One-fifth of Windows applications users don’t install security patches

WindowsWashington, Jan 1: A Copenhagen-based vulnerability tracker has discovered that one in five applications installed on Windows PCs do not have security patches.

Secunia APS reported that more than 20 percent of the applications checked by its Personal Software Inspector (PSI) utility were at risk, as available fixes for security flaws had not been applied.

"More than 20 percent of all applications installed on users' PCs have known security flaws, but the users have yet to install the patch provided by the vendor of [the] product," InfoWorld quoted Jakob Balle, Secunia's development manager, as saying.

Secunia arrived at the 20 percent figure after scanning more than 14.5 million applications installed on the Windows PCs operated by users who downloaded and installed Secunia's PSI.

However, the 1-in-5 ratio is a step up over earlier PSI scans.

Last year, the company said that 28 percent of the applications PSI scanned were missing available security updates.

Secunia released the free patch-detection utility a year ago but shifted it to Release Candidate 1 (RC1) stage earlier this month.

The company claimed that nearly 191,000 users have downloaded and run the program. (ANI)

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