XP Security Story

I have a friend. Works for F5 Networks, Business Security.
Romanian by birth, grew up as a hacker (all they had to do he tells me), hired because of his expertise.

So, one day last year I was talking to him about the flak I was getting from some tech forum guys for using "unsupported, non-secure" XP.

He says, "The bad guys don't care".
I asked what he meant by that?
"You know what I do, right? Every day I deal with this for businesses, right"
Yes, I know.
"The bad guys don't care about obsolete operating systems. They are so busy trying to get into 8, 8.1 and 10, they just don't care. The last exploit written for XP was (I think he said) two years ago"
"You are safer using XP with a good AV today than you are using 10".

And so far, he's right.

I have ESET, and MalwareBytes anti-exploit (free) running, and we get nothing trying to get in.

Just a story...your mileage may vary.
Dave

 

good news, but still need to surf responsibly.

and welcome to the forums.

 

This has been my view for long enough. The expected deluge of 'zero-day exploits' that were predicted for XP after EOL never materialised, did they? At least, I never saw any of them.....and I don't always behave myself online, like I'm sure a lot of us don't.

Yes, I occasionally visit 'dodgy' sites (all in the name of research, of course! ) But in all these months down the line, I've never yet been hit by anything that Comodo and Malwarebytes can't fend off.....and even they haven't had to work very hard..!

I won't say the bad guys have 'forgotten' about XP, but I just don't think there's that much in it for them any longer. Certainly no major 'pay-days', that's for sure...


Mike.

 

If one gets a 'wild hair', they could always get some flavor of linux/ubuntu, , , ,

-c-

 

I do have a Ubuntu machine in the closet should MS shut down XP (and when WGA was being jammed down our throats, MS said, in print, they could shut down any MS OS anywhere in the world whenever they wanted to) I can use that.
User Agent Switcher in FF (I won't ever use Google Chrome, as it's the Google model of steal all your data that MS is now using) makes websites think you're using something else...and I have no idea if a hack or virus is directed towards what they think is 7, 8, or 8.1, will it even work on XP?
Who knows.
Still running.

 

Interesting, I'd avoid 10 anyway because it would be too hard for me to get a grip with correctly.
Love XP and Vista, nice to know they are not targeted and I will have good chance with it!

 

Don't wait for that 'wild hair', learn Linux anyway....having a 'Plan B' is never stooopid! I don't believe all the doom'n'gloomers predictions that XP Pro will become unusable, implode into a black hole, etc. Heard the same old same old Microsoft propaganda about Win98 & Win2000, and both are still kicking. On the other hand, I don't know everything, so contingency planning is the way to go. Besides which, having a highly secure OS comes in handy for online shopping, porn, or whatever; same as having a highly secure browser.