Cyber Agency—50% Of Microsoft Windows PCs ‘Vulnerable To Attack’

Microsoft’s sudden u-turn on killing Windows 10 in October has a serious downside. There are still around 50% of all users on this ending/not ending version of the OS, many of whom will now wait at least 12 months before upgrading their PCs.

Perhaps 250 million of the 700 million affected users do not have hardware that meets the Windows 11 hurdles. There’s certainly a case to be made for giving them more time to buy new devices. But for the rest, there’s no real excuse for not upgrading now. And while Microsoft has said the same, human nature suggests many simply won’t.

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That warning has now been echoed by NCSC, the U.K. spy agency’s cyber security outfit. “Devices that don’t meet Windows 11 hardware requirements,” it has just warned in a new public advisory, “remain fundamentally vulnerable to attack.”

NCSC acknowledged the problem — for many users “Windows 10 works for them, and just doesn’t feel old. Thanks to its modern UI, users forget that it was released over a decade ago.” But it’s creaking under the covers, and on the security front that matters.

While Windows 10 was still installed on more PCs globally than Windows 11 at the end of last month, the latest data suggests that has changed in July with Windows 11 creeping ahead. But that has not yet taken Microsoft’s u-turn into account.

The cyber agency says “the security risks of not upgrading are significant,” and those remaining on Windows 10 risk becoming “a prime target for cyber criminals.” To back this up, NCSC cites WannaCry ransomware which was rife on outdated Windows machines, “an attack which resulted in huge costs and damage globally.”

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While it’s assumed most Windows 10 users can upgrade but are deciding not to — at least not yet, for those delaying because of the hardware costs involved, NCSC says “Windows 11 provides excellent justification for purchase of new hardware.” But that case has been made by Microsoft for years and has thus far failed to land.

You can expect these warnings to continue to target users as October’s now tepid deadline approaches and then passes. The reality is that the biggest threat to Windows security is currently inertia, and nothing thus far has managed to fix that.