Microsoft addressed nearly 972 vulnerabilities in its September update, 112 of which were classified as critical; this number represents the highest record to date.
Just two months ago, Microsoft resolved 570 vulnerabilities, and last month it fixed approximately 620. Other companies, including Google, have also released record numbers of vulnerabilities in recent months. Two weeks ago, OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, and around 100 other companies and organizations published an open letter warning about the shrinking window of time to fix vulnerabilities before a wave of AI-powered attacks. The industry is responding seriously to this threat by deploying an unprecedented number of patches in its software.
Welcome to the "new normal"
Dustin Childs, a researcher at the Zero Day Initiative, calls these surges the "new normal" while warning that the damage resulting from AI-assisted attacks could increase significantly in the long run.