This is the first step that you have to accomplish to improve your home computer security.
Patch your system. This is a need. We all know that almost every program or operating system has its bugs.
Most vendors provide patches that are supposed to fix bugs in their products. Usually these patches do their job very well. But sometimes they fix a problem and generate another one. It is like you buy new furniture and when people that bring it to you, break you a window by mistake while they put it to its place. So you have to put another patch.
So, when you purchase a product, you need to see if the vendor provides patches and if and how they provide a way to answer to the questions about their products. The vendors must send notices to product owners when problem has been discovered in their product. You only have to do when purchase any software product is to register on your vendor’s website.
Program vendors also provide patch notices by subscribing to their news groups or mailing lists. If you are using this type of services, you can learn about the problems before you discover them by yourself and hopefully before intruders have the chance to exploit the program bugs. You can find how you can receive information about patches on the vendor’s website and this as soon as these patches are available.
More vendors make this work easier for you. They provide programs bundled with little client applications that automatically contacts their websites looking for patches designed for your home computer. This applications, also known as automatic updates tell you when patches are available, download and install them or they can only be set up to tell you when a new patch are available.
Sometimes the vendors don’t talk about the problems that their patches can cause for the simple reason that it is almost impossible to test all possible programs with all possible patches to discover all unexpected side effects. Vendors prefer to tell to their customers that something unexpected has occurred while they installed a patch. If you ever get into this situation, you have to let them know what patch you installed, on which version of program and operating system. Give them as many information you can.
Let’s say that you received a notice about a patch and you have downloaded it from the vendor’s web site. You have to evaluate the patch before you install it. You have to make sure that the patch won’t break something on your computer and it will affect only the target program. If the patch breaks something during its installation, how can you undo the installation and can you restore your computer to the way it was before you installed the patch??? Usually the patches come with an uninstall program that enables you to restore your system if something went wrong with the patch installation.
I assume you remember when I said that you should be a little paranoid. Usually, the patches are provided like programs. So be careful when download and install programs.
Keep tracks of installed patches in categorized datasheets. When you install a new patch, write it down so you will know the exact date you have applied it to your operating system or to any individual program.
Patch your system. This is a need. We all know that almost every program or operating system has its bugs.
Most vendors provide patches that are supposed to fix bugs in their products. Usually these patches do their job very well. But sometimes they fix a problem and generate another one. It is like you buy new furniture and when people that bring it to you, break you a window by mistake while they put it to its place. So you have to put another patch.
So, when you purchase a product, you need to see if the vendor provides patches and if and how they provide a way to answer to the questions about their products. The vendors must send notices to product owners when problem has been discovered in their product. You only have to do when purchase any software product is to register on your vendor’s website.
Program vendors also provide patch notices by subscribing to their news groups or mailing lists. If you are using this type of services, you can learn about the problems before you discover them by yourself and hopefully before intruders have the chance to exploit the program bugs. You can find how you can receive information about patches on the vendor’s website and this as soon as these patches are available.
More vendors make this work easier for you. They provide programs bundled with little client applications that automatically contacts their websites looking for patches designed for your home computer. This applications, also known as automatic updates tell you when patches are available, download and install them or they can only be set up to tell you when a new patch are available.
Sometimes the vendors don’t talk about the problems that their patches can cause for the simple reason that it is almost impossible to test all possible programs with all possible patches to discover all unexpected side effects. Vendors prefer to tell to their customers that something unexpected has occurred while they installed a patch. If you ever get into this situation, you have to let them know what patch you installed, on which version of program and operating system. Give them as many information you can.
Let’s say that you received a notice about a patch and you have downloaded it from the vendor’s web site. You have to evaluate the patch before you install it. You have to make sure that the patch won’t break something on your computer and it will affect only the target program. If the patch breaks something during its installation, how can you undo the installation and can you restore your computer to the way it was before you installed the patch??? Usually the patches come with an uninstall program that enables you to restore your system if something went wrong with the patch installation.
I assume you remember when I said that you should be a little paranoid. Usually, the patches are provided like programs. So be careful when download and install programs.
Keep tracks of installed patches in categorized datasheets. When you install a new patch, write it down so you will know the exact date you have applied it to your operating system or to any individual program.
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