London’s Metropolitan Police have been found to be running 27,000 ‘dangerously out-of-date’ systems. Warning that the Met is putting Londoner’s information at risk, GLA Conservative Londonwide Assembly Member Andrew Boff said:
“Operating Systems age more like milk than wine, and Windows XP is well past its sell-by date.
“The Met should have stopped using Windows XP in 2014 when extended support ended, and to hear that 27,000 computers are still using it is worrying.
“My major concern is the security of Londoners’ information on this dangerously out-of-date system, but I would also like to know how much money the Met have wasted on bespoke security updates.
The 14 year-old operating system has been without official support for over two years, leaving it seriously vulnerable to hackers. The Metropolitan Police are currently forced to pay for security patches instead of receiving free updates with more-current software.
According to the GLA Conservative blog, the Met have only upgraded 8,000 desktops to a newer system since 2015, with plans to upgrade another 6,000 by September.
Assembly Member Boff’s Windows XP warning followed news that the Home Office have awarded £23m for police transformation projects. The projects will be aimed at improving collaboration between forces.
The successful bids, which come from ten forces and the College of Policing, include projects to support the transfer of digital crime scene images between forces, the adding of new technology to the child abuse image database and the enhancement of procurement as well as collaboration.
The government has set aside £76.4m for police transformation from 2016 to 2017. Of the total amount, £34m has been assigned for improving armed policing capability, £4.6m for digital programmes and £3m for a programme that will consider how best to organise specialist police capabilities like armed and roads policing.
After the news about the Met's out-of-date operating systems, however, perhaps the transfomration of the police force should start with simple software upgrades.