Windows 7 facilitated the spread of the WannaCry ransomware

Reading time icon 2 min. read


Readers help support Windows Report. When you make a purchase using links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Tooltip Icon

Read the affiliate disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report effortlessly and without spending any money. Read more

Almost two weeks have passed since the WannaCry ransomware debacle started and the aftermath is still being felt around the world. Most infected systems were running older versions of Windows and it seems that machines Windows 10 were not affected despite most of the talk focused on Windows XP. In actuality, more than 98% of infected devices ran Windows 7.

Take a look at the statistics

Kaspersky Labs recently presented the latest figures and they’re pretty interesting: the 64-bit version of Windows 7 was worst hit at 60.53% of infected devices. 31.72% of infections were found on Windows 7 and 6.28% were found on Windows 7 Home (both 32 and 64-bit versions combined). Windows 7 is still the most popular version of Windows overall, so it’s no surprise that is was the most affected.

Users who expected that the next in line would be the Windows XP can rest easy as the cyber attack hit less than 0.1% of PCs running Windows XP. The 63-bit version of Windows 10 only accounted for 0.03% of infected devices thanks to testers and the use of manual infections.

Kaspersky’s numbers also highlight the massive importance of keeping your OS fully updated and patched. This is the exact reason for which Microsoft itself rolled out patches for all Windows versions to protect systems from these types of cyber attacks. For Windows 7, the company released a patch for WannaCry back in March.

RELATED STORIES TO CHECK OUT:

More about the topics: Cybersecurity, windows 7