>>The older an OS is, the less likely it is to be attacked. Malware >>producers are like everybody else in the computer industry; they target >>the latest-and-greatest. Eventually, the stuff aimed at older OSes drops >>out of circulation, Meanwhile the new ones keep getting hit harder and >>harder.
you must be joking!!!!
Please note that I am not disagreeing that XP is probably a more-vulnerable OS than, say Win 7. What I am saying is that most new malware does not target XP, it targets newer OSes.
By far, most new malware today is aimed at mobile OSes, with Android being the leader. (And as I understand it, Android is a Unix/Linux variant. So much for the vaunted superior safety of those OSes.) Desktop and server OSes, by comparison, are far behind as targets for new malware.
Beyond that, it's difficult to find statistical data. But consider: how many DOS viruses do you think are being propagated today? How many designed for Win 98?
You may laugh, but people are still using both of those OSes, and I'd venture to guess that nobody is writing new malware for them. If they are patched to the max they are, today, unlikely to be vulnerable to much of anything.
This will eventually be true for XP. Long before people stop using it, people will stop writing malware for it. Sometime after that, malware designed for it will cease to circulate. At that point, it will be safe.
Ken Dibble www.stic-cil.org _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
