News Idle Windows XP and 2000 machines get infected with viruses within minutes of being exposed online — legacy OSes compromised by just connecting to...

[Admin]

A YouTuber installs a Windows XP VM without using any basic security measures to see how many viruses the OS will get. Within minutes, the OS has several viruses infecting the VM.

Idle Windows XP and 2000 machines get infected with viruses within minutes of being exposed online — legacy OSes compromised by just connecting to... : Read more

 

[PEnns]

Makes me wonder how those people / companies who are still running pre Windows 7 versions are doing.....

 

[ezst036]

I'm so thankful I upgraded entirely out of the Windows ecosystem into Linux. It's just so much easier.

 

[rluker5]

Makes me wonder how those people / companies who are still running pre Windows 7 versions are doing.....

Fine if they stay completely isolated from the Internet.

 

[bit_user]

The YouTuber set up a Windows XP virtual machine with an utterly unsecured internet connection to see how many viruses it would attract.

This was a terrible idea, even back when these operating systems were still getting security updates!

in the early 2000s, catching a PC directly to the internet without a router was normal.

Not really, since most internet providers provide some degree of security, if only to keep people from trying to run businesses while merely paying a residential rate for their service. So, even if you think hooking up your machine directly to a cable modem is pitting it on the open internet, it's really not.

Makes me wonder how those people / companies who are still running pre Windows 7 versions are doing.....

Read the article. Nobody puts unprotected PCs on the open internet - not even 20 years ago.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

According to a 2007 report by the Pew Research Center it wasn't until the latter half of the 2000s that dualup internet, which doesn't use a router, dropped under 25% of the American population, and even the 15% figure in 2007 was a large number of people. Also according to the US Census, in 2019 a quarter of a million people still were counted as using dialup alone.

Read the article. Nobody puts unprotected PCs on the open internet - not even 20 years ago.

I guarantee you you're wrong. Windows XP didn't gain an automatic firewall until SP2, and combined with the number of households using dialup internet at that time period, over 30%, the vast majority of PCs were not protected.

 

[pjmelect]

What the article did not say was that the version of XP used was the original released version of the program without any updates. XP sp3 with all of the updates is still safe to use on the internet.
I haven’t tried it but I wonder if the release version of Windows 10 without any updates would fair any better. The main problem with using XP nowadays is that the browsers don’t support many of the web sites.

 

[s997863]

Is the headline trying to imply that Win10 could connect to the internet any more safely without a firewall?

I've always used these with no issues: ZoneAlarm on XP, Windows10FireWallControl on Win7, and SimpleWall on Win10. No need for resource hogging anti-viruses with "real time" scanning.

 

[bit_user]

I guarantee you you're wrong. Windows XP didn't gain an automatic firewall until SP2, and combined with the number of households using dialup internet at that time period, over 30%, the vast majority of PCs were not protected.

You seem to assume these dialup ISPs offered zero security? As I explained, I could plug my PC directly into my cable modem ...or a dialup one, but my ISP restricts incoming connections to my machine. You couldn't use CIFS filesharing over those connections, for instance, without at least using a VPN. In neither case are you on the open internet.

 

[Vanderlindemedia]

This is such old news... lol.

I remember using ISDN (64kbps) to dial-up into the internet. With XP it was a matter of minutes before you where hit with the blaster worm.

Problem is behind a router you have a very basic firewall; using Dialup or so there's no such thing as a firewall. So any port is open for bashing. Esp on a outdated OS.

Lots of countries still using XP. You do the math.

 

[bit_user]

Problem is behind a router you have a very basic firewall; using Dialup or so there's no such thing as a firewall. So any port is open for bashing. Esp on a outdated OS.

You can run firewall software on the PC with the modem, or connect the modem to a different PC that functions as your firewall. I'll grant that probably 0.1% of dialup users did the latter.

 

[Vanderlindemedia]

You can run firewall software on the PC with the modem, or connect the modem to a different PC that functions as your firewall. I'll grant that probably 0.1% of dialup users did the latter.

Quite inefficient. CPU based firewall that was yes; and even if bots where probing you, the bandwidth soaked up through scanning and potential exploiting would be taken off your available bandwidth or capacity, which was very slim already with 5 to 6KB p/s download speeds.

 

[pixelpusher220]

Fine if they stay completely isolated from the Internet.

Stuxnet has entered the totally disconnected chat

 

[rluker5]

Stuxnet has entered the totally disconnected chat

We still have a later iteration of that same software running some of the control systems at the factory where I work. It makes the newer software replacing it look like trash, even though it is running on Pentium 4s.
But it is isolated and we have backups because they are cheap and the pc equipment is old.

Replacing APACS+ because some necessary communication hardware is no longer produced.
But none of the control systems have wifi or are connected to any pc that has access to the internet, even the two year old stuff. No reason to take the risk when you can still have a separate network in the same room.

Edit: as a side note, my systems did get virus infections frequently back when I was on dialup. I would shop around for the best virus protection. I always had to have something installed and when it would fail I would try something different. It was really bad back in the days I was using Netzero free internet. So many ads my pc screen looked like a mix between Idiocracy and Brazil. That and with HDDs and CD Windows reinstalls the pc experience was almost unrecognizable compared to today.

 

[Mike Hoopes]

Sounds like a headline from The Onion during a writer’s strike.

While we’re at it:
Model T with removed bumper totalled in collision with 2001 Toyota Yaris.