With the recent technological advancement, processes in the car dealership can be improved for both the dealership staff and customers. Most car dealerships have thousands of customers, which means a lot of personal information is collected and stored.

The customers’ personal information, such as credit card information, medical information, and bank account details, must be stored in a confidential and secure manner. While the Internet and technology is becoming increasingly popular, the amount and sophistication of malicious activity is growing as well.

Today, cybercriminals create malware for the primary purpose of stealing sensitive information of personal, business, or financial importance. Car dealerships must be cautious and maintain maximum dealership IT security to avoid sensitive data theft.

In order to manage and maintain dealership IT security, security patches, especially for desktop PC operating systems, are extremely important.

The End of Support for Windows XP

On April 8^th 2014, Microsoft will end support for Windows XP. As an organization that stores a lot of sensitive information, car dealerships should feel a sense of urgency to upgrade from Windows XP to another operating system.

For Windows XP, Microsoft support provides critical security fixes, patches for vulnerabilities, and updates. After the end of support date, when a new exploit arises, it won’t be fixed. Essentially, all new vulnerabilities discovered in Windows XP will not be addressed by Microsoft. This means the car dealership’s entire network and systems will be vulnerable to cyber-attacks, data theft, network intrusion, and hacking.

In addition, cybercriminals are aware of the end of support date. Chances are, cybercriminals have already started to design malware specifically for the unsecure operating system. In order to maintain the security of sensitive customer information, car dealerships must migrate away from Windows XP.

According to Microsoft, the average enterprise deployment can take between 18 and 32 months. It’s important to start planning your OS upgrade, in order to avoid the explosion of malware awaiting Windows XP.

To learn more about the risks of running Windows XP after the end of support date, give us a call at (416) 840-6560 today. CAT-TEC can help your car dealership upgrade operating systems in a cost-efficient, timely manner.

Is your The GTA car dealership still running Windows XP?  CAT-TEC can help you.  Our Windows XP upgrade specialists fully understand the complexities with upgrading Windows XP and can make sure your upgrade goes as smooth as possible.  Call us today at (416) 840-6560 or drop us an email at {email}.  Have our car dealership experts helping you with all your IT needs.