More than half of the applications installed on Windows computers are out of date, which may compromise user security due to flaws in the software that have already been patched by vendors.
Around 55% of software installed on PCs around the world is in the form of an older version of the application, according to research by security firm Avast – and that number has increased from 48% in their previous report.
Based on anonymized and aggregated data from 163 million devices worldwide, Avast's PC trend reports show that nearly one in six Windows 7 users and one in ten Windows 10 users are running old versions of their operating system, which are open to exploitation of system-level security vulnerabilities.
Some of the programs that usually remain out-of-date are Adobe Shockwave, VLC Media Player, Skype, Java Runtime Environment, and 7-Zip Filemanager.
Postponing the installation of updates and using outdated applications can cause errors and incompatibility issues for users, but more importantly, out-of-date software can provide an open door for hackers since they could take advantage of the holes left in programs that have not received critical security updates.
For example, 7-Zip has previously been found to have security flaws that could allow remote attackers to cause denial of service attacks, execute arbitrary code, and exploit a “heap overflow” vulnerability. 7-Zip patched the vulnerabilities after they were discovered, but users who haven’t updated their software since the patch was released could continue to leave the door open to attacks.
But it's not just applications that are vulnerable to attacks due to latency – a significant number of users run Windows operating systems that haven't received the relevant security updates.
Windows 7 is still used on hundreds of millions of computers, but 15 percent of users are not receiving security updates as they are still using a beta of the operating system that was released before launch, Avast said.
Meanwhile, millions of users are running outdated versions of Microsoft, Windows 10, putting their computers at risk from attacks targeting vulnerabilities.
“We need to do more to ensure our devices don’t expose us to unnecessary risk,” said Ondrej Vlcek, president of Avast.
Ensuring that software and systems are up to date can go a long way in protecting users from cyberattacks – and providing them with a more efficient and easier-to-use computer.
