Microsoft are looking to improve security in Windows 8

Microsoft are looking to improve security in Windows 8 greatly and we’ve already seen evidence of this with a new bootloader that prevents harmful software like rootkits from ever executing on your system. There’s several improvements in the BIOS security, however it has come under fire recently. Some people have said that it could prevent other operating systems from being installed on a Windows machine as they wouldn’t have the necessary signatures.

But now McAfee are predicting that because Windows 8 will be so secure on the software side of things, that hackers are more likely to go and try hardware based malware attacks instead, which are now seen as an easier option.

“Advances in the Windows 8 bootloader security feature have already caused researchers to show how they can be subverted through legacy BIOS,”

Intel are also looking to roll out it’s UEFI (unified extensible firmware interface) which could enforce secure booting on machines, which will again make it even harder for hackers to use traditional software methods of hacking. They’ll need to find away to get around these security features on the hardware side of things.

According to the report, we could see hackers attacking graphics processor functions, the BIOS and other various hardware components.

Follow @ http://www.windows8news.com/2011/12/30/windows-8-could-cause-more-hardware-based-attacks/