MENU

INTRODUCTION GEEK SPEAK CONTROL VIRUSES DEAL WITH SPYWARE AVOID PHISHING SCAMS MAILBOXES FOR SPAM PATCHES AND UPDATES FIREWALLS DEMYSTIFIED SHOP ONLINE SAFELY AVOID HACKERS BACK UP YOUR DATA TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT WRITER FEEDBACK

LINKS TO MORE INFO

CERT HOME USER GUIDE MS SECURITY BASIC MS SECURITY ADVANCED MORE SECURITY BASICS BUSTING HOAXES PROTECT RIGHTS ONLINE GUIDE TO RAID HOW FIREWALLS WORK ADVANCED TOPICS

PATCHES & UPDATES

Keep your patches current. Turn on the MS automatic patch download and install tool in the control panel. If you really don't like this option, just going to the Windows Update site regularly is not a safe alternative (although it was the method many of us were forced to use for years). There is another way, but you'll have to put in more effort. Learn the Microsoft patch release date and put a reminder somewhere to go that day every month. To save you some time, and as everyone in network administration knows, the release date is the second Tuesday of every month. It's affectionately referred to by many professionals as Patch Tuesday.

At work, you should know that it may be against policy or defeat other measures already in place if you turn this on, so save the advice for home unless you find that it's acceptable to do so. Your machine may be locked down so you can't update on your own anyway. Patching is a big administrative hassle for the most part, and sometimes tests must be run on non-production machines before mass installation is performed over the network whilst you slumber. At work, your machine is considered 'in production' because it is live and on the network, and because it could be part of (or cause) a disruption in service if a patch blows up.

Yes, on some occassions a patch fixes one thing and breaks something else, and you may have experienced this. Good, at least that means you're patching your system. Not being protected is worse in most cases, and to its credit, Microsoft has had few major patch problems over the years and generally deals with the problem(s) quickly. Not patching your personal systems is like not fixing a tire that you know has a nail in it. You might never have a problem, or you might have a blowout at 70MPH.