The importance of patching your computer

• Mar. 25, 2003

Normally we dedicate this space to providing you with new and important search engine news.  We also devote some of our time here to bring to you some of the issues which may affect you or your website or search engine rankings.  Today I thought I'd provide some other type of information to you.

 

As you are no doubt aware, computer security is a big issue these days, whether they involve the database servers of the worlds largest banks, or the home computer you have so your kids can browse the internet, computer users need to make sure they keep their systems up to date as far as software patches are concerned, whether they are operating system patches, virus software patches or other software patches and upgrades.

 

The first thing I want to make clear is that this is an epidemic to anyone who uses a computer and isn't limited to one operating system or group of software.  Although you primarily hear about how many patches are needed to keep Windows running safe, this isn't a strictly Windows problem.  The only reason you hear about Windows patches more is because Windows runs literally 95% of the worlds computers and that makes them an easy target.

 

That being said, keep in mind that whatever operating system you have you should update it often.  Windows has a great utility called Windows Update which monitors updates for you.  This is available on Windows 2000 and Windows XP.  This is a must in todays age of cyber crime and cyber security.  I find myself patching my Windows systems at home and at work every couple of days, but I also find that my Windows computers aren't getting hit by the exploits that you hear about on the news and in other media.

 

Redhat has a similar service whereby you can be notified via email when a patch for their Linux OS is needed, you can then direct your computer to download and apply the patches.

 

You have no doubt heard how different worms and viruses can propagate at alarming rates through the internet.  In fact the last major worm to be released on the world, called slammer was so well engineered that it was able to double the number of infected computers every 8.5 seconds within minutes of its release.   Many virus experts felt that a worm or virus of this magnitude was a theoretical impossibility in its ability to infect and propagate through systems.  This worm proved that theory false. 

 

Considering that intentionally created viruses are relatively new to the computer world this makes me worry.  After all, it is rumored that the first engineered computer virus appeared in 1986 and took almost 2 years to affect a mere 100 computers.  Now flash forward less than 20 years and we have worms and viruses which have the ability to scan more than 55 million IP addresses per second and infect more than 75,000 computers within the first three minutes of their release.

 

So, the next time Windows Update tells you there's a critical patch, or you have to reboot your computer because of a new anti-virus signature you may not be as concerned about it considering the alternatives.

 

Rob Sullivan

Searchengineposition.com

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