China's unsupported XP machines hold the potential to become a massive botnet army

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2014/033114-xp-china-280233.html

By Tim Greene
Network World
March 31, 2014

Unsupported Windows XP machines in China could pose a threat to the 
Internet in general if bot-herders round up significant numbers of them to 
use as launch pads for malicious exploits, according to a top white-hat 
hacker.

James Forshaw, a vulnerability researcher for Context Information 
Security, says the vast number of XP computers in China represents the 
potential staging ground for attacks if they become compromised.

"If we're talking tens of millions of machines that's a significant pool 
to do DoS or other malicious attacks," says Forshaw, who is a $100,000 
winner of Microsoft’s BlueHat bounty prize for finding and reporting 
vulnerabilities in its Internet Explorer browser. "It might be in 
everyone’s best interest to get China or other countries to help them to 
migrate."

StatCounter, which tracks operating system use by country, says that in January 
Windows XP represented 50.46%  of the operating systems in use in China. That’s 
down from 63% the year before, but still very significant. With China’s 
population upward of 1.3 billion, that represents a lot of machines, Forshaw 
says.

[...]

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