Posted on 01/17/2014 9:43:17 PM PST by Olog-hai
Nearly all of the ATMs in the world are running the Windows XP operating system, introduced by Microsoft 13 years ago—and incredibly out of date, as any tech enthusiast will tell you.
On April 8, Microsoft will officially end the tech support for the aging OS, which was replaced by Windows Vista in 2007, Windows 7 in 2009, Windows 8 in 2012 and Windows 8.1 in 2013. […]
If an ATM isn’t upgraded, it will continue to function, experts said. Withdrawals, deposits, and other transactions will work as they did before. But the machines will be more vulnerable to cyber robbers wielding malware and other attacks as time goes on. …
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Upgrading the OS is usually a bad idea because the hardware might not support it. You would be better off using the money towards a new machine.
Hmm? I think this is about security updates, not user-friendliness. As far as the latter goes, they did hit a brick wall with Win8.
there are kiosks and stuff running O/S 2 still in existence
Apparently some still run OS/2
Still trying to figure out why banks and ATM manufacturers would use something so oversized, vulnerable and cumbersome as a full blown PC OS to do something so simple. And of course using an OS like XP opens up a world of vulnerabilities for hackers to exploit. Makes one wonder who is making what decisions and why.
I remember OS/2; back then, I thought it was going to take off. Guess the MS association undermined it. Looks like eComStation is offering support for OS/2-based ATMs, too.
Loading stacks was always fun. If it’s stable, don’t mess with not.
I still have a copy of OS2 somewhere.
These ATMs are probably not surfing for porn on the Internet, so what’s the likelihood of them being hacked/infected?
MS was supposed to help OS/2 but they undermined it instead and released their own OS instead; Windows. In other words they stabbed their partner in the back in a manner of speaking.
My ATM here doesn’t use any OS I recognize.
XP has several versions that are specialized for particular applications. They’re almost certainly using a variety of the “kiosk” version, ehich is quite a bit less bulky than the ordinary workstation version. You have to dig pretty deeply into the MS software catalog to find it, but it’s there.
And yes, it’s stupid that these machines are still running XP in this day and age. They should long ago have been upgraded, or replaced with a more dedicated OS. It’s not like they need a huge amount of horsepower from the OS. A smartphone could provide the functionality for even a complex ATM these days, and it would look nicer too.
XP is good.
Wow I’m wildy out of date!! I run Windows XP I like it!!!
If win95 could have supported USB2.O, I could still be using a nice old SONY Desktop of mine!
WIN98 was Millennium as I recall. I would have needed a new mother board , by then I went laptop.
Windows 1.0 was packaged with the first Aldus Pagemaker. I still have the install disketts and box. Crashed alot. but we werre able to publish a newsletter using it. Nice Placeholder layout that you could just update by overlaying the placeholder file.
They are.
It's just that it's running on top of Windoze.
Stupid bankers! They should have chosen Linux. That way they wouldn't have to pay interest to Mr Bill. And upgrades are easy if you pick a decent distro.
That’s what I run too. Power went out in the neighborhood when I was in the middle of work using a few programs. Power cam back on and I did not lose any work. XP good!
Windows XP was never crap but get your point. Win95 was really secure if you set it up right.
What has always been crap is Mac except long,long ago when its graphics were actually better than IBM8086.
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