Windows Updates has been a longstanding staple service with the Windows operating system. You can set it up to run automatically, and have it update Windows for you, while you tend to other matters (probably World or Warcraft, right?). With this mechanism, it takes some of the stress out of patching Windows.
Microsoft has transformed Windows Updates into Microsoft Updates in recent years, adding functionality to include updates for the vast array of Microsoft products. But what about the other programs on your computer? How much of a risk are you at by not updating things like Adobe Flash, Java, and QuickTime?
A good portion of the software titles on a Windows computer has some type of update service ranging from email reminders to pop-up notifications. However, since these are individualized matters, the computer user must pay attention to multiple messages from different pieces of software. Some developers took this as a cue to invent tools that scan your machine for third party software updates and vulnerabilities automatically.
Necessity being the mother of invention, the team at Secunia (www.secunia.com) created a group of three tools for the Windows environment that assists the user in locating software update vulnerabilities on their computers. There is an online, Internet based scan, a personal edition, and a corporate distribution type. This time around, we are focusing on the personal edition for home computer users.
After downloading and installing Secunia PSI, the home version, all you have to do is open up Secunia PSI, click on Start Scan, and wait for the utility to complete. After it is finished, a list of software will appear under the heading of Security Threats towards the center of the window (see below).
The results section is an annotated list of software that is missing updates. Make note of how each of them is categorized by Secunia’s Threat Rating. We will come back to this topic in a bit. For now, turn your attention to the blue icons lined up under the Solution column.
Each of these blue icons is a direct link to update the respective software on the left hand side underneath the Insecure Program heading. Clicking on one of the icons will either start the update process for that particular piece of software, or take you to their website to get instructions on how to update the software.
If you look lower on the results page, you may notice a Result Overview section. This area is to inform you on how your vulnerabilities stack up against others scans from a particular geographic area. In this instance, the results were paired up with those from New York, United States.
While this tidbit of data seems random and unimportant, clicking on the New York, United States link takes the user out to the Secunia’s World Map on their website. Here you can view various statistics from the United States, and other countries, which includes items such as the number of Secunia software users and the average number of insecure programs.
Having received our vulnerability alerts earlier, we have since updated two of the programs that required patches. When using the blue icon links to update software on the Insecure Program list, Secunia PSI will rerun a scan after the software is updated, and remove it from this list.
Additionally, each time you update software marked as insecure, your Secunia score is altered accordingly. Before, the score was at 97% with 4 pieces of vulnerable software. Now the score is up to 99% with 2 pieces of software yet to update.
Earlier there was mention of the Threat Rating located within the Security Threats results section. Notice that for the sake of keeping it easy to identify, there are color bars showing how low, or high, a particular threat is. If you move the mouse pointer over one of the color bars, a small pop out box will appear and note what a hacker can do with this vulnerability present on your computer.
You can click on the tan colored pop out, and be directed back to Secunia’s website for a more detailed description of the threat. This information may be more that what the average person would care to read, but for someone like a software developer or computer security specialist, this data is rather valuable.
Keeping your computer software up to date is very important. Many computer viruses and spyware are designed specifically to take advantage of unpatched software. Secunia PSI is a good utility to aid in combating this problem by giving you a consolidated look at what other updates your third-party software requires.
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