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:C'mon, editors!

[chispito]

[...] from the job-security-for-non-microsoft-it-workers dept

FTFY

You have it backwards. Who is going to apply these patches? Who is going to help businesses migrate off of old, unsupported versions of Windows (onto newer versions of Windows--let's be real here)?

Answer: Not non-Microsoft-IT-workers.

But don't worry, there is plenty of work for all, when you consider all of the upatched OpenSSL, ImageMagick and SAMBA out there. Or, you know, WordPress.

Re:Liability

[James Carnley]

Zero. XP is unsupported and there is no reasonable assumption that it is secure.