XP's retirement will be hacker heaven

[sygnus21]

Given that XP users are risking their bank account credentials or whatever being stolen (and go bankrupt a few seconds afterwards) I think it would make sense to at least drop a benign boot popup to tell this fact.[/QUOTE]

While that is something Microsoft could do, if not already done is some fashion now, I don't see where it's Microsoft's responsibility to do so. Really, it's not like this warning just came out a few weeks or even months ago. Microsoft has been stating for a while that support for XP is ending.

That said, I'm not so sure there hasn't been any pop-ups in the browser somewhere stating XP's support is ending. After all, XP is still running IE9, that alone should push a few popups

 

[A Guy]

BTW

Important notice for users of Windows XP: To continue receiving security updates for Windows, make sure that you're running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). The support for Windows XP with Service Pack 3 ends April 8, 2014. If you’re running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3) after support ends, to ensure that you will receive all important security updates for Windows, you need to upgrade to a later version, such as Windows 8.

For more information, see Support is ending for some versions of Windows.

You cannot log in to or connect to secured Web sites in Internet Explorer

Geeks seeking help may be the ones seeing these notices though.

A Guy

 

[sygnus21]

BTW

Important notice for users of Windows XP: To continue receiving security updates for Windows, make sure that you're running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). The support for Windows XP with Service Pack 3 ends April 8, 2014. If you’re running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3) after support ends, to ensure that you will receive all important security updates for Windows, you need to upgrade to a later version, such as Windows 8.

For more information, see Support is ending for some versions of Windows.

You cannot log in to or connect to secured Web sites in Internet Explorer

Geeks seeking help may be the ones seeing these notices though.

A Guy

Thanks Bill,

Kind of puts things in perspective; though as you noted, we'll probably be the ones seeing that notice.

Still, there's ample info out there to spread the word that XP support is going away.

 

[Berkey]

My biggest concern are the businesses with XP that may use my credit card or perhaps have any information about me. I know my doctor's office, dentist, mechanic and the few frequently visited restaurants in town here all run XP. For some of them it shouldn't be a big deal to upgrade, maybe 3-4 computers total, but for others not so much. I wonder how many business will not upgrade....I think I'll be paying cash or at least ask what OS they are using before I pay, but for those places that already have my sensitive info I guess I can only hope they are paying attention

 

[sygnus21]

My biggest concern are the businesses with XP that may use my credit card or perhaps have any information about me. I know my doctor's office, dentist, mechanic and the few frequently visited restaurants in town here all run XP. For some of them it shouldn't be a big deal to upgrade, maybe 3-4 computers total, but for others not so much. I wonder how many business will not upgrade....I think I'll be paying cash or at least ask what OS they are using before I pay, but for those places that already have my sensitive info I guess I can only hope they are paying attention

As noted here and other places there are many organizations still using XP, but that doesn't mean they're connected to the point of causing security concerns. Some are just used locally or as a simple work station to get a job done. I'm quite sure and fairly confident that those machines needing a bit more security aren't running XP

The machines at the lower level may be running it, but those at the top are a bit more secure. And those machines scanning your credit card use a different system anyway

 

[Berkey]

My biggest concern are the businesses with XP that may use my credit card or perhaps have any information about me. I know my doctor's office, dentist, mechanic and the few frequently visited restaurants in town here all run XP. For some of them it shouldn't be a big deal to upgrade, maybe 3-4 computers total, but for others not so much. I wonder how many business will not upgrade....I think I'll be paying cash or at least ask what OS they are using before I pay, but for those places that already have my sensitive info I guess I can only hope they are paying attention

As noted here and other places there are many organizations still using XP, but that doesn't mean they're connected to the point of causing security concerns. Some are just used locally or as a simple work station to get a job done. I'm quite sure and fairly confident that those machines needing a bit more security aren't running XP

The machines at the lower level may be running it, but those at the top are a bit more secure. And those machines scanning your credit card use a different system anyway

Good to know thanks for the boost of confidence

 

[bobafetthotmail]

I went more in depth in my post a bit above in the thread, here. But yeah, bottom line is the same.

 

[Jo6Pak]

although i am an IT professional for a very large corporation, i consider myself an average user, since i don't go home after work and overclock my processors and such. i still run xp pro w/sp3 on a secondary machine at home and will likely continue to do so indefinitely. it is connected to the internet, but since i keep no personal or otherwise exploitable data on it, what is the risk when this o/s goes officially by the wayside? seriously, what are some doom/gloom scenarios that prompted this thread?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

My biggest concern are the businesses with XP that may use my credit card or perhaps have any information about me...

I've had the same concern for some time.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

My biggest concern are the businesses with XP that may use my credit card or perhaps have any information about me...

As noted here and other places there are many organizations still using XP, but that doesn't mean they're connected to the point of causing security concerns. Some are just used locally or as a simple work station to get a job done. I'm quite sure and fairly confident that those machines needing a bit more security aren't running XP

The machines at the lower level may be running it, but those at the top are a bit more secure. And those machines scanning your credit card use a different system anyway

With the possible (more like improbable) exception of a one register Mom & Pop, I seriously doubt it.

 

[Everlong]

Any banking details aren't going to be kept on a system running Windows XP. If they are then that company deserves to be hacked, because that's just a ridiculous thing to do.

First off, I agree, I think people should upgrade from XP and see how much more advanced and faster modern OS's are. Back in the Vista days I was one of them who was anti-Vista without even trying it, despite I kept having problems with XP. Decided to take the plunge and Vista ran better than XP ever did on my PC.

But for some others, it's not as simple as just upgrading the OS. There are companies, for example the Job Centre in my town, would need to upgrade every PC system in their building. That would need to come through whatever government contract they have, but their custom software suite will also need to be tested, possibly be re-written. Then there's the company's who might just not be able to afford to upgrade hardware full stop.

Despite XP coming to EOL, there's also the people who are just happy running things as they are, and don't understand why they should pay for something else when what they have is perfectly fine, or they might not just be aware of what's coming. I don't agree with adding pop-ups for them telling them they're required to upgrade. Nobody wants to be told what to do with something they have bought. My Mum's car is over 20 years old, that would be like Audi starting to pop flyers on her windscreen telling her to buy a new car because the one she has is more liable to breakdown than their new shiny model, and also has better MPG, better handling and will be under warranty for X amount of years (basic analogy).

As for things like banking details being stolen after XP goes EOL - a company shouldn't be holding details like that on a local machine running XP anyway. All that should be kept in some secure database behind the scenes somewhere, and shouldn't at all be running XP.

There's also the businesses/company's who may very well run XP, but those machines may not be directly connected to the Internet, but rather just an Intranet connected to some nationwide backbone, and has everything kept remotely on some server in another city, that they will get their Internet connectivity, while being sat behind a proxy server of some kind.

tl;dr: it's easy enough to say they need to upgrade to XP, but for some it's not that simple.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Again, all Windows versions have known EOLs. Businesses and private users should be budgeting from the word go for the inevitable upgrade when the EOL approaches. Waiting until the last year and saying "Oh, it's too expensive to upgrade" is irresponsible and inexcusable. Installing and maintaining safe, reliable computer systems is a cost of doing business and any business that can't afford to do so should die. It's no different than, say, a trucking firm that fails to update it's rolling stock, then carps it can't afford to replace it when the trucks, vans, trailers, start breaking down from having too many miles on them.

On another note, I wouldn't be surprised to see a huge uptick in spam as the huge number of newly vulnerable XP machines are incorporated into botnets.

 

[Everlong]

Businesses and private users should be budgeting from the word go for the inevitable upgrade when the EOL approaches.

It would be an ideal world if they did, wouldn't it? Being an IT consultant, and a software developer, it's never that simple.

I had a client who was still running his website off of PHP 3 and wanted some "trivial" changes. This would have been easy if he was on the latest PHP version, and despite recommending he should take the path of upgrading his website, he refused and I ended up writing everything from scratch for him.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Businesses and private users should be budgeting from the word go for the inevitable upgrade when the EOL approaches.

It would be an ideal world if they did, wouldn't it? ...

True, that. Sadly, reality is rarely the ideal.

 

[sygnus21]

Again, all Windows versions have known EOLs. Businesses and private users should be budgeting from the word go for the inevitable upgrade when the EOL approaches. Waiting until the last year and saying "Oh, it's too expensive to upgrade" is irresponsible and inexcusable. Installing and maintaining safe, reliable computer systems is a cost of doing business and any business that can't afford to do so should die. It's no different than, say, a trucking firm that fails to update it's rolling stock, then carps it can't afford to replace it when the trucks, vans, trailers, start breaking down from having too many miles on them.

As Everlong and I have pointed out it's not that simple. As both a budget officer and manager of a LAN office when I was in the military you have to tow the line between getting everything you want and getting what's truly needed.

Anyway I think we may be making things a bit too simple, or complicated depending on your view. As I said earlier, some users may see XP machines at the low end of the business, but at the upper ends are more advanced, modern systems.

Going back to my budget/LAN days, we typically updated slowly by prioritizing who got what, and when. A back shop doing routine maintenance didn't need a high end machine with all the security of say the Command staff who needed very secure systems. Thus the back shop may have had XP machines while others who needed something a bit more secure or reliable may have gotten Win 7 machines or above. I'm quite sure private companies are doing the same... prioritizing.

As for the ma & pop stores, like the general users, they're not in the position of having multitudes of machines and thus are going to have to upgrade soon or risk having a very unsecure outdated system with security holes. Larger corporations can overcome these, small ma & pop businesses can't. That's the difference.

My two cents.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

what is the risk when this o/s goes officially by the wayside? seriously, what are some doom/gloom scenarios that prompted this thread?

The most likely thing to happen is that most/all XP machines become the pawns of some hacker.
The technical term is "bot" and a bunch of them is a "botnet". Here an article about it and its uses.

I mean yo! Some botnets generated more than 50 billions of spam mails. Per day. And that's with XP when was still supported, mind me.

Serious hackers and spammers and other people doing bad things all like having a few hundred thousand drone PCs all over the world that will broadcast their stuff, be it some attack to a site (DoS or Denial of Service attacks for example need a critical mass of bots, it's not a single guy in a basement doing black magic from command line), simply distributing mails, or acting as proxies for whatever thing they like to do.

It's basically the computer equivalent of a stolen car used by criminals. Cheap, disposable, does not give out your identity like using your own car does.
Although in this case it is also a massive force multiplier.

It won't happen at once the day after XP support ends, and most decent antivirus will likely put up a fight, but there is a limit to what an antivirus can do without patching the OS somehow (which would be illegal).

 

[legacy7955]

My biggest concern are the businesses with XP that may use my credit card or perhaps have any information about me.

. I wonder how many business will not upgrade....I think I'll be paying cash or at least ask what OS they are using before I pay, but for those places that already have my sensitive info I guess I can only hope they are paying attention

I've been thinking the same as well. My guess is that the first 18 months or so will be when we see the flood of intrusions into unpatched XP OS used by retail businesses, which could include everything from the mom and pop store to your doctors office, to well just about anywhere you pay for things.

I'll also try paying cash in situations where I believe the business might be small enough to run this risk of using the old XP OS with local person data on it. Of course if you shop Amazon, most major retailers, and the like there should be no problem.

I know I could never expect accurate answers but I'd like to ask the business which OS system they use to be sure, likely the response from the clueless employee would be a glazed over look followed by "huh?" :huh:

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I know of one major retailer in the building materials industry that still uses XP on their registers.

 

[lehnerus2000]

XP users need a spoof program.
Instead of their network requests stating "XP + IE6", they could state "W8 + IE10" or "Ubuntu + FF23".

The other thing about this scenario, is that when XP users machines become infected, Microsoft will get the blame.
Just what they need after all the bad press about W8, Surface RT and Xbox One.
This might be what is required to get the current management purged.

 

[MouseGolf]

Homosapiens ala (modern thinking humans) have been on the earth 50,000 years. Home computer technology is only 10 years old for most people. That's a "blink" in human history and no way the average user is going to know what we know. This is all "alienware" to most of them. We just happen to like this stuff.