Microsoft is all set to shut down all support and security updates for Windows XP come April this year. The company has now revealed that Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows XP will also expire at the same time.
Although Microsoft has been regularly iterating that Windows XP is to expire soon and that users must upgrade from it to later OS versions, there is a huge user base that still runs XP. In fact, nearly thirty percent of the web traffic comes from XP machines, which shows the still persistent popularity of the OS.
However, the future seems bleak for all XP users. Not only is Microsoft shuttering all support for the OS, it will also end the popular anti-malware tool, Microsoft Security Essentials, for the OS. So with no malware blocking and absolutely no patches or fixes from Microsoft, XP users will have to face countless security risks after April this year.
Interestingly, Google and Mozilla have decide to continue supporting Chrome and Firefox browsers for XP users until April 2015. The bigger question is, will we witness XP users shifting to Windows 7 or Windows 8 come April or do these users not care about the security of their machines.
Security analysts are near certain that as soon as Microsoft pulls the official plug on the OS, hackers will be quick to find new exploits and vulnerabilities which will be actively sold in underground hacking markerplaces before soon. And if XP continues to run on the machines of a significant percentage of internet users, these hackers will leverage all their tricks to target these machines.
Courtesy: Arstechnica
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