As Microsoft 's support for Windows XP nears its end (7 days left), the European Union has decided to issue a warning to all those still running the company's old operating system, emphasizing that upgrading to a newer platform is absolutely essential for their security.
Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), which is an agency working under the close supervision of the European Union, explains in a PDF released today that computers running Windows XP will become vulnerable to attacks as no new security patches will be released after April 8.
“This does not mean that Windows XP computers will stop working. It means that there will be no more security updates, or hotfixes, or online technical content updates, or any kind of technical support for the operating system after that date. This also coincides with the end of support for Office 2003.
From a user perspective, and practically speaking, this means that vulnerabilities discovered after April 8th in Windows XP and Office 2003 will remain unpatched,” the warning states.
At the same time, the EC3 service also issued some recommendations for those who continue to run systems with Windows XP, emphasizing that upgrading to a newer operating system is mandatory for their security. The possible shift to a Macintosh or Linux operating system is also mentioned as a proposal for users who are forced to change operating system.
On the other hand, users who do not wish to upgrade and plan to continue with the “ancient” operating system must install all updated versions of the OS as well as Office 2003.
Let us remind that the “ancient” Windows XP still holds 29% of the market share. Thus it is hard to believe that all these users will change operating system by April 8.
