14 DAY TRIAL // A number of Canadian government departments are still running Windows XP even though Microsoft no longer provides updates for this old operating system, which means that computers could be easily hacked should a breach be found by cybercriminals.
While the exact number of PCs still on Windows XP is not yet known, Global News writes that, at the end of March 2015, there were more than 12,300 PCs powered by the 16-year-old operating system, with nearly 5,000 of them belonging to the Department of National Defense.
Microsoft pulled support for Windows XP in April 2014, but the Canadian government signed a one-year custom support deal with the Redmond-based software giant to receive updates for 12 more months until the transition to a newer operating system was supposed to be completed.
Custom support deal with Microsoft
That didn’t happen, however, and now thousands of computers are still on Windows XP, but the Canadian government guarantees that hacking them is nearly impossible because they’re not connected to the Internet and are being used in a closed network with very limited access.
“The effort by Government of Canada departments over the past two years in retiring Windows XP devices has significantly reduced the government’s cyber security risk,” Kelly James, a spokesperson for the Treasury Board Secretariat, is quoted as saying.
“Where XP devices are still in use under temporary special operating procedures, they are to be isolated and contained within a tightly controlled network environment with no access to (government) networks or the Internet, and they are to be eliminated as quickly as possible.”
While Windows XP itself is vulnerable to attacks, some of the applications that come pre-installed and are often used by governments and enterprises for internal apps and services are vulnerable as well. Internet Explorer, for example, has often been criticized for its security flaws, and Windows XP comes with version 6, whose support ended as well.