Secure End Of Life Systems

Every so often operating systems (OS) officially reach or have reached End-of-Life statuses (EOL), yet still they remain in operation - especially in corporate environments. When vendors no longer provide support and security updates and instead offer subscription licenses at high costs, it will become increasingly more difficult to provide protection of vulnerabilities within the system.

When upgrading the operating system is no longer possible and the organization isn’t yet mature to migrate entirely to the cloud, other strategies must be taken under consideration to ensure that compliance and security gaps are managed securely. 

Patching systems can cost organizations a few hours but past incidents of cyberattacks and data breaches have shown that failing to patch systems with the latest security updates can prover to be more costly. And with most patches being made available within hours of public disclosure, immediate implementation via automation can narrow down the risk window significantly, either with virtual patches or permanent updates.