Record Number of Vulnerabilities reported in 2021

A report from Risk Based Security states a total of 28,695 vulnerabilities were disclosed in 2021.

This total is the highest number on record, and it puts the amount of risk that organizations and security teams face on full display. And now that the vulnerability disclosure landscape has moved past the COVID-19 pandemic, this has been predicted to increase in coming years

Now, it’s back to business-as-usual and that means vulnerability disclosure counts will likely fall back into the pattern of increasing each year. As such, organizations that still adopt the mindset of ‘patch everything’ will continue to struggle.

The report further details the vulnerability landscape, the amount of volatility caused during patch tuesday publications where more vendors are releasing patches for their products.

An incredible amount of 2021 vulnerabilities had to be re-visited and updated as new solution information, references, and additional metadata became available further demonstrating the strained workload that vulnerability management teams face daily.

Updating previous records is vital because if a vulnerability is disclosed and isn’t coordinated with the vendor, it can take considerable amount of time before a solution is made available. Patches have to be applied when available and missing out the installation,will lead to a remediation gap and risk.