In the list of IT miracles, there is one that surpasses any others in its size. This Windows XP. Formerly the most popular PC operating system for over 6 years. O most of the 21st century, it seems to have begun to yield Windows 7 two years ago: observers, although giving different numbers, agreed then that the curve depicting the percentage of XP fell into a tailspin, while the curve for the “Seven” was just as rapidly gaining height. However, the situation improved a year later. Today, different researchers are still voicing different numbers: StatCounter estimates the share of XP at 20 percent with a penny, and Sevens at 52 percent; NetApplications (whose methodology I personally trust more) says about 32 and 38%, respectively. But those and others again agree on one thing: from the middle of last year to the present, the market for PC operating systems has been stagnating, so the shares of participants have not fundamentally changed during this time.
What is the reason for the sudden stagnation is not difficult to guess: new personal computers diverge unprecedentedly badly. But for us now another fact is more important. A twelve-year-old system inexplicably continues to play the second most important role on the global computer scene! She manages every third or fifth personal on earth and seems to completely ignore the imminent full end of support. Indeed, already in April 2014, Microsoft promises to stop issuing patches for XP. Stop completely!
Counting on their heads, from three hundred million to half a billion users will be left to the mercy of fate. Of course, the situation is not the same in all regions of the planet. XP has the largest share in China: it is still among the absolute leaders there, servicing about three-quarters of the computer park. But the West is also subject to the problem. Even in the most economically prosperous areas like the US, XP manages one in six PCs. The differences between the two are no longer numerical, but qualitative: while in China, XP works mainly on desktops, in the West, it has supposedly become a workhorse, pulling embedded and special systems - like digital kiosks, ATMs, cash registers, movies, medical, aircraft equipment and other similar.
Use in places invisible to the naked eye at least partly explains its enigmatic, illogical popularity. After all, let's be honest! - no one knows for sure why the IT world is so stubbornly unwilling to part with XP. ATMs and similar systems are closed in on themselves, they can work without upgrades and updates for years and decades (Diebold estimates the share of XP ATMs in the States at 75%, and before that the vast majority of such machines worked under OS / 2: wow jump, really ?), and this circumstance, apparently, determines the "love" of the West. And for those who cling to XP on desktops, acceptable speed and functionality are obviously important (including on old hardware).
All this was generally known before, but over the past year, another, third version has appeared that explains the survivability of Windows XP. The bottom line: everyone who could upgrade did it, and the rest consider the upgrade and upgrade either too expensive (the order of expenses here, by the way, is not a secret; Microsoft itself explains to partners how much the average workplace spends on moving from XP to newer versions of Windows: about $ 200), or unnecessary (because they lost interest in the PC and This their last personalka; they already have smartphones and tablets and will not upgrade the computer they replace).
Thus, the third group of candidates for renewal is excluded. But, unfortunately, both the first and the second move out Windows XP it won't be easy either. It is unrealistic for a business to move a computer system to a new OS in six months (the costs here grow in direct proportion to the speed of migration). Experts recommend urgently starting to isolate outdated systems, protecting them from the network or, better, placing XP complexes in virtual machines in order to protect against external risks without losing functionality - but this recipe, alas, is not cheap. As for ordinary users who are content with XP today, since the G8 has obviously not “lit up” for them, even a year later, XP will remain the most functionally and financially acceptable option.
As a result, April (and May, and June) of the next year we will meet with approximately the same proportions: XP will still manage, on average, every fourth personal computer on Earth. Unless the end of support will give impetus to some unique phenomena, which some people, summarizing, call the "XP apocalypse".
The script for this “end of the world” has also been written long ago. Since neither the prosperous West nor the poor China will be able to recover from XP addiction, the world will have several hundred million machines controlled by a system for which security updates are no longer issued by next summer. Simply put, opening "holes" will not patch. And a surge in virus epidemics, spam mailings, an increase in the intensity of DDoS attacks, cyber fraud - this is the least that you should count on. Not all experts agree to consider the consequences catastrophic - after all, after all, not every XP personal is even connected to the Web. But in any case, this is a great idea for business, and suitable for those who intend to protect XP, and for those who are going to look for vulnerabilities in it.
As for the former, they will be needed, because someone has to maintain these hundreds of millions of computers, disinfect them from viruses, protect them from Internet attacks, and solve compatibility problems. As for the latter, the demand for their services is predetermined by a simple fact: already today, for a good zero-day vulnerability for Windows XP, you can get over one hundred thousand dollars, but when Microsoft "disconnects" XP from the life support apparatus, prices will soar even higher (someone is waiting double growth, someone - tenfold), because there will be no one to patch holes.
Surely the day will come when Windows XP shrivel to an inconspicuous few percent (Vista is in this state today). Banks will go to G8 or Linux, spurred on by fines for using an unsupported OS. Shops will change beat-up cash registers under XP for cheap modern android ones. Poor Chinese, fascinated by the brilliance of mobile touchscreens, will simply put dusty PCs in the trash.
The question to which no one has been able to give an exact answer for several years is only when this will happen. Any ideas?
In the list of IT miracles, there is one that surpasses any others in its size. This is Windows XP. Formerly the most popular PC operating system for over 6 years. O most of the 21st century, it seems to have begun to yield to Windows 7 two years ago: observers, although giving different numbers, agreed then that the curve depicting the percentage share of XP fell into a tailspin, while the curve for the "Seven" was just as rapidly gained height (see "Decade of XP"). However, the situation improved a year later. Today, different researchers are still voicing different numbers: StatCounter estimates the share of XP at 20 percent with a penny, and Sevens at 52 percent; NetApplications (whose methodology I personally trust more) says about 32 and 38%, respectively. But those and others again agree on one thing: from the middle of last year to the present, the market for PC operating systems has been stagnating, so the shares of participants have not fundamentally changed during this time.
It is not difficult to guess what the sudden stagnation is connected with: new personal computers diverge unprecedentedly badly (see ""). But for us now another fact is more important. A twelve-year-old system inexplicably continues to play the second most important role on the global computer scene! She manages every third or fifth personal on earth and seems to completely ignore the imminent full end of support. Indeed, already in April 2014, Microsoft promises to stop issuing patches for XP. Stop completely!
Counting on their heads, from three hundred million to half a billion users will be left to the mercy of fate. Of course, the situation is not the same in all regions of the planet. XP has the largest share in China: it is still among the absolute leaders there, servicing about three-quarters of the computer park. But the West is also subject to the problem. Even in the most economically prosperous areas like the US, XP manages one in six PCs. The differences between the two are no longer numerical, but qualitative: while in China, XP works mainly on desktops, in the West, it has supposedly become a workhorse, pulling embedded and special systems - like digital kiosks, ATMs, cash registers, movies, medical, aircraft equipment and other similar.
Use in places invisible to the naked eye at least partly explains its enigmatic, illogical popularity. After all, let's be honest! - no one knows for sure why the IT world is so stubbornly unwilling to part with XP. ATMs and similar systems are closed in on themselves, they can work without upgrades and updates for years and decades (Diebold estimates the share of XP ATMs in the States at 75%, and before that the vast majority of such machines worked under OS / 2: wow jump, really ?), and this circumstance, apparently, determines the "love" of the West. And for those who cling to XP on desktops, acceptable speed and functionality are obviously important (including on old hardware).
Works - do not touch? All this was generally known before, but over the past year, another, third version has appeared that explains the survivability of Windows XP. The bottom line: everyone who could upgrade did it, and the rest consider the upgrade and upgrade either too expensive (the order of expenses here, by the way, is not a secret; Microsoft itself explains to partners how much the average workplace spends on moving from XP to newer versions of Windows: about $ 200), or unnecessary (because they lost interest in the PC and This their last personalka; they already have smartphones and tablets and will not upgrade the computer they replace).
Thus, the third group of candidates for renewal is excluded. But, unfortunately, both the first and the second move out of Windows XP will not be easy either. It is unrealistic for a business to move a computer system to a new OS in six months (the costs here grow in direct proportion to the speed of migration). Experts recommend urgently starting to isolate outdated systems, protecting them from the network or, better, placing XP complexes in virtual machines at all in order to protect against external risks without losing functionality - but this recipe, alas, is not cheap. As for ordinary users who are content with XP today, then - since the G8 has obviously not “lit up” - for them, even a year later, XP will remain the most functionally and financially acceptable option.
As a result, April (and May, and June) of the next year we will meet with approximately the same proportions: XP will still manage, on average, every fourth personal computer on Earth. Unless the end of support will give impetus to some unique phenomena, which some people, summarizing, call the "XP apocalypse".
The script for this “end of the world” has also been written long ago. Since neither the prosperous West nor the poor China will be able to recover from XP addiction, the world will have several hundred million machines controlled by a system for which security updates are no longer issued by next summer. Simply put, opening "holes" will not patch. And a surge in virus epidemics, spam mailings, an increase in the intensity of DDoS attacks, cyber fraud - this is the least that you should count on. Not all experts agree to consider the consequences catastrophic - after all, after all, not every XP-personalka is even connected to the Web. But in any case, this is a great idea for business, and suitable for those who intend to protect XP, and for those who are going to look for vulnerabilities in it.
As for the former, they will be needed, because someone has to maintain these hundreds of millions of computers, disinfect them from viruses, protect them from Internet attacks, and solve compatibility problems. As for the latter, the demand for their services is predetermined by a simple fact: already today, for a good zero-day vulnerability for Windows XP, you can get over one hundred thousand dollars, but when Microsoft "disconnects" XP from the life support apparatus, prices will soar even higher (someone is waiting double growth, someone - tenfold), because there will be no one to patch holes.
Of course, the day will come when the share of Windows XP will shrink to an imperceptible few percent (Vista is in such a state today). Banks will go to G8 or Linux, spurred on by fines for using an unsupported OS. Shops will change beat-up cash registers under XP for cheap modern android ones. Poor Chinese, fascinated by the brilliance of mobile touchscreens, will simply put dusty PCs in the trash.
The question to which no one has been able to give an exact answer for several years is only when this will happen. Any ideas?
This post will not be entirely about information leaks, but information security is fighting not only with them, right? We will talk about the common problem of using obsolete software, which will only get worse in difficult times for the economy. This text is a compilation of opinions from the Web and my own on this issue.
Is there any risk in working with Windows XP after the end of support for this OS? Yes, there is, and above all, crackers will have an advantage over defenders running Windows XP. After all, most likely, crackers will have more data about the vulnerabilities of this OS than defenders. Below we will explain why this is so.
When Microsoft releases a security update, it is common for both attackers and security researchers to quickly decompile the security updates in order to recognize the piece of code that contains the vulnerability that the update fixes. When a vulnerability is discovered, they will try to write code that allows it to be used on systems that, for some reason, are not equipped with this security update. In addition, they will try to find out if this vulnerability exists in other software products that have the same or similar functionality.
For example, if a vulnerability is found in one of the versions of Windows, then the researchers try to determine whether the same vulnerability exists in other versions of the operating system. To ensure that users are protected from those crackers who use these practices, there is a robust principle used by the Microsoft Security Center to control releases of security updates. According to this principle, all security updates for absolutely all products of the company appear on the Internet at the same time. This practice gives users an advantage over crackers because they can get security updates for absolutely all of their products before crackers can decompile them.
However, after April 8, 2014 (it was then that Piggy support officially ended), organizations that continue to use Windows XP at work can no longer have this advantage. Immediately after Microsoft once again introduces security updates for various versions of Windows, hackers decompile these updates, find vulnerabilities, and “test” Windows XP for their presence - and, as we remember, this OS will not receive security updates. And if these vulnerabilities are present in Windows XP, then crackers will try to create an exploit that allows you to use these vulnerabilities. The security update will not be available for Windows XP, and will not help fix these vulnerabilities - the system will have a "zero-day vulnerability". It is worth recalling that from July 2012 to July 2013, Windows XP was marked as a system with found vulnerabilities in forty-five Microsoft security bulletins. Thirty of them also mentioned Windows 7 and 8 versions.
Some analysts believe that Windows 8 includes security services that make it harder to attack with these exploits. In addition, special anti-virus programs are provided, the purpose of which is to block attacks and neutralize viruses. However, you cannot be 100% sure that you can completely trust the computing base of the OS, because crackers can certainly get data on zero-day exploits in the Windows XP operating system. And this will give them the opportunity to disable, as well as execute the code they need. Also, can you fully trust the system APIs that are used in the antivirus software of such a system? It is quite possible that some users will consider this level of trust in the integrity of the OS normal, and yet for the majority of users it will be unacceptable.
If we talk about the protections provided in Windows XP Service Pack 3, then they were created many years ago - and then they were, of course, very modern. But according to the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, today they can no longer be called effective in countering modern computer threats. Data on Windows XP malware infections states that the risk of infection for Windows XP is much higher than the risk of infection for modern Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems.
Conclusion? Since everyone will save on updating both software and hardware, the level of infection of corporate computers in Russia will noticeably increase. And, unfortunately, there will be much more work for information security services.
The Windows XP operating system was released on October 25, 2001, that is, thirteen years ago. Think about this number. During this time, new technologies have been born and died, private spaceships and artificial organisms have appeared, but she still lives and, it seems, is not going to give up.
Windows XP users today resemble the Old Believers who went into the deep forests and hid there from civilization and progress. They jealously keep their ancient customs and faith in the most correct operating system. They believe that Windows XP is great and no one can replace it. Let's try to convince them.
My Windows XP computer works great
My system still works great. Why upgrade to a modern version of Windows when I can just as well surf the web, use Office, and do everything else I need to? After all, almost all software supports Windows XP, one way or another. And even hardware devices have drivers for Windows XP.
Unfortunately, this is not entirely true. Microsoft's support for your operating system is ending in just a few days, and this will send a signal to all manufacturers that Windows XP is dead. Some a little earlier, some a little later, but all of them will stop providing support for their products for this operating system.
A separate line should be mentioned safety. The XP architecture is not a standard of security by default, and with the end of the process of eternal patching of holes, this system will turn into a sieve. Do you need it?
I'm used to XP and don't understand Windows 8
I have been using Windows XP for so long that I feel very comfortable here. It's like a well-worn favorite pair of shoes. And this figure eight of yours generally leads me to a stupor - there is not even a Start button there!
Yes, the interface of Windows 8 is ambiguous. Here, indeed, much is implemented too differently, and one cannot say that it is very successful.
But there is also Windows 7! It will be supported until 2020 and is a modern, secure and user-friendly operating system. In addition, there are no touch-related innovations, and you will feel no less comfortable than in XP. In addition, you can set, for example, such a visual style, and you will not notice at all that something has changed.
Update takes too long
Upgrading your operating system is like moving into a new apartment. I have everything so conveniently laid out here, but I have to save everything, reinstall, transfer my data, what if something gets lost? In addition, settling in a new place will take more than one day, I just can't afford it.
Yes, it's all true. Updating the system can take time even if you know exactly what to do and how to do it. If you cannot boast of such knowledge, then you will have to turn to specialists, so, in addition to time, you will also have to lose money.
However, there are other ways as well. For example, Microsoft offers a free tool, Laplink PCmover Express, with which you can save all the files, settings, and accounts from your old Windows XP computer for later use on your new computer. Using it is very easy, practically, you only need to follow the instructions of the step-by-step wizard for a quick migration to a new system.
Reverse software and hardware compatibility
My favorite old scanner works fine on Windows XP, but I'm not sure I can find drivers for other systems. The same applies to specific software and some games.
If you're using Windows XP for personal purposes, you can be sure that you can find a suitable replacement for almost any application. And old printers and scanners that have served their time almost certainly ask for a landfill.
Things are much worse in the corporate sector. There may indeed be special software or hardware that is incompatible with new versions of operating systems. In this case, the update threatens with serious financial expenses or is impossible at all. The only way out that can be suggested here is to use Windows XP in a virtual machine, which, however, is also not always appropriate.
As you can see, among all the reasons for Windows XP loyalty, only one is really serious. And then, it concerns more the corporate sector. So, the Old Believers have no excuses and cannot be. It's time to say thank you to the veteran and let him rest.
Sleep well, dear friend!