Australia’s national broadcaster is funded to the tune of 1 Billion dollars per year, but it seems that hasn’t covered important updates to their IT systems.
This morning the ABC Sydney office was experiencing power issues and ABC News Mornings presenter, Joe O’brien shared a photo on Twitter. The photo shows the office lighting off, with the computer displays still running (presumably powered by a UPS).
Those paying attention will recognize that wallpaper (and taskbar) as Windows 7. The problem with ABC still running Windows 7 in late 2019 is that Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 7 on January 13, 2015. Assuming the ABC paid up for extended support, that also ends in just over a month from now, on January 14, 2020.
Running an old version of Windows presents a significant security risk, particularly after Microsoft stops patching vulnerabilities. For an organisation like the ABC, it’s a reasonable expectation that they could be on the receiving end of targeted attacks and unless all possible defenses are in place, it represents a significant risk.
Given the funding, there’s really little excuse for the ABC computers to not be running Windows 10, which was released on the 29th July 2015.
Forget Billyware10, go Linux, BSD or Apple