This is what happens when you connect your operating system to the Internet today

A lot of stuff in the Windows world right now revolves around the fact that the new Windows 11 isn't particularly popular, and many users are likely to go back to Windows 10 – and wait for Windows 12. It seems that a fair number of users are still using older versions of Windows.

Nearly 100,000 Windows XP computers connected to the Internet

Windows XP, which was launched in 2001, is said to be available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland alone. high Antivirus manufacturer Eset still has it installed on approximately 100,000 computers (as of January 2024) with Internet access. By the way, official support for Windows XP ended in 2014. Since then, there have been no security updates – at least for regular users.

An experiment conducted by YouTuber Eric Parker shows how insecure Windows XP is if you let a computer with it access the Internet ten years after support ended. Accordingly, the newly installed old machine detected the first malware just a few minutes after connecting to the Internet.

Malware detected without active browsing

Parker didn’t have to be active online. All it took was for the computer to be connected to the Internet. The first malware was a process called conhoz.exe, which originated in Russia and disguised itself as an official Microsoft application. Another malware pretended to be from Google, like the standard He writes.

Then a new user was added to the computer. The “Adminia” account was password protected. In addition, an FTP server was added. According to Parker, this is a sure sign that the attackers already have access to all files installed on the system.

No problem for Parker as he used a virtual machine to conduct the experiment. In total, Parker identified eight malware programs. These are said to include four Trojans as well as two backdoors and various adware programs.

Computer online without virus scanner and router

However, it should be noted that the YouTuber did not install a virus scanner on his computer and also disabled the Windows Firewall. In addition, he entered the network directly and not through a potentially protective router.

However, the result of the experiment should be to immediately switch to the current version of Windows supported by Microsoft, if possible. And if it must be Windows XP, then only with additional protection measures.