Microsoft has ended its security update and other technical services for Windows XP, its longest-running operating system for personal computers.
The termination is in accordance with the U.S. software giant’s long-heralded policy to stop supporting the 13-year-old operating system. Windows XP, introduced in 2001, was supposed to retire in 2011, but MS extended its life cycle due to its continued popularity.
Now computers running XP will be exposed to greater security risks such as malware and hacking, in addition to an inability to solve problems arising from the conflict of XP-based software programs.
The best solution is for consumers to upgrade their OS, but many of them have delayed this because of the cost. Preliminary estimates show about 15 percent of all computer users in Korea still run the XP platform, but some analysts raise the ratio to 25 percent, citing unregistered individual consumers. In particular, nearly 30 percent of computers installed at small and medium businesses use Windows XP.
The public sector is no exception. As local governments and schools have been slow to upgrade their OS owing to budget constraints, two out of 10 computers in the public sector are still powered by XP.
Even more serious are bank ATMs (automated teller machines) and POS (point of sale) systems, nearly 90 percent of which are reportedly relying on Windows XP. Upgrading OS for ATMs has made little progress because banks have had to replace machines themselves at a cost of about 15-20 million won per unit.
The financial regulator has downplayed the possibility of hacking, saying ATMs operate within the banks’ internal computer networks, but this is no time for complacency. Symantec, a global computer security company, claimed that hackers could collect dispensed cash from XP-powered ATMs by simply sending a text message to the compromised system.
People’s anxiety about the massive leak of customer data at financial firms and large retailers will run deeper as hackers will be able to cash in on the retirement of the archaic operating system and target the systems with increasingly sophisticated techniques.
It’s without doubt that the government and security companies need to continue providing computer patches for the remaining Windows XP users to brace for possible cyber attacks, which have been rumored to take place timed with the demise of the XP platform. It’s also right for the Ministry of Security and Public Administration to operate a situation room tasked with responding to security problems in the public sector.
More fundamentally, there should be systematic efforts to reduce our excessive dependence on MS and other specific software companies. By any measure, it’s intolerable to see Windows continue to control nearly 90 percent of our OS market.