Microsoft held back a free WannaCry patch, says report

Microsoft could have slowed the devastating spread of ransomware WannaCry to businesses, reports the Financial Times. Instead, it held back a free repair update on machines running older software like Windows XP.

Microsoft wanted hefty fees of up to $1,000 a year from businesses for "custom" support and protection against attacks like WannaCry, which locks your computer unless you pay the hackers in bitcoin, said the publication.

While Microsoft finally did make the patch available free of charge to Windows XP machines last Friday, damage had already been done. The company has since been trying to convince customers, business or otherwise, to switch to its newer and more secure Windows 10. Despite the lack of cover, plenty of Microsoft's customers are still running older software that may still be vulnerable.

"Recognizing that for a variety of business reasons, companies sometimes choose not to upgrade even after 10 or 15 years, Microsoft offers custom support agreements as a stopgap measure," said a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to CNET.

"To be clear, Microsoft would prefer that companies upgrade and realize the full benefits of the latest version rather than choose custom support. Security experts agree that the best protection is to be on a modern, up-to-date system that incorporates the latest defense-in-depth innovations. Older systems, even if fully up-to-date, simply lack the latest protections."

Initial WannaCry attacks were slowed by a security professional who found the ransomeware's kill switch, but newer, more resistant versions have appeared. At last count, over 200,000 computers in over 150 countries had been hit with the ransomware.

Looks Like MS is back to being shady once again. :(



https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-reportedly-held-back-wannacry-patch-for-older-windows-versions/

Not sure what this has to do with video games

Simple, people like myself use Windows OS to run games /shrug

this is not OS wars

lol

@daredevils2k: so this has nothing to do with gaming. Got it.

Pay a thousand to MS. Or pay three hundred to hackers.

Hmmmmm

"Drawing a long bow" and "jumping to conclusions" comes to mind here...

Of course, Why is this any surprised. Windows XP support has expired. Companies have to pay for custom support.

This has nothing to do with Microsoft being shady, it's Microsoft's standard policy.

It's companies fault that they didn't let go from Windows XP, especially the NHS.

Every company should start their Windows 10 Migration NOW.

Or at least adopt Windows 10 S, where it's basically malware proof

The article clearly says this is related to Windows XP..............which MS officially stopped supporting years ago.

If they announced they were going to stop supporting it...............and you didnt upgrade.....................how is it THEIR fault?

And why is anyone still running XP???? In 2017????

Please lock as it is unrelated to video games.

This is as relevant as an article about a Sony TV catching fire

Hmm it shouldn't be a problem but it is a widespread problem. Especially with bigger corporations. The hospitals in my country are a good example. They work with at least 9 different types of ancient programs to enter/store their patient data that are all incompatible with each other to some degree. You need to be a software engineer to look up patient data at this point XD And through someone I know who has worked on this, I know they paid millions upon millions (I thought the last time they tried it was 12 million) to fuse the data so that they can use one piece of software that just works across all hospitals, and it doesn't happen. Companies tried, and they all failed to do it. Because it's too complex, too much, too important, too archaic. Can't do it. So they're stuck with ancient stuff that barely works and is incompatible with anything recent. I bet you the majority of hospitals around the world that use computers, probably use Windows XP or something crazy old for some very important things.

You're right though that you can expect security problems at that point.

@daredevils2k: Man you cows are a sad bunch, do you WannaCry more?

Windows XP? Blaming MS for that is stupid. XP is a redundant Operating system, years old. I believe they stopped updating it years ago?

1. Not the correct board.
2. It's kinda of a stretch.
3. You really need to lay off the anti-MS Koolaid.

Yup. Not to mention they just gave away a remaster for free this week. So staying within the boundaries of this forum they are doing well by games consumers.

@daniel_su123: @loe12k:

Ok, it sounds easy to "just upgrade" to Windows 10, but for a lot of small and medium sized businesses they can't.

First, I would say alot of those computers running XP just don't have the ability to run Win10, so those businesses would have to upgrade their computers, which is a huge upfront cost for a lot of people.

Second, a lot of businesses run unique software to well.......run their business. Inventory programs, stats programs, etc... Upgrading to Win10 means some of that software would be no longer useable. I know this first hand, where I work we have to run software on a DOS program and have our laptops dual boot with XP and Win7. We can't go to Win10.

MS should still be making security updates for XP, especially when so many people still use it. If they want people to upgrade, maybe make Win10 more accessible to older machines and programs?

You think that's bad? The people running Windows NT probably had to pay Micorosoft like $20k to get their photos of their grandkids back.

It 2017, we got external hardrive's and USB key's to transfer software.

No modern business is using Windows XP today.

@loe12k: And you have no idea what you are talking about. Try again

What unique software are you talking about? If you using a inhouse software program for business, don't blame MS for that.

We are using StatCrew for sports statistics, we have been told by CBS Sports as well as our own IT department that we have to run a virtual os on a 32bit software to run it. Now they are working on new software for Win10, but it's not available yet.

If you would like to solve our problem yourself, we would gladly pay you thousands of dollars.

Company asking money to provide support for an older system that has been outed from their active support is common practice and it's not just MS that does it.

Thing there is, you don't know if the hackers will remove the virus once you pay them the money or if they will keep it hidden inside your computer and say they removed it, only to lock your computer again months later and demand more money.

I may not totally know if this is correct, but if I remember correctly, ransomware is like a rootkit which once inside your system gives the hacker unauthorized access to the kernel. It is nigh impossible to know if one has a rootkit embedded in their computer and to get rid of one is also very difficult to impossible because it disguises itself so well that it makes the computer think that it is fine (untraceable by malware scanners).

I know this isn't gaming related, just thought I'd venture in my two cents.

Fair enough. Maybe good for you guys in the long run this happened. You guys stuck on Windows XP was a bad decision.

This. XP is out of support, if companies want to run 17 year old software and have the latest patches after it's out of support, then they need to pay for it, or upgrade to something more modern.

We had no choice! lol If it were up to us we would use a new OS and new software. CBS has a monopoly on the Stat program, there are no alternatives in the NCAA, and they chose not to update it. They only recently decided to look into making it Win10 compatible last year.

If you're a PC gamer using Windows XP and playing older games, then this is very much game related.

That said, WannaCry is more than likely meant to hit larger corporations, not the standard gamer that lacks money for various reasons.

Also, I'm pretty sure developers don't support Windows XP for their games anymore. Also, this is not Microsoft's fault as they have stated support for legacy versions of Windows have ceased. The fact that they released a fix for legacy Windows OSs, let alone for free at all (regardless on delay) should be recognised as being a good thing. Not a thing to complain about.

How much you all want to bet that since this thread should be locked, since it's not video game related, it won't be because it's anti MS. And that's the cool thing here.

Well MS ended support for XP. I don't really see the problem with charging people for providing continued support. $1000 is pretty insignificant per year for a business and as pointed out, they eventually made the patch available.

I wouldn't call it shady.

@daredevils2k: Take your fanboy glasses off for 2 seconds. This is not Microsoft being shady. Why should Microsoft give out free updates to an out of date OS. Microsoft is always very upfront about when the EoL of an OS is going to occur and they give out plenty of warning that support is going to stop. If you want to keep using that out of date OS that is on the users not on Microsoft. If you want updates then you pay the support fee as simple as that. Microsoft should not have to keep supporting legacy software for the life of the product.

Don't make threads again...lol

I don't see any problem here. Move on people.

So why haven't they upgraded to Windows 7? Trying to excuse a company for still being on Windows XP, which has been around since the 90s and then blaming MS for something happening to an ancient software is ridiculous.

This thread is stupid and the TC is a moron for making it. Cows are going beyond pathetic now.

@kingtito: Because in the real world where money is on the line and where everything isn't as black and white as you think it is it's a problem. While it's easy for YOU to upgrade to windows 7, that doesn't mean that it's easy for businesses with multiple people using specific software for specific tasks to run their business to upgrade.

We have Windows 7, however we still have to dual run a 32bit version to run specific software we need.

I'm not saying MS has to upgrade XP with new features all the time, but damn when millions still use it and rely on it to run their business, especially hospitals, it would be nice to get some security updates.

Its always funny how desperate Sony fannies have become. They even relying on non game related articles about MS, even when they are not even in the wrong. LMAO.

Wannacry was created by Microsoft. It was corporate terrorism!!!!

I would agree if this were early 2000s but it's not. Companies make necessary changes in hardware or software in order to accommodate changes in the industry and that includes the OS their computers are running on. Continued use of an outdated OS after MS continuously put out messages on the system that it will no longer be supported is entirely the fault of that company. The excuse that everyone is using "specific" software is a bad excuse for not updating the software. Continuing to run software on an outdated and no longer supported software is not the responsibility of MS nor it's fault if anything happens.

Why should MS continue to support an ancient OS, which cost them money to continue support, when they've clearly stated will no longer be supported? These "millions" of people have been warned with ample time to make the upgrade and necessary changes. There is no excuse for anyone to still be on XP in 2017.

MS is a business, of course they're going to ask for a fee to provide custom support for an OS that they no longer support.

They announced the end of support for Windows XP 3 years ago. How is it MS's fault if they haven't upgraded since then, even when MS told them to to prevent this exact problem.

"After April 8, 2014, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or technical support for Windows XP. Security updates patch vulnerabilities that may be exploited by malware and help keep users and their data safer. PCs running Windows XP after April 8, 2014, should not be considered to be protected, and it is important that you migrate to a current supported operating system – such as Windows 10 – so you can receive regular security updates to protect their computer from malicious attacks."

lolM$

This seems like it's the wrong board for this topic to me.

Why is this topic not locked? It's obviously just a bash MS topic that has nothing to do with gaming. Is it because it's about MS and not Sony so the mods tend to overlook these threads? It would seem so

Oh! knows. Yous backseating modding. The great mods hates whens forumers implies thats theys don'ts dos theirs jobs.

Or pay less than hundred and upgrade. People had plenty chance to.

It's critical of MS so it will get to hang around for a while

Well 3 to 4 hours later, looks like I'm right. This is still open. I saw Char and Wasdie both post, the former ever making a new thread. This is proof positive that this is an anti MS forum.

Wannacry is total bullshit. It can be stopped by any decent antivirus. But peope are that computer illiterate. Most of my friends dont have any antivirus on their devices. Every time they ask me to fix a problem, i always start with "What is your antivirus...". Then an awkward pause follows, obviously they don't know what I am even talking about. Everybody watches porn without bothering to install any sort of protection? first. People are really stupid when it comes down to computers. What is so hard to install one from a dozen of free antivirus available outhere after you have bought a new laptop, I am asking. Apparently it's super hard. ?

Oh and this thread has nothing to do with gaming. MS is in its right to charge money to morons who don't install antivirus on their pcs.

I recommend Avast by the way. It's free, it's good. It blocks everything for me on internet.