80% of Browsers Found To Be At Risk of Attack

CWmike writes "About eight out of every 10 Web browsers run by consumers are vulnerable to attack by exploits of already-patched bugs, a security expert said Thursday. The poor state of browser patching stunned Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of Qualys, which presented data from the company's free BrowserCheck service Wednesday at RSA. 'I really thought it would be lower,' Kandek said. BrowserCheck scans Windows, Mac and Linux machines for vulnerable browsers, as well as up to 18 browser plug-ins, from Adobe's Flash to Windows Media Player. When browsers and plug-ins are tabulated together, between 90% and 65% of all consumer systems scanned with BrowserCheck since June 2010 reported at least one out-of-date component. In January 2011, about 80% of the machines were vulnerable. The most likely plug-in to require a patch: same as last year, Oracle's Java."

Comments

Re:Slashvertisement

[tgeller]

That's exactly what I thought. "Company A announced Company A's findings using Company A's nifty new tool. Try Company A's tool for yourself!" There may be valuable information here. Without independent third-party review, we don't know.

Updating Java

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps people would be more keen to update their Java version if the installer didn't keep trying to spring a surprise 'Install Yahoo! Toolbar' move on them on EVERY patch.

Re:Plug-ins Bad. Here's ours

[bunratty]

You can use Mozilla's Plugin Check. No installation required.