NineBerry wrote:It's only relevant when the systems are connected to an insecure network. You often need old software to interface with old hardware. Similar issues in medical imaging where I work. Devices need to run for 20 years or so to justify the lot of money it costs to buy them. This hardware needs drivers which are not available for newer operating systems. So you continue to run the old software, making sure the system is protected by either not connecting it to a network or a very specific network that controls what communication to allow with these old systems.
I would suggest that with
any operating system (even Apple!
), the drivers for
any external hardware could be re-written to accommodate.
As far as the computer is concerned, I used to run Win95, then Win 98, then Win 2000 on the same machine. I then upgraded to a faster PC and installed the latest Win XP. I now use Win 7 on the same machine. Win 10 will be no problem (when I get around to it). One does not necessarily have to buy new hardware (in the Windows & Linux worlds) if the OS is upgraded.
If the 'cyber specialists' on this boat are worth their salt, then there should be no problems in re-writing any drivers for any new OS. I suspect that they may not be of that calibre. I stand to be corrected.
If they have XP then their system could quite easily be upgraded to Win 7 (or even Win 10) without, I suspect, any requirement to change the drivers for external systems - or buy new hardware!