Microsoft is not taking any chances in the wake of the Shadow Brokers leaks and is patching operating systems that aren’t supported anymore. Windows systems going back to Windows XP have received a new security patch in the recent Patch Tuesday. This is supposedly to avoid another Wannacry level incident.
“In reviewing the updates for this month, some vulnerabilities were identified that pose elevated risk of cyber attacks by government organizations, sometimes referred to as nation-state actors or other copycat organizations. To address this risk, today we are providing additional security updates along with our regular Update Tuesday service,” wrote Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Cyber Defense Operations Center, Microsoft on the Windows Blog.
Curiously, Windows XP was the least affected operating system in the Wanncry attack. Still, it looks like Microsoft is not taking any chances when it comes to the scale of the last attack. There’s no telling if the next attack will exploit the operating systems that are no longer supported, since the company is not supposed to be issuing security patches.
This isn’t the first time that Microsoft has moved to patch security issues revealed in the Shadow Broker’s leak. Shortly before Wannacry, the company delayed its Patch Tuesday by a month to work on what it says what a last minute issue.
The Shadow Brokers hackers claim to have infiltrated the US National Security Agency and stolen its stockpile of backdoors and zero-days. This information has been published online for all to use; which has put many unpatched systems at risk. It’s not only Microsoft operating systems that have been affected, but just about every major technology company has had to scramble their security teams.
[Source: Windows Blog]
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