ITASCA, IL--(Marketwired - February 22, 2017) - The average private user in the United States has 75 programs installed on their PC, and 7.4 percent of them are End-of-Life programs that are no longer patched by the vendor. End-of-life programs containing unpatched software vulnerabilities are popular attack vectors for hackers to exploit because they are so widespread on devices today.
These conclusions can be drawn from just-released Country Reports covering Q4 2016 for 12 countries, published by Secunia Research at Flexera Software, the leading provider of Software Vulnerability Management Solutions. The reports provide status on vulnerable software products on private PCs in 12 countries, listing the vulnerable applications and ranking them by the extent to which they expose those PCs to hackers.
"Software Vulnerability Management is an effective strategy for minimizing the attack surface by enabling people and organizations to identify known vulnerabilities on their devices, prioritize those risks based on the criticality of the vulnerabilities, and mitigate those risks via automated patch management systems," said Kasper Lindgaard, Director of Secunia Research at Flexera Software. "But risk remains if unsupported, end-of-life programs containing vulnerabilities are running. Private PC users should continually scan their devices and remove end-of-life programs from their systems. Within a business setting, security teams should collaborate closely with their Software Asset Management teams to discover and inventory their application estate and remove any unsupported, end-of life programs."
Other Key Findings in the Country Report Include:
- 7.5 percent of users had unpatched Windows operating systems in Q4 of 2016, up from 6.1 percent in Q3 of 2016 and down from 9.9 percent in Q4, 2015.
- 14.0 percent of users had unpatched non-Microsoft programs in Q4, 2016, up from 13.8 percent in Q3 of 2016 and 12.2 percent in Q4 of 2015.
- The top three most exposed programs for Q4 were Apple iTunes 12.x. (55 percent unpatched, 43 percent market share, 29 vulnerabilities), Oracle Java JRE 1.8.x / 8.x (50 percent unpatched, 47 percent market share, 39 vulnerabilities), and VLC Media Player 2.x (44 percent unpatched, 28 percent market share, 5 vulnerabilities).
The 12 Country Reports are based on data from scans by Personal Software Inspector between October 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016.
Resources:
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About Flexera Software
Flexera Software helps application producers and enterprises increase application usage and security, enhancing the value they derive from their software. Our software licensing, compliance, cybersecurity and installation solutions are essential to ensure continuous licensing compliance, optimized software investments, and to future-proof businesses against the risks and costs of constantly changing technology. A marketplace leader for more than 25 years, 80,000+ customers turn to Flexera Software as a trusted and neutral source of knowledge and expertise, and for the automation and intelligence designed into our products. For more information, please go to: www.flexerasoftware.com.
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