India requires banks to phase out Windows XP by June 2019 fully

According to theregister, the Reserve Bank of India recently issued a notice requiring the banking sector of the country to phase out Windows XP from ATMs by June 2019.

The notice pointed out that Microsoft terminated support for XP as early as May 2014. For reasons of security, the Reserve Bank of India had issued relevant notifications in April 2017, but banks have made slow progress in resolving these issues. The Reserve Bank of India clearly stated that the operation of the bank’s ATM system on an unsupported operating system version and the implementation of other security measures might hurt the interests of bank customers.

In addition to the elimination of XP, the Reserve Bank of India also requires BIOS passwords, disables the USB interface and automatic operation, patches the system, and uses ATM whitelists and other measures to protect the security of ATMs. According to the published timetable, banks need to phase out 25% of XP before September of this year, phase out half before December and 75% before March next year, and phase out by June.