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Microsoft warns Indian banks of pending ATM vulnerability

November 14, 2013

A study conducted by Ascentius Consulting on behalf of Microsoft revealed that some 34,115 Indian public sector bank branches will be at risk when support ends for Windows XP on April 8, 2014. The study shows that the penetration of Windows XP is still high at 40 to 70 percent in the banking sector.

According to a news release from Microsoft, banks that continue to run Windows XP will run a number of risks. Specifically:

• systems in a large number of branches — especially in rural and semi-urban areas — that rely on XP could go down, denying service to customers;
• in metro and urban branches, 55 percent of customers could face an extended wait time of up to 30 minutes for an average transaction;
• the fiscal impact due to loss of business opportunity could total Rs. 110 crore daily ($1.7 billion); and
• non-migration could expose customers to greater risk of identity theft and fraud.

Ascentius Consulting also found that continued reliance on Windows XP could also mean loss of business opportunities for a number of reasons:

• they will not be able to leverage electronic KYC norms, as proposed by the Reserve Bank of India;
• Windows XP might not support new biometric devices and will have to perform manual verification of customers, leading to higher costs and longer customer waiting times; and
• branches that stay on Windows XP might not be able to set up biometric readers and software to deploy government schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

A minimum 100-day working timeline is crucial, Ascentius said. Their study estimates the time to migrate from XP to new technology will be 4 to 6 months.

"We have been advising our customers to move off Windows XP for a long time now," said Amrish Goyal, general manager of the Windows business group for Microsoft Corp. Pvt. Ltd. in India. "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."

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