Text 61447, 50 rader
Skriven 2010-07-18 01:26:18 av Alan Zisman (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 61440 av Sean Dennis (1:18/200)
Ärende: Win XP or W2K
=====================
On 17-07-10 1:52 PM, Sean Dennis -> Alan Zisman wrote:


 SD> Microsoft is still providing updates for XP, so I guess it's still
 SD> current and popular.

As of July 14, MS is only providing updates for XP SP3 - even though large
numbers of people continue to run SP2 (or earlier)...

 SD> W2K support is now dead, so theoretically but not
 SD> practically, W2K is dead. However, how many home users (which are by and
 SD> large the main market aimed at by malware developers) do you know that
 SD> run W2K? Probably little or none. Therefore, logically, W2K would be a
 SD> safer bet even with Ross's idea nonwithstanding.

I'd have to differ - especially since an increasing number of attacks are
happening via either browsers (especially IE6 - the last IE version Win 2000
users can upgrade to) or via applications or add-ons like Acrobat/Adobe Reader
or Flash. So a W2K system running IE6 and perhaps older versions of Acrobat and
Flash would be more vulnerable than an up-to-date, patched newer Windows
version.

 AZ>> And as long as large numbers of people continue to use the relatively
 AZ>> less-secure IE6, it will continue to be targetted in preference to
 AZ>> more current versions because it is an easier target.

 SD> IE6 is quickly dying off with better alternatives such as Firefox,
 SD> Chrome, Opera and Safari. Where IE6 is mainly concentrated is in
 SD> business; I use IE6 on a daily basis at work (although I have no outside
 SD> connection to the Internet; I am on a very large corporate WAN).

There are two big populations continued to use IE6 - one is in business, as you
mention - the other is among people (often in Asia and other non-North American
locations) running pirated copies of XP who are unable to get official updates.

That - I suspect - was the set of Google employees running IE6 who were
targetted early this year.

 SD> I believe that in the next few years, W7 will become increasingly
 SD> targeted for malware as will OS X and Linux (which has shown to have
 SD> problems due to the typical Linux user thinking that his OS is
 SD> completely invunerable to such) as will the up and coming Windows 8.

Time will tell - 3rd party applications seem to be more targetted these days.
OS X and Linux - while by no means invulnerable - are harder targets than, say,
XP ... and because they have much smaller user bases, are less tempting targets
in any event.

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