Despite increased knowledge and awareness about Internet security, we still can’t be too careful while surfing the Web these days. There are still less than scrupulous people out there hoping to trip us up. That’s why we need to ensure that we setup protective methods that are automatic and require as little manual interaction as possible.
Many of us fully understand the importance of running antivirus and anti-spyware programs and hopefully all perform updates and patching for our operating systems. However, while we take the necessary measures to protect ourselves from frontdoor attacks (viruses) as well as backdoor attacks (spyware), most of us do not safeguard our systems from sidedoor attacks (application patching).
Application Patching
The problem with patching and updating tools for any operating system is that they do not (and cannot) check third party applications. Microsoft and Apple can only patch and update their own OS and applications, which leaves a great deal of applications vulnerable and exposed. This in turn renders your system vulnerable and exposed as well.While there are some apps that are good at self-updating and patching themselves, such as Adobe with its popular Adobe Reader and Flash Player, most applications simply don’t patch themselves automatically. In most cases, this is a tedious manual process. You can go to each and every application’s website to check for any security patches or updates, download them and apply them, but who has time for that? That explains why this security hole has become a favorite target for malicious types.
Windows Application Protection
Thankfully, there’s an excellent solution available from Secunia. They provide the ability to scan and update over 7,000 applications and utilities. The good news is that you can perform these scans for free online via their OSI (Online Software Inspector), which can help you patch over 70 applications including popular apps such as Winzip, Adobe Reader, Yahoo messenger, Firefox, etc. Once a scan has been performed, you will see the status of each application with download links to any patch updates that are available for applications that are vulnerable.
Mac OS Application Protection
CNET’s VersionTracker for the Mac OS tracks application updates and provides daily updates for easy identification of the apps you need to patch or upgrade. There’s a free online version which requires manual patching of your apps.
iPhone Application Protection
Believe it or not, you should take the same protection measures for all those tiny iPhone apps you’ve been installing. Just because they’re small and there haven’t been any widespread malware attacks on any particular iPhone apps yet doesn’t mean there won’t be. It’s a good idea to get in the habit of keeping whatever apps you have installed updated.There aren’t any ways to automate this process yet so all you can do is keep an eye on the App Store icon on your iPhone home page and watch for the notifications of application updates. Once you see the notification simply go to each app and install the newer version which will replace the outdated version. The number 25 in the red circle means there are 25 updates waiting.
