What on earth does it mean to say "Windows XP with SP3 is 56.5 times more vulnerable than Windows 8 RTM" ?
I guess it's this some attempt to quantify how often XP machines get infected vs Windows 8. But a good part of that is probably because XP users are less technically proficient than the kind of people who've upgraded to 8.
If you're a CTO for a business then most of these details probably don't matter. All they really need to say is "no more updates next year, so soon you'll be directly vulnerable".
According to Microsoft's research, 11.3% of Windows XP computers are infected compared to 0.2% of Windows 8_64 computers. That's 56.5 times more infected.
I think using that that something is "more vulnerable" is misleading though. Do we really think that 8_32 is 4 times more vulnerable than 8_64? Isn't it more likely that 64-bit users are less likely to run random malware?
Of course I definitely agree that XP is "less secure" and everyone should be planning to move away from it. But for a well-managed corporate network it just doesn't seem like such a big deal as MS are making out.
I guess it's this some attempt to quantify how often XP machines get infected vs Windows 8. But a good part of that is probably because XP users are less technically proficient than the kind of people who've upgraded to 8.
If you're a CTO for a business then most of these details probably don't matter. All they really need to say is "no more updates next year, so soon you'll be directly vulnerable".