Organizations invest significantly in information technology (IT) assets that support operational needs. These assets, including hardware and software, have finite lifespans and eventually become outdated or obsolete. Although obsolete products may still meet functional requirements, their continued use can introduce security and operational risks that are not always obvious.
We recommend that your organization discontinues the use of products once they are no longer supported. You will need to account for a planned transition period when replacing or upgrading IT assets. This publication provides guidance to help your organization identify obsolete products, manage associated risks and transition safely to supported alternatives.
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Understanding obsolete products
Obsolete products are products that are no longer produced by the manufacturer as originally designed. Vendors may discontinue or retire products for strategic, financial or operational reasons. In practice, products also become obsolete when they:
- reach their end-of-support or end-of-life date
- no longer have maintenance applied to the underlying operating systems, firmware or software stacks
- can no longer meet current security and compliance requirements or support defence measures
Why obsolete products are high risk
Risk can increase as products age and no longer align with current security, operational and regulatory requirements. In many cases, older or unsupported products are more challenging to secure and recover, and their continued use may introduce risks to your organization. The following list highlights some of the most observed and potentially significant risks associated with obsolete products.
Security vulnerabilities: Unsupported products no longer receive security patches or updates, which leaves them exposed to vulnerabilities and easier to exploit.
System crashes and unavailability: Aging software and hardware can become less reliable on modern platforms, increasing the likelihood of crashes, performance issues and downtime.
Increased financial costs: Maintaining obsolete systems often requires premium support arrangements, custom workarounds and additional internal resources.
Legal and regulatory compliance risks: Operating unsupported technology can violate security requirements, resulting in audit findings, penalties or liability.
Supply chain and third-party risk: Obsolete components embedded in vendor products or services can introduce vulnerabilities beyond direct organizational control.
Incompatibility with modern security controls: Older systems may lack support for current encryption standards, authentication methods, logging or monitoring tools.
Incident recovery limitations: Outdated systems may not support effective response, remediation or restoration following a security event.
Limited availability of skilled support: As products become obsolete, it can be difficult to find IT personnel with the knowledge required to support and maintain them.
Priority risk areas
Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven vulnerabilities: Advances in AI are increasing the speed and scale at which software weaknesses can be identified. AI tools can uncover many previously unknown issues across systems and applications, reducing the time between discovery and exploitation.
Internet-facing edge devices: Firewalls, routers, virtual private network gateways, wireless access points and load balancers represent a high-risk category of obsolete technology. These devices operate at the network edge (boundary), process sensitive traffic and are exposed directly to external threats. This makes them a common entry point for compromise. Obsolete devices in these roles should not remain in routine production use and should only be used during short, managed transition periods.
Together, these factors increase risk across environments. Highly exposed systems become easier to target, while all outdated technology becomes insecure more quickly. This shortens the security lifespan of software, sometimes well before official end-of-support dates. Maintaining current and supported technology, and prioritizing the replacement of exposed or critical systems, is essential to reduce risk and support overall security.
Transitioning away from obsolete products
Managing obsolete products requires planned action rather than reactive fixes. As support and compatibility ends, the risks associated with obsolete products continue to grow even if systems remain functional. Technical controls alone may not be able to eliminate this risk. Your organization should:
- identify obsolete products early
- plan and carry out their replacement to minimize business impact
- apply temporary risk reduction measures only when necessary
Identifying and tracking obsolete products
Effectively managing obsolete products begins with accurate visibility. Having a complete and current inventory can help you make informed decisions and prevent obsolete products being used unintentionally. To maintain ongoing visibility into product support status, organizations should:
- maintain a centralized inventory of all hardware, software and network-connected components
- record product name, version, location, business owner and vendor support status
- track vendor end-of-sale and end-of-support dates to identify products that are near or past their end of life
- proactively identify compatible replacements products or services
Replacement and transition planning
Replacement is the preferred and primary response to obsolete products. Planned replacement reduces disruption, avoids emergency changes, and limits prolonged exposure to obsolete products. To support a timely and smooth transition, your organization should:
- begin replacement planning when vendors announce end-of-sale timelines, and before the products become obsolete
- prioritize products that are Internet facing, critical for security, or handle sensitive information
- assess data migration, integration, and operational impacts early in the process
- test replacement solutions to ensure they meet current security and operational requirements
Temporary risk reduction during transition
When it is not possible to immediately replace obsolete products, you can apply short-term measures to reduce exposure during transition. These measures do not remove underlying risk and must be used only for a limited time. Document and regularly review temporary controls and never treat them as permanent solutions. To support these outcomes, organizations should:
- isolate obsolete products on restricted network segments and limit external connectivity
- reduce the attack surface by disabling unnecessary software and functions
- restrict access and strengthen authentication and authorization controls
- increase monitoring, logging, and alerting to detect suspicious activity
- document temporary controls and establish clear timelines for full replacement
Special considerations for industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT)
ICS and OT systems are designed for high availability and uninterrupted operations and often support critical services. Their lifecycles are much longer than those of traditional IT systems, and replacement can require significant time and effort to meet security reliability and regulatory requirements. As components age, repair or replacement options become limited and original vendor support may no longer be available. This may increase operational risk.
When managing obsolete products in ICS and OT environments, organizations should include:
- backup and spare equipment strategies that address limited market availability of products no longer produced or supported by a vendor
- programs to ensure enough in-house resources are trained to restore systems to a known‑good configuration
- security practices appropriate for systems that require internet, cloud or wireless connectivity
- disconnection from untrusted networks where external connectivity is not required
- a formal vendor selection and review process that includes lifecycle transparency, estimates of mean time between failures, and advance notice of end‑of‑support dates
- security controls that must be implemented before end‑of‑support to reduce risk during transition periods
Mitigating future obsolescence
Reducing long‑term risk requires considering obsolescence into asset management and procurement practices. Addressing lifecycle risks at the point of selection helps prevent reliance on obsolete products and supports sustainable technology decisions over time. To support long-term sustainability and reduce obsolescence risk, your organization should:
- manage products through structured asset management processes that address the full lifecycle
- consider support longevity, update availability and security maintenance when selecting products
- avoid technologies with short, unclear, or restrictive support lifecycles
- favour products that support data portability to make future transitions easier
- ensure products can operate independently when external connectivity is not required
Secure decommissioning and disposal of obsolete products
Obsolete products and systems must be decommissioned in a secure manner to prevent compromise of sensitive data. Decommissioning should occur promptly once replacement is complete. Your organization should:
- back up required data before decommissioning and transfer it to supported systems
- sanitize or destroy storage media to remove sensitive information
- revoke system credentials and remove the asset from access control lists and monitoring systems
- dispose of hardware securely, including physical destruction when appropriate
- update inventories and documentation to reflect decommissioning
- verify retirement through appropriate review or approval processes
- conduct post-decommissioning monitoring to detect unexpected dependencies or operational impacts
Continuing to use obsolete products will always carry risk. The only way to fully protect your organization is to retire unsupported technology and transition to modern, secure alternatives.
Learn more
- Security considerations for industrial control systems (ITSAP.00.050)
- Protect your operational technology (ITSAP.00.051)
- Top 10 IT security actions to protect Internet connected networks and information (ITSM.10.089)
- Network security logging and monitoring (ITSAP.80.085)
- Network security auditing (ITSAP.8)0.086
- Sanitization and disposal of electronic devices (ITSAP.40.006)