PC Magazine - USA (2019-12)

up in Windows 7, bad actors will immediately

have millions of devices to attack and infect

with malware.

It’s reasonable to assume that Microsoft will

abandon Windows 7 users to the mercy of evil

hackers when the OS’s end-of-life deadline

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HACKERS LOVE A RETIRED OS

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had stolen from the National Security Agency.

Less than a month later, other hackers used

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unpatched Windows machines with WannaCry

ransomware. Microsoft had already patched the

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time of the outbreak, many computers were still

running Windows XP (retired in 2014) and

Windows Server 2003 (retired in 2015).

Microsoft was forced to issue an emergency patch

for the unsupported operating systems to prevent

the spread of the ransomware. (Interestingly, it

later became evident that WannaCry did not

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crashed before running its malicious payload.)

Earlier this year, Microsoft discovered another

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2003 that allowed hackers to infect computers

with malware without requiring any interaction

from the user. And again, Microsoft went out of

its way to issue a patch for operating systems it

had retired.

@bendee983

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