{"id":4376,"date":"2025-07-17T06:49:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T06:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/4376\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T06:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T06:49:13","slug":"250-million-microsoft-windows-pcs-now-vulnerable-to-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/4376\/","title":{"rendered":"250 Million Microsoft Windows PCs Now \u2018Vulnerable To Attack\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Microsoft<\/p>\n

Government agency issues upgrade now warning.<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Microsoft\u2019s sudden u-turn on killing Windows 10<\/a> in October has a serious downside. There are still around 50% of all users on this ending\/not ending version of the OS, many of whom will now wait at least 12 months before upgrading their PCs.<\/p>\n

Around 250 million of the 700 million affected users do not have hardware that meets the Windows 11 hurdles. There\u2019s certainly a case to be made for giving them more time to buy new devices. But for the rest, there\u2019s no real excuse for not upgrading now<\/a>. And while Microsoft has said the same<\/a>, human nature suggests many simply won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

ForbesMicrosoft Warns All Users To Stop Using Passwords\u2014This Is WhyBy Zak Doffman<\/a><\/p>\n

That warning has now been echoed by NCSC<\/a>, the U.K. spy agency\u2019s cyber security outfit. \u201cDevices that don\u2019t meet Windows 11 hardware requirements,\u201d it has just warned in a new public advisory, \u201cremain fundamentally vulnerable to attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

NCSC acknowledged the problem \u2014 for many users \u201cWindows 10 works for them, and just doesn\u2019t feel old. Thanks to its modern UI, users forget that it was released over a decade ago.\u201d But it\u2019s creaking under the covers, and on the security front that matters.<\/p>\n

Windows 11 Vs Windows 10 (to end June 2025)<\/p>\n

Statcounter<\/p>\n

While Windows 10 was still installed on more PCs globally<\/a> than Windows 11 at the end of last month, the latest data suggests that has changed in July with Windows 11 creeping ahead. But that has not yet taken Microsoft\u2019s u-turn into account.<\/p>\n

The cyber agency says \u201cthe security risks of not upgrading are significant,\u201d and those remaining on Windows 10 risk becoming \u201ca prime target for cyber criminals.\u201d To back this up, NCSC cites WannaCry ransomware which was rife on outdated Windows machines, \u201can attack which resulted in huge costs and damage globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

ForbesGoogle Confirms \u2018Crucial\u2019 Update For 1 Billion Android UsersBy Zak Doffman<\/a><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s assumed most Windows 10 users can upgrade but are deciding not to \u2014 at least not yet, for those delaying because of the hardware costs involved, NCSC says \u201cWindows 11 provides excellent justification for purchase of new hardware.\u201d But that case has been made by Microsoft for years and has thus far failed to land.<\/p>\n

You can expect these warnings to continue to target users as October\u2019s now tepid deadline approaches and then passes. The reality is that the biggest threat to Windows security is currently inertia, and nothing thus far has managed to fix that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Government agency issues upgrade now warning. Getty Images Microsoft\u2019s sudden u-turn on killing Windows 10 in October has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,2766,2771,86,56,54,55,2768,2773,2770,2772,2769,2767],"class_list":["post-4376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-microsoft-warning","tag-new-pc-offer","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-windows-10-end-life","tag-windows-10-extended-support","tag-windows-11-free-upgrade-offer","tag-windows-11-vs-windows-10","tag-windows-upgrade","tag-windows-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}