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:If by unprecedented you mean last month, then n

[WheezyJoe]

Yep. Reported right here, one month ago.

and it's not the desktops you should be worried about. It's the ATM's, cash registers, medical/hospital machines, metro/subway kiosks, traffic-light controllers, maybe even devices used by Army field personnel or on Navy ships and submarines (horrors...), uncounted masses of machines in use every day that you'd never guess are running Windows XP with no viable means of upgrading short of scrapping them entirely. XP lived long enough to become the go-to OS for way too much stuff.