Listen to our recorded analyst webinar with ESG on preparing for Windows Server 2003 End of Life. Listen now.
If you’re like thousands of other organizations in North America, you’ll currently be running Windows Server 2003. In fact, your business probably relies on it. But when Microsoft withdraws support for the platform on July 14, all bets are off as to the potential impact on your mission critical systems. At the very least, we can expect the black hats to research new exploits and target corporate users of the platform with renewed vigor.
It is advisable for all firms to migrate to a newer version eventually, but for those that can’t do so by the July deadline, Trend Micro Deep Security is here to protect your organization and keep critical systems running smoothly. As you plan for migration to newer platforms and environments such as Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and Microsoft Azure, Trend Micro can help you secure your legacy Windows 2003 environment – and after you’ve migrated to a newer platform, we can secure that environment as well. Trend Micro Deep Security will continue to provide support and protection for Windows 2003 beyond the July 14, 2015 end of life date, and we’ll enable you to secure your existing and new servers in a single platform.
Threats multiply
If the last few months have taught us anything, it’s that IT teams must keep up-to-date with the latest versions of whatever software they’re running. High-profile vulnerabilities like Shellshock, Heartbleed and FREAK have the potential to severely undermine corporate security efforts and put sensitive data at risk. The problem for those organizations that stay on Windows Server 2003 after July 14 is that Microsoft will no longer release security updates to protect their systems from such vulnerabilities.
But you can be sure the bad guys will still be looking for such flaws to exploit. In fact, they’ll redouble their efforts in anticipation that companies will be left exposed after the Server 2003 end of support (EOS) deadline.
Not for everyone
Customized support from Microsoft for ongoing patches is possible, but it’s also expensive and unsustainable in the long-term. It’s also not a good idea to run software for which patches will never again be made available. If you think Windows Server 2003 gets a lot of attention from malware writers at the moment, imagine what it’ll be like post-July.
The smart money is therefore on migrating to a newer version of the product. But realistically, this isn’t going to be possible for everyone. There are an estimated 300,000 servers in North America that are simply too old to run newer versions of Windows Server. Other organizations are running mission-critical legacy apps that can’t be upgraded onto newer systems, while others still are simply not able to absorb the cost and resource-intensive migration process as of yet. But if you’ve chosen to stay with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for whatever reason, help is at hand.
Trend Micro to the rescue
Trend Micro Deep Security will continue to provide support for Windows Server 2003 after the end of life date until at least the end of 2017, the same way we have provided protection for Windows Server 2000 and Windows XP ever since Microsoft discontinued support for those platforms.
This should give your organization enough breathing room to plan properly for migration to Windows Server 2012, Azure or other platforms, while protecting you from all major threats to critical systems. Deep Security inspects packets entering the system before they are delivered to an application or processed by the network stack. This will give you an opportunity to look at traffic and virtually patch vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.
Deep Security offers:
Virtual patching via intrusion detection and prevention to shield vulnerabilities before they can be exploited
Integrity monitoring to ensure that any unplanned or malicious changes to Windows 2003 are flagged for inspection
Anti-malware and web reputation to detect malware on servers and strengthen protection against web threats to servers and virtual desktops
Our global threat research team will continue to monitor for vulnerabilities to provide the very best protection for customers – just as we have for XP and Windows 2000 customers before this. What’s more, with Deep Security you get a single product to secure your entire environment, physical, virtual and cloud.
Click here to learn more.
