. New Security Threat : Windows XP

. New Security Threat : Windows XP

About 300 million computers that manage network - including irrigation , electricity , sewerage , and ATM - momentarily vulnerable to security threats .

Microsoft Corp. will stop updating the operating system Windows XP after April 8. This step deepens computer security issues in a variety of industries and government agencies .


Apart from the proposed deadline Microsoft , more than 10 % of computers used worldwide corporate and government offices will continue to use the operating system 's age was 12 years , according to Internet security company Qualys Inc. . If the personal computer ( PC ) included consumer , computer XP system that operates almost 30 % of the global total , according to the research institute NetApplications .

Microsoft has warned consumers to change this since a few years ago . On its website , the software giant was even counting down deadline. Ahead of 8 April , the U.S. government ( U.S. ) urged administrators and information technology services offices to update their systems .

Microsoft itself will act add to the problem , May. At that time , Microsoft published the system updates ( updates ) for Windows 7 and Windows 8 . These two operating systems have the same basic design with XP . Microsoft sent updates of which is intended to patch the vulnerabilities that exist in the two new systems . On the same basis , the possibility XP has similar cracks anyway . Hackers will now be much easier target XP , because Microsoft will no longer be able to supply the patch fixes the weak point .

Officials at the major financial institutions claimed to have taken some steps to address the issue . There will be some response . One is software which prevents new software connected to the ATM . Security experts call it whitelist .

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One reason companies have been slow to update the operating system is its complexity . Moreover, some ATM obsolete , requiring physical renewal . " Updating the PC is not easy . When we talk about the ATM , the terrain is completely different , " said Robert Johnson , director of NCR Corp. software . His company claims 30 % market share of ATMs in the U.S. and the world .

Hackers have long tried to outsmart the software without protection for spreading mischief in the real world . XP is one of vulnerability exploitation point of the Stuxnet virus . Virus were reported in 2010 was damaging centrifuges at Iran's nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz , according to Roel Schouwenberg . He is a principal security researcher at security firm Kaspersky Lab .

Microsoft introduced XP in 2001 . Because it is so commonly used , XP became a tempting target of hackers . XP is also known to be vulnerable to cyber attacks . " The main reason we retire the operating system [ XP ] , all because of a security issue , " said Microsoft spokesman , Tom Murphy .