Top 5 Business Risks Of Running Outdated Software

Do you find the constant reminders of updating your software frustrating? The pop-up notifications asking to update the software you’re using totally sucks! But tell you what, this frustration and annoyance is nothing compared to the real risk of using outdated technology!

Yes, not updating your software doesn’t just mean not having the latest version, but a lot more than that as it might cost you your data, security, customer trust, and even your entire business.

Read on to know the real frightening risks of sticking to antiquated software!

Using outdated software means giving cybercriminals a way to break into your system and keeping your business open to constantly increasing, numerous security vulnerabilities.

Since the software is outdated, your systems do not get the latest security updates necessary for protection against the newest cyber threats.

With studies showing over 10,000 malware being discovered every hour, putting off a software update or failing to download the software update or keep using the old software that is no longer supported by the manufacturer only increases your risk of cyberattacks.

For example, if you’re running Windows XP instead of Windows 10, your system is six times more likely to be infected with a malware threat.

You’ll be surprised to know that most malware precisely targets the older versions of software to exploit the outdated software vulnerability OWASP that has been fixed already in the latest versions of the same software.

Are you even aware that outdated software lacks ransomware protection! 

What is outdated software?  An outdated software program is one that no longer gets any support from its vendor.

As a result, the new-found bugs in the software aren’t addressed. Plus, outdated software fails to be compatible with the latest operating systems as well as is less likely to work with newer hardware.

The system failure caused by outdated software then leads to disruption of business processes, stopping you in the middle of everything and forcing you to wait for the outdated software to start working again to resume your business.

So yes, along with compromising your security, one of the major outdated software disadvantages is that it may cause system crashes. 

Remember, a system crash not only costs a huge time loss but also the loss of trust, and revenue, that too, on a destructive scale.

Factors like accidental file deletion or laptop theft or even a natural disaster can contribute to data loss.

However, when you work with software that offers the necessary data protection solutions like data encryption, cloud backup, etc., risks of data loss due to such reasons can be avoided.

But wait, thanks to the risk of running unsupported software, you don’t have to worry about such external causes leading to data loss, as the software itself can cause data loss through system failure or security vulnerabilities.

One report by Kaspersky, a reputed cybersecurity company, shows that more than 4 in every 10 organizations in North America use outdated software and lose 50% more money in a data breach compared to those that use updated software and hardware.   And as per FEMA or Federal Emergency Management Agency, four out of every ten companies that suffer data loss end up shutting down.

To avoid out of date software vulnerability, big software manufacturers like Microsoft keep their software updated by doing regular maintenance where errors detected during the use of the software are fixed. And even if security failure occurs in an updated and regularly enhanced software, unlike outdated software, the manufacturer’s technical team quickly deals with it.

Another risk of using outdated operating system use is that it often malfunctions that can cause your system to slow down, restart, or even programs to get closed by themselves. 

And thanks to such poor software performance that the work of the employees becomes difficult, which reflects their performance, resulting in even invalidations of an activity.

The malfunctioning or the failures may seem small. But when you consider the huge amount of information involved and the complexity of the activities, even the slightest glitches can lead to loss of data as well as customers.

These barely noticeable small failures may not seem so significant initially, but they keep on impacting the productivity of the employees negatively.

Last but not the least, outdated software can be pretty expensive to maintain. 

Have you ever maintained an old car or an old house? Then you must have already got the picture. The only difference is that the software ages at a much faster rate than a house or a vehicle.

If reports are to be believed true, then it costs simply double to fix systems that are four or more years old.

Imagine moving into a new not-so-safe neighborhood and then removing the door locks, keeping the doors and windows of your house wide open. Don’t you think the premium that you have to pay in order to keep your house safe would be high enough? And using old software can be no different than this. Then there is a cost for the time spent on fixing the outdated software from time to time.  

Using outdated software is like putting rotten food in the refrigerator that risks spoiling the fresh food. So why settle for the rotten one when you can have better!

When the computer software is outdated, make sure to update it right away to keep your business secure and growing. For any software development-related assistance, you can get in touch with experts in this domain.