London’s Metroplitan Police force is still running tens of thousands of Windows XP machines, potentially putting it at a greater risk of cyber-attack, it has emerged.
London Assembly member Andrew Boff told the BBC that the number of XP computers still in use stands at around 27,000, and will drop to 21,000 by the end of September.
An FoI request last year revealed the number stood at around 35,000.
However, the force is migrating to Windows 8.1, rather than the latest Windows 10 OS.
Windows XP was end-of-lifed in 2014, but many organizations across the country have yet to migrate to newer, more secure operating systems.
The report claims the Met currently is paying £1.65 million of taxpayer’s money for an extended support agreement with Microsoft unti April 2017.
Presumably this will involve the Redmond giant maintaining security updates for the elderly OS.
"Further plans are being developed to address the remaining XP desktops," the Met said in a statement, "including reducing the overall number used by the organization, replacing with laptops, tablets and disposing of equipment that cannot support Windows 8.1 and beyond."
Jonathan Sander, VP of product strategy at Lieberman Software, argued that even an old system can be secure as long as it’s fully patched and well maintained.
“The real danger is the more likely reality that an ‘if it isn't broken don't fix it’ attitude may take over. Often ‘broken’ is measured not by how well patched or protected a system is, rather it's measured by its ability to continue its role in some profitable part of a business's operations,” he added.
“By that measure, patching the old system may be a risk as you may then have an old system that people don't have skills to deal with that has changed some behavior stopping it from ticking away as a cog in the machine.”