Tech Tip: If You Installed It, You Must Update It — Right Away!
By December 21, 2020 0 841
•There are thousands of hackers who get up every morning with one goal in mind: to find a new vulnerability in a commonly installed software — like Adobe, Flash or QuickTime — to access your computer.
The big software companies frequently issue patches and updates for known security bugs. Trouble is, as soon as a known vulnerability is announced via a patch, hackers get to work like crazy trying to figure out how to use the vulnerability to access those users who are lazy about installing updates.
That’s why it’s important to update installed software programs as soon as possible.
Of course, if your IT department or provider is on top of things, your network is being monitored for these updates and handling them for you. But your home computers, smartphone and other devices — which may not be under such protection — probably need a little attention.
Alan Edwards, CISM, is chief information officer at Computerware, Inc., in Vienna, Virginia.