Zip archiving has long been used by cybercriminals to hide viruses that spread over the Internet. However, Microsoft seems to have found a way to bypass this protection and scan files for malware.
It came as a surprise to security researcher Andrew Brandt, although some users assumed this. For a long time he archived malware in password protected zip files and shared them with colleagues via SharePoint.
Recently, he noticed that a Microsoft tool had flagged one of the zip files as potentially malicious, even though the archive was password protected.
Brandt expressed concerns that this practice could hinder the work of security professionals. After all, it’s important that they can transfer malware samples to each other.
Also, despite the potential benefits of this approach in combating viruses, such an approach by Microsoft can be perceived as a violation of user privacy. After all, actively hacking a password-protected archive sounds like a privacy breach.
Source: Ferra
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