The importance of keeping your computer up to date

Posted by Justin Knight - 28 July 2009

Two recent articles from McAfee Avert Labs reiterate the importance of keeping your computer up to date and being careful out there. The numbers in the graphs below show a major increase in malware (viruses, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, spyware) and equate to over 6,000 new threats added daily, meaning it’s more important than ever to stay protected.

Key steps to improving protection:

• keep anti-virus software up to date with the latest virus definitions
• ensure the OS is updated with the latest patches and service packs
• ensure all applications are fully patched (not just Microsoft applicationss but also Firefox, Adobe, Java, Acrobat, Flash)

 

As David Marcus says "staying educated and updated goes a long way toward safe computing".

McAfee's advice...
 - keep your machine updated
 - watch out where you surf
 - take care what links or attachments you trust in emails and all other forms of messages

If you are a user at home, the easiest way to keep on top of all these updates is to enable the autoupdating feature included with most products, and be sure to install and reboot when prompted.

If you are a business user, check with your IT provider that your systems are up to date and protected.

Full articles...
http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2009/07/22/malware-is-their-businessand-business-is-good/
http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2009/07/24/counting-badness/