Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Almost All WannaCry Victims Were Running Windows 7 (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the full-of-surprises dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: According to data released today by Kaspersky Lab, roughly 98 percent of the computers affected by the ransomware were running some version of Windows 7, with less than one in a thousand running Windows XP. 2008 R2 Server clients were also hit hard, making up just over 1 percent of infections. Windows 7 is still by far the most common version of Windows, running on roughly four times as many computers as Windows 10 worldwide. Since more recent versions of Windows aren't vulnerable to WannaCry, it makes sense that most of the infections would hit computers running 7. Still, the stark disparity emphasizes how small of a role Windows XP seems to have played in spreading the infection, despite early concerns about the outdated operating system. The new figures also bear on the debate over Microsoft's patching practices, which generated significant criticism in the wake of the attack. Microsoft had released a public patch for Windows 7 months before the attack, but the patch for Windows XP was only released as an emergency measure after the worst of the damage had been done. The patch was available earlier to paying Custom Support customers, but most XP users were left vulnerable, each unpatched computer a potential vector to spread the ransomware further. Still, Kaspersky's figures suggest that unpatched XP devices played a relatively small role in the spread of the ransomware.

3 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Win X Upgrade by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If MS hadn't tried to force Win10 down Win7 user's throats maybe more would have been installing patches.

  2. Here is a possible explanation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Windows updates stopped working on my Windows 7 machine about September last year and nothing except for a complete reinstall seems to get it working again - neither Microsoft repair tools, nor 3rd party tools, nothing. It just rolls back every update as failed for almost a year, and I guess I'm not the only one with this problem. So of course the latest patches are not installed.

  3. Re:MS Broke Windows 7 Updates by sniper86 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Someone wrote an automated tool to install all KB's to fix Windows Update for Win 7:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/...

    Worked on all 3 machines I used it on, in various WU states (endless loop, failing to install).