2% Of Windows PCs Are Patched. The Rest -- YIKES!

Think your PCs are fully patched? Think again. New research from Secunia shows less than 2 percent of the world's PCs are completely patched. And the situation's getting worse.

Keith Ferrell, Contributor

December 4, 2008

1 Min Read
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Think your PCs are fully patched? Think again. New research from Secunia shows less than 2 percent of the world's PCs are completely patched. And the situation's getting worse.According to Danish security firm Secunia. the state of PC patching is terrible.

Based on data collected from installations of its free vulnerability testware, Personal Software Inspector (PSI), only 1.91 percent of Windows-based PCs are fully patched.

That leaves 98 out of every 100 PCs with at least one program possessing a patchable vulnerability that's still vulnerable. Probably more than one.

In fact, Secunia says it found more than 11 patchable vulnerabilities on close to half the PCs it reviewed.

It gets better (or worse): Secunia's numbers are based on data collected over the past week or so, since the late November release of PSI 1.0.

As the company notes in a blog,the newness of the numbers tilts the research a bit. noting that these findings "are to be considered 'best case' scenarios, the real numbers are likely to be worse."

In some ways, the numbers already are worse. Take a look at this blog from nearly a year ago, when PSI was beta; back then, a whopping 4.5 percent of PCs were fully patched.

Where do your PCs stand (or fall) on the patched/non-patched chart? Find out for yourself:

PS1 1.0 is available for free download here.

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2008

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