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Over 7.2 Million PCs in Thailand at Risk as the countdown to End-of-Support for 11-year old Windows® XP Begins

April 10th, 2013 No comments

Industry experts warn businesses and consumers to move away from XP before April 2014 deadline

Bangkok –10 April 2013 – reminded customers today that it will officially retire service and support for XP on 8 April 2014. With this deadline only one year away, it is essential for SMBs and consumers in Thailand to migrate from XP, an eleven year old operating system, to avoid vulnerabilities and risks that have the potential to cause business disruption and extra costs.

From 8 April 2014, Microsoft will no longer provide automatic fixes, updates, or online technical assistance for Windows XP. This also means that users will no longer receive security updates that help protect PCs from harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software that can steal personal information.

Crossing a busy road with your eyes closed
Rachod Isarankura Na Ayuthaya, Windows Client Business Group Lead, Microsoft (Thailand) Limited, said: “While XP was one of the most popular operating systems in Microsoft’s history, it was not designed to handle the challenges of today, such as the increased exposure to cyber-attacks and demands for more data privacy, unlike our newer operating systems such as Windows 7 and 8. Continuing to use PCs with XP is similar to crossing a busy road with you’re your eyes closed. By far, the security risk is the most concerning for customers as there are more sophisticated forms of attack which can impact safety of personal information and the hidden costs associated with support and business continuity.”

In March 2013, according to StatCounter, Windows XP still makes up 36.40% of PCs in Thailand with a steady rate of decline since Windows 7 was launched in October 2009. That equates to over 7.2 million PCs. This is high, compared to an Asia average of 34 percent. StatCounter data also shows that about 50% of PCs in Thailand are already on Windows 7 and in the last two months, there’s been an uptake of Windows 8 as well.

Industry analysts are in agreement that now is the time to upgrade from the decade old software. Bryan Ma, Associate Vice President of Client Devices Research at IDC Asia/Pacific, said: “Windows XP has been a major platform that both consumers and business alike have depended on for many, many years now. And yet with the termination of extended support for XP looming ahead, it is important that preparations be made to migrate to newer versions of the OS in order to make sure that users can continue to rely on their systems.”

Customers migrating away from XP to increase security
According to the findings of Microsoft’s Security Intelligence Report, Volume 13, released in June 2012, Windows XP with SP3 is three times more vulnerable than Windows 7 SP1. Malware has become a severe threat in the last decade, having increased from 1,000 in 1991 to millions in 2012. Computer threats include viruses, worms, trojans, exploits, backdoors, password stealers, spyware, and other variations of potentially unwanted software.

In addition to the severe security issues, continued use of XP poses additional threats including compliance issues such as encryption, hashing, and signing, while more than 60% of independent software vendors and modern browsers no longer support XP.

Suebsak Komjezsda, MIS Manager, NEC Corporation (Thailand) Ltd., customer of Microsoft (Thailand) Limited, said: “While XP has served us for many years, we cannot fully utilize the current PC to its full potential anymore because many device drivers on Windows XP are missing. Moreover, Windows XP security is way too outdated to be able to protect us from current virus and malware. If we choose to migrate after the damage from virus and malware, it would cost a fortune. This is why we decided to migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7.”

To support SMBs in this effort, Microsoft today announced the Windows Upgrade Centre website, where SMBs can get more information about this issue, learn from analysts and other customers in the region. Microsoft also advises SMB customers to look out for special offers from their resellers in the next few months.

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