More than 15 years following its release, Microsoft finds itself patching an operating system that it once ended its support for.
Although the company stopped supporting Windows XP in April 2014, the tech giant announced that fixes for the operating system would now be a part of its monthly Patch Tuesday release.
Microsoft issued an XP fix last month in response to the recent WannaCry ransomware worm attacks that impacted more than 200,000 organizations globally. However, including monthly fixes for the operating system in its monthly cycle is an unusual move.
“Due to the elevated risk for destructive cyber attacks at this time, we made the decision to take this action because applying these updates provides further protection against potential attacks with characteristics similar to WannaCrypt,” wrote Adrienne Hall, general manager of the Cyber Defense Operations Center at Microsoft.”
In all, the company’s Patch Tuesday release included 95 fixes for vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, Skype, and its Internet Explorer and Edge browsers.
