Re: Downgrade to XP
"Windows XP machines crashed rather than becoming infected when subjected to WannaCry. Unpatched Windows 7 machines were a far more important factor, it transpired"
Anyone in the know would say.......total bollox
If it was true, then why was I running round for months after, urgently replacing WinXP systems?
To be truthful, there were a number of issues at play
Out of date antivirus software (in many cases with expired support)
A failure to maintain update/patch installation. Many machines hadn't seen an update in years.
Failure to track machine locations, so even if they were identified as requiring work, they couldn't be found.
Windows XP....
And the biggest one of all.......out of date / unprotected server operating systems. Most servers were 2003, or the original version of 2008, so just as vulnerable as XP. And they were where all the data was, and they were what needed restoring from backups.
Desktop PCs were (in the main) trivial, as they either retrieved data from servers, or used cloud data services (such as Emis Web) or simply brought up hosted virtualised desktops from remote servers. No data to worry about - quick reboot/reimage and they were back online
There were a handful of dedicated systems e.g. car parks, security cameras, diagnostic screening systems, NMR machines and the like, but as a rule they were physically sandboxed from the main network
But to reinterate.......XP and the servers were the two real problems
I'll have to pop in and see Wallace while I'm on the way home and explain things to him, though the local gossip is that he never listens to the truth