Why Memory Safety Still Matters in 2026

• Across major vendors, roughly 70% of serious security bugs are memory-safety issues: Microsoft (about 70% of CVEs), Google Chrome, and the Android and Linux kernel efforts all report the same rough figure year after year.
• These bugs persist because C and C++ remain the backbone of operating systems, browsers, network stacks, and firmware.
• The industry response: a strong push toward memory-safe languages such as Rust, plus U.S. government guidance (CISA / ONCD) urging vendors to move off memory-unsafe code.
• Migration is slow: billions of lines of legacy C/C++ are not going away, so understanding and defending them remains essential.