacker networks and forums. Although who is behind this new malware distribution campaign has not yet been identified with certainty, everything points to it being the FIN7 cybercrime group.

How to protect ourselves from this new campaign

At the moment it is not known exactly how this malicious document is distributed, although everything indicates that it does so via email. Since he began his adventures, in July of this year, it is believed that more than 15 million bank details have been stolen, which would have a value of one billion dollars .

To protect ourselves from this campaign, the most important thing is to know it. Windows 11 Alpha doesn’t really exist. Also, any document that we create in Windows 11 will be seamlessly supported in Windows 10, as long as we use an up-to-date and supported version of Word. The Windows version does not affect the compatibility of a Word document at any time.

Of course, we must always distrust by default , especially what comes to us through email. We should never download and execute any attachment in an email if we are not 100% sure that it has actually been sent by a known person. Otherwise, it can be really expensive.