Caution against Windows-2003 OS as Microsoft announces its end

Cyber security sleuths have alerted users of 'Windows 2003' in the country to either migrate or apply appropriate security solutions as makers of this popular operating system have announced its "end of life."
"Microsoft has announced that the 'End of Life' for Windows Server-2003 is July 14, 2015...Security patches and updates will no longer be available after this period for Windows 2003 and older servers will be more vulnerable to malicious attacks. It could amount to be risking both the business data as well as the intellectual property.
"It is recommended that all users and organisations using Windows Server-2003 in their environment should look for software vendors and service providers who offer assistance in migrating from Windows Server-2003 to a supported operating system or a cloud-based service," the Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In) said in its latest advisory to users.

The CERT-In is the nodal agency to combat hacking, phishing and to fortify security-related defences of the Indian Internet domain.
"The CERT-In has made an early start in this regard. The agency will keep updating the users of this Operating System (OS) over the period of time, till its complete shut arrives in the middle of next year," an Information Technology (IT) expert said.
There are still a few users of this OS in the country, experts said.
Windows Server-2003 was introduced in April, 2003 and its latest major update was service pack-2 which was released in March of 2007. Server 2003 replaced Windows Server 2000 which was the first of the post-Windows NT server operating systems from Microsoft.

The latest version of Windows is its '2012 R2' operating server.