Windows 7 and XP are vulnerable to a major security exploit

Yup, we IT professionals know that. Hackers have even used the new smart, Internet connected refrigerators, as spam bot nets.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/smart-refrigerators-hacked-send-out-spam-report-n11946

 

More irrefutable evidence

 

Eeeeeer, that juice at the bottom of the fridge, the darn fridge is self powered.


It runs on juice .

 

The "green stuff" in the back? It's either fresh lettuce or very old bacon...

 

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wow.... that's what I did to most of my Windows OS's. I've been running Linux for a number of years now, and have never been computer-happier!

 

Interesting comments regarding Cyber Hygiene, or the lack of it in some cases. Fully agree that if its not patched or no longer supported just don't connect and you will be fine. Of course the next oncoming botnet will be cell phone based and with 5G it will be even faster.
As for old hardware, take a look at Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities. I will defer preaching to the choir on this thread.
A good challenge would be to put up a stateful firewall and watch all those IP bounce off your dynamic IP address. Static IP's are worse by far. One can take one more step toward a continuous monitoring capability, and stand up a ELK (ElasticSearch) (it's Free) server which will allow you to map out the sources for all that stuff bouncing off your external aperture and workstations. One recommendation is to put the ELK server in a safe LAN segment and not in your DMZ. Oh and most importantly, have fun with the data.
One more free tool is OpenVAS vulnerability analysis by Greenbone. At least you can put together a risk posture that any parent would be proud of. Both applications can be found within Kali Linux (that why you want to protect the server for obvious reasons).

 

If someone wants to bad enough, all operating systems are vulnerable, all of them.

 

True but some are worse than others. The goal is to make it as difficult for the hacker as possible.