Microsoft stops AV updates for XP, exposes 180 million machines
2 min read
Microsoft Windows XP is supposed to be dead and gone. Hanging on to life by a thread of support from Microsoft long after the planned End of Life and yet 180 million PCs still run it. The risk of doing so just got more dangerous as Microsoft killed support for the Security Essentials in XP. What this means is as time drifts farther away from today the growing number of vulnerabilities, holes, backdoors, etc. that are found will not be patched nor protected against in XP. For users of XP it’s only a matter of time of when you get pwned.
Please note that since the above real-time protection products have limited effectiveness on PCs that do not have the latest security updates, your PC will still be at risk for infection.
We strongly recommend that you complete your migration to a supported operating system as soon as possible so that you can receive regular security updates to help protect your computer from malicious attacks.* The Malicious Software Removal Tool and updates to Microsoft Security Essentials will continue to be provided for Windows XP through July 14, 2015.
With the nature of these hacks and attacks XP machines will be compromised and there will be no way for you to know or detect them. That’s the risk, especially in a business environment where those XP machines probably have access to other network resources, servers, applications, accounts and all those XP machines are wide open doors making all your perimeter security and protections useless.
It’s time to let it go. XP did us all good but it’s time to move on. You don’t have to go to the next step of Windows Vista. Ignore it, go to Windows 7. Stay away from Windows 8, embrace Windows 10. There are still good OS’s out there that are just as stable and friendly as XP was.
If you value your security, files, identity you need to get away from XP now. Microsoft just handed out their final warning, the rest is on you.
End of Line.
Binary Blogger has spent 20 years in the Information Security space currently providing security solutions and evangelism to clients. From early web application programming, system administration, senior management to enterprise consulting I provide practical security analysis and solutions to help companies and individuals figure out HOW to be secure every day.
Subscribe
Facebook Page
Follow Me On Twitter
contactme@binaryblogger.com
