14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP support came to an end in April 2014, but despite the numerous warnings issued by Microsoft, there still are a lot of companies that are yet to upgrade their computers.
The Royal Melbourne Hospital is one of them, and the network’s administrators found on their own how dangerous it is to run unsupported software when all Windows XP computers got infected with malware last week.
The virus first hit the hospital’s pathology department, so the staff had to manually perform a number of operations that were previously conducted automatically by Windows XP machines, including blood and tissue processing.
Furthermore, nurses and the food service worked together to make sure that each patient receives the proper meals, as computers that stored patient information were also infected.
An email sent to staff at the Royal Melbourne Hospital warns not to open any link or click on websites that look suspicious or ask for credentials, such as Facebook and Google.
IT teams working day and night to remove the virus
The hospital, on the other hand, claims everything is almost under control now, and the IT teams are working day and night to get rid of the virus.
“Elective surgery and our Emergency Department are operating as normal. There have been a very small number of outpatient cancellations. Our staff have worked tirelessly over the past couple of days to maintain patient safety and ensure minimal disruption. Our IT team are making good progress in rectifying the issue and we hope to be back to normal as soon as possible,” the hospital said in a statement.
While delays have already been experienced at the hospital, the administration team said only a few patients were actually impacted by the computer outage, as most of the processing tasks were performed manually by staff.
Windows XP support came to an end nearly 2 years ago, and Microsoft warned that every single vulnerability found in the operating system could be used by cybercriminals for exploits and malware infections. The only way to avoid this is to upgrade to a supported Windows version, such as 7, 8.1, or 10.