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London's Metropolitan Police Still Running 27,000 Windows XP Desktops (thestack.com)

Posted by msmash on from the true-love dept.

An anonymous reader writes: London's Met Police has missed its deadline for abandoning the out-of-date operating system Windows XP, as findings reveal 27,000 computers still run on the software two years after official support ended. Microsoft stopped issuing updates and patches for Windows XP in Spring 2014, meaning that any new bugs and flaws in the operating system are left open to attack. A particularly risky status for the UK capital's police force – itself running operations against hacking and other cybercrime activity. The figures were disclosed by Conservative politician Andrew Boff. The Greater London Assembly member said: 'The Met should have stopped using Windows XP in 2014 when extended support ended, and to hear that 27,000 computers are still using it is worrying.' As in similar cases across civil departments, the core problem is bespoke system development, and the costs and time associated with integrating a new OS with customized systems.

13 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. It's not as simple as "just switch over" by ZeroPly · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As someone who is on the tail end of a 700 computer migration from WinXP to Win7, I feel their pain. A single critical program that won't run on Win7 can be a showstopper. Not to mention special hardware for which no Win7 drivers are available - all of a sudden that $120 upgrade cost for a Win7 license became $25,120 when you include the cost of a new laser engraver.

    --
    Support microSD: in a post 9/11 world, it is unwise to carry your data on media that you cannot comfortably swallow.
    1. Re:It's not as simple as "just switch over" by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 4, Funny

      [[and they can always leave a few isolated XP boxes up to support laser engravers and the like.]]

      Not if they have software or hardware has to have a network connection for 3rd party licensing purposes. .

      That's the future for Windows 10. Your network goes down, you don't just lose your "cloud", but the ability to do pretty much anything. They'll make sure they keep a local cache of the start menu ads, "for your convenience during the interruption of service."

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:It's not as simple as "just switch over" by ZeroPly · · Score: 3, Informative

      We actually do that for our accounting software, but that opens up another can of worms. For example, the software opens up reports in Excel and needs an email client available. That means we need a copy of Office running _inside_Virtual PC. Now all of a sudden we're looking at licensing two copies of Office per machine - not chump change. Export to PDF functionality? Sorry - even though you have a full blow Acrobat DC subscription, it won't work inside your Virtual PC.

      And of course, it's possible to get malware inside the Virtual PC. So now we're looking at two antivirus licenses per computer.

      --
      Support microSD: in a post 9/11 world, it is unwise to carry your data on media that you cannot comfortably swallow.
    3. Re:It's not as simple as "just switch over" by boristdog · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I still have to support NT4, XP, VxWorks, Win98 and even some networked DOS machines in our factory.

      You don't go changing the OS on a piece of equipment that costs over a million bucks to replace and all the software for the equipment is written for that OS. You just keep supporting it. And when you have hundreds of machines that cost a shit-ton of money to replace but work fine with the old OS, you keep supporting it.

      And you call the new employees a buncha goddamn whiners because they don't want to learn "old stuff."

      Knowing old stuff makes you valuable.

  2. Run them for another ten years by iamacat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As long as firewall is on and you run a fixed set of apps from trusted sources, you are perfectly safe. So is IE if you only visit internal sites. And for external browsing, browser security is more important than OS security. There will be forked versions of recent Firefox and Chromium builds forever.

    The whole upgrade hype is largely financially motivated on part of Microsoft and consulting agencies.

    1. Re:Run them for another ten years by mdm-adph · · Score: 3, Insightful

      To IT Admin,

      Don't worry, I've got the solution to our Win XP upgrade issue -- it's a weird forked version of Chromium I found on some website. I'm sure it's super safe.

      Thanks,

      Random Internet Person

      --
      It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
  3. Unfortunately they don't think of cross platform. by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So you are on Windows now. That is all good and fine. However the majority of your Applications should be Web Standards Based developed in a easy OS portable language. With a database system available in multiple OS.

    Because time and time again, The next generation of Computer/OS breaks a lot of compatibility and moving over to a new platform is a big headache.
    Vs that web application developed in PHP back in 2003 while may not be pretty will still work on Windows 10 or the Bosses new iPad. Without having to rework the entire thing.

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    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  4. should have..... by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

    'The Met should have stopped using Windows XP in 2014

    The Met should have begun the switch to Linux (or at least open source technologies) in 2001.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  5. Re:Lots of citites still run windows by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Trying to run a government or even a moderately complex business with Linux machines would be the mother of all clusterfucks.

    You're obviously not familiar with the patching process for Microsoft Windows. I give my thanks to Microsoft everyday for the job security it provides me.

  6. Switching to Linux is much simpler by stooo · · Score: 3, Funny

    JUL
    Linux Rocks

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    aaaaaaa
  7. Re:What's wrong with XP? by OrangeTide · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Pay-to-play, even if they pass the support effort on to a 3rd party contractor, would be nice for customers. But ultimately I think Microsoft wants everyone to buy new computers and new copies of their latest operating system. The planned obsolesce has always been about money, the security aspect is a convenient excuse to push that agenda.

    As an example, SABRE (airline reservation system) has been running in one form or another since the 1970's. And even though ACP (IBM Airline Control Program, an operating system) was only officially supported for about 10 years ('68-'79), it continued to be used in production environments for decades after that.

    But to be fair IBM was traditionally about selling big hardware and support contracts and not about selling software, a very different style of business compared to Microsoft.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  8. Re:retail support ended by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    What you believe is true, despite the click-bait article's allusions. Proof? Here's the Premier Support Agreement that provides support through 2019.

    https://www.london.gov.uk/site...

  9. Re:Simple solution by MitchDev · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Doesn't matter, when a company stops supporting a product, they should lose the copyright over it and it should become public domain.