Microsoft stopped its support for some of its old operating systems like Windows Xp and Vista long back. So computers running these versions of the operating system are not entitled to receive any updates that the tech giant rolls out to its users. But last week, Microsoft announced that it would be releasing some important updates for Windows XP and Vista users to protect them against the recent WannaCry malware threat.
Why is Microsoft releasing the update?
The tech firm said that the reason for rolling out this update for the unsupported version of Windows is that they are the most affected by the WannaCry Ransomware, and millions of users are still using these versions of Windows all over the world.
As per reports, nearly 75,000 computers from 99 countries were affected by the WannaCry malware. The ransomware locks the files and folders present on the user's PC and demands a ransom of $300 to unlock the files.
Dailystar reported that Adrienne Hall, Microsoft crisis management General Manager said, “The updates for this month is released after identifying some serious vulnerabilities that pose a high risk of cyber attacks to government organizations and a large number of users.
"The regular Update Tuesday service includes additional security updates to combat this recent malware threat. These security updates will be available for all the version of the Windows including those for which support has been stopped.”
These security updates can be downloaded either from the Windows Update or Microsoft’s Download Center and installed on the PC.
Microsoft, however, informed that releasing updates for the older version of Windows for which support is stopped does not mean that the company deviates from its standard servicing policies. But it is just based on the report that the vulnerabilities are being used by the cyber criminals to attack the systems of various users and government organizations.
Dailystar reported that Eric Doerr, the General Manager of Microsoft Security Response Center has said, “Our decision to rollover these security updates for operating systems that are not supported anymore should not be viewed as a departure from our standard servicing policies.
"We made the updates available for a broad category of users based on an assessment of the current threat landscape by our security engineers."
Why should the users install the updates?
It is found that the majority of the PCs that were affected by the WannaCry Ransomware were running on Windows 7 and Windows XP OS without any latest security patches.
So if you are using any of these older versions of Windows, then it is highly recommended to install these latest security updates to protect your PC from the recent WannaCry malware attack.
Microsoft suggested their users that in order to protect themselves from the malware threats and cyber-attacks, they must update their system to the latest version of Windows.
