News
UK government PCs open to hackers as paid Windows XP support ends
June 2015 by
It has been reported in recent weeks that the Government Digital Service will not extend its £5.5m deal with Microsoft to extend support for Windows XP, leaving government computers that still run on the obsolete operating system at risk from hackers. The service said ending the support meant “weaknesses that are found in unsupported products will remain unpatched and will be exploitable by relatively low-skilled attackers”.
Commenting on this, Michael Colopy, president at Logfiller said: "Thousands of government computers running the Windows XP system may now be vulnerable as a result of the failure to achieve an extended support deal with Microsoft, recent reports suggest. However, there are other options available while migrations to alternative operating systems take place.
The computers running XP may not cause immediate issues, but they can frustrate users by running outdated software that results in delays, causing users’ morale and productivity to drop. Migrating to the new system will almost certainly be a high priority across departments, but to do so, the poorly performing machines.
A unique Windows User Experience rating, or UXR, is a particularly effective tool that indicates the time an end user spends waiting on applications, divided by the time spent actively using applications. Which means that particularly poor performing machines can be prioritized for changeover.
That tool, Layer8 from Logfiller, is a new, cost effective solution that allows businesses to improve cyber security, efficiency and compliance by capturing the raw events directly from the user interface and generating a data stream powering precise, accurate user experience assessments and event verification.
It can help government departments struggling with the transition by providing new data and a full view of what is happening across the departments’ systems."
