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IRS Still Running XP. Pays MS millions for additional patches not available to you.

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IRS Still Running XP. Pays MS millions for additional patches not available to you.

from JoeUser Forums

 

Well, the IRS missed the April 8th deadline with Windows XP (58,000 computers worth) and will be paying MS millions for an additional year of security patches. Deadlines only apply to some XP users, it seems. This especially rankles since the IRS demands we all tow the line with our 1040s and now health insurance as well. Guess who’s going to pay for those patches? Doubly painful since they won’t be available to the folks actually paying for them.

Turns out this will cost an additional $30 million (in addition to what has already been spent – no figure available) to finish the migration to Windows 7.

What they aren’t even relating to is that Windows 7 will lose support in 2020, and the upgrading will repeat: All this money for less than 6 years.

So what is the IRS worried about? The upgrade will take $30 million out of its enforcement budget.

Another interesting angle: MS raised its price for support from $200,000 per customer to $200 per computer. Cute. Well, sales of W8 haven’t exactly broken records and that has to be made up somehow, right?

So, let’s do the math: The IRS has 110,000 computers (just round numbers), and of them 52,000 are W7. That leaves 58,000 on XP. Let’s multiply that by 200. That will yield a payoff of $11,600,000 for Microsoft, for just one year of custom support. That would leave $18,400,000 to buy computers to replace the ones running XP, or $317 per computer. I don’t really see them getting pricing like that, so the price will rise. Guess who’ll pay for that?

Just to rub some salt in your wounds:

"None of our filing season systems or other major business operating systems for taxpayers use Windows XP," an IRS spokesperson said Friday. "The IRS emphasizes the situation involving Windows will have no impact on taxpayers, including people filing their tax returns in advance of the April 15 deadline."- Greg Keizer

So, it’s ok for the IRS not to make deadlines, just not us. That figures.

Source:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9247634/IRS_misses_XP_deadline_pays_Microsoft_millions_for_patches

60,201 views 28 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting ElanaAhova, reply 21


Quoting starkers, reply 20

The only person worse than a politician is a banker.  

They are married to one another.

End of ElanaAhova's quote

Oh woe, an unholy union if ever there was one.... and castration/sterilisation should be compulsory prior to their joining so as to prevent the spawning of successors.

 

Quoting DrJBHL, reply 25


Quoting starkers, reply 20If a breach were to occur, and the relevant department had neglected to upgrade like everyone else has had to, then surely the liability is their own public opinion would be that they brought it on themselves.  I mean, seriously, who has any sympathy for the government, much less the tax office?

Not many love big corporations either, especially when shown to be milking us no less than the IRS.

 
End of DrJBHL's quote

Maybe not, but Microsoft would have its brains trust go into damage control, plus it could sweeten public opinion towards it with discounts on various software titles, etc.  The government/IRS has nothing much it could use to counter-offer, except perhaps for more misery and pain, so MS would likely come out of it the better and smelling of roses, while the government/IRS reeked of manure.

Reply #27 from Elemental Forums Top

you know how it goes. changing os means updating/rewriting the ancient programs that they've been using in xp and retraining people. most companies/organisations/entities think they are saving money by delaying that. if they can stick with something for 20 years as opposed to every 5 or whatever, you bet they'll do it.

i  can think of a very simple reason why ms offers support (at a price) to them and not individuals. those big entities will move off xp as part of some process. ms gets paid and might even get them to stick to newer windows.

whereas individuals would stick to their hardware until it goes boom and ms is forcing them to move on.

 

makes sense.

CursorFX - Customize your Windows cursor
Reply #28 from Elemental Forums Top

There is some 3rd party support for XP, but there are some limitations.

http://redmondmag.com/articles/2013/08/21/arkoon-windows-xp-security.aspx
Arkoon Network Security is planning to roll out its ExtendedXP product this fall for those organizations that just can't get off Windows XP.

"If there is a new vulnerability, the managed services team will report that back to them and potentially create a new template," Foley said. "All the customer has to do is apply the new template to the management console. It will automatically update all of the remote agents with the new protection."

One limitation to Arkoon's approach is that only Microsoft can update the Windows XP kernel, so the level of patch support isn't the same.

"The area where we will be the weakest will be in the area of kernel attachments," Foley said. "But we certainly also are not saying that we don't believe that ExtendedXP shouldn't be part of a multilayered solution. We are presuming, we recommend, that anyone using ExtendedXP also has a firewall. That they are also doing extra layers of protection, as they are hopefully doing today…. We are filling in one part of a multipart security strategy."