YouTuber Demonstrates How Quickly Unprotected Old OS Can Be Infected

A recent video by the popular YouTuber Eric Parker sparked a storm of emotions among internet users. Parker vividly demonstrated the dangers of connecting old operating systems to the internet without any protection, including firewalls and routers.

In the experiment, a virtual machine running Windows XP was connected to the network without any safeguards. The results were immediate: within minutes, the operating system was infected with numerous viruses.

At first glance, it might seem absurd to deliberately connect a computer to the internet without any security measures. However, in the early 2000s, such practices were quite common. Although Windows XP had a built-in firewall and many users employed antivirus software, the possibility of operating in a completely unprotected mode was significantly higher compared to modern operating systems. Moreover, in 2024, Windows XP no longer receives security updates, making it an easy target for hackers.

Just two minutes after connecting the Windows XP virtual machine to the internet, Eric Parker discovered several viruses that had installed themselves on the computer. Among them was a virus called “conhoz.exe.” Another virus created a new account named “admina,” which was used to host an FTP server.

Over time, the system became inundated with various trojans, viruses, and malware. To identify the infections, Parker installed the security tool Malwarebytes on the virtual machine, which detected eight viruses classified as trojans, remote access tools, DNS changers, and adware. However, even after this, many malicious programs remained on the computer, which the free version of Malwarebytes could not detect.

Eric Parker conducted a similar experiment with Windows 2000, yielding even more disheartening results. Within minutes of connecting to the internet with all ports, including SMB, open, a virus installed itself on the computer and automatically shut down the virtual machine. Upon rebooting, even more viruses infiltrated the system, ultimately leading to the “blue screen of death.”

Modern operating systems are free from such severe vulnerabilities. For instance, Windows 10 and Windows 11 possess far more robust security measures that prevent the automatic installation of malware, even if the firewall is disabled. Eric Parker confirmed that Microsoft operating systems, starting from Windows 7, are not susceptible to the vulnerabilities demonstrated. In his experiment, he ran Windows 7 without antivirus or firewall on another virtual machine and found no viruses.