One in 10 web-facing computers is still running Microsoft Windows Server 2003, according to a report – despite the OS no longer being patched by Microsoft.

Hundreds of thousands of computers are still using the Windows Server 2003 operating system – despite it no longer being patched against hacks.

Internet services found more than 600,000 web-facing computers, together hosting millions of websites, still running the OS that Microsoft ceased supporting in July this year.

The end of support means the OS no longer receives patches against viruses, spyware and other malware that might seek to exploit the system. The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team warns that those running Windows Server 2003 risk “loss of confidentiality, integrity, and or availability of data, system resources and business assets”.

Despite these risks, 175 million websites – what it terms “one-fifth of the internet” – are hosted on machines running Windows Server 2003. The OS also appears to be in use on computers sitting behind web servers for a further 1.7 million sites.

Together accounting for 55 percent, the US and China are home to the bulk of the machines running Windows Server 2003, with 166,000 in the US and 169,000 in China.

The unsupported nature of Windows Server 2003 makes it a tempting target for attackers – which is why it is important for firms to switch away from the OS as soon as possible.

“As time goes by, there will be some vulnerabilities that affect Windows Server 2003 and if those allow things like remote code execution and so on, we’re likely to see a massive number of web-facing computers and a much larger number of websites getting hacked. These could then go on to distribute malware and even be made into botnets to enable other attacks.

“Of course, because Windows Server 2003 is now unsupported, those people who try to find vulnerabilities might even now be particularly focusing on this platform because they know it won’t be fixed.”

Windows Server 2012 R2 is the most recent version of Microsoft’s server-targeted operating system – with a variety of options for licensing. In part, the cost of moving to a more recent Microsoft OS for the proportion of machines still running Windows Server 2003.

“[That proportion] is over 10 percent of all web-facing computers, and shows the true potential cost of migration,” the report states.

Moving a server to a Linux-based OS can be difficult for organisations that have traditionally used Windows Server, Mutton said, particularly if they rely heavily on scripts written for ASP.NET, Microsoft’s server-side web application framework.

The report lists several major firms and banks still running Windows Server 2003 machines, including UK bank NatWest, part of the larger publicly-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

However, while Microsoft is no longer supporting the OS for most users, it will offer fixes for the OS to organisations willing to pay for a custom-support deal.

Such a deal was recently struck by the US Navy, which agreed to pay at least $9m to Microsoft to provide ongoing support for Windows XP, Office 2003, Exchange 2003 and Server 2003. A spokesman for RBS said NatWest is also covered by a custom support deal with Microsoft that began in March this year.

Firms without such a custom support deal in place that use Windows Server 2003 to serve sites that handle financial information could be in breach of data security standards, which carries out security testing and assessments for companies.

The requirement under Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) 6.2 that “all system components and software to be protected from known vulnerabilities by installing vendor-supplied

“Many merchants still using Windows Server 2003 are likely to be noncompliant and could face fines, increased transaction fees, reputational damage, or other potentially disastrous penalties such as cancelled accounts.”

Microsoft advises several options for machines still running Windows Server 2003 – including switching to Windows Server 2012 R2 or its cloud platform Microsoft Azure. It provides an interactive Windows Server 2003 Migration Planning Assistant.

Have questions?

Get help from IT Experts/Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

Tips and advice for making the best use of this medium.

E-mail is a great tool that has become both a blessing and a curse. Designed to enhance productivity in the workplace, it slowly had the reverse effect. Today, e-mail is ubiquitous, much easier to use, and often abused. It’s time to focus on how to turn e-mail back into an effective management tool for 21st century executives.

Don’t use it to do your thinking for you. Writing e-mails at work is not like doing calculus at school. At school you needed to show that your logic flow was part of the answer. With e-mail, assume no one is interested in how you came to your conclusion. They are only interested in what impacts them and their work and anything on which they need to take action.

Make your request clear. When publishers lay out a newspaper, they place the most important news “above the fold.” You should think the same way about your e-mails, especially when you are making requests. If you ask for something, always put that request, including names and dates related to it, in the first two or three sentences of your e-mail. Do not assume that the reader will read far enough to see the request buried in all of the detail.

Limit emotion of all types. Humor can cut through a lot of noise when you communicate, and it can help a team rally around a common thought or issue, but it rarely belongs in e-mail. This is especially true of sarcasm, which is very easy to misinterpret. The reader almost never understands what you are trying to communicate.

Use the save button before the send button. When we were young and got angry, people told us to count to 10 before saying anything. When you need to be cool and show that you have a levelheaded approach to problems, the last thing you want to do is send an e-mail. If you are writing an e-mail about an emotional or difficult topic, such as a performance review or a follow up to a contentious meeting, save the e-mail. Then, come back to it in 30 minutes or even the next day and decide whether you want to send at all.

Use the phone. These days, an e-mail lasts forever and there is no such thing as privacy in the workplace. In many cases, the laws and regulations governing publicly held companies require strict adherence to document retention rules. If you don’t want someone else to read what you wrote, don’t send it via e-mail. Also, if the subject matter you want to discuss is important and sensitive or personal, a phone call or face-to-face discussion is always the better option.

The bottom line. E-mail is a great tool for communicating, although we are never as effective as we think we are going to be. Remember to stop and think before hitting “send.”

Have questions?

Get answers from Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner!
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

To read this article in its entirety click here.

Exclusive offer from: BigBeagle.com  |  24/7 Support: 8885051532
Amit Shah — Customer Number: 57156051

BigBeagle is a reseller of GoDaddy and offers GoDaddy products at a discounted price. Don’t forget to visit our coupon page at http://bigbeagle.com/coupons for the latest and greatest promotions.

Save upto 15% on the purchase of 90$ or more and get everything you need. Hurry before the offer expires!!!

Use promo code rs5938a in your cart when you order.

*Some limitations apply. Applicable to new purchases only. Enter promo code into shopping cart to see full details. Minimum purchase of $90 required. Offer expires Sunday, September 27, 2015 at midnight (Mountain Time).

Copyright © 2015 BigBeagle.com. All rights reserved.

Developed by,
South Jersey Techies, LLC.

This month our website team launched a website for Narberth Ambulance. Narberth Ambulance is an organization built on the countless hour of work over 70 years and now responds to over 6100 calls a year and provides most qualified EMT’s and Paramedics. Like the majority of websites we develop, Narberth Ambulance is fully responsive and is helping thousands of people.

Have questions?

Our Web Design team is here to help
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.