Would it be security risk to not upgrade to Sierra?

[Samjaka]

Due to not getting Sierra upgrade work, I'm using El Capitan.

Could this pose security risk?
Is El Capitan already too old? Or if not, when comes time I have to upgrade to avoid security risks?

 

[Gregg2]

A very general question you've posed, it is.

Could it? Yes.

Do you use Safari? (generally only updated with OS updates)
If you use a different browser, it is possible to update for higher security.

 

[Mikael H]

Due to not getting Sierra upgrade work, I'm using El Capitan.

Could this pose security risk?
Is El Capitan already too old? Or if not, when comes time I have to upgrade to avoid security risks?

Generally speaking, any computing device connected to the Internet should be on the latest operating system and application versions available. If your device isn’t connected to the Internet, you’ve got a lot more leeway.

 

[Weaselboy]

Is El Capitan already too old?

No and you are fine. Apple is still issuing security updates for El Capitan. There will come a point probably in the next year or so when they will stop, then you should move on to a newer macOS version.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207797

 

[chrfr]

No and you are fine. Apple is still issuing security updates for El Capitan. There will come a point probably in the next year or so when they will stop, then you should move on to a newer macOS version.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207797

Unfortunately there are a lot of things in Sierra's security patches that are not patched in El Capitan. Odds are good that this stuff would never affect most users but it's somewhat disingenuous of Apple to pretend to be keeping El Capitan patched when they aren't actually doing so.

 

[Weaselboy]

Unfortunately there are a lot of things in Sierra's security patches that are not patched in El Capitan. Odds are good that this stuff would never affect most users but it's somewhat disingenuous of Apple to pretend to be keeping El Capitan patched when they aren't actually doing so.

Thanks... I did not know that. Is it because of underlying architectural issues in El Capitan that these issues cannot be patched?

 

[chrfr]

Thanks... I did not know that. Is it because of underlying architectural issues in El Capitan that these issues cannot be patched?

Things like php, OpenSSL, and OpenSSH haven't been patched but it's hard to tell if other things that aren't patched in 10.10.5 and 10.11.6 are not applicable or just unpatched. There are a lot of patches in the 10.12 updates that are only applied to 10.12 versions. Apple makes it essentially impossible to understand why.