Dr. Yvonne Bernard, CTO at Hornetsecurity, a Microsoft 365 cloud cybersecurity provider, explains:
“The switch off of support for Microsoft Office 2016 and 2019 in October is a cybersecurity and compliance cliff edge for many businesses that continue to use these products. It’s important that all businesses find out which version of Microsoft Office they use and update their systems accordingly if they are to remain safe from potential security risks and compliance violations.
“Companies that fail to act and continue using outdated Office packages could face the following consequences: the loss of Microsoft technical support, increased vulnerability to malware, higher maintenance costs, and even denied cyber insurance claims.
“To make the most of the remaining time before the deadline, organisations should begin with a comprehensive assessment of the affected users and critical systems. From there, they should develop a detailed migration plan that covers resources, budget, data-safety, and application compatibility, and then move forward with transferring these users to newer versions of Microsoft 365.
“While migrating to Microsoft 365 comes with challenges, it’s vitally important that all businesses make these adjustments before October 2025 if they are to remain safe from cybersecurity risks and compliance issues.”
If you’re covering this update and would like a full breakdown of the security risks of continuing with unsupported Office versions, how businesses can migrate and what happens after migration, then let me know.
For more info visit Hornetsecurity
