It’s a common adage in cybersecurity circles to deem the volume and severity of threats as ever increasing. But that might not be the whole picture.
A new survey from HP TippingPoint has found that the total number of security threats has actually been declining in recent years, though unpatched vulnerabilities remain on the rise. The firm attributes its startling finding in part to the increasing focus on security among engineers and programmers in recent years. eSecurity Planet takes a look.
Is the number of new IT security vulnerabilities growing? According to a new report from HP TippingPoint and Qualys, the total number of newly discovered IT vulnerabilities peaked in 2006 and has yet to return to the same level.
While new vulnerabilities are not being discovered and reported in the same numbers they were four years ago, the number of unpatched vulnerabilities is on the rise, as is the number of similar flaws being reported by multiple security researchers at the same time, according to HP TippingPoint. The decline in the total number of vulnerabilities may have something to do with an increased focus on security in recent years.