Two-thirds of London's councils run unsupported server software

Big question marks over security at councils across London

Two-thirds of London councils are running out-of-date server software, which is no longer supported, leaving the organisations vulnerable to exploits due to a lack of patching.

That is the claim of disaster recovery specialist Databarracks, which used a series of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to find out that 69 per cent of councils in London are running software on servers with outdated operating systems and databases.

The company contacted all 32 London boroughs, as well as the City of London, and received responses from all.

The data revealed that 63 per cent of London councils are still running Windows Server 2003, 51 per cent run SQL Server 2005 and 10 per cent still use Windows Server 2000 - none of which are still supported by Microsoft.

This has Databarracks sounding the alarm bells. Peter Groucutt, managing director at the firm, said that the figures show that IT departments are neglecting the basics, and is calling for those running unsupported software to put an upgrading at the top of their new year's resolution lists.

"It is easy for organisations to become paralysed by the choice of security options, but it is absolutely vital to not neglect the basics and to deliver a solid baseline," he said.

"This starts with reviewing and auditing their IT infrastructure and upgrading to supported software versions. Being secure in 2017 doesn't necessarily need to see huge investment in advanced cyber security solutions, but it does need to be the year that we ensure our fundamental security practices are up to scratch.

"My advice to organisations in 2017, in the public and private sectors, is to get the security fundamentals right first - that's where they should be investing before anything else.

"Unsupported operating systems are one of these fundamentals - failure to upgrade is putting your organisation at enormous unnecessary risk. The possibility of security breaches and potential data losses is much higher, as security patches will no longer be released to protect against vulnerabilities."

This report comes just days after it was revealed that 90 per cent of the NHS continues to run Windows XP machines, two and a half years after Microsoft ditched support for the ageing OS.