14 DAY TRIAL // At least 25 percent of the desktop computers worldwide are still running Windows XP, according to figures provided by third-party market researchers across the world, but a new research shows that small and medium-sized businesses are also addicted to Microsoft's unsupported operating system.
A study conducted by Bitdefender on more than 5,000 companies in areas such as retail, healthcare and education in several countries, such as UK, Germany, Spain, and the US, shows that 18 percent of the SMBs are still running Windows XP despite end of support.
What's more, 37 percent of the employees of these companies are working remotely, which obviously increases the risks of staying on Windows XP without support and security patches.
53 percent of the companies that have participated in the study said that they already upgraded their Windows XP computers to Windows 7 Professional.
“A few weeks after the end of support announcement, a new Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability turned into a permanent threat for XP users,” Catalin Cosoi, Chief Security Strategist at Bitdefender, said.
“That was until Microsoft issued a patch that was made available for Windows XP users as well. However, this was an exception that shouldn’t make enterprises believe it will happen again, so the swift migration from XP is a must for all users.”
Bitdefender is one of the companies that are still offering protection for Windows XP users, and all its security products will continue to work on Microsoft's unsupported operating system for at least two more years. In fact, the majority of security vendors out there already confirmed extended Windows XP support, so users who are yet to upgrade really have what to choose from if they don't want to switch to a different OS version anytime soon.
“We will continue to offer assistance to Bitdefender users who decide not to upgrade or are in the process of upgrading their OS. Their computers will remain updated with the latest security fixes to protect against malware and phishing attacks. We are flexible and may extend support past these dates, depending on market circumstances,” the Bitdefender expert added.
Microsoft obviously warned that third-party security protection is not enough to make sure that your computer won't get hacked, so it urged everyone still running Windows XP to upgrade to a different and more secure Windows version as soon as possible.
Windows 8.1 is Microsoft's preferred OS, but the majority of users actually switch to Windows 7, looking for a more familiar interface that still has the traditional Start menu.