From: wbe@UBEBLOCK.psr.com.invalid   
      
   "Kenn Caesius"  writes:   
   > Is Windows XP that under siege from hackers and malware that I should   
   > consider changing how I use it?   
      
   If it's a stand-alone machine that never accesses the Internet directly   
   or indirectly for any reason (incl. email), your risk should be just   
   about nil.   
      
   Otherwise, my impression is that older Microsoft Windows systems are   
   relatively vulnerable, particularly when the person using it does   
   everything from the initial account, which has administrator privileges,   
   instead of using a limited access account.   
      
   Consider: Just about every month for all the years XP has been out,   
   Microsoft has had critical security patches in its monthly patch   
   release.  It's likely that more vulnerabilities exist but haven't been   
   found yet.  Traditionally, the bad guys have tracked the vulnerability   
   announcements and modified their intrusion code accordingly to break in   
   to systems where the administrator wasn't fast enough at installing the   
   patches.  Recall that there's actually a market for so-called 0-day   
   vulnerabilities.   
      
      
   > ... I find it hard to believe they would bother with a 12-year-old   
   > operating system, moreso with its steady decline.   
      
   I think you're looking at it the wrong way (as in, you're trying to   
   convince yourself that no one would target you).  In a sense, you're   
   right, they (usually) don't target *you* specifically.  They attack   
   millions of machines at a time in the hope that some of the attacks will   
   succeed.  So then it's a numbers issue -- how many such machines are   
   there, how likely is it that an attack will succeed, etc.  With lots of   
   XP machines out there, and with new vulnerabilities not getting fixed,   
   that's a lot of targets and an ever-increasing chance of success.   
      
      
   > What will be the risks and challenges to maintaining Windows XP?   
      
   The real-life risks depend on whether the system contains information   
   you wouldn't want in the hands of the wrong people, or could be used as   
   a base for launching other attacks.   
      
   Of course, another approach to this whole issue is to switch to a   
   different O/S, such as one of the dozens of flavors of Linux or BSD, or   
   OpenIndiana (derived from OpenSolaris), etc.  Some Linuxes reportedly   
   run better than XP on older hardware and are supported, but whether that   
   would work for you depends on how much what you're doing depends on   
   MS Windows.   
      
   Enough speechmaking,  :)   
    -WBE   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)