diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 265827b3..34bb76a3 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+v0.8.21 2017-01-03  The Irssi team <staff@irssi.org>
+	- Correct a NULL pointer dereference in the nickcmp function found by
+	  Joseph Bisch (GL#1)
+	- Correct an out of bounds read in certain incomplete control codes
+	  found by Joseph Bisch (GL#2)
+	- Correct an out of bounds read in certain incomplete character
+	  sequences found by Hanno Böck and independently by J. Bisch (GL#3)
+	- Correct an error when receiving invalid nick message (GL#4, #466)
+
 v0.8.20 2016-09-16  The Irssi team <staff@irssi.org>
 	- Correct the name of an emitted sasl signal (#484)
 	- Correct the prototype for the 'message private' signal (#515)
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 458c8aa9..59f5ce57 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-AC_INIT(irssi, 0.8.20)
+AC_INIT(irssi, 0.8.21)
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src])
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR(build-aux)
 AC_PREREQ(2.50)