Microsoft issues critical Windows security fix after tipoff from U.S. NSA

https://news.yahoo.com/microsoft-says-fix-flaw-said-175805841.html

By Raphael Satter
,Reuters•January 14, 2020

Microsoft Corp on Tuesday rolled out an important security fix after the U.S. National Security Agency tipped off the company to a serious flaw in its widely used Windows operating system, officials said.

Microsoft said the flaw could allow a hacker to forge digital certificates used by some versions of Windows to authenticate and secure data. Exploiting the flaw could have potentially serious consequences for Windows systems and users.

The NSA and Microsoft said they had not seen any evidence that the flaw had previously been abused, but both urged Windows users to deploy the update as soon as possible. NSA official Anne Neuberger noted that operators of classified networks had already been prodded to install the update and everyone else should now "expedite the implementation of the patch."

•••••