Microsoft introduces a new tool called “Scarware Blocker”, which uses machine learning and computer vision to determine a widespread type of online fraud.
SCARWARE has almost disturbed the Internet since its inception, and is often in the form of counterfeit antiviral programs that it claims has discovered a threat that does not exist on the user device. Then they deceive the user to install a harmful program, or pay for the programs they do not need.
Only last year, two technician support companies They were forced to pay 26 million dollars As part of the Federal Trade Committee (FTC), which accused companies of deceptive marketing practices, including the use of fake windows, for consumer fraud.
Samuel Levin, director of the FTC Consumer Protection Office, said in a statement in a time statement.
Microsoft already offers some tools to prevent the Scamm sites that have been discovered and reported elsewhere, but the new feature revolves around banning unknown fraud tools when they try to open a full page on the screen.
Microsoft first Disturbed Al -Mana calls at the IGNITE conference in November, but now he calls users to help test the feature through a preview program in the edge browser.
construction
Scarware Blocker of the user requires stimulating the feature by setting up “privacy, research and services” in Edge.
This adds an additional level of safety to what is found in proverbs Microsoft Defender SmartscreenAnd that is already looking for suspicious activity on web pages. Scarware Blocker specifically interferes if the fraud tool tries to open a page on a full screen, a tactic that can make it difficult to determine and circumvent the fraud process-for example, the user may not know hitting the “ESC” key to get out of the full screen mode.
Microsoft said she uses thousands of real world fraud to train a machine learning model that supports ScarWare. Then it uses a computer vision to compare these samples with the new fraud that you face in the actual time.
If the tool is suspected of a potential ScarWare, it will extract from the situation on the full screen, and stop any audio play (such as warning or sound) that may accompany the fraud, and gives the user the option to follow up on the page or close it completely.
privacy
The fact that Microsoft uses a computer vision to analyze user screens may raise concerns. There are some similarities with Microsoft’s The controversial summons feature that works on behalfAnd that takes footage of user screens to create a recordable record for everything they did on the computer.
However, with Scarware Blocker, Microsoft confirms that the machine learning model is locally on the user device, and nothing is saved to the cloud.
To improve the model and the broader Defender Smartscreen program, Microsoft also holds the comments from the first adopte, and provides them with an option to share a screenshot of fraud with Microsoft. Users can also report scenarios where Scarware Blocker makes a mistake and prevents a real web site.
