One of the reasons the Web can be a dangerous place is that people are not keeping their software up to date. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has published a study showing that only about 60% of Internet surfers had browsers that were fully patched and current.

If your browser is not up to date, it can be infected with viruses, trojans, worms, etc., or hijacked and used to infect other computers. So everyone who surfs the Net has a public duty to protect their computer, and so in turn protect others and minimize malware.

Firefox users were the best at upgrading their browser in the study, probably due to its autoupdate feature. Fully 83% of users were up to date (to enable automatic updates, launch Firefox and click Tools, Options, Advanced). Apple’s Safari was next, with 65% of Net surfers using the current version. came in at a dismal 48% of people using an up to date browser.

Plug-ins represent a separate problem, especially for Firefox. I have said many times that you should minimize the number of plug-ins you have installed, and get them from the browser publisher or other reputable source. Why? Studies have shown that they could compromise the security of your browser. In any case, they need to be kept up to date like any other software.

An unpatched vulnerability in a plug-in can put your computer in danger of being infected, hijacked, etc. The average person may have 6 – 10 plug-ins installed. Keeping them up to date is a painful chore, right? Wrong.

Go here to read how to do it quickly and easily (and almost painlessly):
http://mypcsecurityblog.com/updates/keep-all-your-other-stuff-updated

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here: = > http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

You may include these Tips in your Web sites and publications provided they remain unchanged and include the above paragraph, with the author’s name and Web site. You can also get a direct URL to this post. Click the title, then copy the URL in the browser address bar.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!