Last updated on September 8th, 2018
When the WannaCrypt ransomware exploded across the world over the weekend, infecting Windows systems using a stolen NSA exploit, Microsoft president Brad Smith quickly blamed the spy agency. If the snoops hadn’t stockpiled hacking tools and details of vulnerabilities, these instruments wouldn’t have leaked into the wild, sparing us Friday’s cyber assault, he said. Speaking of hoarding, though, it’s emerged Microsoft was itself stockpiling software – critical security patches for months.