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Kaspersky Will Protect Windows XP After Microsoft's Deadline

By Security 

If you're still clinging to Windows XP, at least one security firm will have your back.

As previously reported, Microsoft plans to end support for Windows XP (SP3) as of April 8, 2014. The Redmond company also plans to shut off Security Essentials for the platform, leaving Windows XP users depending on third-party products. For those still refusing to upgrade to Windows 7 or Windows 8, Kaspersky Lab has your back.

According to CIOL, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2013 and Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 will keep on protecting Windows XP users in accordance with Kaspersky Lab product lifecycles, which may span at least two future generations of both security solutions. The corporate protection solution Kaspersky Endpoint Security 10 for Windows will end support for Windows XP SP3 in the second quarter of 2016.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is gearing up to patch a serious vulnerability in Windows XP that could allow hackers to take full control of the PC. "The vulnerability is an elevation of privilege vulnerability. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full administrative rights," Microsoft explains.

Russ Ernst, director of product management at Lumension, recently told PC World that the Windows XP patch was classified as "Important" due to a number of reasons, one of which is because Microsoft will end support for Windows XP in April. For those still using XP, this will be an important patch to deploy and install.

"An attacker must have valid log on credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users," Microsoft's bulletin adds.

Investors.com reports that around 30 percent of PCs in use still run Windows XP. According to analysts, many businesses and consumers will take their chances and keep using the platform until their PCs finally bite the dust. And even then, they may not upgrade to a Windows-based machine.

As it stands now, many consumers and businesses are still clinging to Windows XP because they're running legacy software such as a payroll application in accounting or an inventory application that won't run correctly in Windows 7 or Windows 8.

"I was in one warehouse location where they had fixed terminals that were on XP and they're now going to iPads," said Victor Janulaitis, CEO of tech consulting firm Janco Associates. "So they're never going to do anything with those PCs. They're just sitting there. It's like an old-time punch-card time clock in a factory."

27 Comments Comment from the forums
  • theclash150 16 January 2014 01:44
    the only valid reason to use XP at this point is software compatibility. certain lab equipment and software requires XP and is too expensive to upgrade. if anyone is still using XP and is connected to the Internet, they deserve all the malware they get.
    Reply
  • neon neophyte 16 January 2014 01:49
    when holes start to get punched through xp security and MS is no longer patching them i think you would have to be insane to depend on an antivirus company to cover you.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty 16 January 2014 01:56
    XP is old. I am all for 8.1 but at minimum people need to push to 7. I understand the very specific cases, but they are normally not running their entire network on XP. And if they are, they are idiots. XP, even without MS patching it, is still more insecure than Vista let alone 7.People need to stop clinging to OSes like their lives depend on it.
    Reply
  • Darkerson 16 January 2014 02:20
    Well it doesnt matter now, for another year at least, since MS just backtracked and said they are going to continue security updates for XP until July 2015 now.

    http://blogs.technet.com/b/mmpc/archive/2014/01/15/microsoft-antimalware-support-for-windows-xp.aspx

    Reply
  • ibnmuhammad 16 January 2014 02:21
    Above comments clearly written by clueless kids.

    People still running XP has very little or nothing to do with software compatibility... come on, we're not talking about Windows 3.11 here!!

    Rather, people cling on to XP because either they don't want to spend money on a new OS with very little or no benefit, or secondly because they have old hardware... and Windows 7 is a monster with memory usage!

    As for me, I cling on to XP because Vista and Windows 7 are a usability disaster, not to mention they perform significantly worse in performance as compared to XP... even surprisingly, power usage!

    (you don't have to take my word for it, Tom's did a benchmark of Windows 7 against Vista and XP, and although 7 was slightly better than Vista, it was far behind XP in all meaningful results - gaming fps, cpu usage, power usage, memory usage, etc).

    As mentioned, 7 is a usability disaster (just look at the help file for Classic Shell for just a few handful of major mistakes in the OS), and as for 8... let's not even get started with that pile of sh*t.

    So as for me, the only possible reason I'd be forced to update is if I upgrade to an SSD, or potentially even waiting until Windows 9 or perhaps even jumping ship (like my other fellow developers) to the beautiful world of Mac OSX.
    Reply
  • daekar 16 January 2014 03:09
    Non-enthusiasts who don't game don't buy new computers until the old one is impractical to fix by reformatting. My extended family has at least two daily-use machines running XP. I deal with their very occasional malware infections and life goes on. They can still do what they need to do. When it becomes difficult to use an XP machine to surf the internet, then they will upgrade. I use an XP machine at work for the sake of software compatibility - we have to run the software specific to our equipment. All of out winterms are Win7 though, running virtual sessions on a company server. My print server at home is XP too...
    Reply
  • zloginet 16 January 2014 03:13
    ^^^ u know all that shit but your not running a SSD yet - your the fool!!!
    Reply
  • daekar 16 January 2014 03:22
    Or perhaps you're the fool for failing to realize that not everyone has the same requirements of their PC? Surely you don't think it's impossible for someone to keep using something even if it's old?

    The only reason I ditched my old 500GB WD 7200rpm drive (and I mean OLD) is because it started to error. Before that there was no reason to upgrade to an SSD, my games ran fine. But hey, I'm still running a Phenom II X4 and a 460GTX, so what do I know?
    Reply
  • antemon 16 January 2014 03:57
    for the love of all that is holy, XP needs to die already. Especially in corporate environment.Home use, I couldn't care less.
    Reply
  • smeezekitty 16 January 2014 05:13
    There is still tons of hardware and software that is broken beyond win xpI expect it will continue to be used mainly because software and hardware makers that are too lazy or arrogant to update to vista/7 compatible
    Reply