Microsoft has issued yet another warning to die-hard Windows XP users asking them to prepare for the influx of targeted attacks that may exploit the not-yet-known vulnerabilities in the 13 year old operating system after April 8, 2014.
Tim Rains, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Group (TwC) director has penned a blog post highlighting the company’s focus on life-cycle of products, early communication about end-of-life products, cyber attacks and the dying Windows XP.
Rains notes that Microsoft is very clear about end-of-life of Windows XP and has been communicating regularly with its customers on one-to-one basis, publicly about the implications of using an unsupported operating system as early as September 2007.
Rains stressed that those who are using Windows XP past the deadline will not only put their data and systems at risk, but also that of their customers.
“Today, attackers typically steal personal and business information from the systems they go after and try to keep a lower profile, as the goal is financial profit more regularly than mischievous disruption or ego”, notes Rains in the blog post. “Cybercriminals will work to take advantage of businesses and people running software that no longer has updates available to repair issues.”
Rains notes that attackers will evolve their attack methods including malware, phishing attacks and malicious websites to exploit newly discovered zero-days on Windows XP, which will no longer be patched past the April 8 deadline.
TwC director also listed five risks that may haunt Windows XP users. These include surfing the internet; emails and instant messaging; use of removable drives; worms; and ransomware. Rains has also listed a set of guidance for die-hard Windows XP fans to help manage risk; however, he notes that migration to a newer platform is the best option.
“…the primary thrust of our advice is clear: the best option is to migrate to a modern operating system like Windows 7 or Windows 8 that have a decade of evolved security mitigations built in and will be supported after April 8, 2014.”
Well I’ve had a Samsung Chromebook for about 18 months now in addition to my Toshiba Satpro with Windows XP. What I’ve found is that as the Chrome OS in the Chromebook has improved by many factors and the resident apps (Google docs, spreadsheet .. ) and apps in the Chrome store have similarly become more and more powerful I’ve used the Satpro less and less. I carry the Chromebook everywhere with me and use google Hangouts (better than Skype) and the gmail phone as wifi is everywhere these days. I use the satpro only offline for the printer and and storing films on its monster hard disk.
I recommend this combination unreservedly- fantastic. The demise of XP offers the opportunity to go over to cloud-based computing – in my experience you’ll never want to go back.