If you are a Windows user and have QuickTime installed on your PC, you should uninstall it now. Last week IT Security Company Trend Micro found bugs in the QuickTime software that could leave a user’s PC vulnerable to viruses and remote attacks.
QuickTime is an application developed by Apple to play multimedia content on a user’s computer. It was announced recently by Apple that they would stop releasing updates for QuickTime on Windows, which means that these bugs found by Trend Micro will never be corrected.
Trend Micro are urging everyone to follow Apple’s guidance and uninstall QuickTime for Windows as soon as possible. They released the following statement saying “Apple is deprecating QuickTime for Microsoft Windows. They will no longer be issuing security updates for the product on the Windows Platform and recommend users uninstall it.” The full security alert by Trend Micro can be found here.
The US Department of Homeland Security has also released their own statement from their Computer Emergency Readiness Team. Their statement can be found here, but goes on to say the “unsupported software may increase the risks from viruses and other security threats. Potential negative consequences include loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability of data, as well as damage to system resources or business assets. The only mitigation available is to uninstall QuickTime for Windows.”
We at Tech180 urge users to uninstall QuickTime for Windows as soon as possible, if you have not done so already. If you are unsure how to do this, then you can follow these steps here. It should also be noted that these bugs are only affecting Windows users and that it does not apply to QuickTime on Mac OSX.