Penetration of Windows XP is still high at 40-70 pc in banking sector

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Microsoft revealed the results of a startling study of the banking sector in India today. Conducted by Ascentius Consulting, the study revealed that some 34,115 Indian PSU bank branches are at risk, thanks to their reliance on Windows XP.

Windows XP will no longer be supported by Microsoft beginning April 08, 2014, but the study shows that the penetration of Windows XP is still high at 40-70 percent in the banking sector.

According to study, over 34,000 Indian PSU bank branches are vulnerable with 40-70 per cent PC base still on Windows XP - just a single incident of vulnerability may lead to an opportunity loss of Rs. 1,100 crore in a day and revenue loss of Rs. 330 crore over 3 days

Also read: Windows XP to expire in 1000 days

Amongst the greatest risks facing banks that maintain their Windows XP installations, despite the end of support, are their ability to respond to customers and manage waiting times. More specifically:

* A large number of branches that rely on XP, especially in the rural and semi-urban areas may go down and therefore deny service to customers completely

* In metro and urban branches, the impact may be as great as 55 per cent of customers facing an extended waiting time of up to 30 minutes for an average transaction

* The fiscal impact of this could be as much as loss of business opportunity worth Rs. 1,100 crore in a day and a loss of income of Rs. 330 crore over a period of 3 days (assuming that a major incident may take 3 days for the systems to come up to normal functioning)

* Non-migration may also expose customers to greater risk of identity theft and fraud

Amrish Goyal, General Manager, Windows Business Group, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd. said, "We have been advising our customers to move off Windows XP for a long time now. There are a significant number of PCs out there that still need to be moved per a plan."

"The move to a modern OS like Windows 8.1 will not only alleviate the risks for users and businesses but will also open up opportunities posed by modern technology, like the cloud, for them", added Goyal.