Microsoft will be ending support for its Windows 7 browser in January 2020 but the company remains committed to the security of its customers. The Redmond Giant is getting reading to release a security update for devices running Windows 7.
The company announced the migration from SHA-1 algorithm to SHA-2 algorithm in late 2018 and today the company has confirmed that it will be pushing out a dedicated patch on March 12.
Users who fail to install the SHA-2 update or patch will no longer be provided with security updates after July 2019 which would mean that users who do not update to the SHA-2 update will be left without any security updates.
“To protect your security, Windows operating system updates are dual-signed using both the SHA-1 and SHA-2 hash algorithms to authenticate that updates come directly from Microsoft and were not tampered with during delivery. Due to weaknesses in the SHA-1 algorithm and to align to industry standards Microsoft will only sign Windows updates using the more secure SHA-2 algorithm exclusively,” Microsoft explains.
July 16, 2019, is the date when Microsoft will be running a check on Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 to determine if the March update is installed.
Windows 7 which is currently the second most used Windows version is approaching its end of support deadline of January 14, 2020, and for users to continue to receive security update until the above deadline, Microsoft advice users to install the SHA-2 support update which will be released next month.
