Microsoft Is Doing Us All A Favor By Killing Windows XP
The end is nigh. No, really. Less than a month from now Microsoft MSFT +0.32%will officially stop supporting the Windows XP operating system. Many security experts predict that it won’t be pretty for Windows XP users once the security patches stop rolling out, and some feel that pulling the plug on support is a mistake that will come back to bite Microsoft. The reality, though, is that Microsoft is doing us a huge favor that will make us all more secure—albeit with some potential short-term growing pains.
A recent post from ComputerWorld’s Gregg Keizerasserts that Microsoft is risking its security reputation by retiring support for Windows XP. He cites a different post he wrote in October of last year where he reported that Microsoft itself predicts that the rate of malware infection for Windows XP may jump by up to 66 percent once Microsoft stops developing patches for the archaic OS.
That is a very real, and very serious concern. Recent estimates suggest that the number of Windows XP systems still in use may be as high as 500 million (Keizer calculates the number to be 488 million). Even if we assume many of those will be upgraded by the April 8 cutoff, and conservatively cut that number in half, we’re talking about a quarter of a billion Windows XP systems begging to be compromised.
Will that impact Microsoft’s reputation? There is a very good chance that it could. When Bill Gates wrote the infamous Trustworthy Computing memo, and started Microsoft down the path of developing more secure software, he also recognized that Microsoft needed to play a broader role in helping vendors and partners embrace security because ultimately any security issue on a Windows-based PC reflects poorly on the Microsoft and Windows brands. If the Windows XPocalypse actually happens, there will definitely be those who point the finger and blame Microsoft.
Too bad.
The reality is that Windows XP is significantly less secure than its successors. Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 all include security features and controls designed to thwart attacks, and reduce the potential impact of successful attacks. There are many flaws that exist across all supported versions of Windows, but they are easily exploitable on Windows XP, and only moderate threats on later versions of Windows. The reality is that Windows XP is already a ticking time bomb, and the only thing that has allowed the ancient OS to maintain the façade of functionality are the valiant efforts of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing.
Instead of focusing on Microsoft’s supposed “obligation” to continue providing support to users—most of whom have contributed little or nothing to the PC revenue stream in the last decade—we should be focusing on the responsibility those users have to adopt more current, more secure operating systems if they want to continue to share the Internet with the rest of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment