Officially, Microsoft ended support of its 13-year old operating system Windows XP over a year ago. Yet, even with all that time, many government and military organizations are still using the outdated OS on their PCs, and are paying Microsoft for special support. The latest example is he US Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, who has signed a $9.1 million contract extension with Microsoft that will allow the company to keep offering Windows XP software update for that division.
According to Ars Technica:
"The renewal, according to SPAWAR officials, will buy the Navy "time to migrate from its existing reliance on the expiring product versions to newer product versions approved for use in Ashore and Afloat networks, and will provide hotfixes to minimize risks while ensuring support and sustainability of deployed capabilities." Many of the systems are in shipboard administrative networks that have not been available for extended periods of maintenance; the Navy is also playing catch-up on its land-based network upgrades as the result of the long delays in the service's Next Generation Network (NGEN) contract—the follow-up to the outsourced Navy and Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI)."
Despite its age and its lack of official support, the latest data from Net Applications shows that Windows XP was used by 14.60% of all PCs worldwide in May 2015.
Source: Ars Technica
Reader comments
The US Navy is paying Microsoft $9.1 million for continued Windows XP support
Might as well give all that money to me.
Well, I'm from Denmark, at was at military regruitment (sorry for bad english), and was doing a test on their computer. At they are still running on Windows XP here.
Omg...
It's time for everyone to update
And then people would turn around and complain....
"Why is the government spending hundreds of millions of dollars to update existing software which worked perfectly fine on XP? Why couldn't they have just stayed on XP until they needed new software and then upgrades the OS at that time to save money?"
Upgrading is NOT always the inexpensive option.
Hmmm.. Yeah windows xp and windows 7 are the best till now.
Cheaper to get 10...
For all those bashing the Navy and the government because you all see this as wasteful spending, you need to keep in mind that a lot of DoD software is not 'off the shelf'. Much of it is written specifically under XP and the costs associated with upgrading that software early could very well cost tens of millions, or even more. This is likely the most cost effective option while newer software is/will likely be written on newer versions of the OS and they will upgrade when the new software they need will be ready.
ANY Windows ROCKS(specilly Win8/8.1/Pro and Win10 I'm using as we speak and loving it), and CrApple Overrated, Horrible iOS and OSX and all their iJUNK and MacCrap SUCKS. that's all i have to say.
Yes, thank you for your delightfully constructive, and well thought out comments.
I reckon the reason they have to stay on WinXP is because they have lost their password. It doesn't matter much because the Russians are still on Win95. We need to worry more about Australia because they have Tony Abbott. He could start a war with just his mouth. It operates with no operating system at all.
And we wonder why the government gets hacked so easily. This money should be put towards upgrading to newer, more secure operating systems. Our tax dollars at work.
Exactly
For how many PCs? And for how many days? I hope its more than 10 PCs for a week but with the govt, you never know.
Why not pay microsoft for make new OS only for US Navy ?
Im sure they still have mainframes from 40 years ago too. Ok not surprised.
Maybe MS should create a military version of Windows like... For home users will be Windows 10 Home edition, then make a another edition of Windows 10 Navy lol! Force them to migrate!
XP on the navy yet?!....wow....
Us navy management is totally crazy maybe they could spend less money upgrading
Hasn't it been a full year since XP was dropped from support?
Most likely these are not machines use for email, wordprocessing etc. They are probably machines connected to very proprietary systems that cost $100's of thousands.
I still use a Windows 95 machine one particular task in my labratory because upgrading it means that I have to replace a $10k servo positioning system that has operated fine since 1996 when I built it.
Wow our government sure.knows how to spend the most money on the most outdated things...Makes me sick.
I feel a lot less secure now knowing my government can't handle modern technology.
Why dont they just upgrade?
I booted up my old XP PC a couple of weeks ago.
Other than being appalled/amazed at the fact that my current phone has better specs, I remembered how GREAT Windows XP actually was. Specially when compared to Windows 8 and in some areas even Windows 10 (specially the icon design).
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...
Crazy! Windows 7 is far superior, and has been for nearly a decade!
Would be much better to update to Window 7 and use XP via emulation/virtualization, this would protect them from foreign attackers, trojans and viruses that cannot attack on Windows 7 but can attack old XP machines.
Lmao wouldn't it be more cost effective to pay to update their apps
I still use XP, I just wont use it alone on the Net!
If only they were given notice as to when support was going to end so they could complete the migration process beforehand.
Your US tax dollars hard at work. Instead of upgrading and spending the money to upgrade now, they are spending 9+ million just to avoid it and still have to do it at a later point.
More goverment waste... If you live and pay taxes in the US, you pay for it
That's LOVE!
China and Russia your turn now (to hack them)
being a former local government employee, this makes sense. Not all apps end up working 100% perfect on newer versions of windows or the original devs are available to upgrade the app. Also creating software shims for compatibility is an artform and not for the weak of heart. Because of all that, sometimes it's cheaper and less risky to pay for support of a now dead OS than to spend to make it compatible and run the risk of it failing in the field.
would you want some missile to run into some obscure bug and land in your front yard?
How about using a better secured OS like Windows 7 and use XP through a Virtual machine, this would be in my opinion much better to sandbox the XP and shield it from external viruses, that way they don't need to put Microsoft in a compromised situation where resources to patch XP are not available, they only need to worry about attacks on Windows 7.
Adding an extra OS and virtual machine layer is hardly going to simplify the validation or system maintenance.
Keep in mind that Windows XP is used on nearly every ATM in the country. Do you hear about those getting hacked all the time? No. Windows XP is very secure when configured correctly. It just doesn't have the extra layers of protection to prevent computer illiterate consumers using admin accounts to download everything on the internet. However, on embedded systems or system admin controlled systems it can be made VERY secure. Most of these systems are probably just hosting specialized software and the users are probably rarely (or completely restricted from) using the actual OS. Just like how people can't browse the internet from an ATM or a sales kiosk. They don't even know they are using Windows XP.
They've known for years about XP's eventual end of support, and have had another year on top of that since.
NGEN?? Hopefully they don't start funding research into prehistoric revitalising technologies and add "Intelligent" to the front of their name
I think its a fake news
No need it
I read a bunch of comments on here and this one was not said or maybe I missed someone commenting on it..
NO WONDER THEY KEEP GETTING HACKED..
Really!!!!!
Next time there is a story about the Federal Government getting hacked, don't be surprised. THEY ARE USING WINDOWS XP PEOPLE!!!! THAT'S WHY..
So I'm so happy that our tax money is going to support a 13 year old operating system. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that Windows XP does not use many of the security updates that Current OS does.
Next time there is a story about the government getting hacked. Just comment. WINDOWS XP... THAT'S WHY...
The integration of systems in the military is so complicated that no one there knows exactly how it all fits together. A lot of these systems are going to be rebuilt, but they probably don't even know how they all fit together. It would take $9.1 million for a study on what needs to be upgraded for the new OS. At the same time, you have a brain drain going on where the best and the brightest tend to move to private companies for a much higher salary. It's not pretty and the more you know, the less you want to know.
This is how government works, very inefficient. So what do we do? We make government bigger and put it in control of even more stuff. Seems unintuitive.
What you just described sounds like how my employer (a privately owned company) operates. The reality is that any large organization has issues with efficiency. The only difference is that ineffciency in the private sector is not as visible to the public.
Why don't the go back to Windows 3.1, done.
Nah, Windows 95 rocked ! :)
It's nothing compared to the overall defense budget. And that's US navy we are talking about. The money must be a drop in a pond :D
As Damon Wayans would say, "Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money"!
Homey don't play that.
Oh Homey, I miss you. ;)
I thought they used some sort of Linux-based OS
I guess you thought wrong, besides how many application are written for Linux natively?
Ditto , i guess its the perception we conceive because of movies.
I'm sure an organization the size of the US military (arguably the single largest organization in the world) uses more than one OS. I know they have a lot of specialized systems running custom real-time industrial OSes (targeting systems for example). This extended support contract is just to cover the remaining systems that are still running XP. It's not like every system they have is using XP.
everyone knows xp is hackers delight. then why don't they switch to w7 or even w8.1 ?
For systems used by consumers it's a "hackers delight." For systems running on internal networks or embedded systems it's actually pretty well hardened. It's worth noting that most ATM machines in the US are running Windows XP. XP can be very secure when it's configured properly, but it's not so great in the hands of the typical computer illiterate consumer that is logged in as an admin while downloading everything on the internet.
Wow... Imagine being the guys that actually have to do the supporting of a 14 year old system... I bet they're reeeeally happy...
OR $9.1 mio is the amount they have to pay one guy, to actually bother with supporting it :)
They could just upgrade all their PCs to 7or8 and get 10 on July 29
they need to reserve it first. :) not sure they are into insider program too.
Does not apply to corporate customers, or enterprise versions, and I would bet that would be what they use...
If they upgrade their PCs to higher version of Windows then they need to upgrade their software for latest .NET framework, that's too much costly.
Software like - Which control complete Air Traffic, Secure communication and network, atoms and nuclear controls and so many others.
If they upgrade all these software they need to stop the services also for some preiod. If any one else take advantage of it and attack at that time then ........
So, upgrading the software is not only constly but huge risk in this case. This not like upgrading our home PC.
$ 9.1B not a big money for these kind of project.
FYI: It's $9.1 MILLION, not billion.
There are some technical issues with your comment, but for the most part I agree with what you are saying. Just so you know, older versions of .Net can be installed along side more recent versions of .Net on the same system. It's also unlikely that these older Windows XP systems are running on systems that are so critical that if they went offline the Navy would be vulnerable to attack. It's probably more a case of validation, deployment, and downtime costing more money than it costs to get extended support for systems that are currently working fine.
No wounded US military is lacking behind Russians, they still running xp LMAO.
In Soviet Russia, XP runs them!
Why do so many countries, companies, and government organizations work like this? They would rather deal with the inevitable fire than prevent it in the first place. It's so counter-intuitive and not remotely cost efficient. As someone who works in IT/IS, it drives me completely nuts.
As someone who also works in IT, I can absolutely understand why the Navy is doing this. See my other comments for details, but the TL;DR version is that upgrades/downtimes aren't cheap and in some cases the costs can exceed the cost of not upgrading. There are also situations where some existing systems are going to be replaced in a couple of years with completely different systems/software and it doesn't make sense to upgrade the current system when it is going to be trashed in a couple of years anyway. As someone who works in IT you should be very aware of this.
In most cases, I think you're right. It frustrates me to no end, but I can kind of understand. Most companies wait for a myriad of reasons, financially being chief among them. It's a gamble they usually take that any issues they run into down the road, won't cost as much as upgrading now, and truth be told, that usually pays off.
That being said, I think this is a different case due to the sensitive and/or secure nature of the infrastructure needed for the military.The older a system gets, the more susceptible it is to failures or attacks. If I'm understanding the article, this is going to be less of a risk here due to them paying for continued update support, but it's still a risk. And it's not like they didn't have plenty of notice about this where they could've looked for a different solution or work out a deal with microsoft for cheaper copies of the OS. 9.1 million is a small figure relative to the overall military's budget, but it still seems that could've been better spent.
They spelled "the" wrong.
Its not like MS didn't know this was going to happen. Not everyone wants flashy windows. Just a simple... "it works". Is MS doing this to cash-in? Makes sense to me
Everyone updates their operting systems, including Apple and Linux (Free). So you want support for an EOL OS, then you pay for it. Even companie that run linux pays for experts to maintain the systems.
9.1 mil is not that big an amount in this respect.
Great way to waste taxpayer money.
F-35 needs it's wings.
Nope that thing flies thanks to windows 95
That's your tax dollars at work,
I still do not think That this kind of info shold be posted to news and or public sites as it increases the security risk to our military websites buy putting this info out there WAY TO GO.
By using Windows XP is a security Risk on its own.. The OS is 13 Years old. At least spend the money on Windows 7.. The clowns in Washington need to go. Is there anyone in Washington young enough to bring our goverment to this generation.
Why don't they just use windows 7?!
Why Windows at all? Why not OpenBSD? It is the military we are talking about, after all - not some random PC gamer or IT professional. I am surprised that they trust proprietary systems. I mean, they really could need some super stable, super paranoid secure, virus free OS in mission critical situations like this.
Skynet is a perfect solution.
Smdh pathetic.
It's amazing how many average people fully understand the US Governments software capabilities... lol
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Paying more money to get hacked... smart
Microsoft should do it for free after all its serving the country.
Microsoft is a private profitable company. They too need to stay in business so they can provide tools and services needed in the real world so that people can explore their full potential
WHAT?????
If MS goes bankrupt, they are not going to help .
Right. And the shipyards should build nuclear submarines for free to help the country too. Those American workers and companies don't need to get paid. We should all just forgo profit and salary to work towards the common good. We could call this new patriotic economic system "Communism". It's the American way everyone! /s
Actually, I think it's a safe bet that the US Navy has a Software Assurance contract with MS. That means that it would already be no-cost for them to upgrade to the latest OS (or any OS of the same level). The cost is in the downtime, validation, and deployment of the new technology. I don't think MS can do much to help the Navy test thier own proprietary software/systems though.
They can't play battlefield on that
No shit lets just wait until they get hack
They really want to get hacked
Old school people
Wouldn't it just be cheaper to upgrade to a more modern OS?
Not necessarily. Any compatibility issues they'd have with their programs may make them totally useless for the purpose they are intended. These things will have to be looked at during the testing phase.
But couldn't they put some cash and make a new program that runs on the latest OS'es?
That's 9.1 + some cash = X million. Way too much money. But on the other hand 9mil is nothing for military. They are spending your, my, everyone's taxes
Tell me about it... The world finest US Navy behind the power curve on cyber defense.
Fail army
Navy?
Other than the money, Windows XP is not the most secure OS to run on these days and this is our naval warfare systems
Critical naval warfare systems are probably not being directly controlled by Windows computers. They are usually controlled by much older proprietary industrial computer systems that are custom built for their purpose. The irony is that everyone seems to be up in arms about Windows XP being so old, but the really critical systems are probably as old as the ships themselves. That would mean many are 20 to 30 years old.
Cleavitt76, absolutely best answer on this comments section. 100% agreed.
This is 100% correct.
That super amazing stealth tactical fighter, the F-22, that everyone loves? It's core systems use Ada-2012, a revision of Ada-83/MIL-STD-1815 programing language. Ada was developed in 1978 to standardize programing language use within DoD systems, which at the time were using hundreds of languages of varying age, including ALGOL-60, ALGOL-68, Pascal, Smalltalk, ect... many of which where hardware dependant.
Ada has became the standardized DoD program language in 1980, receiving occasional revisions over the decades.
Another fine example is the LGM -30 "Minuteman-III" ICBM. It uses the D37D flight computer in the NS20 and NS50 navigtaional systems, repalcing the disk based memory system with the D37D, to radiation-resistant RAM. The systems are intergrated with the orginal guidence system hardware which is built into the missile.
Even the console systems used in Hardened Launch Facilities are using older OS' and proprietary legacy systems, photo link below;
http://www.spacewar.com/images/icbm-underground-launch-control-center-ma...
So dumb. A new (and much more secure) OS costs way less. Stupid. Just so stupid.
XP was more secure. Plus upgradation takes time especially on daily used machines.
^This. Not to mention the military has some pretty specialized programs they run. They need the time to test everything to make sure it all works properly. Compatibility issues are a bitch.
Yeah, it's not like a glitch in an application would fire off a weapon by mistake ..... riiiiiight? LOL.
In these very specific military situations, you really need to get everything working as expected. Not just "most things", but everything. That will take some time for sure.
Not fire a missile but surely can miss an evac request due to faulty program. There are more things.
It's not so much the testing and compatibility issues as it is more about:
Time which they suddenly don't have? Or is it that they rather put their, or rather, taxpayer money towards ships, aircrafts, and other things.
I know, they just found out about the phase out this month and had no time to prepare:p
Don't be shocked guys! You should know by now that to this day there are thousands of people in the US who are still connected to dial up internet.
Their are actually more than 4 million
What? Is it true? :-o
Believe it or not, some areas in the US dont have access to cable or broadband... Their only way to get semi fast internet is by satilite and let's just say, dont try to go on xbox live with it....
No idea of the exact number, but that number is probably about right. Where I live in the US we don't even have dial up or anything else as an option.
In Sweden like 95% of the population have acces to 100 mbt internet, some even higher. I really thought that it should be almost the same in the states.
I saw an article a few days ago that said there was about 4M dial-up users in the US. When there are 322+ million people, 4 million is about 1.2% of the people with dial-up. 100Mbt speed is higher than the average in the US, but it is only a small percentage that have slow data connections. I would be willing to say that many of those 1.2% do not know about higher data rates available elsewhere, do not want to pay the higher price, cannot get a faster data connection (phone lines are available anywhere, cable/DSL is not - my uncle being one of them) or simply don't like change so stick with thier lower speed.
You have to consider probably 70% of the USA population live close to or in major population centers and that covers a very small footprint in the land mass of the USA. The state I live in is like that with probably a little over a dozen population centers, get 10 miles away from them and the only choice is dailup, satellite or put up a cell phone antennae and booster and use your phone for a hot spot.
Europe does not have the huge unpopulated areas like the USA has, not even close, and that is one major reason they can get high speed internet to so many and in most areas.
Yeah, if only ISPs and cable providers were local instead of Comcast and the like trying to monopolize the technology.
Look at a map of population distribution for the US. 2/3 of the US population is east of the Mississippi River. Practically no population west of the Mississippi, by comparison. A strip of heavy population in clumps along the west coast. That's it. I grew up in a town of 400 in Washington state where the nearest city of population above 25,000 was 90 miles in any direction. A few years ago, the locally-owned telephone company brought in high-speed internet: 768 Kbps was the fastest they could offer.
You should really come to India..so many people..town with 400 people is a dream..the number is generally over 40,000
We have a lot more land than you guys
That's true;)
Sweden is a little bigger than the US state of Montana and has a million more people than New York City in it (Montana has like 1.2 million people in it). That means more customers in a small area :). If America had that density I bet we would be at that too. But for now we have to suffer with bad internet :(.
Sweden is tiny compared to the US.
Yes, Sweden is a smal country. But I really thought that dial-up is far outdated. My phone can bring faster internet then dial-up based internet. I mean? I have played over Xbox Live whit my phones internet(4G)
That is not dial-up. Dial-up is where you connect through an old style modem, 56K baud with all that screeching and other noises. Dial-up goes over old style copper strung from your telephone pole to house, with electrical current running from you to your teleco. Plus there are some old outdated laws that restrict how fast you can transmit data over a phone line. That is why, although a modem may be rated at 56K, it only works around 51K to comply with laws.
Using your cell phone is using your cell network, no wires between you and the cell tower where they can change the radio frequency and other metrics to transfer data to you. Comparing dialup to your 4G connection is like comparing 4G LTE to 1G data transmission.
This is also one of those "you young whippersnapper" moments - someone who didn't grow up without the internet so you really don't know what it was like back in my day.
Sweden is like 2sq miles compared to USA. Getting internet to places in the middle of nowhere may not always make sense.
There's still people sending money to AOL for internet access when they're already getting cable broadband...
My family runs off of 800KBS (cheapest Cable plan i can get). Why? Its fast enough to watch PARKS off of Amazon Prime and most of the shows off of Xfinity. So why do i need to pay for something i won't use 99% of the time. To make things simpler, i can download a 300mb file in 24 Minutes. $30.00 isn't that big of a problem. I just wish the damn thing was cheaper. I hate Comcast for screwing up what cheap actually meant. Time Warner was nearly 19.95 for the same plan. I imagine inflated would be around 25.00 but still cheaper than 30.....
Fantastic. So that means migrating from windows XP would cost them more than 9.1 million?
Good question.
One would assume so. But they could be spending a lot more had they jumped the gun and migrated before they were sure all of their stuff worked as intended.
No, If they had prepared before, MS warned everyone for years that Windows XP support would be dropped sometime. But they prefer to do nothing.
That was meant for public, not military or government.
Of course not. They've warned EVERYONE, my company started to receive this warnings years ago, since Windows 7 launch.
XP extended support ended a year ago - THAT was the non-public support date. For everyone else, it was something like 2012. Absolutely correct, they did nothing essentially and now the cost to upgrade is most likely twice what they're paying Microsoft now. Alas, you think Healthcare organizations are doing any better?
Yes it would. They would have to upgrade the hardware, update all software and other military grade equipment and on top, develop new security measures. It would take too much to update to 10 or even 8.1
Tech will not wait for them. Eventually they will have to update to something, but when they do the cost will be massive. For now 9 million is a deal.
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That's sad and angering at the same time.
Why is that? They are running probably billion dollar systems off of XP that they would have to recontract with vendors to support an upgrade to make sure it runs properly and whatnot. The important thing isnt XP or 10 for the military. Its what launches the stuff that keeps America safe and is stable so American defense dont go down :). They got some crazy stuff they have to migrate over still.
You have some crazy insight... /s
They should switch to Windows Phone 10 ;)
Bad idea.
There's no Windows Phone 10. Jeeez!
Windows Phone 10 is shorter than windows 10 for phones, and to say only windows 10 will always bring the question, phone, pic tablet or Xbox? So it's better to say windows phone 10
It will be called Windows 10 Mobile. Don't you know that?
For the general public, it is just Windows 10. You don't need to know that the Windows 10 SKU it is running is Windows 10 Mobile. Your phone runs Windows 10, but the phone itself is a Windows 10 phone or a Windows 10 mobile...just the same way a phone running Android would be called an Android phone or an Android mobile.
Microsoft releasing the names of the different SKUs is for the people that need to know the difference between the SKUs.
You do need to know. A phone license won't work on a PC.
And there is no WindowsPhone XP :D
That is why it is a bad idea!
Well, nokia's (Microsoft Lumias) are indestructible. So... Yea
Do you mean Windows 10? It still hasn't been released, I think Windows 7 using Windows Virtual PC and XP would be much better choice to be protected from worms, hackers and viruses.
Truly pathetic. Why anyone puts any faith in our government just boggles the mind.
I don't see what is so pathetic about it really. Many businesses and other governments around the world are doing the same thing. This article even states that Windows XP is still running on 15% of the PCs in the world.
They have systems in place that are working. It's not a high priority to fix something that already works. Most of these computers are probably not sitting on desks connected to the internet or external networks. Many of them are probably running specialized software to control machinery or running in embedded systems (just like the bank ATM machines that are mostly still running XP).
Those that work in IT know that there is a cost associated with downtime. It's not always easy to quantify, but the cost is there and it adds up fast. How much do you think is costs to have a aircraft carrier, nuclear sub, or destroyer sitting idle in a habor with most of its crew on paid leave while all of its computers (which worked fine) are being replaced and the systems completely re-validated? I'm willing to bet it costs a lot more than paying $9.1 million dollars to an American company for extended support. Is it worth the downtime and expense to upgrade a computer that monitors some water pumps (or whatever) from Win XP to Win 8? After you go through all that trouble and the expense of upgrading, have you really accomplished anything useful? In some cases it might be worth it, but in many cases it's not.
Great response.
Oh stop it with all your legitimate logic.
Not mindbloggling at all. Our government is still tops. Perhaps you never had to fight for human rights for yourself. I'd rather have some law and order that don't intrude or violate and protects human rights rather than allowing thugs and terrorists the freedom of operation.
Wow way to spend that money guys
Well it is not their money so they will keep on spending it
But they are surely spending from their share of "loot".
Some of that money came from my pocket. These dinosaurs
At least you don't live in Brazil. Our government knows how to create "taxes". And they transform 9.1 million into 30 million, so they can steal a little. I wish I could live in USA or even in Europe
Greece is a mess as well, even though it's in Europe, at least for the time being.
Well lately, greece politics ruined the european system. It's definitelly Europe, but it's not fair to compare Greece with The Netherlands, Germany, England, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Switserland, Denmark and France which are the much more stable countries in Europe as it should be if you are part of the European Union.
I really hope things(economy) will be worked out in Greece, beautiful country!
From People, To Capitalist, For Capitalist that's Democracy
Capitalism has no moral base, why you think the U.S. loves wars...it's a Trillion dollar business!
As opposed to Imperial Britain, dictators, socialists, communists? What Pollyanna world do you live in?
Well put.
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What's new? It's the Goverment. Full of a bunch of people on both sides of the isle that care more about votes, popularity, and filling their friends pockets and their own pockets with my hard earned cash.
True story broda! Less or more, it's the same everywhere on this planet!
Exactly..
Lol and now we'll know exactly what happened when the US Navy's security gets breached.
Thats why they are using Windows, NOT CrApple's OSX childish toy. However, i belive i would upgrade to Win8.1 Pro and later Win10 Pro for sure. But i'm not in Navy. I'm using Win10 right now, and loving it. it RCOKS.
This is literally, pocket money. Just a small piece of dust in comparison to what they must be spending daily.
Yea exactly, one jet is guna be 10 times that
It's that kind of thinking that gets them in to debt. Every dept thinks their amount of waste is miniscule, but when you add them up it all counts.
That amount would be infinitely less than what it would cost to migrate their systems to a current platform.
It's not just the OS the PC's run, but all of their software and infrastructure that would have to be retested. It would be a massive undertaking.
What would be much less expensive and more secure would be to the Navy to use Windows Virtual PC and use Windows XP through virtualization, this is allowed in Windows 7 Enterprise and by doing this they will be much more secured from direct attacks to Windows XP since the OS in virtualized mode is much better secured.
Not exactly. Support of two operating systems on a single device increases support costs, increases complexity, and increases data loss. Also, unless you specifically configure this setup to avoid clipboard sharing and file copies you're now no more secure than running XP natively. I make a living supporting corporate WinTel environments, so this is more than just my opinion :-)
That's what MED-V is used for, and also there are a lot of increased security benefits you get from virtualization like sandboxing, server isolation, honeypots and honeynets.
For more info about how to manage security of multiple VMs you can see MED-V reference here
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg548512.aspx
Sure, but MS can handle it for them with Azure, or have Win10 Pro install on their system. there has to be a really good reason as to why they are still with XP. For government money is nothing. just think how much money has been wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan, Trillion+....
Given their budget this is pocket change. Worth it for support of an OS that is used to run probably billion dollar secret software. :)
A cool 9 million...
That is the way to do business...
However, just maintaining vulnerability isn't really wise. Those $ could have gone to upgrading.
Those whos complaining abt their govmnt never heard of philippine government.its the worst of worst.