14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will pull the plug on Windows XP on April 8, but desktop computers won’t be the only ones affected by the end of support for the aging operating system.
BusinessWeek is reporting that no less than 95 percent of ATMs in the entire world are still running Windows XP, which means that they could all become vulnerable to hackers once Microsoft stops providing security patches and updates for this particular platform.
The current estimates are not at all encouraging and experts believe that only 15 percent of the ATM machines worldwide will actually get to move to Windows 7 by April 8.
“The ATM world is not really ready, and that’s not unusual,” Aravinda Korala, chief executive officer of ATM software provider KAL, was quoted as saying by the source. “ATMs move more slowly than PCs.”
ATM operators know that the risks of staying with Windows XP after retirement are very big, so many have already planned the transition to another operating system, but this migration is very unlikely to be completed in due time.
JPMorgan has decided to purchase extended Windows XP support from Microsoft in order to buy more time to move ATMs to a more secure platform, but the transition to Windows 7 would only begin in July. That’s because approximately 3,000 of the total 19,000 ATMs it has right now need additional tweaking before the migration process can be initiated.
The main issue always comes down to the overall costs of the migration. BusinessWeek is reporting that the price of moving an ATM from Windows XP to a newer platform is ranging in between a few hundred dollars and several thousands, especially if new hardware is needed.
In the end, it’s pretty clear that the retirement of Windows XP is affecting not only consumers who are disappointed that Windows 8 doesn’t have a Start Menu, but the entire world and the technologies that actually power our lives.