With the ever-increasing rise in cybercrime, Genetec have cautioned organisations of all sizes to be vigilant about the cybersecurity risk posed by legacy access control systems.  

Vulnerabilities in legacy access control systems can introduce cybersecurity weaknesses that may put an entire organisation at risk. Cybercriminals can exploit weaknesses in access control system credentials, controllers, servers, readers, or workstations connected to the network.

Once a cybercriminal has breached access control system credentials, they can then move on to an organisation’s network and can gain control of other building systems, view or steal confidential information from internal records, or launch attacks designed to take key systems offline.

Companies that are affected pay a heavy price, with the average cost of a data breach rising from $4.24m in 2021 to $4.35m in 2022.

As such, it’s never been more important for organisations to be educated on the risks associated with legacy systems and the advantages that new cybersecure access solutions can offer.

Speaking about the dangers, Christian Morin – Vice President of Product Engineering and Chief Security Officer at Genetec – said that the biggest risk comes from companies operating with older software.

“Many organisations are operating with access control systems that date back 10 years or more,” Morin said. “While these older systems still allow employees to badge in and out, there’s a very high likelihood that these systems employ technologies that are extremely vulnerable to modern cyber threats.“