The boffins over at the NSA have crawled out of their hole and determined that their shadow was present and left a note before crawling back in their hole. They stated that those old Windows installs that you’ve been longing to upgrade to Windows 10 or Server 2012 or later need to be patched as soon as possible, especially if you’re running Remote Desktop Services. This particular risk is so bad that it appears that Microsoft has pushed the patch out for the long since taken out back and shot OS’s such as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
The National Security Agency is urging Microsoft Windows administrators and users to ensure they are using a patched and updated system in the face of growing threats. Recent warnings by Microsoft stressed the importance of installing patches to address a vulnerability in older versions of Windows. Microsoft has warned that this flaw is potentially “wormable,” meaning it could spread without user interaction across the internet. We have seen devastating computer worms inflict damage on unpatched systems with wide-ranging impact, and are seeking to motivate increased protections against this flaw.