A few weeks ago I was reminded that it still isn’t common knowledge that antivirus software will not protect your computer from all threats. A conversation with a family member that works for a small business revealed that their “IT Guy” thinks Windows Updates aren’t necessary, yet he continues to install antivirus software on workstations religiously. Unfortunately, that could not be further from the truth. Keeping your Windows machine properly patched is, in my opinion, more important than having antivirus software. Attackers are known for using worms that attack the vulnerabilities of a Windows machine from the outside without user interaction. The conficker worm is just the latest example of how improperly patched Windows machines can be compromised remotely and completely outside of the protection of antivirus.
Think that your firewall or router is protecting you from attacks like this? Think again. Once one compromised machine is on the network, all bets are off. Infected machines can be used by attackers to completely circumvent the firewall and infect any other vulnerable machines on the network. Mobile devices that roam from network to network can make matters worse by being the carriers of these infections, much like influenza is spread by humans. Worms like Conficker waste no time gathering personal data, logging keystrokes, and propagating to other systems. In Conficker’s case, the infection spread incredibly fast. In January, the infection count jumped from 2.4 million to 9 million Windows machines in just four days.
Please spread the word to your friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances that Windows Updates ARE EXTREMELY important to the health of their PC and that Windows Updates, firewalls, and antivirus applications by themselves are not an all-inclusive solution to computer security. Instead, all of these security tools should be used in order to effectively protect a computer.
An increasing trend lately seems to be the creation of malware targeted not only at Operating System vulnerabilities but also vulnerabilities that target popular applications such as Adobe Acrobat, Mozilla Firefox, VideoLan Media Player. In many ways, these vulnerabilities can be more appealing to an attacker.
One possible reason: most modern Operating Systems, hotfixes and patches are typically installed automatically. This means that a majority of systems can be patched in a short period of time, greatly reducing the lifespan and impact of a vulnerability. On the other hand, many applications have no automatic update mechanism. Users often forget to update software until there are significantly improved features in a newer version. This can help increase the useful lifespan and impact of a vulnerability, giving attackers more incentive to take advantage of them.
Although it has become clear that maintaining a secure system now means that all software on the system should be kept up to date, finding a solution to do this quickly and accurately has been reason enough to forget about the problem. However, there is software that may help save time performing application maintenance. Secunia’s Personal Software Inspector (PSI) automatically scans a system regularly for any and all applications that have known vulnerabilities. Additionally, PSI will help resolve software vulnerabilities by providing links and instructions for updating vulnerable software.
Secunia PSI is available at https://psi.secunia.com/ . As of this posting, it is still in the Release Candidate stage. However, I have not had any issues running it on both Windows XP and Vista.
One of the most interesting things I discovered with Secunia PSI is that when I updated the Java Runtime in the past, the older versions were not uninstalled automatically. While this may be for compatibility purposes, I had several versions of Java installed on my computer that were vulnerable. Be sure to uninstall older versions of the Java Runtime if you don’t need them.
An interesting video was posted on Digg that demonstrates just how easy it is to eavesdrop someone that is using a bluetooth headset. Interestingly, the person doesn’t need to be in the middle of a phone conversation. The mic can be used to eavesdrop as long as the device is turned on and discoverable.
The expressed opinions, informational content and links displayed on this website do not necessarily reflect a position or policy of The Pennsylvania State University or its affiliates.
Comments (0) ![[del.icio.us]](http://iboyd.net/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://iboyd.net/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://iboyd.net/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://iboyd.net/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Twitter]](http://iboyd.net/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
Themocracy