As if we needed further proof that the time for Windows XP has come and gone.
Microsoft is hard at work convincing users to upgrade to a far more secure operating system (be it Window 7 or Windows 8). While not everyone is paying heed to the advice right away, the security situation of Windows XP could very well convince them to make the move soon.
Even a developer at Google has labeled it as an operating system “far past its security expiration date”.
Justin Schuh, an information security engineer at Google, and one of the lead developers on the Chrome Windows Sandbox said in a post on Hacker News that sticking with Windows XP means taking a big risk.
He also revealed some informative technical information about Windows XP:
“I’m one of the lead devs on the Chrome Windows sandbox, and I can assure you that what we do with Vista+ on the security front is leaps and bounds ahead of what we’re stuck with on XP. DEP is unreliable and pretty worthless anyway without ASLR. You also don’t have things like SEHOP or other memory mitigations that are the first line of defense between your system and the average stale pointer exploit against WebKit.”
In other words, Microsoft totally ramped up the security architecture from Windows Vista onwards, with Windows 7 and Windows 8 solidified with hardened protection.
The 11 year old operating system inherently does not have the required architecture defense approach, and this further opens it up to high risks as Microsoft prepares to end extended support for Windows XP in April next year.
All Comments
Those who are still running XP probably are those that have no extra money to upgrade their PC or they don’t want to throw away a workable system. Their main concern is not security anyway.