Windows XP Phaseout Puts 13 Million Japanese PCs at Risk

[Syt]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131494-Windows-XP-Phaseout-Puts-13-Million-Japanese-PCs-at-Risk

And you thought your company was using out of date tech...

Experts warn that more than 13 million personal computers in Japan will be exposed to higher risk of virus and other attacks starting in mid-April, when Microsoft will cease to support the decade-old operating system. Of that 13 million, 7.23 million Windows XP-based PCs are still in use by Japanese businesses, making up around 20% of all PCs in use in the country.

Migration to Windows 7, or the recently released 8.1 is very slow, especially at small and midsize firms, because managers are either unaware of the problem or want to avoid the cost of updating.

But it's the town, city and prefecture governments that are the biggest offenders according to a survey by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry last October. Around 2 million computers are in use at these offices, 722,166 (or 36%) of which are running XP. Governments blame the software used to handle of residential and taxation data, which is incompatible with newer operating systems.

As for personal use, an estimated 5.97 million PCs (14% of all PCs in Japan) owned by individuals are running Windows XP.

Both PC manufactures and Microsoft have made many attempts to persuade Japanese PC users to upgrade, such as allowing deferred payment on new PCs. Japan, which many see as a futuristic nation on the cutting edge of technology, ironically clings to office technology that the western world has long-since abandoned, such as the fax machine and Internet Explorer.

The end of Windows XP support will also reportedly leave nearly all of Japan's ATMs vulnerable. Japanese banks have lost ¥760 million to Internet hackers as of Oct. 15, 2013.

[11B4V]

Serves them right for fucking with the dolphins.

[CountDeMoney]

Ain't that the truth.  Miami 7, Japan 0.

[Zanza]

The end of Windows XP support will also reportedly leave nearly all of Japan's ATMs vulnerable.

XP Embedded is a different product than normal XP and will be supported until 2016.

[Grey Fox]

It's time to upgrade. XP sucks at handling multithreading.

[Monoriu]

I was using XP like 6 months ago.

[Iormlund]

Meh. In industrial applications it's normal to have outdated systems. I've worked with shit from the 80s and we've installed dozens of XP workstations that will presumably keep working for decades. That's the way it goes and there's no point upgrading as long as you have spares.

[Monoriu]

Yeah.  There really is nothing wrong with XP for normal office purposes like email, internet, Word and Excel.  It is sufficient. 

[Josquius]

The western world has abandoned internet explorer? Would be nice if it were so but...
And the fax machines in Japan thing is overstated. Its not like they're using 20 year old machines, the machines are generally modern and high-tech and also function as printers and scanners. Fax is still heavily used in Japan due to BS bureaucracy and the requirement to stamp lots of papers and have paper copies of documents everywhere. Still something where Japan is backwards but not in technology.
Japan as a country which is behind the times on IT is a bit of an outdated view. Until 10 years ago from what I hear it was very true, but they've caught up a lot.

The end of Windows XP support will also reportedly leave nearly all of Japan's ATMs vulnerable.

ATMs use XP?
I thought the norm was that weird old IBM os.

Meh. In industrial applications it's normal to have outdated systems. I've worked with shit from the 80s and we've installed dozens of XP workstations that will presumably keep working for decades. That's the way it goes and there's no point upgrading as long as you have spares.

Yeah.
In my new company most computers are windows 7 but some computers hooked up to specific industrial machinery use xp.

[fhdz]

Yeah.  There really is nothing wrong with XP for normal office purposes like email, internet, Word and Excel.  It is sufficient.

Until MS stops providing security updates, which leaves those machines vulnerable to new security threats. Voila!

[MadImmortalMan]

I really wonder how much of the current quarter's success had to do with this.

[jimmy olsen]

My work computer, and a lot of the computers from what I've seen here at school use XP.