A new report from security vendor NSS Labs finds that the number of software vulnerabilities tracked in the National Vulnerability Database increased by 26 percent year-over-year in 2012. That reversed the previous trend; the number of vulnerabilities had been decreasing for the past five years. Still, the 5,225 vulnerabilities reported last year was lower than the all-time high of 6,462 reported in 2006.
Broken out by vendor, Oracle software had the highest number of security issues– 429. Apple and Google placed second and third. However, when you consider only the critical vulnerabilities, Adobe placed first, followed by Mozilla and Oracle.
According to eWeek, “The turnaround indicates that software developers in general have yet to come to grips with the secure programming techniques and process necessary to permanently reduce the number of vulnerabilities found in their products, said Stefan Frei, research director with NSS Labs and the person who conducted the analysis.”
