Online motor finance provider iVendi reports that 22.37% of its motorcycle dealer users utilise the Windows 7 operating system which Microsoft has announced it will no longer support.
Because official security updates will no longer be issued by Microsoft, this leaves consumer data potentially vulnerable to attack through viruses and malware, according to iVendi CEO James Tew.
“We have several thousand automotive dealerships using our products in the UK, providing a good cross-section across car and motorcycle franchises, independents and car supermarkets so our overall figure of 37% usage is, we believe, probably broadly representative of the total market.
“While this doesn’t affect the data security of our online motor retail products, which run within a browser environment, we can track which version of Windows is installed on each PC used to access our systems from our data analytics.
“The 37% we have recorded over the past 28 days looks like a surprisingly high percentage. There is no doubt that it means that a substantial number of dealers are creating a situation where any consumer data stored on their hardware – for example, in a spreadsheet – will become more exposed to cyber attack with all the potential problems that may bring, ranging from legal issues to reputational damage.
“Essentially, if a security vulnerability is exposed in Windows 7 in the future, which is relatively likely because the technology is now quite old, no patches will be made available to resolve the problem. In IT terms, it’s a leaky boat that is only going to take on more water as time passes.
“We’d urge dealers to seriously consider upgrading to a newer operating system. We believe that quite a number have stayed with the old technology because they are operating a variety of legacy systems that do not work on newer versions of Windows. These dealers face a difficult decision. They may have to update not just Windows but change a range of software that they need to operate their business.”
Founded in 2009, iVendi has offices in Manchester and Colwyn Bay.