Here’s a look at what we found when our researchers queried the number of devices currently supported for more than a year, already unsupported, or soon to be unsupported come January 14, 2020. One of the specific areas of research centered on the potential impact of legacy Windows operating systems on the security posture of healthcare organizations. In our report, Putting Healthcare Security Under the Microscope, we analyzed device data from 75 healthcare deployments to provide healthcare organization security and risk management leaders with insight into the types of devices connecting to networks and their associated risks. Within the healthcare industry specifically, default passwords and failure to patch are often cited as primary reasons hackers are able to gain unauthorized access to hospital networks and data. Routine patching is a basic, fundamental defense against cyber criminals, yet it’s often not part of routine practice in many organizations. Vendors such as Microsoft release security updates and patches that, when added to the machine, can make it harder for adversaries to gain access to the device and consequently the enterprise network. While an OS may remain functional after sunset, that doesn’t mean it is secure. Investigations ultimately revealed that attackers gained access to the network via legacy Windows XP vulnerabilities. In the healthcare industry, the largest hospital group in the UK was victim of a cyberattack in 2017. Two-and-a-half years later, Home Depot reached a $27.25 million dollar settlement with affected financial institutions. Just five months later, Home Depot confirmed a massive data breach that was ultimately tied back to legacy Windows XP vulnerabilities. After 12 years, support for Windows XP ended on April 8, 2014, and with it so did security updates and technical support for the OS. To put the looming Win7 sunset into perspective, let’s consider the end of life for Windows XP, a predecessor of Win7. ![]() And for the healthcare industry, failure to upgrade to a new OS or mitigate the risks associated with Windows 7 means potentially jeopardizing patient safety. For many, it can be tempting for the functionality of such an OS to overshadow what the end of support really means- “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” The reality is, however, that end of life doesn’t just mean it’s time for an upgrade to a new PC with a new OS, more applications, a faster processor, and more storage it means that if you don’t abandon Windows 7, you may be much more susceptible to compromise-data theft, ransomware attacks, zero-day vulnerabilities-and, you might wish you’d taken advantage of Microsoft’s free upgrade to Windows 10 back in 2015. Support for Windows 7 devices is scheduled to end on or before Januwhile Microsoft offers an Extended Security Update (ESU) program, technical support and security updates will come at a cost. At that time, few gave much thought to the inevitable sunset of the Operating System (OS), but more recently, Microsoft has announced that it will start warning users about the Windows 7 end-of-support deadline. ![]() Sales of PCs with Windows 7 Professional preinstalled ended on October 31, 2016. New research shows that more than 70% of devices on healthcare networks are running Windows 7-the OS fast approaching end of support.
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