14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP no longer receives security support since April 2014, but plenty of users are still running it these days, which does nothing more than to increase the risk of getting hacked when unpatched vulnerabilities are found in the operating system.
Security company Kaspersky has warned in a new report that Windows XP is very likely to become even easier to hack, mostly because the number of security flaws that exist in this particular operating system and which remain unpatched is growing every month.
The security vendor says that Windows XP ATMs and ticketing systems are the main ones that could be targeted by these attacks, but there's one thing that everyone needs to take into account when analyzing such malicious attempts.
All ATMs and ticketing systems use Windows XP Embedded, a special version of Windows XP, which was specifically created for embedded machines, such as cash machines. As a result, all these systems won't become so vulnerable in the next few months, but Kaspersky warns that all embedded machines must be treated with extra care if they are yet to be upgraded.
“As most of these systems are running Windows XP and also suffer from frail physical security, they are incredibly vulnerable by default,” Kaspersky explains.
Windows XP still a top OS on the desktop
The Windows XP version that's more vulnerable to attacks is the desktop build, which continues to be used by no less than 13 percent of the world's PC customers.
Back in April 2014, when Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows XP, the ancient operating system had a market share of 27 percent, but since then, it has gradually lost users in the favor of newer operating systems such as Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.
At this point, computers running Windows XP aren't exactly open to attacks because no critical security flaw has been found in the last few months, but there's no doubt that this thing could change overnight in case someone comes across an unpatched bug.
Many security vendors and Microsoft itself recommended users still on Windows XP to upgrade as soon as possible, claiming that the 13-year-old OS is no longer capable of providing effective protection against modern security threats.
Obviously, users aren't really willing to give up on Windows XP right now, mostly because it's quite a good choice for old configurations, even though it's pretty clear that it can't provide them with advanced protection as a modern operating system such as Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 does.
