A report from Skybox Security found a 25% increase in new vulnerabilities published within 2022.

The year-over-year rise in new vulnerabilities is the biggest seen since 2017, highlighting that vulnerabilities aren’t just rising; they’re rising faster. This brings the total number of vulnerabilities published over the last ten years to 192,051 — a three-fold increase over a decade.

Research found that 80% of vulnerabilities reported in 2022 were either medium or high severity. Sixteen percent were deemed critical, but that’s hardly reassuring as severity does not equal risk. Many threat actors specifically target less severe weaknesses, exploiting these vulnerabilities to gain access to a system and move laterally to escalate attacks.