With the 8 April 2014 deadline for retiring Windows XP, Office 2003, Exchange Server 2003 and other end-of-life’d products rapidly approaching, it’s important that people currently using these products understand exactly what is happening. Microsoft has done a good job of explaining it to the tech-types but I don’t believe that we have done an adequate job of getting the information out. Below is a link to the Microsoft site explaining what’s going on but the short story is the following:
- On 8 April 2014, Windows XP, Office 2003 and a number of other products will receive their last updates.
- Vulnerabilities in these products not patched in the updates released on 8 April 2014 will never be patched by Microsoft.
- If you have sensitive data on your computer or network and are required to secure it (PCI, HIPAA, etc.), continuing to use any of these products is not supported.
The Microsoft page with additional details is here.
If you currently have these products deployed / in use and would like to discuss upgrade options, we would be happy to help.