More than six out of 10 ATM machines in the country will be running on an obsolete operating system when Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows XP support on April 8, raising serious security and compliance issues for the systems' operators.
The deadline for installing secure operating systems on federal government computers will pass next month with the job incomplete, leaving hundreds of thousands of machines running outdated software and unusually vulnerable to hackers.
Federal officials have known for more than six years that Microsoft will withdraw its free support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014. Despite a recent rush to complete upgrades, an estimated 10 percent of government computers — out of several million — will still be running the operating system on that date, company officials said.
Microsoft's Build 2014 conference is right around the corner. At that event, which kicks off April 2 in San Francisco, Microsoft is believed to be planning to disclose at least some high-level information about Windows 9.
All we know about Windows 9, at this point, has surfaced thanks to "sources with knowledge about Microsoft's Windows plans, but who asked not to be identified by name." You know... "those people."
With just less than a month until support for Windows XP ends, the security community has warned that hackers are hoarding exploits to let loose on unsuspecting firms once support ends.
After 8 April Microsoft will not release any more updates for the platform. This means that for hackers any holes in the platform they exploit will not be patched, presenting a potential gold mine.
Leaks of upcoming versions of Microsoft's software are nothing new, but it's a little surprising when the source is Microsoft itself. The Spring update to Windows 8.1, known as Update 1, was briefly available from Windows Update earlier this week.
The update wasn't a free-for-all. To get Windows Update to install it, you had to create a special (undocumented, secret) registry key to indicate that you were in a particular testing group; only then were the updates displayed and downloadable.
A decade ago, Microsoft kicked off SDL, or Security Development Lifecycle, a now-widely-adopted process designed to bake security into software, and began building what has become an unmatched reputation in how a vendor writes more secure code, keeps customers informed about security issues, and backs that up with regular patches.
But the Redmond, Wash. company, which just touted SDL's 10-year history with a flashy, anecdote-filled online presentation, seems willing to risk torching that hard-won reputation by pulling the plug on Windows XP.
On Monday, Microsoft China made statements on a Chinese social network that have been misinterpreted in reports in the West. Microsoft in Redmond told ZDNet that they are not extending support for Windows XP in China.
Microsoft translates the actual language used in the post as:
Microsoft China has taken special actions to closely work with leading Chinese internet security and anti-virus companies including Tencent for them to provide security protection for Chinese Windows XP users before they upgrade to modern operating system.
Microsoft grossly overestimated the loyalty of those it thought were its most steadfast customers when it asked for their help in getting friends and family members to dump Windows XP, a corporate communications expert said Friday.
Microsoft has revealed a number of updates coming in a Windows 8.1 Service Pack at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona today, including improved search features and a better app interface.
Announcing that the update will arrive within the next few weeks, Microsoft's corporate VP and manager for Windows Phone Program Management division, Joe Belfiore, said that the Windows 8.1 user interface (UI) has undergone a few tweaks, which are mainly aimed at keyboard and mouse users.
When critics described Windows 8.1 as a step backwards, I disagreed: Responding to customer complaints is never wrong, I argued, and the new version of the OS made it more acceptable on the many different types of PCs and devices on which Windows now runs. With Update 1, however, I'm beginning to question the validity of this new direction, and am now wondering whether Microsoft has simply fallen into an all-too-familiar trap of trying to please everyone, and creating a product that is ultimately not ideal for anyone.
