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Hundreds of Millions of PCs Remain Vulnerable as Windows 7 Reaches End of Life:
Windows 7 has reached end of life on Tuesday, January 14, 2020, but hundreds of millions of PCs worldwide still run the operating system, which likely makes them a more tempting target for malicious cyber actors.
Microsoft will no longer provide free security updates, patches or technical support for Windows 7, which makes devices running this version of the operating system more vulnerable to attacks and more likely to be targeted.
The latest data from Statcounter and NetMarketShare shows that roughly 30% of the over 1 billion PCs estimated to exist worldwide still use Windows 7. According to Statcounter, the percentage is just under 18% in the United States.
Kaspersky reported in late August that, based on its data, nearly half of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and enterprises had still used Windows 7. More recent data from Kollective suggests that the situation has not improved too much, with 53% of businesses in the US and UK still using Windows 7 devices.
While these statistics may not be highly accurate, at least a few hundred million PCs around the world likely still run Windows 7. It's worth noting that when Windows XP reached end of life in April 2014, the operating system also had a market share estimated at roughly 30%.
[...] Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra, a California-based provider of technology that leverages AI to detect and hunt for cyber attackers, does not believe the actual impact will be catastrophic.
"For home users that want to cling on for whatever reasons, many of the potential problems could be mitigated using other tools and methods, like VPN, encryption, security software, and a good secure home router," Morales said.
"For many enterprises, they will simply sign up for Windows 7 Extended Security Updates for the next three years of coverage. This covers anything deemed critical or important," Morales added. "Which means not much will change in the attack landscape for enterprises with the Windows 7 Extended Security Updates. Most major apps like Google Chrome browser will also continue to be supported with updates for all users."
Many will lose support for programs that ran on WIndows 7, too.
(Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Monday January 20 2020, @09:34PM
Hundreds of Millions of PCs Remain Vulnerable as Windows
get rid of extra meaningless words - strunk and white
Although we could throw systemd into that as well, and the apple/pc distinction has become meaningless, I am calling it.
I tried using an apple for 2 days and os x is a mangled mess now with always on phone-home-ware. It was difficult to use, but more difficult to see the outright degeneracy from a personal computer to an app-whatever.
If nso group and cellebrite can just backdoor the iphone, to demonstrate their erudite superiority and undying friendship to the good ole usa when u.s. law enforcement comes begging, we should expect same from all apple everything. Also check this out, go into a room of windows computers and visit r/epstein and they will all install a new update.
In case you missed it earlier,
https://archive.is/7YNX0 [archive.is] If windows and the iphone were being hq in turkey or russia, I would give those countries a hard time too, but in both cases, the culprit of these platforms lack of security leads back uniformly to one place.
The first principle, don't fool yourself. - Richard Feynman