Heads up! Windows XP and Windows 8 users

[Samson]

Forumites in the UK will be aware of recent WannaCrypt attack on the NHS.

MS has issued a security fix for legacy OS, that are in custom support only, XP and Win8....Kudos to MS for that 

"We are taking the highly unusual step of providing a security update for all customers to protect Windows platforms that are in custom support only, including Windows XP, Windows 8"

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msrc/2017/05/12/customer-guidance-for-wannacrypt-attacks/

[Boggin]

Those users should have already installed that March update, but thanks for the info.

It's usually the corporations that don't keep updates up to date because it means taking their systems offline and that is what has made them vulnerable, like the British NHS - they are still using XP behind their servers.

[Samson]

Those users should have already installed that March update, but thanks for the info.

The update for "unsupported" legacy OS was only put out yesterday, I guess to avoid cross contamination on multple OS networks.

[Boggin]

While some may not have received the March update, those who did may have not installed it, in which case this will be a wake up call, but they'll still need to take their systems off line to install it and if they haven't been hit, they may still not install this patch.

[Samson]

For XP at least it is not showing up in either automatic or manual updates, maybe MS have not put it up yet? But it can be downloaded and manually installed from here for all legacy unsupported OS.

http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4012598

 Usual caveats apply, registry backup, resstore point, disk image beforehand 

[Boggin]

While there are 140 guests viewing the forum, this forum may not be as well known as other forums.

Because of that, I've copied your URL onto another forum - hope you don't mind.

There is another forum I was going to put it on but haven't gotten around to opening a new thread yet.

[Samson]

Sure, spread the word 

I've posted on the subject in a few non techie forums too, cycling and music related, to get the message out there.

[Willy2]

- But the NHS is not "swimming in the dot/money".
- This article says that MS recommend to disable the "SMBv1 protocol" (??????) as well.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-releases-patch-for-older-windows-versions-to-protect-against-wana-decrypt0r/