The Reserve bank of India has issued a warning to all the financial institutions and banks, which are presently operating on the older Microsoft operating system, Windows XP. The warning came soon after citing a major issue when Microsoft’s planned to pull the plug on the old operating system.
Softpedia reported that RBI has asked banks to take immediate action to protect their computers from the possible attacks that can come in immediately after Microsoft stops support to the operating system. RBI stated that it would be difficult to block incoming exploits since most banks, and financial institutions are likely to be amongst the first targets for hackers.
Since some systems in banks and ATMs are still running on the highly vulnerable operating system, it is essential that they take immediate steps to upgrade their existing operating systems.
Though the RBI has asked them to immediately migrate to the newer platform, it is very unlikely for it to happen soon. The transition to a newer platform will be a costly affair and will take a lot of time too.
On the other hand, security service Avast stated that those who would still want to keep their older operating systems in operation should replace or stop using the existing Internet Explorer browser and use a more secure one such as Chrome or alike, which will still work on Widows XP.
Microsoft also warned that though there are third-party security services and browsers, which will safeguard the PCs from hackers, it is still not enough to protect them completely. Of course, most users prefer to stay on Windows XP citing high costs and hardware upgrades, Microsoft recommends an upgrade to on the safe side.
