Microsoft Released Record Number of Security Updates in 2015

Now that Microsoft has already released the December 2015 security updates, we can finally have a look at this year’s statistics to see how 2015 compares to the previous years as far as the number of patches is concerned, Microsoft Company reported.

Basically, Microsoft rolled out a total of 135 security bulletins this month, but the increase was mostly generated by the arrival of Windows 10.

The company thus had to patch not only the operating system itself, but also the new applications that are included, such as Microsoft Edge browser. As a result, Windows 10 received patches for the OS, Edge, Internet Explorer, and all the other components that are available in the previous Windows versions currently on the market.

135 bulletins in 2015, up from 85 in 2014 Wolfang Kandek, CTO of Qualys, explained that the increased number of patches for 2015 doesn’t necessarily mean that Microsoft’s products were more vulnerable this year.

"In total we had 135 bulletins from Microsoft in 2015, which is a significant increase from the average of the last years. New products by Microsoft only explain a small part of this increase, for example the new Edge browser only added five bulletins of its own this year. The majority of the increase is due to new parts of the Windows ecosystem that are being investigated for the first time, a tendency that shows how much more important computer security has become over the years," he said.

In 2014, Microsoft rolled out a total of 85 security bulletins, down from 106 in 2013, which means that this year, the company has reached a new three-year record in terms released patches.

In the previous years though, Internet Explorer was the version that received the biggest number of security fixes, but with the arrival of Edge browser, the company could very well address this problem too.
Microsoft is discontinuing some versions of Internet Explorer in January and leaving version 11 the only one still getting updates and security patches. IE11 is currently available on Windows 7, 8.1, and 10, so all users have to update to this version to continue receiving support.