Windows Server 2012 End of Life

Microsoft’s popular server Operating System, Windows Server 2012 and its update, Windows Server 2012 R2, are becoming unsupported on the 10th October 2023. What does this mean to you? It means that there’s going to be no further security updates being delivered to the Operating System from Microsoft.  This will generally mean that any new security holes discovered within the product will not get fixed by Microsoft and that malicious attackers can target these unsupported Operating Systems and their unpatched vulnerabilities.

This also means that if you are working towards achieving Cyber Essentials Basic and/or Cyber Essentials Plus you will not be able to successfully pass your assessment as you are using an unsupported Operating System. These Operating Systems would have to be placed on a separate network, which is firewalled off from the other devices and have its internet connectivity blocked.

If you haven’t already started, now is the time to start looking to plan an upgrade of your old server Operating Systems and look at new ways to implement changes and stay current and in support.

You can find out more about what is happening about Windows Server 2012 from Microsoft here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/windows-server-2012-r2-end-of-support