Tech experts fear cybercriminals will exploit end of Windows 10 support

RNZ News

5 hours ago

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New Zealand technology experts are increasing calls for people and businesses to upgrade their Microsoft devices, as Windows 10's support expiration looms.
From 14 October onwards, devices running Windows 10 will no longer receive free security updates, technical assistance or software patches.
Jamie Hall of technology distributor Ingram Micro NZ, said while systems will continue to operate, they'll be increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats and operational disruptions.
"So ultimately that's going to create some risks potentially for not only business users but any users of Windows 10," he said.
"Without those security patches or updates coming through, you're potentially going to be at risk or vulnerable to attacks or other things that might be targeted to devices that are still on Windows 10.
"All of a sudden that's opening up businesses to potential risk, but it goes a step further because, for example, if a business had cybersecurity insurance, which many do, if you've got an unsupported piece of software, it's likely it's not going to be included in that policy.
"So it's also opening up businesses to risks that they may not even be aware of," Hall said.
His encouragement that all eligible Microsoft users make sure they upgraded to Windows 11 as soon as possible was echoed by Consumer NZ product test writer Nick Gelling.
"But the real issue comes for people that are not eligible for that upgrade, Microsoft suggests that all its customers just migrate to Windows 11.
"Obviously if you can upgrade to Windows 11 you should do that as soon as possible, but if you're not, if your computer isn't compatible with the upgrade, you can look into installing a new operating system, something like a Chrome OS Flex or a Linux distribution like Mint.
"They'll take some getting used to, but you will be better protected."
Gelling said he was worried cyber criminals could target older members of society and people who can't afford a new computer.
"We think in New Zealand there's hundreds of thousands of computers that will be stuck on Windows 10 and unable to make that upgrade, and they'll be unable to receive security support, which means that the computers are unsafe to use," he said.
Ingram Micro NZ's Jamie Hall said he was informed by Microsoft that New Zealand had "only just crossed over a tipping point" in the past few weeks.
"There's more Windows 11 devices in market now than there is Windows 10 so that would tell me that there's still a huge amount of devices out there in businesses and in homes that are potentially at risk of not being replaced in time or upgraded in time and that's a real danger at the moment.
"The good news is that a lot of those devices don't necessarily need to be replaced, they can be upgraded but if those minimum requirements aren't met, then yes, a new device might need to be placed with."
Gelling said that this could lead to environmental impacts not just in New Zealand, but globally with Consumer NZ estimating as many as 400 million Windows 10 devices worldwide could become ineligible for a Windows 11 upgrade.
He estimates about 50 percent of the PC market currently uses Windows 10.
"Microsoft has these really ambitious sustainability goals, it wants to become carbon neutral by 2030.
"The end of Windows 10 support has the potential to be a really catastrophic waste event. We know that most e-waste does end up in landfill, so we expect this policy to send a bunch of New Zealand computers that are otherwise healthy to the tip, and that's just totally unnecessary.
"It results in heavy metal pollution and a whole lot of extra emissions from building the replacement computers that people have to buy and, you know, mining for rare earth minerals and all that."
Hall said it was important users understand that they don't necessarily have to throw away their old devices.
"My call out would be don't leave it to the last minute, think about it now and have a strategy in place for how you're going to go through it and upgrade or replace these devices and then on the replacement side, consider the recycling piece of it as well.
"It's very easy to throw these devices into landfill, but we all should take on the responsibility of thinking about how we ethically and sustainably dispose or recycle these devices and there's lots of great providers out there that will take these devices, often even buy them back off individuals, and then recycle those parts and recycle those materials so that they don't all end up in landfill."
In the meantime, Microsoft is offering consumers another extra year of support for Windows 10, which will cost US$30.
"So that's about 50 New Zealand dollars to extend support out to October 2026, we welcome that, however, that program is available for up to three years for business customers, while it's only available for the 12 months for consumers, and we sort of question why that is.
"We think it also shows that Microsoft is able to extend this support if it wants to, and for those that are willing to pay for it, it shows that it's sort of not a technological problem to continue supporting Windows 10. So why is Microsoft not willing to extend that support to everyone that can't necessarily afford to pay that extra $50," Gelling said.