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Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Microsoft regularly issues security updates, but it added a little something extra on Tuesday: it's letting all customers, even those using older versions of Windows, update their software.
This move is an attempt to avoid another ransomware outbreak like WannaCry, also called WannaCrypt, which rocked the web last month.
"The WannaCrypt ransomware served as an all too real example of the danger of cyber attacks to individuals and businesses globally," Adrienne Hall, general manager of Microsoft's Cyber Defense Operations Center, wrote in a blog post. "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."
Microsoft said it made the decision to apply this assortment of updates to provide further protection against potential attacks with similar characteristics as WannaCrypt. The security updates will be delivered automatically through Windows Update to devices running Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7.
Source: CNET
Also at Ars Technica
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @03:25PM
I agree with the Ars take for the most part. Microsoft kicked up a big fuss about End of Life. Backtracking on this does nothing but undermine their credibility. I always thought Microsoft got caught up in the whole "everyone needs to move to a 'modern' platform" (read: Microsoft's subscription). I think they should have just accepted the fact that XP has a 10-year tail on it and simply offered organizations an expensive subscription plan to support it like they do for XPe. Instead of that, tight-fisted bosses everywhere have the second "I told you so" in two months to throw back on their IT people who are just trying to do their best. If Microsoft had instead offered a very expensive support contract to extend XP, IT people could have said, "It is supported if we sign this $300 / seat annual support contract" and those same tight fisted bosses would have have a simple financial decision in front of them. Problems described in finance terms are the native language of the tight fisted boss and their preferred method of communication. Instead, Microsoft forced internal IT to be the bad guys who "took away" something that was "working fine" and spent money on "upgrades we don't need".
I might be quoting from experience.