Thousands of government PCs will expose themselves to malware as Windows XP expires

An investigation into the numbers of PCs, conducted by The Register, in the public sector still running Windows XP has revealed that many thousands will still be using the operating system, even when its end-of-life expires.

HMRC and NHS Scotland said that they both had migration plans in place to replace their XP systems, moving to Windows 7 in most cases.

Those plans, however, will not be in place when Windows XP's end-of-life deadline passes on April 8. Microsoft offer a subscription service for companies still on its old operating system to receive relevant security updates. HMRC, nor NHS Scotland, however, will pay for this protection.

NHS England, however, when asked how many of the 1 million PCs and laptops at trusts, GPs and hospitals run Windows XP, answered that they simply do not know. Each GP, hospital and trust region is treated as a separate entity, and therefore NHS England do not know how much of their IT infrastructure may be vulnerable after April 8.

"Acutely aware" of missing the deadline

Application migration specialist Camwood, heavily involved in helping customers move from Windows XP, said that it has several "large" customers paying Microsoft for support after 8 April rather than go without protection.

"It was cheaper for them to pay Microsoft than to accelerate migration," Camwood chief executive Adrian Foxall told The Register.

Despite the fact Windows XP support is due to finish in three months, Camwood is still picking up new business from organisations in the public sector to start migrations, it says – many of them within the NHS.

"We are still winning new projects now. They will miss the deadline and they are acutely aware of that," Foxall said.

• TechRadar's guide to migrating to Windows 8

Twitter adds another layer of security to keep out the government snoops

Twitter has joined the likes of Google and Facebook, by implementing "forward secrecy," a security tool that will aid the effort to keep out government agencies like the NSA and and GCHQ.

The social network says the added layer of security will prevent data intercepted by what it calls 'adversaries' (i.e. the governments) being decrypted.

Previously, unwanted parties who intercepted this user data could interpret it if they were also able to get hold of the master key a website uses to decrypt the data.

Forward Secrecy isn't a new tech, but has been rarely implemented until recently. It gives that master key a huge security boost by creating random session keys that don't travel across the network.

Protecting voices

Twitter's use of Forward Secrecy comes after Google's implementation in 2011 and Facebook's in June of this year, following the Edward Snowden revelations.

"Security is an ever-changing world. Our work on deploying forward secrecy is just the latest way in which Twitter is trying to defend and protect the user's voice in that world," the company wrote on its official blog.

• The guys that have your back in the fight against government snooping: TechRadar profiles the Electronic Frontier Foundation