14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP no longer receives updates and security patches, but millions of users across the world are still running it on their desktop computers, so it’s hard to believe that this OS version will disappear completely anytime soon.
Korea, on the other hand, promises that it will give up on Windows XP entirely by the end of the year, as most provincial governments across the country are in the process of moving to a newer OS right now.
Some do not have the money to do this faster, a country official said, but everything should be done by the end of the year, he added.
“So far, there has been no new malicious code detected. Over 84 percent of the central government has completed upgrading, and we expect the ratio will reach 100 percent by the end of this year. Only 63 percent of local governments have completed upgrading as they have poor budgets,” Ha Seung-chul, member of the Ministry of Security and Public Administration (MOSPA), was quoted as saying by the Korea Times.
The majority of security vendors worldwide have already announced that all their apps would continue to work on Windows XP, so there’s still hope that computers running this OS version could stay protected. Microsoft, on the other hand, warns that without OS updates no computer is fully safe, as hackers could use vulnerabilities to access user data despite third-party protection.