There’s thousands of hackers who get up every morning with ONE goal: to find a new vulnerability in your installed software (like Adobe, Flash, QuickTime or a dozen other bloatware products that you may not even know about) in order to break into your computer.
That’s why software companies issue patches and updates for KNOWN security bugs so frequently; and once a KNOWN vulnerability is announced via a patch, hackers get to work, trying like crazy to figure out how to use the vulnerability to attack the users who don’t have the time, or are too lazy to install the updates.
That’s why it’s VERY important to update installed software programs as soon as the patches are available.
In order to help keep this process a little easier, delete any program from your computer that you never use, or won’t use anymore. One of the exception is Microsoft Visual C ++ … you won’t want to delete any of those files, “if ya know what’s good for ya”, unless you know what you’re doing.
Don’t forget about the software that came “preloaded” on your computer. We call these BLOATWARE. Crooks know that NO ONE ever thinks about these software programs 'because they never use them, but there may be vulnerabilities in these programs too.
Of course, if you’re a client of ours, we’re monitoring your PCs & network for these updates and handling them for you; but your home computers, smartphones and other devices that may NOT be under our protection and probably need a little TLC.
If you need help, with your PCs, or these other devices, give us a call at 636-542-8653.
That’s it for tip #7
Next week’s tip will be “Get rid of that unwanted freeware”
Remember, it ain’t poisonel – it's jus bidness… Til nex time.
