Network Security guide for the home or small business network – Part 5 – Update your software
Okay – so after the last article you’ve inventoried what software you use on a PC and you know what services (server’s) the pc runs that you’ve told it to. You even know what passes as “normal” startup programs. Now it’s time to put that to use. It’s time to keep up with updates for the operating system, any of the programs you use form time to time, and any programs that listen as a service (actively listen for incoming network connections.)
Wow, that’s a lot though! Yes it is. This is probably the toughest part of internet security in many ways. Keeping up with updating everything can be overwhelming. This doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy new versions everytime a software maker releases the next better version. We’re talking about security fixes. With Windows *(operating system) these are usually called critical updates. http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com is a good place to visit to check for these. This is the official Windows Update site from Microsoft. Automatic updates can download and install those updates for you, but I like to go to the update site myself and check first hand to make sure a system is up to date.
Remember, Microsoft doesn’t make a practice of emailing customers about security updates. Don’t be too quick to trust links you find in emails claiming to notify you of updates. Type the address into your web browser bar. http://officeupdate.microsoft.com is the Microsoft site for official Microsoft Office updates. Some of these go beyond security updates to bug fixes and in some cases feature improvements. (As do some of the Windows updates).
In the case of other software, you will need to visit those publishers sites individually, or use an update capability within their program. Recently there have been security updates for realplayer, acrobat reader, macromedia flash player among others. Internet Explorer updates are dealt with through Windows update, but these third party updates are just as important.
Some linux systems make getting updates for all installed software very easy. (apt-get update from the command line, or urpmi.update -a && urpmi –auto –auto-select ). Now the downside of updates. Sometimes software updates fix one feature but break another. The risks of the breakage vs. the fix have to be weighed carefully. If the breakage is considered to severe to install a security update, that program needs to be treated with much more suspicion because it is more vulnerable.
This really is the one part of network security that seems like an endless fight. Remember the saying though, security is a process not a product (nor is it a destination, but a direction.)
Popularity: 1% [?]
Related Posts - Update on the Internet Explorer VML vulnerability Just catching up on the days VML vulnerability news from today.... It looks as though... the exploit is now MUCH more widespread this blog has some video of an infection, what's notable is that the first take was VERY UNEVENTFUL, it was used to stealthily install a keylogger. (So that......
- Microsoft Update day for September.... AND Flash... AND Apple Yesterday, of course, Microsoft released it's monthly patches. I found the Windows update site to be painfully slow (and in some cases unresponsive.) It wasn't quite a huge update day by recent standards, but here's the summary.... Incidents.org has a nice chart showing the two re-released patches (one is actually......
- Microsoft February Patch day advance notice Microsoft has given advance notice that next Tuesday they will be releasing 7 updates for Windows, as many as 5 of these will be tagged as critical. The Security Fix has a bit on the advance notice as does Sans. Looks like one of the critical updates will be for......
Related Websites - 3 Ways of Repairing the Windows Blue Screen The most frustrating computer error of all, the blue screen that pops up out of no where and almost always when you're in the middle of something very important. The screen appears listing some strange cryptic message of numbers and letters about something going wrong. For us average computer users......
- Powerful Small Business Email Signatures Your emails are a potential source of income. Yes, even if you don't have a website or blog, and better still, using email signatures properly amounts to free advertising! If you run a small business, you probably send a fair few emails each week; messages to suppliers, customers, prospects, associates......
- Microsoft Blogs Review Reading and reviewing corporate blogs from other companies is a great way to learn a little bit more about your own blog. Microsoft has a large community of blogs, and a wide variety of bloggers writing in numerous blogs within this community. There are a number of employee blogs in......
Similar Posts
- Sun Java security updates/ Windows software update rant…
- Two critical fixes from Microsoft on December patch Tuesday
- The 2nd journey begins… Mandriva 2006 upgrade 2 – Part 3
- RSS feed to spread the word of software updates
- Massive Windows Update Tuesday