Why Users Still Don’t Get The Importance Of Update Software

Baseline is stating the obvious in its latest article of warning: Unpatched old software is a security hazard to your computer. Windows or Mac or Linux or any other operating system. Security updates are released for the sole reason of patching holes that open your computer to vulnerabilities. Yet many won’t update Firefox or QuickTime because “everything is working fine and nothing is crashing.”

I see this problem day in and day out in my day job with clients whose computers have been compromised. Many have no clue how it happened. “I don’t download anything questionable and I don’t use file sharing programs,” yet they still get infected. “How?” is always the question to me.

How is what Baseline’s article is all about. It’s about users not updating their programs. It’s about companies ignoring important updates. It’s about how everyone that uses any software, especially those that access the Internet, should keep them up to date. Many applications now come with auto-update checkers. Never disable this feature (well, unless maybe it’s Adobe’s annoying Acrobat Reader’s auto-update checker - please redo this, Adobe!). Let it notify you when an update is available and get it. In most cases, the update will fix more than break anything. At worst, your computer may crash because of an update, but either way you’ll still be protected from the previous vulnerability.

In my experience in over a decade of IT work, I’ve rarely seen an update go so bad that a nightmare ensues. At most, I’ve seen a crashing application that is usually fixed with another update soon after the crashing one is out. I can remember in Netscape’s heyday, it would quickly turn around fixes within days if such a problem happened. That was until the 4.x rev.

Folks, you’re better served to keep your software up to date. If you have Windows, activate Auto Update. Apple users have this already set in OS X. For any software you may use, often check for updates on the software publishers site or in many cases, you can find a “Check for Update” in the Help menu. Use it.

I was happy to see Baseline do an article on the obvious. Obvious to people like me, but really to the everyday user, not. I hope this education process will help.

[tags]software,spyware,malware,vulnerability,virus,update,out of date,auto update[/tags]