Security News > 2020 > January > Hundreds of Millions of PCs Remain Vulnerable as Windows 7 Reaches End of Life
Windows 7 has reached end of life on Tuesday, January 14, 2020, but hundreds of millions of PCs worldwide still run the operating system, which likely makes them a more tempting target for malicious cyber actors.
It's worth noting that when Windows XP reached end of life in April 2014, the operating system also had a market share estimated at roughly 30%. The most obvious solution is to upgrade to Windows 10, which provides significant benefits both in terms of functionality and security.
"Since there are no patches available, going forward Windows 7 systems will become ripe targets for attackers to exploit. A quick search on internet search engines such as shodan.io reveals that there are roughly a million Windows 7 systems connected to the internet. When the next major Windows 7 vulnerability strikes, these would be the systems attackers would go after first, own them very quickly, and cause business disruption," explained Mehul Revankar, director of product management at SaltStack, a provider of intelligent IT automation software.
"Not only each individual Windows 7 system on the network but effectively every network with Windows 7 systems becomes more vulnerable to cyberattacks: widespread, targeted, sophisticated - with staggering costs for individual users as well as companies of any size. Enterprise industry regulatory non-compliance is perhaps the other most significant consequence: absence of updates and support for an operating system will likely mean mandatory audits will fail," Lopes added.
He added, "Additionally, Microsoft is also retiring free support for Office 365 ProPlus on Windows 7, which could severely hinder day-to-day operations for businesses. The next Adobe Creative Cloud update will also no longer support older versions of OS, including Windows 7, so aside from buying new hardware which will automatically come with the latest Windows OS, migrating to Windows 10 is the only real long-term solution for businesses."