Microsoft to Windows 7: Beat it, you bum

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 12:36:00 -0800

Microsoft today figuratively told Window 7 – which ended support with a final security update – not to let the door hit it on the way out.

“Ten-year-old tech just can’t keep up,” Jared Spataro, an executive on the Microsoft 365 team, wrote in a post to a company blog. “As we end support for Windows 7, I encourage you to transition to these newer options right away.”

Not surprisingly, Spataro named those newer options as Windows 10 to replace Windows 7, and Office 365 to fill in for the retiring-in-October Office 2010. Combined, they make up the bulk of Microsoft 365, the business subscription plan Microsoft wants all customers to adopt.

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January 2020 Patch Tuesday delivers fixes for 50 bugs

Credit to Author: SophosLabs Offensive Security| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 18:15:18 +0000

This month’s big security news from Microsoft is the end of support for Windows 7, and a patch of a cryptographic library<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sophos/dgdY/~4/wiyw9sHJyLE” height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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Today's Patch Tuesday brings fireworks and — a magic bullet?

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 05:48:00 -0800

Over the past few years we’ve seen a few security holes that have drawn Chicken Little warnings and vast amounts of unthinking press reports. When you turn on a local news program and hear from the hometown weather reporter that you really need to get Windows patched, a bit of skepticism might be in order.

Today’s Patch Tuesday appears to be headed down the same well-worn chute.

Brian Krebs, the security guru with impeccable credentials, fired an opening salvo in his blog post yesterday:

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Seven high points of Windows 7

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 04:16:00 -0800

Today Microsoft issues its final free security update for Windows 7, putting an end to that operating system’s decade.

To remember that service – a retirement party but without the cloyingly-sweet cake and cheap gold watch – Computerworld selected seven highlights of Windows 7. While the seven do not pretend to trace Windows 7’s history, they illustrate the influence and impact of the OS.

Here’s to Windows 7. Raise a glass, for cryin’ out loud.

It salvaged Microsoft’s reputation after the Vista debacle

The numbers say it all.

Windows Vista, the 2006 replacement for Windows XP, topped out at 20% of all Windows versions in October 2009. Even though the OS it followed was long in the tooth – XP was nearly twice the age of a typical version when it was supplanted – Vista struggled to put a dent in its forerunner’s share.

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Microsoft now reviewing Skype audio in ‘secure’ places (not China)

Credit to Author: Lisa Vaas| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 10:51:15 +0000

A former contractor in Beijing: “It sounds a bit crazy now […] that they gave me the URL, a username and password sent over email.”<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nakedsecurity/~4/MmxOcairoTY” height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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Cryptic Rumblings Ahead of First 2020 Patch Tuesday

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2020 22:17:47 +0000

Sources tell KrebsOnSecurity that Microsoft Corp. is slated to release a software update on Tuesday to fix an extraordinarily serious security vulnerability in a core cryptographic component present in all versions of Windows. Those sources say Microsoft has quietly shipped a patch for the bug to branches of the U.S. military and to other high-value customers/targets that manage key Internet infrastructure, and that those organizations have been asked to sign agreements preventing them from disclosing details of the flaw prior to Jan. 14, the first Patch Tuesday of 2020.

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‘Maze’ ransomware threatens data exposure unless $6m ransom paid

Credit to Author: John E Dunn| Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2020 12:35:29 +0000

US cable and wire manufacturer, Southwire, last week filed a civil suit against Maze’s mysterious makers in Georgia Federal court.<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nakedsecurity/~4/jNMBVgsS2Wg” height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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FAQ: Last-minute answers about Windows 7's post-retirement patches

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2020 04:53:00 -0800

A week from now, Microsoft will serve customers with the last for-free Windows 7 security update, in effect retiring the 2009 operating system.

However, hundreds of millions of personal computers will still power up thanks to Windows 7 on Jan. 14, and for an indeterminate timespan after that date. Windows 7 may be retiring, but it’s not disappearing.

Microsoft admitted as much more than a year ago when it announced Extended Security Updates (ESU), a program for commercial customers who needed more time to ditch Windows 7. ESU would provide patches for some security vulnerabilities for as long as three years. For a fee.

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(Insider Story)

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Microsoft Patch Alert: December patches hang Win7 Pro endpoints and force Server 2012 reboots

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Mon, 06 Jan 2020 09:55:00 -0800

It was the kind of month admins dread: Mysterious problems on hundreds of machines, with no apparent cause or cure. Toss in the holidays, and we had a whole lot of Mr. and Ms. Grinches in the industry.

Fortunately, it looks like the problems have been sorted out at this point. Individual users had many fewer problems. Microsoft’s left and right hands still aren’t talking on the 1909 team, but what else is new…

Win7 hang on ‘Preparing to configure Windows’

Microsoft dropped a new Servicing Stack Update for Windows 7 on Dec. 10, and it gummed up the works for many. Here’s a good summary on Reddit from poster Djaesthetic:

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