Windows Becoming More Secure As Number of Unpatched Systems Declining

[Batu69]

Secunia report shows users are more self-conscious

Microsoft is trying to beef up Windows security, and almost every new version that sees daylight comes with significant improvements in this regard, but the number of unpatched systems has always been a problem.

And this is obviously impacting the result of all these Microsoft efforts, as users aren’t patching their systems and are keeping their computers vulnerable.

But a new study performed by Secunia shows that the number of those who actually patch their computers is on the rise, proving that users are more self-conscious about the risks of running an operating system that’s vulnerable to attacks.

Specifically, the report shows that, in Q2, only 5.4 percent of the systems were unpatched, down from 6.1 percent in Q1 and from 10.3 percent in the same quarter of the previous year. Secunia experts applaud this change and explain that Windows 10 could bring even more improvements in this regard, given Microsoft’s new policy regarding updates - patches are automatically installed on computers running Windows 10 Home.

“The decline in unpatched Windows operating systems is remarkable and encouraging. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues over the long run, especially as Windows 10 and its automated updates become more widely deployed,” Kasper Lindgaard, Director of Secunia Research at Flexera Software, explains.

You should patch third-party apps too

This doesn’t necessarily mean that users on Windows are fully protected because that’s not the case. While the operating system is benefitting from this increased interest in patching systems, third-party applications running on a Windows computer come with their own vulnerabilities, and they expose systems to additional risks.

Users need to patch these applications too, but statistics aren’t really encouraging in this regard, as the number of systems running unpatched software is actually on the rise from the previous quarters. In Q2, Secunia found that 12.6 percent of the PCs were running unpatched software, an increase from 11.9 percent the quarter before and from 11.3 percent in Q2 2015.

According to Secunia, the three most vulnerable Windows applications that remained unpatched on systems running Microsoft’s OS were VLC Media Play 2, Java, and Adobe Reader.

Article source

[Holmes]

This is the same company that makes Personal Software Inspector software updater program.

[Pequi]

44 minutes ago, Holmes said:

This is the same company that makes Personal Software Inspector software updater program.

I'm inclined to agree that the article might be a little biased.

Strange they should mention VLC in the same line as Java and Adobe. The former has minimal security issues (the worse in the last 2 years could be neutralized by NOT using the inbuilt updater, and NOT allowing the VLC browser extension).

The latter have dozens of vulnerabilities in each new release....

 

[Bausch]

Last I checked. More people no longer update their windows computers to evade the new spy updates MS is forcing on its clients.

[Holmes]

Not that I care do you have a link that shows that the amount of people that dont update dont update because of forced updated or are you making that up?  I am curious to see the link or those statistics.

[pc71520]

22 hours ago, Holmes said:

This is the same company that makes Personal Software Inspector software updater program.

Flexera Software? 

[Sylence]

13 hours ago, Holmes said:

Not that I care do you have a link that shows that the amount of people that dont update dont update because of forced updated or are you making that up?  I am curious to see the link or those statistics.

 

Same here, i think he's talking about himself multiplied by x1000  lol 

[Holmes]

I use secunia PSI personal software inspector and use it to tell me whats out of date.  Im thinking of uninstalling it im using hard drive space and memory to tell me something I can find out by going into each program and find out myself without a program.  He was saying that to make haters look better he has no proof or statistics thats not to say I like microsoft forcing updates on me or anyone for that matter if you going to throw a statistic our way provide proof not a baseless claim.