Time to upgrade from XP, consultancy warns

PC users and businesses still running the ageing Windows XP OS need to migrate to a newer system now or they will leave themselves vulnerable to cyberattacks, Pure Hacking has warned.

The Australian ICT security consultancy is urging people to update to the “stable, mature” Windows 7 before Microsoft officially ends support for XP on 8 April.

After this time, there will be no more security fixes, vulnerability patches or updates for the 12-year-old operating system.

“Across Australia there are tens of thousands of machines still running Windows XP - just think POS terminals, let alone all those SMBs,” Pure Hacking CTO Gordon Maddern said.

“Anyone still on XP will be wide open to attack. All new vulnerabilities - and countless numbers of these are likely - will no longer be fixed by Microsoft. I cannot stress enough, it’s time to migrate, migrate, migrate.”

Pure Hacking recommends that organisations prioritise upgrading XP machines that are connected to the internet. XP machines that cannot be updated should be moved to a segregated network and extraneous OS features on these machines should be disabled.

Organisations should also consider implementing third-party application whitelisting control on XP systems and enabling auditing controls to alert them to unauthorised access attempts.

Computerworld reported last week that an estimated 95% of the world’s ATMs are powered by XP and that more than 60% of ATMs in the US are expected to remain using the OS after Microsoft ends support next month.

Image courtesy of Nick Perla under CC