With the back to school rush and the upcoming holidays, new devices may be on the agenda. That may include purchasing a cell phone for your middle schooler and a laptop for your college freshman, or even a new tablet for the family to share. Every device that is connected to the internet exposes you to a range of cyber security threats including malware. Attackers often use discovered flaws in software to attack these devices. That could be a newly purchased tablet or laptop; even smart light bulbs and plugs could be a victim of a software flaw.
According to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) there have been over 17,000 vulnerabilities published in 2022. That is an average of 68 vulnerabilities per day. In August, there was a handful of zero-day vulnerabilities that received national media attention. Microsoft published fixes for vulnerabilities that could let attackers run malicious software when a user clicked a link. Apple released an update to their operating system to deal with two zero-day vulnerabilities. Similarly, Google issued updates to their Chrome browser addressing numerous zero-day vulnerabilities. These software flaws also impact some technology in tractors, where software flaws allow high-level system access to the machine. All these software flaws could allow attackers to run and execute code potentially gaining total control of the device. These software flaws could easily be addressed by applying the appropriate software update or device patch.
Applying these software and device patches is often overlooked or skipped all together. Patching is one thing everyone can do to significantly improve their digital security posture and is quite simple to do. In most cases the application or device lets you know there is an available update that needs to be applied. There are all sorts of reasons why people do not patch their devices and applications: it interrupts my work, it takes too long, and our favorite one is the patch will do more harm than good.
Patching is like maintaining your car. It will still run without maintenance but driving often becomes more dangerous the longer you go on without a tune-up.
Here are a few tips to help minimize down-time and interruptions while keeping your software up to date.
- Microsoft Windows Operating System: you should enable the “Automatic Updates” feature. This feature will keep Windows patched and updated as these updates are released. You can also enable the “Receive updates for other Microsoft products when you update Windows” advanced feature to get updates for MS Office and other products when you update Windows. Microsoft releases these monthly security updates on the second Tuesday of every month, this is often known as “Patch Tuesday”.
- Apple iPhone or iPad: you should enable “Download iOS Updates” and “Install iOS Updates” automatically to ensure that your device stays current with the latest security fixes. You also need to apply updates to applications that are installed as well.
- Android Phones or tablets: you should check for system updates by opening the Security feature and tap the “Google Security checkup” button.
- Third-Party applications installed on your computer like Java or Adobe Reader download the updates directly from the vendor’s website and if the option is available enable “Automatic Updates”. There is an application “Patch My PC” that can help simplify keeping those third-party applications updated. Patch my PC scans to detect installed applications on your computer and provides an easy way to upgrade these applications.
With the number of devices increasing in every household and farm field, it is more important than ever to make sure we are taking the steps to ensure that these devices are being patched to ensure they are protected against the ever-increasing amount of software flaws.
Patch Resources:
Update Windows - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/update-windows-3c5ae7fc-9fb6-9af1-1984-b5e0412c556a#WindowsVersion=Windows_10
Update you Apple iPhone, iPad - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204204
Update Apple apps - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202180
Update your Android Phone - https://support.google.com/android/answer/7680439
Patch my PC - https://patchmypc.com/home-updater
To view the article in the online 2022 Fall Partners Magazine, click here.
