Everyone is concerned about End of Support for Windows XP by Microsoft. Every security forums are flooded with the aligning risks & threats. But suddenly interesting risk has caught the eyes in India. It’s Bank ATM’s.
Banking operations, including ATM services, may be hit as support from Microsoft for Windows XP operating system will end from April 8. Microsoft has warned that “the effectiveness of antimalware solutions on out-of-support operating systems is limited.”
In this regard, RBI has already asked banks to take immediate steps to control this.
The end of support for Windows XP is likely to increase the probability of attacks on such a system and may affect ATM operations as well, RBI said.
“The probability of attacks on such a system may increase and it may be difficult to defend such attacks in the absence of Microsoft support,” RBI said in a notification addressed to the banks.
Microsoft will stop issuing updates and patches for bugs in its Windows XP operating systems, which was released in 2001, from April 8, 2014.
“As some of your systems, including ATMs, may still be working on Windows XP, you are advised to take immediate steps to implement appropriate systems and controls in this regard,” it added.
There’s some good news and bad news about this. On the plus side, the more advanced fleets of ATMs should be able to upgrade their machines to a newer version of Windows through their network. Older ATMs, however, will still have to have a new version of Windows installed one by one, which means that technicians will be making lots of trips to different convenience stores this spring to make sure upgrades are going as planned.
Information Security World 