Cybersecurity Awareness Month – Risks of Outdated Technology

Technology evolves every single day, and this is basically fueled by innovation and the desire to simplify life further. Technology has a short life cycle that is sustained by constant updates and upgrades in order to meet the current demands. Technology becomes outdated when it has either reached its end of life or no longer receives updates and this means that it can fail to run new applications developed with newer technology and it may also not be compatible with new devices. In this short blog we are highlighting some of the top risks of outdated technology.

#1. Security Risks

Any software may have vulnerabilities, but when discovered, the developers make sure to release patches as soon as possible through updates. An outdated software will fail to receive these patches and hackers can take advantage of the vulnerabilities to attack users. Infact Between 70% and 80% of the top 10 malware detected by a company could be avoided if their technology was updated correctly.

#2. System Failure

Outdated software is vulnerable to failure. It is no longer supported by the vendor and therefor any bugs that are found in the software are not addressed and may lead to system failure at some point. When this happens, an individual or an organization can lose all their data. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) noted that 40% of companies that lose their data end up closing.

#3. Decreased Productivity

On the wish lists of many workers is to have systems that can allow them to complete their tasks much faster. Outdated software commonly known as legacy technology take longer to execute tasks, freeze often and also occupy more during their maintenance. These issues lead to additional downtime which is costly in production.

#4. Losing Clients

A survey conducted by Microsoft noted that More than 90% of customers would consider taking their business elsewhere if they got to know that the small business is using old and outdated technology. This they say, because of concerns with their data privacy, security and convenience while using their systems.

#5. Compliance / Insurance Requirements

If your business is under regulatory compliance requirements, the cost of outdated technology can have serious repercussions. Compliance standards, like HIPAA, PCI, SOX, NIST, GDPR, and GCC, require that your technology be supported. This sets you up for fees and penalties if you experience a data breach. Which are much more likely due to serious holes in your legacy systems. Do you have covered-security insurance and if so, do you know your requirements for having a claim be covered? It is likely, any negligence on your part, like legacy systems, will render you out of favor with your insurance company.

Conclusion

Outdated software breeds and environment where hackers take advantage of the vulnerabilities especially Zero-Day vulnerabilities. You do not only lose out on the new features and faster experience, but also expose your company to cyber-attacks that may cause a shutdown.

It is so important that your systems run updated software. Often software run updates in the background or display a notice before installing them. Some software needs you to take an extra task of finding out whether there are latest releases, all you need to do is to make sure you install updates as often as possible.

The Intelice Solution

Did you know that the Intelice Solution for keeping up to date with software updates comes standard with every Managed Service Agreement? Click here to learn more about the Intelice Solution to patch updates. 

We know the process of choosing an IT partner can be overwhelming and comparing multiple proposals isn’t always as clear as it seems. We’ve created a Managed Services Checklist as a free resource to ensure you are getting everything you should from the IT vendors you are looking to work with. You can download the checklist for free here.