Belgium’s public services using unsecured computers

It has been revealed that more than 15,000 of the computers used by Belgium’s public services are not properly secured against potential hackers. The issue is most evident within the departments of Justice and Finance, where almost 10,000 computers continue to run on the outdated Microsoft Widows XP platform. 

As of April 8, the twelve-year-old operating system ceased to receive support from Microsoft. This means that the system will longer be upgraded for security, which will make any computers running on it susceptible to preying hackers. Upgrading the computers across Belgium’s public service sector will be a major undertaking, both financially and logistically. According to reports, modernising the computers in all of the departments will cost at least 2.5 million euros, which will be spent on replacing both computers and software.