PCs still running when Windows 7 reaches end of life on the 14th of January will be significantly more at risk of ransomware, Veritas Technologies has warned. According to experts, 26% of PCs are expected to still be running the Microsoft software after support for patches and bug fixes end.
The vulnerability to ransomware of PCs running unsupported software was demonstrated by WannaCry. Despite supported PCs being pushed patches for the cryptoworm, Europol estimated that 200,000 devices in 150 countries, running older, unsupported, software became infected by WannaCry. Although just $130,000 was paid in ransoms, the impact to business is understood to have run into the billions of dollars due to lost productivity and lost data.
