Securing Legacy Servers: What to Do as Windows Server 2012 Reaches End of Life?

Hey there, all you tech-savvy Bay Area folks who are keenly interested in healthcare and cybersecurity matters! Let’s dive into a hot topic that’s noteworthy right now – whatever happened to the life and times of the Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2?

Back in October 2023, they hit their expiration date. That meant no more free updates, bug fixes, or tech support for these systems, which, remarkably, were still being used in countless enterprise servers.

Of course, one could stick around the old neighborhood by purchasing Extended Security Updates till 2026. But the sages at Microsoft are really nudging us all to trim the flippers and float upstream to the cloud haven of Azure or go on-prem with the fashionable Windows Server 2022.

Why is it, though, that some people can’t say goodbye to their old servers? Well, sometimes these bad boys are just too deeply ingrained in the every day running of the business or interconnected to a maddening degree. No wonder upgrading or migrating the old champs effectively becomes a Herculean task.

Hey, nobody was blindsided by this news. Microsoft’s always been good about giving folks heads-up years in advance about upcoming sunsets on their products. If businesses haven’t made that much-needed server upgrade by now, they’re probably not going to do it tomorrow.

So, what’s left for them to do? Let’s explore.

Legacy servers are popping up like mushrooms after rain and have become a potential trove of risk. Data suggests that around 10% of all servers in use are running on an out-of-support Windows operating system. That’s a whopping hundreds of thousands of servers housing very important functions, all exceedingly exposed and rather vulnerable. If those numbers made your eyebrows raise a tad, you’re absolutely right to be concerned.

You’d think everyone’s wise to the risks by now. But listen to this: Windows 2012 has over 2,500 known weaknesses ripe for hackers to exploit. And it seems we’re adding to that list with admirable consistency.

Ransomware risk is a major concern with legacy systems since those antique servers often play a starring role in an ugly attack drama. Protecting those servers from ransomware and similar threats becomes paramount.

But here’s the kicker: the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tech that’s working well in other parts of your network might just not cut it with these old-timers. EDR tech isn’t designed for this milieu. You’ll find there’s a huge gap in effectiveness and a good chunk of valuable real-time intel is often lost due to limited event tracing. Also, don’t expect them to spot those pesky covert scripts, slippery macros, and elusive “living off the land” techniques if your OS is older than Windows Server 2016.

Now, let’s circle back to finding a solution. Keeping those old servers from getting ravaged by the modern world isn’t an impossible task. In fact, proactive protection techniques have stepped up, outsmarting the limitations and vulnerabilities of legacy OS environments to consistently beat cyber threats.

So, don’t lose hope! This is the tech world – there’s always a solution hiding behind that persistent problem. For now, let’s live to fight another day, keeping our old servers humming, while exploring new avenues to keep them safer. Remember, change is the only constant in our tech universe.

by Morgan Phisher | HEAL Security