• HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    Less funny when you realize it’s mostly banks, government agencies, and militaries still using it.

    • EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I’d say more likely it’s labs, hospitals, and other scientific stuff where you have to deal with old instruments cause lack of money. I’m fairly certain the military uses some other OS, I believe NATO uses Solaris for example.

      • minyakcurry@monyet.cc
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        11 months ago

        Also that machine only works under very specific circumstances, so you fear changing anything in case your entire protocol breaks and you have to start from scratch.

      • Ross_audio@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        “Windows for Submarines”

        It’s XP for Vanguard subs. I really hope none of them provide any telemetry for these stats though.

      • viking@infosec.pub
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        11 months ago

        As a former banker I can tell you that most ATMs run Windows NT 4.0.

        However since the network is completely clamped down and the OS boots via network as well (no hard drives in ATMs), they are pretty secure.

        I’ve also indeed seen some Windows XP terminals in use just lately - one in fact in a hospital my current company collaborates with - but it’s isolated and used to run some sequencer that was never ported to a 64 bit architecture, and apparently doesn’t run in compatibility mode either.

        • EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Yeah seems about right.

          In my lab we have a spectrometer and an HPLC with computers that use windows XP.

          Tho I noticed the HPLC one is connected to the internet, gonna have to ask them of that’s necessary

          • TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works
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            11 months ago

            Tho I noticed the HPLC one is connected to the internet, gonna have to ask them of that’s necessary

            Someone had to download the Doom installer at some point, of course.

      • Narauko@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        The current company that owns the old model installed in your hospital and sells the new version, bought the company that bought the company that made the version you have and can’t update the firmware and code to work on a modern OS because all knowledgeable staff were lost in the buyouts.

        The best they can do is sell you the new version that does the same thing your current working version does for $500,000.

        Maybe they even have a new ecosystem that they want you to move to, because they don’t make support/subscription revenue with the current stand alone server that moves the image or telemetry results from the machine to the viewing workstations and records database.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        If the U.S. military is anything like it was in the 90s, they may very well still be using Windows XP for all kinds of things. My mother-in-law ran an army reserve center through the late 90s and they were using DOS machines well into the Windows era because the army wouldn’t update their computers.

    • Virtual Insanity @lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      And medical. Suppliers if CT, MRI and X-Ray gear are notorious for wanting to sell new gear and not providing software updates to work on new operating systems.

    • Deiv@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      I highly doubt it. I work for a large bank, and it’s all W10/11 due to the need for continuous security patches/currency updates. Large banks don’t mess around with EOL software that has a risk of vulnerabilities

      • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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        11 months ago

        Yeap, on the workstations. In the atms and cash recyclers etc… got bad news for you…

      • AnAngryAlpaca@feddit.de
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        11 months ago

        Large banks don’t mess around with EOL software that has a risk of vulnerabilities

        Well, more complex modern software has an higher risk of (yet unknown) vulnerabilities.

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Mainstream support ended 15 years ago. Extended security support ended 10 years ago. The last version to have any kind of update at all was their embedded OS version for things like cash registers, with the last security update 5 years ago.

        So it’s wildly insecure against any new attacks targeting an OS that’s largely used by major corporations, governments, and medical facilities that are juicy targets for theft and ransomware attacks.

        • Moira_Mayhem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          11 months ago

          There is a service called 0patch that offers live microcode updates for XP. They’ve even won bounties for a few things they caught before Microsoft.

          I pay about $30 a year to live micropatch my WIn7 gaming partition and have had no issues despite also being a bit less than diligent when it comes to digital buccaneering on that machine.

      • EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        It’s moreso that they have some abandonware that only works on windows XP.

        Windows XP itself is abandonware and you shouldn’t use it in any other case, just use Linux if you don’t like newer windows. You certainly aren’t doing any photoshopping on XP nowadays so that’s no concern.