Kaspersky warns of "ticking time bomb"

Windows 7 in companies

Daniel Dubsky | Davina Spohn, 30.08.2019, 09:53

Kaspersky warns of "ticking time bomb"

More than a third of small companies and more than half of large companies are still using the 'Windows 7' operating system, support for which will expire in five months' time.

Microsoft has been pointing out the end of support for Windows 7 for two or three years now. The software company wants to prevent private users and companies from taking too long to make the switch and then not making it in time. However, the early reminders have clearly not been of much use: according to Netmarketshare, Windows 7 still had a market share of just under 32% in July.

In companies, the share is even higher, as figures from Kaspersky show. According to the figures, more than a third (38%) of very small companies and almost half (47%) of medium-sized and large companies are still using Windows 7. The security specialist speaks of a "ticking cyber time bomb", as there will be no more security updates when support expires in January 2020, making continued use of the operating system a risk.

According to Kaspersky, older versions of Windows, some of which have not been supported for years, are still being used by some companies, especially very small ones. Even Windows XP, whose support expired more than ten years ago, is still used by one percent of very small companies. Windows Vista is still used by 0.2% of them. And Windows 8, which has no longer been supported since the beginning of 2016 and could have been updated free of charge to Windows 8.1, which is supported until 2023, is still used by one percent of small companies and 0.4% of medium-sized and large companies.

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