Microsoft Warns of 'Destructive Cyberattacks', Issues New Windows XP Patches (zdnet.com)

Ed Bott, reporting for ZDNet: Citing an "elevated risk for destructive cyberattacks," Microsoft today released an assortment of security updates designed to block attacks similar to those responsible for the devastating WannaCry/WannaCrypt ransomware outbreak last month. Today's critical security updates are in addition to the normal Patch Tuesday releases, Microsoft said. They'll be delivered automatically through Windows Update to devices running supported versions, including Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, and post-2008 Windows Server releases. But in an unprecedented move, Microsoft announced that it was also making the patches available simultaneously for manual download and installation on unsupported versions, including Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The new updates can be found in the Microsoft Download Center or, alternatively, in the Update Catalog.

Comments

Re:Link to XP patches?

[Anonymous Coward]

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4024323

It would be nice if there was a link to the "supported" patches too, or they used the same damn KB number ...

Re:If by unprecedented you mean last month, then n

[Kjella]

I read 'unprecedented' as 'unusual

Except unprecedented is much stronger, it very explicitly means that it's never, ever happened before. If you can point to even a single previous instance, then it's by definition wrong to use it. And since Microsoft recently did release a patch for an EOL product, using it now is plain wrong. Nice by Microsoft, but still wrong. It also makes me wonder how well a "ten more years of security patches" upgrade for Win7 would sell...

adjective
1. without previous instance; never before known or experienced; unexampled or unparalleled: