Support discontinued - Danger looms

Support and thus automatic updates will end for the following products: for the operating system "Windows 7", "Windows Server 2008" and "Windows Server 2008 R2". No updates also already exist since July 9, 2019 for the even older products "SQL Server 2008" and "SQL Server s008 R2". The usual Microsoft support cycle of ten years has expired for these applications.

Danger looms

The Reporting and Analysis Center for Information Assurance (Melani) assumes that the aforementioned products will be strongly in the focus of attackers from January 14, 2020. This is because it is clear that security vulnerabilities not yet discovered by then can be easily exploited by hackers, since no more patches will be supplied for the systems.

In the various attacks with encryption Trojans ("ransomware") in recent months, cybercriminals have often specifically looked for unpatched vulnerabilities to spread the malware in the target network, as the federal information center points out.

In Switzerland, around 10,000 servers from the "Windows Server 2008", "Windows Server 2008 R2", "SQL Server 2008" and "SQL Server s008 R2" product groups are still in operation.

Additional protective measures

Melani therefore urgently recommends that companies and private individuals replace the aforementioned applications as soon as possible. Otherwise, additional protective measures must be taken: Isolation of the devices from the rest of the network and the Internet, special monitoring, checking an "Extended Support" contract with Microsoft, etc.

Incidentally, the Observatory recommends "life cycle management" for deployed products: This means that migrations should be planned in good time in order to replace obsolete products, i.e. no more security patches, in good time. The life cycle of Microsoft products is here viewable.

Source: MELANI