Posted on 05/01/2014 10:50:49 AM PDT by dayglored
Microsoft is helping the estimated hundreds of millions of customers still running Windows XP, which it stopped supporting earlier this month, by providing an emergency update to fix a critical bug in its Internet Explorer browser.
Microsoft Corp rushed to create the fix after learning of the bug in the operating system over the weekend when cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc warned that a sophisticated group of hackers had exploited the bug to launch attacks in a campaign dubbed "Operation Clandestine Fox.
...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Ya think it had something to do with the US and UK governments tell people officially to stop using Internet Explorer???
"The operating system that would not die!!"
I'm honestly not sure whether to consider this good news, bad news, or just news. Have at it, FReepers...
Tech ping?
Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for May 1, 2014
Stop using Microsoft's IE browser until bug is fixed, US and UK warn
Stop using Microsoft's IE browser until bug is fixed, US warns
Made ‘em blink...
bump
It is bad press for them.
Grandma and Grandpa and computer illiterate aunts and uncles and so on... are being told that they need to buy a new computer or else. Expensive for most. They won’t understand.
MS made billions off of their products and the loyal customers who followed them and a large percentage are still running XP.
Count me as one of them - but I did switch my browser to FireFox.
Adobe is also at fault. If you don’t have the patch, it is sufficient to disable the Flash plugin.
Well, much as I hate Flash, and consider it a security hole on roller skates all by itself, in this case it only happens to be the vector by which the real flaw in IE is activated. There's nothing inherently wrong with Flash in this particular regard. Disabling the plugin removes the path by which the bad guys get to the real vulnerability.
Speaking of Adobe, it’s a good idea to avoid their PDF reader (even though they invented the format and the computer language it relies upon) in favor of just about any other one. It’s too heavy and complex, and that has lead to security holes in the past. You need to be able to fetch PDFs into your browser seamlessly and without worrying that you are about to be pwned.
Two options:
1. Buy an new computer.
2. Roll the dice and hope that your computer and ALL of its hardware is compatible with “crappy” win 8. And if it is, then be prepared to fork out $120 per computer.
And by the way, your old programs may not natively run under win 8. So, you'll have to set up a Virtual XP PC which may or may not work reliably.
I also have a Mac that runs Windows 8 on a Parallel Desk Top.
Everything I need to work with is on both. When the XP computer goes TU I’ll chunk it and start working on the other one.
Downloaded and applied to XP SP3.
My 4 year old Ipad is almost obsolete and I can't run most of the apps on it any more. The OS (and hardware) are obsolete.
So, in that respect, I guess MS is better? :)
I’m so low tech I have to keep asking my daughter which iPhone I’ve got.
My wife and Daughter just got their iPhones and I think they’re one step ahead of mine.
I know just enough to get my stuff to do what I want it to - anything else and I call one of the kids over.
But it means they have to keep you upgrading your hardware, buying new hardware, every few years.
I've got some perfectly functional 8 year old Apple hardware, that runs the OLD software just fine. But I can't upgrade the software any more.
It's not in their business interest to allow their latest and greatest software to run on old hardware. They need you to buy new hardware fairly regularly.
Does that make Microsoft "better"? Well, ask their hardware partners... the ones who have been dying in droves.
Exactly.
And if you invest the hours, weeks, and months learning about it, it will all be obsolete in a couple of years.
But that is all part of the plan — make you buy a new widget every couple of years or so. It is called planned obsolescence.
Hardware partners? They probably love Apple. They get to sell everyone a new Iphone every couple of years. Planned obsolescence?
Also, it gets expensive having to buy a new $500 Iphone, Ipad and whatever every couple of years.
I will remember this the next time I am due to upgrade my smart phone. So far we have been using Android and our phones are three years old. They'll probably die before they become obsolete.
Crossing my fingers. Knocking on wood.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.