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Cake day: June 6th, 2023

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  • Yes, they do. Ffs, your claims are ridiculous.

    Read and learn something for a change:

    Banks and other institutions that use Windows XP often do so under specialized agreements with Microsoft, called Custom Support Agreements (CSAs) or Custom Extended Support Agreements (CESAs). These agreements allow organizations to continue receiving critical security updates for their legacy systems even after official support has ended. Here’s how these agreements work:

    1. Custom Support Agreements (CSAs)

    After Windows XP’s official support ended in April 2014, Microsoft offered CSAs to organizations that could not immediately migrate to newer operating systems due to compatibility, cost, or operational constraints.

    Under a CSA, Microsoft continues to provide critical security updates specifically tailored to the organization’s systems.

    These agreements are typically very expensive and are meant as a temporary measure while the organization transitions to a supported platform.

    1. Why Banks Use CSAs

    Legacy Systems: Many ATMs and banking software were originally built to run on Windows XP, and updating to newer systems can be complex and costly due to hardware and software dependencies.

    Security Needs: Despite using outdated systems, banks must maintain a high level of security. The CSA ensures critical vulnerabilities are patched.

    Regulatory Compliance: Financial institutions are heavily regulated and need to meet strict security standards. Extended support agreements help them avoid compliance violations.

    1. Custom Patching and Support

    Microsoft provides patches only for the most critical vulnerabilities that could severely impact the organization.

    These updates are not made available to the general public, ensuring that only organizations with a CSA receive them.

    1. Cost

    The cost of a CSA is high and increases annually to encourage organizations to migrate to supported platforms.

    Some estimates suggest costs in the range of $1,000 to $5,000 per device per year, depending on the scale and specifics of the agreement.

    1. Alternatives Banks Might Use

    Some banks have begun moving away from Windows XP entirely, often transitioning to supported operating systems like Windows 10 or Windows Embedded systems.

    They may also use virtualized environments to maintain compatibility with older applications without relying on outdated OS versions directly.

    These agreements allow banks and other critical industries to maintain operations securely while planning their eventual migration to modern systems. However, this is a stopgap solution and not a permanent fix, as the long-term risks and costs of relying on unsupported software grow over time.








  • In lieu of the bullshit replies you have gotten, I will answer.

    TPM is a security measure. By default your hard drive on Windows 11 will be protected with bit locker. Bit locker is hard drive encryption. It does more stuff but that’s the broad strokes. This means that if your laptops get stolen or your computer gets stolen or whatever it is no longer in danger of all of your information and files being taken.

    There are other advantages as well. For example a TPM could make it much easier for anti-cheat to detect cheating. However, no games use it yet because not every system has a TPM, blah blah blah.

    TPM is actually a really good thing. The problem is that the vast majority of systems do not have a TPM header and therefore cannot add a TPM. This means that those systems have to be replaced.

    I work for a managed service provider so I deal with a lot of companies that refuse to upgrade their systems. Thanks to Windows 11 they are being forced to upgrade systems that are up to 15 years old and basically unusable. This is actually kind of a godsend. There are downsides to this yes, but it is not just some ill thought out idea.