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On 29/03/14 14:53, Martijn Grooten wrote: > > I know there are still many machines running XP, but what I haven't seen > much of are numbers of XP machines that aren't either running a very old > version, or are run by sysadmins that know what they're doing and have > secured the system in other ways. It's those machines for whom the > situation will become a lot worse after 8 April. I'm extremely cynical of the "secured the system in other ways" option. This line was supplied in response to requests for key UK government departments to sort an upgrade plan for sections dependent on IE6 only intra-microsoft-messes. Sure it is possible to run anything reasonably securely, but at some point it is cheaper and easier to replace the old. I tend to the view that it is hard work to secure against known bugs, so we should take the relatively easy route of keeping everything fully patched and fully up to date, since whilst keeping stuff up to date isn't easy it does avoid asking questions about how to keep known insecure stuff safe. In response to other enquiries about how to protect such networks, I suggested network isolation was probably harder to implement than installing a new desktop OS, and network isolation has been shown to fail horribly (SQL Slammer in a nuclear power station being a key example). At this point the advice is "get a newer OS". It is easy to understand, easy to do, and even if you stick with Microsoft has been available for 7 years and 2 months. If you still have Windows XP in big organisations anywhere but in legacy browser testing, you should consider sacking the CTO, and get a more dynamic one. This is not a technology problem, and won't be fixed by technology. This is entirely about business maintenance procedures. How do you ensure you can support what you have, and have what you can support. Smaller companies can just go buy some new machines this week. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq