Zero-day

As a merchant you probably don’t want to go through the hassle of getting a new computer and spending the time to set it up. Installing software and customizing it takes time, time that you may not have readily available. A new computer also requires your employees to get used to it and while computers are nowhere near as expensive as they used to be they still aren’t cheap.

There comes a time in every computer’s life that they just stop working and you’ve probably experienced it. At the same time some computers continue to work. There’s probably someone in your life that is still using a Windows XP machine but there also comes a time in every computer’s life that they become obsolete. That is known as its zero-day.

The computer will still turn on and it will still run its programs, so it’s not like it will just stop working and start smoking as it self-destructs. Zero-day means that Microsoft and other software vendors stop working on updates for it. That means that when the zero-day is reached any security vulnerability that is found on subsequent versions of Windows will not be fixed on that version. It also means that any sort of support for that version of Windows will be non-existent. That ranges from your OEM to your ISP. On the zero-day your computer becomes toxic to them so to speak.

Windows XP reached is zero-day on April 8, 2014. Windows Vista’s time is here. On April 11 (next Tuesday) it reaches its zero-day. Windows 7 will come in 2020, Windows 8 in 2023 and Windows 10 in 2025. Besides a lack of support of a now-obsolete computer there is another good reason to upgrade your computer systems. The day after the zero-day lead to a number of attacks on the now vulnerable computer and these only intensify as updates are issued for other versions and are reverse engineered to the obsolete version.

There are a myriad of reasons why people keep an old computer around. For most businesses it is because of software that you are comfortable with and you are worried it will not work on a newer version of Windows. If this is you, you are not alone. But there will come a time when you will have to upgrade your machine. It would be better to do it on your terms with all of your data intact, so if you are running Windows XP or Vista it is time for a new computer. At the very least PCI compliance depends on it.