Software updates close security loopholes. Yet many users still have quite a negligent attitude towards them – with potentially serious consequences.
As per the latest cyber security monitor of the Deutsche Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik BSI, fewer than half (only 43%) of all users regularly install software updates. This is an increase on previous years, but still a relatively low figure.
If you don’t install available updates, this can pose a problem insofar that many updates don’t just provide include functional improvements, but also serve to fix vulnerabilities before cyber-criminals have a chance to exploit them. A study by IBM has shown that as much as 42% of all data leaks could be ascribed to security updates not being run. This study has not been repeated thus far, but the high number of successful cyber attacks resulting in exceedingly high amounts of damage over the past few months seems to suggest that update rates have not increased that much since then.
This despite the effort required to run an update nowadays being quite minimal – thanks to the automatic update function of most operating systems, software and apps, there is none necessary at all. Find out here how software updates can reliably protect all your devices and data.
