Although Windows XP reached end of support last year, the IRS seems to be running the OS on its computers, putting user data at risk.
Even after repeated announcements and awareness drives from Microsoft regarding Windows XP"s end of life, many government organizations and companies continued to use the OS due to older hardware, legacy software or in some cases the cost of new licenses.
One such organization is the Internal Revenue Service of the United States which has been found to run the abandoned operating system, in addition to fraud detection software which is nearly two decades old as well.
Windows XP still holds a market share more than that of Windows 8 and 8.1 combined, but such a security lapse from an organization such as the IRS which is expected to have the highest standards for privacy is quite shocking. According to the report from CNN Money, the expenditure on technology cannot be fit into the IRS" annual budget which will further lead to "system failures and potential security breaches" as admitted by the Commisioner of IRS, John Koskinen.
It is unfortunate that software upgrades aren"t a major priority in non-IT environments dealing with sensitive data and there will probably be more such organizations which are running the dated OS that haven"t been discovered yet.
Source: CNN Money via Consumerist