April's End of Windows XP Support Means Added Opportunity for Hackers Dune Lawrence - Bloomberg
go to original April 7, 2014

Microsoft is counting down to the end of an era. On April 8, the company officially washes its hands of Windows XP, an operating system introduced in 2001 that comprises 45 million lines of code. You can watch the clock tick down in slightly eerie fashion, green boxes on a purple background, on Microsoft’s website, which also gives some pithy advice on what this means: “It means you should take action.”

Microsoft explains it quite clearly. “End of support refers to the date when Microsoft no longer provides automatic fixes, updates, or online technical assistance,” the site reads. “Without Microsoft support, you will no longer receive security updates that can help protect your PC from harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software that can steal your personal information.”

This is a surprisingly big deal, says Jaime Blasco, head of the vulnerability research team at security company AlienVault. “Tons of Windows XP zero-day attacks are in the wild, and once Windows XP ends support, it means those vulnerabilities won’t be patched by Microsoft and users will be exposed,” he says.

Read the rest at Bloomberg Businessweek

Graphic: AEG

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