14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP support is coming to an end in just three days, but plenty of computers across the world will miss the upgrade deadline and stick to this particular operating system after this date.
Connecticut state computers, for example, will stick to Windows XP for a few more months, as local officials are yet to come up with a plan to upgrade PCs to a newer operating system.
As a result, thousands of computers in state government will still be running Windows XP on April 9, which means that taxpayers’ personal information could be easily accessed if hackers find an unpatched vulnerability in the operating system.
The Courant writes that approximately 20 percent of the computers used by the state of Connecticut are still running Windows XP, including the Department of Correction that’s the ruling body of local prisons.
The Department of Revenue Services, the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection and the Department of Administrative Services will all miss the upgrade deadline, while the Department of Social Services guarantees that all its computers will run Windows 7 by Tuesday, the report adds.
“There may be some remaining XP laptops. There are about 43 laboratory instrument PCs on XP,” spokesman William Gerrish says. “Because of the specialized nature of this equipment, we have been working with the vendor to make the conversions.”
The first solution that comes into everyone’s mind is custom support offered by Microsoft until all computers are upgraded to a new Windows version. Of course, such support does come at a cost, and local experts claim that the state of Connecticut might have to pay around $250,000 (€181,000) to keep its computers fully protected with more Windows XP patches provided by Microsoft itself.
The state’s chief information officer, Mark Raymond, revealsthat one in five computers used by local departments is still running Windows XP, but claims that all will be upgraded in the coming months, as soon as possible. He adds that some agencies have moved faster than other, so it all depends on how well Microsoft’s end of support warnings have been received by his fellow workers.
“Microsoft was pretty clear several years ago that this was going to happen. They didn't communicate it as broadly as they have done more recently. It's how closely that you were paying attention to that information is whether you planned and reacted for it or not,” he explains.