Wannacry spread across the internet last week, infecting systems across the world and embarrassing nations that don’t upgrade their OSs. And, it turns out, for all the hype surrounding your grandpa’s taste in operating systems, it wasn’t Windows XP that was the problem.
The Verge found analysis that determines 98% of Wannacry victims were running Windows 7. You might remember back in March 2016, people were angry Microsoft was basically doing everything short of forcing them to upgrade at gunpoint, to the point where they were disabling Microsoft’s update function. It looks an awful lot like this refusal to accept a free operating system cost folks more in the long run, although to be fair it looks like a lot of these victims were also running unlicensed software, part of the reason Russia took it so hard on the chin.
The moral of the story, however, remains the same regardless of operating system: Back up your files, upgrade your operating systems, and pay attention to security. Wannacry spread mostly because people didn’t patch their flaws or upgrade when they had the chance. So, don’t be the person who learns the hard way why you don’t click “Later” on the update.
(via The Verge)