While Windows XP was regarded by many as one of the best things Microsoft (News - Alert) has done in quite some time—as evidenced by its sheer longevity—the time has nonetheless come to abandon this operating system and carry on to other versions. But while this change is perhaps inconvenient or unwelcome for some users, new reports suggest that there could be a much bigger problem at stake: large portions of the Internet run on Windows XP, and that could pose some problems now that the support for the system has been withdrawn.

A recent study from Netcraft, the April 2014 Web Server Survey, notes that there are over 6,000 websites worldwide that still use Windows XP on the servers running said websites. While China is commonly regarded as one of the world's biggest users of Windows XP, its use of Windows XP in site hosting duties is much lower, indicating that in China, Windows XP is mainly a desktop tool. The same, oddly, cannot be said of the United States, where nearly one in every three websites running on Windows XP servers are found there. The United States has, at last report, 1,869 websites running on Windows XP servers. By way of comparison, Canada has 261 such sites, and China has 216.

Perhaps more distressing is the large numbers of United States government sites putting Windows XP to use in hosting duties. One of these, reportedly, is a webmail system that's used by the State of Utah, and recent reports noted that the U.K government offered Microsoft 5.5 million pounds sterling (just over $9.21 million U.S) for an extra year's worth of support for Windows XP. However, reports suggest that there are no websites run by Windows XP with the gov.uk domain, which means it's more likely that, like with China, Windows XP is being put to work as a desktop tool.

Yet the Netcraft report wasn't out of disturbing information to offer up. The survey also noted fully 50,000 websites hosted on Windows NT4 servers running Microsoft IIS 4.0. However, given that three quarters of these sites are traced back to the same computer in Norway, this may not be such a problem. But there are some noteworthy exceptions, like the Australian Postal Corporation site post.com.au, as well as Australia Post's Postbillpay online bill payment system, among others.

Naturally, the concern here is that with all these sites running clearly out of support operating systems, the likelihood of hacker attack increases substantially. Indeed, it does, but then, it's worth wondering just how much risk there was in the first place. Given that there are already potential targets out there that are running even older and more out of support operating systems than Windows XP, if these weren't hit, why would there be such a concern about the Windows XP equivalents? Of course, just because an attack hasn't happened yet doesn't preclude the possibility of an attack taking place later, so this is a cause for at least some concern and a note of heightened vigilance.

Though the idea of the State of Utah's webmail service getting hacked may not be such a concern, it's what such a thing may lead to that could be a greater cause for alarm. Hopefully, those with lagging systems will get the necessary upgrades performed, and help protect the integrity of the wider Web as we know it.