) Here are "5 Tips for Protecting Windows XP Machines After April 8, 2014":
http://www.welivesecurity.com/2014/03/28/5-tips-for-protecting-windows-xp-machines-after-april-8-2014/
As you may have read in my post earlier this week about the end of days for
Windows XP, Microsoft will cease providing security updates for this operating
system
on April 8, 2014.
If you cannot get away from Windows XP just yet, there are still a few things
you can do to defend your XP machines:
list of 5 items
1. The first thing is to make sure that you back up your computer’s files
regularly, and periodically test you’re your backup strategy by restoring
backups,
preferably on a different computer, a few times a year. This helps ensure that
in the event of a catastrophe, you will still have access to the information
on your computer. The time to worry about your backups is not when faced with a
virus, fire, earthquake or other calamity.
2. The next thing to do is to make sure that your copy of Windows XP is
up-to-date. Although Microsoft will stop making new updates for Windows XP after
April 8, 2014, all of the old updates from before then will still be available,
and should be applied. This also applies to the device driver software
(a device driver is a computer program that allows the operating system to
communicate with a particular kind of hardware), which may be available from
your computer manufacturer or Microsoft’s Windows Update web site.
3. In addition to the operating system and drivers, you should also make sure
you have the latest versions of your application software on the computer,
and that those are fully-patched and updated. Programs like Adobe Flash, Adobe
Reader and Oracle Corp.’s Java are frequently targeted by the criminal gangs
that develop and use malware, so keeping these up-to-date is just as important
as looking after the operating system. Other software that you use, such
as Microsoft Office, web browsers and so forth, should be on the latest version
and have the latest patches applied as well.
4. If the computer does not have to be connected to the Internet, disconnect or
disable the connection so that the PC can only connect to other machines
on the same non-Internet network. This will ensure that Internet-borne threats
cannot directly attack your XP PC, and will make it harder for an attacker
to steal data off the computer.
5. Make sure your security software is up-to-date, as well. There are lots of
security programs available for Windows XP, and most of their authors have
committed to supporting Windows XP for years to come. Some are free, while
others are sold as a subscription. A discussion of the features needed to
protect
Windows XP is outside the scope of this article, but at the very least, I would
recommend looking for a security program that combines signature-based
and heuristic detection, includes a firewall, and has some kind of host
intrusion protection system. Vulnerability shielding and exploit blocking will
be useful as well, as Windows XP will no longer be updated by Microsoft to
protect against these types of attacks.
list end
While these tips will help, your main goal should figuring out how to move away
from Windows XP. If it is simply a matter of replacing a critical application,
work out the cost and build that into your operating budget, likewise for
computer upgrades or even replacement computers. That may be a capital expense,
and an unwanted one in this economy, however, it is still better than going out
of business because outdated computers failed or critical data was stolen.
Having to replace working computers every few years is not fun, but, like other
mechanical equipment, computers do wear out and need to be replaced. Software,
too, gets updated periodically, not just with security patches, but new
features and functionality as well, that can improve your bottom line. You might
find my
podcast on security for older systems
to be helpful listening material.
For readers who are using ESET for their anti-malware protection there is a
helpful Knowledgebase article “
Microsoft Windows XP end of support and ESET products
.” ESET is committed to supporting the Microsoft Windows XP operating system
for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of ESET products at least until the end of
April, 2017.
Author
Aryeh Goretsky,
ESET
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