Increase in unpatched browsers and operating systems leads to security concerns

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October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) in the US and security company Secunia has marked this by issuing its latest Country Report assessing the state of security among PC users.

Key findings include that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, with a market share of 73 percent, had 218 vulnerabilities with 11 percent of installed programs being unpatched and vulnerable. The percentage of users running unpatched operating systems has increased to 12.6 percent, from 11.1 percent in the previous quarter.

The number of people running unpatched, end of life, programs is also up from 4.9 to 5.7 percent. The most exposed programs over the last quarter were: Oracle Java 7 with 145 vulnerabilities and 42 percent of installations unpatched, Apple QuickTime 7 with 11 vulnerabilities and 33 percent unpatched, and Adobe Reader 10 with 21 vulnerabilities and 23 percent of installed programs unpatched.

Interestingly though it seems that the power to stay safe is often in users' hands. Secunia's Vulnerability Review 2014 finds that 86 percent of vulnerabilities in the top 50 software applications on private PCs had patches available on the day when they were disclosed in 2013.

"It only takes one vulnerability for a hacker to exploit a user’s system. Just one. We are concerned to see such a high share of users with unpatched and End-of-Life browsers and operating systems," says Kasper Lindgaard, Director of Research at Secunia. "We hope that as part of National Cyber Security Awareness month, users will take a moment to make sure their systems are up to date with the most recent program versions and patches".

As part of NCSAM Secunia is encouraging users to download its free Personal Software Inspector to check that their installed versions are up to date and protected against vulnerabilities.

You can access the full US Country Report for Q3 2014  on the Secunia website.

Image Credit: alexskopje / Shutterstock

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