14 DAY TRIAL // The UK National Health Service (NHS) was one of the organizations compromised by WannaCry just before the weekend, with the ransomware said to infect a number of PCs running an unnamed version of Windows.
But given that Microsoft itself claimed up-to-date supported versions of Windows were fully protected against WannaCry attacks, many believed that the NHS systems that got infected were running Windows XP, as the nearly 16-year-old operating system is still running within the organization.
Today, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon came up with some very controversial numbers, explaining that Windows XP is currently running on just 5 percent of NHS computers.
“We're spending around £50m on the NHS cyber systems to improve their security. We have encouraged NHS trusts to reduce their exposure to the weakest system - the Windows XP - only five per cent, less than five per cent of the trusts, actually use that system any more and there is money available to strengthen their systems,” Fallon was quoted as saying to the BBC by The Inq.
And while 5% isn’t a very worrying figure, especially because the NHS guarantees that no patient data was compromised, there are doubts it’s accurate.
9 out of 10 NHS PCs running Windows XP
Back in December, software firm Citrix published the results of a Freedom of Information request sent to the NHS, revealing that no less than 90 percent of the computers running within the organization were still on Windows XP.
Furthermore, the results showed that only 29 percent of the NHS trusts said they planned to upgrade to newer Windows versions by the end of 2017.
Windows XP is currently the third most-used desktop operating system with a market share of approximately 7 percent. It was launched in 2001 and no longer receives support since April 2014.
Microsoft, however, released an emergency patch during the weekend to fight the WannaCry infection, marking the first time the company has rolled out an update for Windows XP in the last 3 years.