No one saw this coming. Microsoft’s campaign to push Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11 had been heading in just one direction. Until now. The Windows-maker has suddenly and quietly changed a critical deadline, which will surprise the 700 million PC owners yet to move to Windows 11. In January, I reported on yet another Microsoft deadline to push Windows 10 users to take the free Windows 11 upgrade. While some 240 million users don’t have a new enough PC to run the latest OS, hundreds of millions can upgrade but are currently choosing not to — albeit that number is reducing month-by-month. This deadline hit apps rather than the OS itself. “Microsoft 365 Apps will no longer be supported after October 14, 2025, on Windows 10 devices,” the company said. “To use Microsoft 365 Applications on your device, you will need to upgrade to Windows 11.” In a support document, the company confirmed “Microsoft 365 apps will no longer be supported on Windows 10 after it reaches end of support,” just as “Microsoft 365 apps are no longer supported on Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 now that these operating systems have reached their end of support dates.” That particular support document had not been changed at the time of writing. But as spotted by Neowin, “it looks like Microsoft has had a big change of heart. On a Tech Community blog post about Windows 10 extended security updates (ESU) it recently updated, the company has confirmed that Microsoft 365 apps will be supported for another three years till 2028. Neowin noticed this new addition while browsing.” That browsing hit on a different, newly updated support document, in which Microsoft says “to help maintain security while you transition to Windows 11, Microsoft will continue providing security updates for Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 10 for three years after Windows 10 reaches end of support. These updates will be delivered through the standard update channels, ending on October 10, 2028.” Microsoft warns that “using an unsupported OS can cause performance and reliability issues when running Microsoft 365 Apps. More interestingly, although “if the issue occurs only with Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 10, with or without Windows 10 Extended Security Updates, and doesn’t occur on Windows 11, support will ask the customer to move to Windows 11,” Microsoft also says “if the customer is unable to move to Windows 11, support will provide troubleshooting assistance only; technical workarounds might be limited or unavailable.” That comers across as a direct shout-out to the 240 million Windows 10 users who don’t have a TPM 2.0 PC and so can’t accept the free Windows 11 upgrade today. The primary issue for those users is security, and this has now been resolved for Microsoft 365 apps. Unlike the current plan for a Windows 10 ESU, this update extension offer is free. “To help maintain security while you transition to Windows 11,” Microsoft now says it “will continue providing security updates for Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 10 for three years after Windows 10 reaches end of support. These updates will be delivered through the standard update channels, ending on October 10, 2028.” This will come across as a soft three-year extension for those users to extend a move and to hold off buying a new PC. More critically, it also signals that Microsoft is bedding down for a prolonged period of Windows 10 users running PCs with no support. Learn more visit OUR FORUM.

America’s Android and iPhone users are under attack from a plague of dangerous text messages driven by organized Chinese gangs. The FBI has warned that such scams are sweeping the country “state to state,” and thus far no network or phone maker has been able to stem the tide. This is not getting better, it’s getting worse — much worse. While undelivered packages and unpaid tolls have grabbed the headlines, it’s a different type of malicious text that has been described by the police as “the latest, fastest growing digital scam,” and which was highlighted by the FTC as a threat to Americans. We’re talking wrong number lures, which have already been sent to tens of millions of Americans, with countless more sent every day. The intent of the text is to solicit a reply, to trick the recipient into a chat. The FTC warns these “often evolve into a conversation with romantic undertones that can lead to investment and other scams.” If you haven’t been hit up by these texts yet, the chances are that you will. It might be a simple call out to a name you don’t recognize or it might tempt a reply with a lure such as “Hey Stacy, just making sure you’re still on to meet at 6pm. I’m heading there now,” to trick you into a well-meaning reply to let the sender know it’s a wrong number. Other lures might include a doctor’s appointment, a social event, a funeral, a hospital visit, a message after a long absence, anything to solicit a reply. This is pure social engineering, the itchy texting fingers we all have. The texts will usually start with a name that isn’t yours. The intent is to be clear it’s a wrong number from the start. The goal of the text often isn’t to lead into a conversation of any kind — all the attacker needs is for you to reply, to reply with anything, and they hit their target. Your phone number is included in multiple databases that are held overseas by the organized criminal gangs behind these operations. Wrong number lures are a powerful way to confirm your number is active — the text goes through — and the user is willing to reply. If you do reply, an unrelated attack will follow. Not necessarily straight away, but soon. And it won’t just be one further attempt, the gangs have multiple different ways to try to trick you into clicking a link, giving away your passwords, your financial information, and potentially even your identity. This is fraud on an industrial scale. McAfee warns “these messages may seem harmless, but they’re often the first step in long-game scams designed to steal personal data — or even life savings. McAfee research shows 1 in 4 Americans have received one. Best advice? Don’t engage.” The power in this approach is the message itself doesn’t seem to be a scam. As Bitdefender says, “these texts though are not so obvious from the beginning, with no red flags such as suspicious links or mentions of you winning a prize.” A new report from XConnect and Mobilesquared highlights the scale of the market when it comes to “harmful” traffic, swhcuh is defined as “SMSes that can have a direct or indirect negative impact on consumers and enterprise, including smishing, SIM farms, AIT, trashing, SIM swap, and so on.” The report suggests “harmful traffic levels peaked in 2023 and are projected to gradually decline over the remainder of the forecast period to 2029. Harmful traffic peaked at just over 18% of total traffic and will drop to around 16.5%." That said, a reduction from 18% to 16.5% is not the game-changer most would hope for, and they’d certainly want to see better filtering of such threats by networks or devices. The other factor that plays here is the likelihood for detection and whether the fraud will hit its targeted outcome. It’s here that the acceleration of AI-fueled scams will have a devastating impact, making attacks much more efficient and effective. “Over half of telecoms service providers expect SMS to experience an increase in fraud in 2025,” says Digit News, citing these latest findings, "with less than a third expecting SMS to become a cleaner channel in this period." That’s not a good news story. Fortunately this works both ways — or will when it starts to make more of a dent. Google Messages, essentially the stock texting client on Android, “now uses AI to flag conversational text patterns commonly associated with scams, so you can identify messages that seem harmless, but turn dangerous over time." Follow this and more on OUR FORUM.