author: Bart Swiatek
End of Windows 7 Support is Nigh; OS is Targeted by Hackers
According to Webroot experts' analysis, Windows 7 is becoming a target for hackers more than twice as often as the latest version of Microsoft's operating system.
In a few months - in January 2020 - Microsoft will officially end its support for Windows 7. Webroot has prepared a report that suggests that as we approach this date, the aforementioned version of the OS is more and more willingly attacked by cybercriminals. Windows 7 computers are more than twice as likely to be infected with viruses as those on which the latest version of Microsoft's OS is installed.
"In general, computers running Windows 7 are twice as likely to be infected as PCs using Windows 10. The statistics are about 0.12 infections per Windows 7 device - so far in 2019 - and 0.05 infections per Windows 10 computer," we read in the report.
In Windows 7, the number of infections increased by 71% since last year. Most often (in 64% of cases) home users are the victims. Viruses hide in places where some less advanced users do not have access - in %temp% (41%), %appdata% (24%) and %cache% (11%) folders.
"There are many factors contributing to this discrepancy, including the fact that most enterprise devices are protected by business-class firewalls and mandatory security, while home users may be more lax in protecting their devices. Secondly, the average person is more likely to be cautious when browsing the Internet on a work device that belongs to their employer."
The statistics speak for themselves - if you are still using Windows 7, we recommend changing to a newer version, or at least getting a good antivirus software.