With our upcoming webinar, that touches on Windows XP coming to end of life, I wanted to bring everyone’s attention to a recent CBC post. The post discusses how holding out on the update leaves you very vulnerable to malware and hackers. With this announcement that Windows XP support is coming end of life this April there are strong fears that hackers will exploit weaknesses in Windows XP, now 13 years old, when Micosoft pulls the support.
So what are the important dates you as an XP user need to know?
- April 8, 2014 – Windows XP retires
- April 8, 2014 – Support, such as bug fixes, is no longer provided
- July 14, 2015 – Microsoft will end updates to anti-malware signatures and engine for Windows XP. The extended time is to help organizations complete their migrations.
Last April The Economist stated that 39% of business desktops still were running Windows XP. For Canadians what is a point to note is that Dodunski, chief technology at Phirelight Security Solutions, estimates that about half of government and business computers in Canada are still running Windows XP. This means that even if you have upgraded if your information is stored with any of these you are still at risk.
If you would like to read the full CBC article you can view it here: (http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/windows-xp-holdouts-vulnerable-to-hackers-1.2532609)
Now as was originally mentioned we do have an upcoming webinar that will talk further the risks of XP coming to end of life. It is going to be presented by Lenovo and will also cover the topics of BYOD or Not and Who is Lenovo. If this interests you please attend!
Date: Tuesday, February 18th
Time: 11am – 12pm
Registration:
http://info.ableone.com/BYOD-or-NOT-February-Webinar/
Sources:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/windows-xp-anti-malware-support-extended-to-2015-1.2500582
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/windows-xp-holdouts-vulnerable-to-hackers-1.2532609
