Those of you who are still running Windows 7 or earlier need to install critical patches that fix a recently-discovered security bug on older versions of Windows.
Earlier in May, Microsoft disclosed to its users that a serious security vulnerability — dubbed “BlueKeep” — was found on Windows 7 and other previous versions of its OS. BlueKeep could potentially grant hackers full remote access to someone’s PC through Windows’ Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) by using code that exploits the vulnerability (also known as a “worm”).
Such worms have recently begun to appear online, which you can see an example of in the video below.
After the BlueKeep bug was discovered, Microsoft released patches for all affected version of Windows on May 14. The problem is that only a small fraction of vulnerable users have installed these updates. According to Wired, a recent scan of Windows machines shows that at least 922,225 vulnerable PCs remain unpatched, though the actual number could be much higher.
If you’re among the thousands of users who have not updated your machine, do so now. The risk of keeping your PC unpatched is too great to ignore, even if you’re running a business and upgrading your stable of work computers is a lengthy chore.
For those who aren’t sure if you’re at risk, the computer security company McAfee released a tool that will check if Windows RDP is on your system. If it is, and/or you’re running Windows 7 or older, you need to download and install Microsoft’s patches right away to fix the bug.
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