# Still Running Legacy Systems? Here's Why Outdated Software Is Your Biggest Cybersecurity Liability

What's slowing down your processes and delivery? As a CTO or CXO, that's the biggest question you may have. Especially when the cost of a data breach can go [as high as $4.4 million](https://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach), you need to make sure your system is secure and up to date. However, legacy software modernization is a decision that riddles many.

Modernization has its challenges but offers much more benefits, including better security, streamlined operations, and optimal ROI. But investing in legacy system modernization and ensuring security requires thorough planning.

This blog helps you understand why modernization is necessary and what are the steps to protect your system against risks of outdated software. So let's get started.

# Why Legacy and Outdated Systems Are Still in Use?

Legacy systems have several disadvantages, including higher risk exposure and increased costs in the long run. However, in the short run, businesses tend to overlook such long-term effects due to higher upfront modernization costs. Additionally, there is resistance to change within the organization, and the complexity of integrations makes modernization a challenging choice.

Another aspect that most businesses consider before modernizing the legacy system is the downtime. As legacy systems are mostly tightly coupled, a single disruption can lead to cascading impact on the entire operation.

Here are some other reasons,

# Cost and Budget Limits

Enterprises often have specific budgets for each operation. Now, if modernization of the legacy system goes overboard, it becomes a complex decision to make. Especially if the systems to be modernized are mission-critical and need 24/7 availability, disruptions are not an option. However, considering the cost of a data breach due to a legacy system, which is $4.4 million, modernization seems to be a more cost-effective option.

# Compatibility and Integration Issues

Core workflows of your organization already have legacy systems deeply integrated. Now, disturbing the entire flow of processes to introduce new technologies and methods can be a complex task. Plus, you need to make sure your new architecture is compatible with the existing stack. Data pipelines, cloud infrastructure, and APIs need to be compatible to ensure seamless modernization.

# Organizational Apathy or Inertia

A common approach that most organizations have is "if it's not broken, don't fix it." What this does is instill in stakeholders the belief that if the system is working, there is no need for modernization. The problem lies in the wait for the doomsday attitude. Modernization ensures your system is ready for the "D-Day," ensuring seamless operations without downtime.

# Key Risks of Outdated Software

Outdated software can lead to risks of data breach, operational bottlenecks, and compliance issues due to a lack of security updates. However, there are many other risks that you need to understand that come from choosing not to modernize legacy systems.

# Ransomware and Malware Exploits

Legacy systems are often unpatched and are not up to date with the latest threats. This leads to the accumulation of known vulnerabilities, some of which are widely catalogued. Cyber attackers leverage legacy endpoints and servers to execute attacks. Due to missing kernels, browser compatibility issues, and a lack of protocol patches, these legacy systems can be prone to ransomware and malware attacks.

# Business and Operational Disruptions

With outdated software, there may be cascading outages across critical systems. Such downtime might stop productivity momentarily, prevent the orders from being filled, disable customer-facing applications, and affect SLAs.

# Third-Party and Supply Chain Risks

One of the primary sources of security risks in supply chains is the use of outdated systems by organizations. Intruders can exploit systems that have vulnerabilities to damage the reputation of trusted networks. Integration failures occur as a result of these vulnerabilities and incompatibilities, resulting in transactional delays.

# Data Breaches and Compliance Failures

Such older systems cannot keep pace with the latest security standards, including [end-to-end encryption](https://www.ssl2buy.com/), MFA, or secure API integrations. This facilitates illegal access and theft of data. An organization may find itself in violation of existing regulations, including the GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS, for running on such obsolete platforms. This can lead to substantial fines, lawsuits, and unfavorable publicity.

# IoT and Mobile Device Vulnerabilities

Many IoT devices and mobile endpoints continue to utilize outdated or unpatched operating systems. Without updates, they act as easy targets to hackers who want to have access to corporate networks. With interconnected ecosystems, a breached device can turn into a backdoor, pushing attacks through critical infrastructures.

# Rising Operational Inefficiencies

These systems reduce productivity due to numerous manual workarounds and duplicated procedures. Whereas automatic processing, reporting, data synchronization, or updating customer information should not require so much time and energy. The inability to work with modern platforms is also a massive drawback that can be reduced through modernization

# Financial Impact

Maintaining old software is not only costly to IT budgets. Old systems need a lot of fixes, costly custom integrations, and more costly infrastructure. These and additional compliance-related costs, such as downtime and inefficiencies, greatly exceed the investment necessary to modernize the company.

# Strategic Competitiveness

The existence of legacy systems denies organizations the ability to take advantage of new capabilities in terms of AI, cloud native scaling, and real-time analytics. Competitor businesses that embrace new technology on modern applications are quick, nimble, and customer-driven in their innovations, and those whose systems are hindered by legacy systems are left behind.

The long-term effect of such non-modernization is the emergence of an innovation gap, which affects market share and long-term competitiveness.

# How to Protect Against Outdated Software Risks?

Protecting your systems against cyberattacks requires modernizing outdated software. Such software, which lacks security patches and lacks mechanisms to keep up with modern cyber threats, can lead to massive outages. To prevent such a scenario, here are some best practices to follow,

# Conduct Regular Risk Assessments

The first and most important aspect of legacy system modernization is regular audit and risk assessment. When you conduct regular risk assessment audits, your software security patches are tested.

This means if a patch is not working correctly or there are inherent security vulnerabilities, you can upgrade the software. It also helps in ensuring you have an exact idea of which are unsupported systems and what the scale of the external attack surface is.

Continuous Monitoring and Patch Management
Cyber attackers exploit known vulnerabilities once you deploy a security patch. It does not take much time for the hackers to execute an attack. But finding the root cause can take several days, even months. So the best practice is to continuously monitor each patch that you deploy and manage quick changes for better security.

# Secure Remote and Mobile Access

Remote access to internal servers and data has become a major security risk for enterprises since the advent of hybrid work. With employees working remotely and accessing internal databases through personal devices within network devices at their location, securing data can be difficult.

To overcome such threats, businesses must deploy security measures like modernization of endpoint protection, behavioral analytics, and zero-trust access rules. Plus, companies can look to ensure stronger encryption for data security in their systems.

# Manage Third-Party Risks

When you integrate third-party services and apps into your existing systems, it can lead to unknown vulnerabilities. Such vulnerabilities are exposed by the cyber attackers. A robust third-party risk management plan is necessary to ensure your systems stay secure.

This will include extensive evaluation of patching practices, dependencies, and adherence to data regulations by vendors. Make sure you conduct regular vendor risk assessments and audits to ensure better compliance and security.

# Phased Modernization Strategy

Modernization provides maximum ROI when you do it in a phased manner. With a phased modernization strategy, you can ensure cost management and risk reduction. Organizations can migrate high-risk workloads to cloud platforms as such platforms offer built-in security, scalability, and continuous updates.

Once you have customer-facing apps migrated, migration of modernized low-priority legacy systems begins. It will help you modernize legacy systems at scale, with better speed and enhanced security.

# Final Thoughts

Companies today have to work with extensive databases because of the introduction of such innovations as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics. For legacy systems, it may be challenging to maintain the security and handle large quantities of data.

The system has compatibility issues, insecure patches, and vulnerabilities, which can lead to cyber risks. It becomes vital to modernize your system security and verify improved encryption. Establish a modernization strategy and implement it in stages to offer enhanced data protection.