Yesterday, April 08, 2014, was the day Microsoft ended it’s support for the all-time most popular operating system (OS) – Windows XP. it’s been 12 years after it’s release and Windows will be no longer supporting, patching up and guarding users from hackers that may use this news to their advantage. One may think that Windows XP may be a somewhat hipster and not so popular OS, but in reality it’s still widely used in practically everywhere from your home desktop to heating and air-conditioning systems in your office. It is estimated that an astonishing number of 95% ATM’s world-wide are still running on XP. Computers in hospitals, policy stations and other important locations are known to prefer XP as well. The switch can cause a tremendous amount of difficulties, but if not performed may cause even more serious problems.
A whopping 30% of point-of-sale retail stores are users of Windows XP. This could be the honey which attracts cyber-criminals and the story of last year’s Target breach could once again repeat itself. What’s the best way to deal with this dilemma? logically saying, upgrade. Use an Operating System that is still supported by Windows. It’s versions 7 and 8 are the one’s to go after. If you’ll want to delay the update for as long as possible, I suggest going for Windows 8, it is estimated to have support till 2023.
%95 of ATMs still use Windows XP
The switch to a more tech-savy OS might be difficult to adapt at first, but you will get there. Windows is planning to add the Start button that all of the users were missing in the newest version. The Start button shouldn’t be the main factor of your decision though. Windows XP is six times more likely to get infected than the more advanced versions of his.
Microsoft is however offering a year of service to one’s that are willing to pay for it. News spread out that United Kingdom will pay £5.5 million for Microsoft for extended support of it’s systems. The National Health Care System is not ready to switch it’s %85 of systems that are using Windows XP. However, not everyone was caught by surprise as the market for Windows XP was declining rapidly in 2013. The whole spectrum of users dropped from 35% to 14% and is believed to decline by %10 more this year. Already, tens of millions of dollars have been spent by Defense, Labor, Home Security, Transportation and Health Care industries to switch from Windows XP to a more developed Operating Systems, but the Banks are still way behind to reach some progress because the ATM operating systems are not so easy to replace. Small business owners are also not aware of the lost support and may be targeted by the hackers.
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