Most people are online A LOT. After reading Obscure Mania there are tons of things to do and people to communicate with in dozens if not hundreds of ways. From chats, VOIP, email, myspace, facebook, myspace, your documents, photos, videos and files can all be online. Face it, if you’re not online you’re in the dark ages.

One of the best protections against all of the bad people that want your identity or that want to hijack your computer for evil deeds, or just place a bunch of crap on your computer is to keep all of your software up to date.

Microsoft Windows Updates

Microsoft comes out with operating system updates about once a week, critical updates get pushed out as soon as they’re ready. If you don’t have Automatic Updates turned on, you’re putting your computer at risk. Most of the updates are some type of security updates. If a vulnerability isn’t known by every hacker in the world, when Microsoft puts out an update, every hacker in the world now knows about it and will exploit that particular problem against people that are slow updating their system.

If you’re not sure about your updates go to your Start button, then Right Click on My Computer, or go to your My Computer icon and Right Click, click on Properties, then click on the Automatic Updates tab and this is what you see.

At the very least, be notified of updates and you can download them when you’re going to be online for a while.  On your desktop, there’s no reason why Automatic can’t be checked.

Or you can go to the Windows Update site to check for and download any updates, you have to use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to go to Microsoft Update.

If your still on Windows 98 or anything else before XP, you’re putting everything on your computer at risk.  If you’re computer is too old or doesn’t have enough processor power or enough memory for at least XP, there are several things you can do. The single biggest bang for the buck upgrade is RAM/Memory and hard drives are getting dirt cheap. Or you can switch to Linux, but that’s a whole ‘nother series.

Internet Explorer

Why? But if you’re still using Internet Explorer at least upgrade to the latest version. IE6 is a security risk with all sorts of known holes and exploits. If you’re unsure about your version, click on Help, then About. IE7 is actually a good upgrade (from what I hear). I upgraded my Explorer, but like 50% of the internet, I don’t use it. What’s the other half of the Internet using? Mostly Firefox, an open source project from Mozilla and a small percentage are using other browsers like Windows versions of Safari from Apple or Safari. All report being faster and more secure than Microsoft, which in my opinion is kind of a low bar to hurdle.

Mostly it’s a personal preference, one browser will have a feature or two you like or it will  seem faster, looks better or is easier to do what you want. Even IE7 has what are called Plugins, small programs that install within your browser to add a new feature and can customize the look and options you want.

Keep Any Browser Up to Date

No matter which browser you use, keep it up to date. Your browser is your window to the Internet, but it’s also a window from the Internet to your PC. It’s the most common way the bad guys can access your computer. From getting you to download programs that can record your keystrokes and send them back to the bad guys, to getting you to click on a link that takes you to a bad website that can fool you in thinking it’s your bank or even the IRS, called Phishing or to a website that will download software to your computer without you even knowing it. Most modern browsers have ways to combat most exploits, but new ones are being created every day.

So keep your operating system and your browser up to date. Even the most secure browsers have security problems, but they get fixed and spread to their users via updates.  And just like operating system updates, now all the bad guys know there’s a problem with an older version. Don’t make it easy for them. UPDATE.

More about being secure online next time.

Links:

• Test Your Browsers Security
• Apple Safari (for PCs)
• Opera
• Firefox
• IE7
• Windows Update
• Phishing
• Linux
• Google Chrome