QuickTime For Windows: Homeland Security Says To Uninstall Apple Media Player ASAP
Users of QuickTime for Windows were advised last Thursday by Homeland Security to uninstall the Apple video and audio player as soon as possible.
According to a blog post by Trend Micro on April 14, Apple no longer issues security updates for QuickTime installed on Windows systems, and the U.S. government issued an “urgent call to action” for anyone using QuickTime on a Microsoft Windows PC to immediately uninstall the app.
Trend Micro says Windows users should uninstall Quicktime immediately. https://t.co/lPRw3lsVWb pic.twitter.com/hcXxPCGbWy
— PC Gamer (@pcgamer) April 15, 2016
QuickTime is a popular Apple media player that is capable of playing several formats of audio, video, and images, and is available as a free download for Mac OS X Leopard and newer Apple Macintosh operating systems, as well as Windows Vista and newer Microsoft Windows operating systems.
Apple used to bundle QuickTime with iTunes downloads, but stopped prior to the release of iTunes 10.5.
Microsoft Windows users can still download QuickTime as a standalone installation. But Apple says they will no longer support QuickTime for Windows, and will not continue to patch security vulnerabilities.
However, security vulnerabilities continue to be an issue with QuickTime. Inc.com reports that just this past week, two critical vulnerabilities were discovered.
According to Inc.com, both vulnerabilities allow criminals to hack into Windows devices with the user logged in and Apple QuickTime installed. Device users would only have to run malware or visit an infected page introduced by a hacking criminal to become vulnerable to these security attacks.
But only the QuickTime for Windows user has to worry. Apple will still provide support and security patches for QuickTime installed on the Mac OS X operating system.
Apple hasn’t actually issued any new updates for QuickTime on Windows devices since January of this year, and now the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is telling all Windows users to simply uninstall QuickTime to avoid potentially serious security vulnerabilities.
Even Homeland Security Wants You to Uninstall Quicktime for Windows https://t.co/dBp6JbCpqs
— Marsha Collier (@MarshaCollier) April 15, 2016
The impact for Windows users who continue to run QuickTime could be serious, according to the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT).
US-CERT.gov issued a statement last Thursday addressing this impact.
“Computer systems running unsupported software are exposed to elevated cybersecurity dangers, such as increased risks of malicious attacks or electronic data loss. Exploitation of QuickTime for Windows vulnerabilities could allow remote attackers to take control of affected systems.”
The US-CERT alert went on to say that the only mitigation for Windows users is to uninstall QuickTime or risk possible loss of data and privacy, as well as possible damage to their device.
QuickTime for Windows will continue to work, but there are other free options available these days for Windows users to watch videos and play music.
In fact, Apple still advertises QuickTime as “powerful media technology that works on Mac and PC with just about every popular video or audio format you come across.”
But MakeUseOf.com disagrees, saying Windows users actually have several other free media player options available to them, including the VLC Media Player, Media Player Classic, and SMPlayer.
All three of those alternatives to Apple’s QuickTime player are free to download on Microsoft Windows and play media in several different media formats without compromising the security on a user’s device.
The MakeUseOf.com article actually lists five free Microsoft Windows media players, saying those five players are “probably the best free Windows media players you’ll find on Windows.”
And, of course, loyal Windows users also still have the default Windows Media Player option that comes pre-installed on all Microsoft Windows devices, according to Microsoft.
“Windows Media Player 12 is included in clean installs of Windows 10 as well as upgrades to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1 or Windows 7.”
Trend Micro says that Apple QuickTime is just the latest free software that no longer receives updates to fix security vulnerabilities on Windows platforms, joining Windows XP and Oracle Java 6, even though, according to Redmond Magazine, Windows XP still had 250 million users worldwide just a year ago.
Windows users continue to cling to the past with old, outdated, and unsupported software, but now the U.S. government, along with the security firm Trend Micro, says it’s time for people to move on from antiquated software like QuickTime for Windows or continue to face viruses and even serious loss of personal data.
[Image by Ed Uthman/Wikimedia Commons]
