Security News > 2021 > June > Microsoft product vulnerabilities reached a new high of 1,268 in 2020
56% of all Microsoft critical vulnerabilities could have been mitigated by removing admin rights, according to the 2021 BeyondTrust Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report.
The total number of vulnerabilities in Microsoft products reached an all-time high of 1,268 in 2020, a 48% increase year over year, according to a new report.
"Windows 10 was touted as the 'most secure Windows OS' to date when it was released, yet it still experienced 132 critical vulnerabilities last year Removing admin rights could have mitigated 70% of these critical vulnerabilities," according to the Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report 2021 by BeyondTrust, which examined vulnerability data in security bulletins-known as Patch Tuesday-posted by Microsoft in the past year.
It almost tripled in number year over year from 198 in 2019 to 559 in 2020, making up 44% of all Microsoft vulnerabilities in 2020.
Fifty-six percent of all Microsoft critical vulnerabilities could have been mitigated by removing admin rights, the report said.
Sami Laiho, a Microsoft MVP and ethical hacker, said that the huge jump in the number of vulnerabilities indicates that more and more security researchers are actively helping companies protect themselves-but at the same time, cyberattackers are doing the same to actively search for vulnerabilities.