Report reveals that thousands of computers might become vulnerable very soon

Jan 15, 2014 01:41 GMT  ·  By

It’s no secret that Windows XP support will come to an end very soon and every computer user that cares a little bit about his privacy and security knows that he should migrate by April.

The reason is pretty simple and is brought in the spotlight by Microsoft itself with every single occasion: without security patches and fixes, Windows XP machines would be completely vulnerable after April, so hackers would be able to get into a computer running this OS version very fast.

It turns out, however, that many government computers, which should be the first to be moved to newer software, are still running Windows XP, with a report published by The Register revealing that thousands of PCs in the UK are very likely to be exploited when the hacking season begins.

Both the HMRC and the UK arm of NHS are running thousands of PCs powered by Windows XP and the current estimates prove that the transition to Windows 7 or 8 won’t be completed in time.

The Register has the exact numbers of PCs still on Windows XP right now: more than 85,000 HMRC and 3,500 NHS computers are powered by the 12-year-old operating system and using Internet Explorer 6 as the default browser.

With several migration plans in place right now, officials admit that it’s going to take more than only three months to move from Windows XP.

HMRC started the transition to Windows 7 and Windows 8 in 2012, while NHS was late to the migration party and begun moving PCs to a newer platform in July 2013.

NHS England says that while it does know how many computers are currently running Windows XP, it cannot estimate when the migration from Windows XP completes.

“Local organisations are currently in the process of upgrading PCs to use the Windows 7 operating system in advance of Windows XP support ending in April 2014. Local organisations are aware of the need to migrate from Windows XP in advance of the April 2014 de-support date,” NHS England told the source.

Of course, that’s a little bit worrying for UK taxpayers, especially because neither HMRC nor NHS plan to invest more money into extended support for Windows XP, which means that starting with April 9, all computers running this OS version will become vulnerable to attacks.