Report: Windows XP highly vulnerable to malware

Commentary:

(MoneyWatch) To many security experts, there's nothing especially new or controversial here, but Microsoft's latest Security Intelligence Report confirms that Windows XP is more vulnerable to malware than any of Redmond's more modern offerings.

You can download the full report [PDF] from the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report website.

• Be on guard for online wire transfer scam
• Essential PC security tips (send to your parents)
• Security breach: How to protect your credit

There, you'll find that Windows XP is about twice as like to get infected as any of the more modern operating systems, including Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The study shows that overall, infection rates are rising, though Windows XP remains significantly more at risk than Windows Vista or Windows 7. XP's infection rates in particular jumped dramatically in the first half of 2012, due to the worm family Win32/Dorkbot and the trojan downloader Win32/Pluzoks -- and the fact that Microsoft has stopped directly supporting Windows XP with security updates to address such risks.

How can you protect yourself? If you are still using Windows XP, you should seriously consider upgrading to Windows 7 (or Windows 8, which releases in about a week).

If upgrading isn't an option, you should absolutely be sure to keep your antivirus software current.

One other option: Consider changing to a Limited User account. This isn't especially convenient, but by taking away the default administrator status, you'll make it far more difficult for malware to wreak havoc with your PC.

[crushkittykitty]

unless you can take out the human factor it doesnt matter what you run be it linux apple or windows here is some videos showing my point
windows 8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qixpEToz2LU
windows xp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBeRDImHyFM
linux ubuntu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilwLUqU78j8
just got apple done and havnt posted it yet

[pwgrant]

i chuckle, as I happily using Linux, doing EVERYTHING I did with windoze.

[crushkittykitty]

using Linux does not stop the threat of being hacked. I too use linux and have for years but if you cant take the human factor out all the security in the world does no good here is ubuntu being hacked
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilwLUqU78j8

[rwsmith29456]

Microsoft says you should buy new Microsoft products. That's hardly surprising. I will say that after a couple of decades of turning out products that needed fixing right out of the box, Win7 seems a very good product and I'd encourage anybody to skip Vista (awful OS, but it does have more security) and go to Win7.

[hypnotoad72]

How is the Windows 7 good, in your eyes?

After Vista, Microsoft went back to the XP base code, Vista's GUI, ditched most of what was in Vista, tweaked and fixed virtual registry features for Win7, but most benchmarks still showed Win7 as being slower than XP on the same hardware... even after SP1, some sluggish remained and some bugs and other daft ideas (especially an issue with multiple monitors) remain unaddressed.

Win7 uses 15GB of disk space. XP uses 1.5GB. The larger the OS means the larger possibility for malware makers to find a neat loophole. And 15GB is a prime example of being utterly sloppy.

Win8 isn't much better and NOBODY I know of in the tech industry likes the revamped GUI. On the plus side, Apple wouldn't win any of their patent trolling lawsuits against MS over that design...

[bigmanfrommaine]

How Microsoft has gotten away with releasing the crap they have over the past 20 years or so is beyond me. Marketing does trump all, apparently.

[hypnotoad72]

Agreed. In our current paradigm, marketing and the APPEARANCE of "good" is good enough. Anything that takes time is shunned, or deemed "long-winded".

People don't give a crud.

And for all those who say Microsoft is "philanthropic", they've not read up on the company's history of hypocrisy over pirates (both late-70s and when they opened shop in China to make Vista, tolerating piracy because they preferred their own brand being pirated... it makes their whole anti-piracy memes a tad laughable, if they choose applaud it when piracy stops being inconvenient to them!)

GOOD products did not have the best marketing... BeOS was a small business and made the best OS there was - SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) was written into the core; everyone else grafted SMP in and it showed... and still would by comparison today... Lack of marketing killed it, and if they had sales they would have been able to expand their hardware support base.

If work were valued, MS would have had proper testers and coders all these decades, rather than shoving everything out as rapidly and as rabidly as possible. But such work is too expensive, and someone marketed the idea of "Tell us more about your experience by letting your computer send anonymous information about your system to us", forgetting any number of details that I could be rattling off on... like I said a moment ago, "long-winded"...


But that's one example. I could be here all evening citing plenty of other examples that would crush anyone contesting you about product quality being better than how it's marketed, but I've got a life.

Marketing and making myths out of marketers seems to be what generates money. Not work, or the value of it, but raw short-term sales regardless of consequences to the overall economy.

[tsigili]

That's VERY OLD news. XP was veritable swiss cheese, in terms of security. The security updates for it, were so numerous, it was unreal.

[hypnotoad72]

+1

A quick web search can reveal Win7 not being as secure as other platforms as well...

[MrsHippy]

Hey Gor-Gor,

In 17A.D. a man named Herdufus Nidiot wrote the first version of Stuxnet but back then it was called RockandClub!

[rufustel]

@mercury69: Sorry, but you're a bit misinformed--while users haven't embraced Windows Vista with as much affection as other WIndows versions (although that OS works just fine, AS LONG AS your system meets its recommended--and not just minimum--requirements), users generally have liked Windows 7 and adopted it wholeheartedly. Of course, that doesn't mean that there is a need to move on from Windows XP, which was, and still is, a fine OS--one reason why many users are content to stay with it (others being, why pay money every 3 years for a new OS, and then have to deal with the inevitable new OS issues?).

[mecury69]

No sir, you are misinformed. I stated a real world fact, not the blanket opinion you have.

We have added several 7 machines to our network and the XP's run better and are more stable. The 7 machines also have issues networking with Windows Server and lock up copying over larger files.

Again, those are facts and not opinion.

[mecury69]

You are being played Mr. Johnson. Microsoft knows users HATE Vista and 7 and are not upgrading and preferring to stay with XP for as long as possible.

They had an OS that was great for the most part and could have built it ever but the greed and marketing of these new OS's trump the consumer and user's needs.

I'm a network admin and we continued ordering hardware with XP over Vista ans 7 for as long as we could. 7 is a pain in the arse along with Office 10. In fact, I can send you an email with a specific Abobe font that will crash your Office 10 Outlook and Word and Microsoft.

This is a crap attempt to scare people into upgrading their XP machines.

You sir, are a fool.

[davejohnso]

@Mercury69,

Since Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in history, I am fairly certain that you can't objectively say that users are "not upgrading and preferring to stay with XP for as long as possible." But your strategy of calling someone a fool when you lack data or evidence beyond the reach of your little annecdotal experiences is working well for you, so stick with that.

[IPonUall2]

You aren't safe any way you go, last month Microsoft uncovered brand new factory fresh laptop computers accessing secret sites on bootup.
Why have we not heard more about this obvious illegal and dangerous espionage on America?

[erich_1-2009]

Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP on April 8, 2014. An Operating System with Windows XP still received Critical Updates, and Security Updates from Microsoft. Windows XP is also still protected through Microsoft Security Essentials through Microsoft, and receives the latest updates.
After Microsoft stops supporting Windows XP, and stops allowing use of Microsoft Security Essentials, then is the time to get a new Operating System. Until then, with proper maintenance Windows XP will work fine.

[DF68]

I'm inclined to agree with you. These security issues are usually something that has to happen along the lines of the planets aligning themselves, i.e. you have to be at a certain website out of millions with an unprotected computer. So, as long as Microsoft is still pumping out security fixes until 4/8/14, and I keep running Malwarebytes and Comodo or Webroot AV/AS with current definitions, behind both a hardware and software firewall, I'm not too concerned at the moment.