This is it, in just over a fortnight you will be a target, Its open season on XP users

Its true, you share the same operating system as the banks, NHS and over a third of computer users but what does it all mean.

As far as us IT people are concerned your computer and this car have a lot in common. First off all please understand you are using an old banger, its a 12 year old computer operating system, now look at your car, is it younger than that? Obvious really, wasn’t it?

OK so you have XP whats all the fuss?
Here is Microsoft’s take on this https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/endofsupport.aspx

Basically it means that every XP computer system is fair game for every hacker aged two years or over. They now have something to do that’s easy and no one is going to stop them. If you think it hasn’t been a problem why should you bother then I can remind you that XP has had 361 known vulnerabilities, of which about 40 have never been fixed.

Whats a vulnerability?
One persons vulnerability is another persons ease of use, there are 65,500 holes in Windows which are there to be useful. Also the code can be broken like a moneybox can be opened. The idea is that someone can get into your computer and exploit its weaknesses.

What can they do?
Run some code that will make your machine part of a botnet (Think of the “borg” from Star Trek. The can install some searching software and key logging software. If I tell you that we can access any computer that comes in and we don’t need a password, you should be worried, its easy. So when someone gets in they can mess about with whats stored in there or any keystrokes you make.

I would know wouldn’t 1?
Yes like you know when you are infected with a cold or after you have been robbed, yes you will know but its usually too late, these guys don’t want to be detected or their software found and they are very good at it. OK there are obvious things  like blackmail / ransomware but they get you to load that. You machine has slowed down since the day you bought it but have you really noticed and how would you really know anyway.

What are they after?
3 numbers, sixteen numbers and four numbers. That’s your security code on the back of your card, your card number and the expiry date. This will be stored on your computer somewhere if you have ever typed them in to buy something. Remember the VeriSign, that says your safe? Well it doesn’t apply to your computer only theirs. Bear in mind that in most countries chip and ppin doesn’t exist, even in the United States its signatures and card holder not present checking.

Most people don’t check their credit cards, surprising but true and would you notice £9 or £10 here or there occasionally? One of our clients didn’t we took them on and found the code in a couple of hours, they had been milked for £8,279 over the last three years in little amounts

I have anti virus installed
Well done, but how do you know its working? also we are not talking about viruses, just malicious code, your computer runs all sorts of programs with a problem, whats one small new one that tell the AV to ignore it? Did you know that in 2006 Norton had all their program code stolen by hackers, guess why they wanted it?

So your AV might miss it. How many of you run malware searches, thought not, I advise you start now.

I sit behind a firewall.
You mean the thing in your £39 BT router? well they are cheap for a reason. If you had a Jupiter firewall it would cost you over £9,000. Would you trust a cheap liferaft or the best you can get? By the way there are some wireless routers that send out their password when reset. Its an un-fixed fault.

Both cheap firewalls and free Anti Virus are like using a condom with a hole it it, sorry to be crude but you might find out when its too late.

OK but should I worry
Not on April the 8th but when the first system is cracked which could be a bank, or similar the word will spread and then they will start falling like dominoes. Its easy money.

Generally I wouldn’t bother, if the system is doing what it should then there is no valid reason to upgrade it, but if you don’t like the reliability and security of old bangers than yes. The problem is to leap from XP to Windows8 which I would recommend you will need some nifty transfer programs, which we have, to avoid all that setting up again.

Conclusion
If you have updated your car because you fancied it then you obviously can afford to lose some money. Whats a few thousand here or there? If you haven’t or had to then this is another thing thats vulnerable.

Did I tell you that this doesn’t just happen to other people, my daughter suffered Identity theft, affected the whole family but at least when my Debit card was cloned online because of a security breach at RBS NatWest picked it up and blocked it. New card arrived in 2 days. Did you know theres no protection on most debit cards? Now there is a thought.