Microsoft says cyberattack should be wake-up call for governments

Yes, should be a wake up call for them to abandon the security mess known as Windows. World would be so much better without Microsoft, abandon them en masse for Linux, problem solved.

Considering that many companies, organizations, and individuals still using XP, Microsoft has some responsibility for the damages because of their decision to end support. I can only imagine how much the litigation is going to cost old Billy Gates.

title should read..."govts say cyber attacks should be a wakeup call for Microsoft."

Microsoft already published the patch for this back in March, so people already had 2 months to implement this fix

Techs can publish all the fixes they want, but if people don't implement it - one can lead a horse to water, but one can't make it drink

World would be so much better without Microsoft, abandon them en masse for Linux, problem solved.

Problem not solved is, a lot of programs still don't have Linux versions

Actually, that's probably a large reason why many of these computers kept using WinXP, because the programs they use may not have non-XP versions - moving to Linux won't help them with that

Considering that many companies, organizations, and individuals still using XP, Microsoft has some responsibility for the damages because of their decision to end support.

Would disagree with your statement. Windows versions are supported for longer periods than any other OS so when it says it can no longer support a version its time for the consumer to install a new old or live with the risk of using an unsupported version.

WinXP came out in 2001 - not many companies in the world would support a product of theirs that came out way back in 2001 - 16 years is a long time

At least, for free

Companies can actually still get WinXP support - it just won't be free anymore like before

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2139929/windows-xp-support-will-be-available-after-april-8-just-not-for-you.html

For example, the US Navy has a contract with Microsoft to continue supporting its approximately 100,000 WinXP workstations till at least 2017

http://bgr.com/2015/06/24/windows-xp-support-us-navy-millions/

The Australian Dept. of Finance paid for whole-of-government SQL Server 2005 custom support for 15 months (after Microsoft ended support for the product in 2016), and to keep the Department of Defence, the Australian Taxation Office, the Department of Human Services and the Department of Immigration on Windows Server 2003

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/feds-still-paying-for-windows-xp-custom-support-418575

So Microsoft can still keep supporting your old systems - just not for free anymore

Every OS has huge security issues, especially if they are networked.

It isn't up to any 3rd party, including govts, to report issues. That is the job of the software maker to find them.

I've been a professional software develop for decades and never expect someone else to find bugs that my company/team/me introduced.

What the govts should be doing is mandating, via law, that infrastructure and live saving computing devices cannot be physically connected to any network that is connected to any outside data or voice networks. Hospital computers shouldn't be accessable from anywhere else. This is called "Air gap" computing. It is practiced in govts and corporations around the world. Sure, it is less convenient, but it is more secure.

Shouldn't it be also a wake up call for Microsoft? Instead of making the new version more and more resource hog and needed a new machine every time, why not make it more lean and efficient? That's way some (myself included) switched to Linux. Never mind, some special external HW that you spent hundreds would not work with newer Windows.

Shouldn't it be also a wake up call for Microsoft? Instead of making the new version more and more resource hog and needed a new machine every time, why not make it more lean and efficient?

One doesn't need a new machine - if your machine can run Windows Vista, it's powerful enough to run Win7, Win8/8.1, or Win10 - the requirements haven't changed for a long time now:

http://www.download3k.com/articles/Comparison-Tables-of-System-Requirements-for-Windows-XP-Vista-7-8-8.1-10-00143

Windows -- CPU -- RAM -- hard drive space

Vista -- 1 Ghz -- 1 GB -- 15 GB

7 -- 1 Ghz -- 1 GB -- 16 GB

8/8.1 -- 1 Ghz -- 1 GB -- 16 GB

10 -- 1 Ghz -- 1 GB -- 16 GB

^ but in a snail pace. Tried it but it is unbearably slow, so I wiped that out from my HD. A tiny little unimportant update would require a reboot. So, no thanks especially I have invested so many external HWs such as uC/EPROM programmer that would not work with newer windows. Running it under VirtualBox seems to be faster since VirtualBox strips out some unnecessary components from the Windows distribution. Good thing we do not use Windows as main servers here. Actually, our infrastructure would question about the person's sanity if he/she suggest to replace mainframes and UNIX servers with Window box. Well, if you really want 24/7 operation with practically almost unhackable, then it would probably VMS but hardly anyone uses it now.

[Seems my previous post was deleted... :-( ]

Forgot to mention , the deployment of the WannaCry malware was done by email. A lot of which should be caught, but isnt... for example I have just received one in my HotMail (Microsoft) inbox, suppsidly from PayPal, and another from Apple... the email address headers from both do not clearly come from either organisation.

It would be interesting to see which mail vendor was the main contributor for the deployment of this malware, since clearly MS isnt doing what it could do.

lostrune2.. not all machines running Vista can be upgaded to a newer OS.

^ but in a snail pace. Tried it but it is unbearably slow, so I wiped that out from my HD.

Ironically, it's Vista that's the most resource hog out of those, so technically they made it more efficient than what it was before.

Linux has many different distributions that could fit one's computer's capability, even those smaller than 1 MB (I have one that runs off my small flash drive - also have Win10 compute stick - so literally have computers in my pocket, lol). But regular consumers can't decide when there's too many choices but want just something that works all-in-one with whatever they have uses for it - heck, Apple has really just 1 choice.

Furthermore, hardware specs have been outpacing software requirements for years now. Modern computers could run almost any software nowadays, save for software that's employed for graphics-intensive work. Hardly ever have to bother with hardware requirements anymore.

A tiny little unimportant update would require a reboot.

Windows has gotten rid of individual update items - it's all packs now, comes out just once or twice a month.

Actually, our infrastructure would question about the person's sanity if he/she suggest to replace mainframes and UNIX servers with Window box.

Most Windows are not used for mainframes and servers though. People usually use Windows for other purposes.

lostrune2.. not all machines running Vista can be upgaded to a newer OS.

Well, one can't upgrade them now - Microsoft has long stopped selling the upgrade version paths from Vista. Still, Vista computers can run the newer Windows, but it would have to be a fresh new installation from scratch.