Microsoft ends its Windows XP support today

Microsoft is reportedly ending its software support for XP today, which means the company will no longer issue any official security updates and bug fixes for the operating system.

While governments across the globe have negotiated extended support contracts for the OS in a bid to keep users protected, security firms said anyone else using the 13-year-old software would be at increased risk of infection and compromise by cyber-thieves, the BBC reported.

The software giant has been warning users about its plans of withdrawing Windows XP support since September.

Dave Emm, a senior research analyst at security firm Kaspersky said that Kapersky's data indicates that less than one fifth of its customers run Windows XP but more than a quarter of infections are Windows XP-based.

Emm warned that the exposure ratio was to get worse after Microsoft released the last security patch for Windows XP.

He said that effectively, every vulnerability discovered after 8 April will become a zero-day vulnerability - that is, one for which there is not and never will be, a patch.