In this opportunity, I want to touch on another important activity that is of paramount importance in keeping you safe online. Today we use a number of computers and mobile devices that run different software components. To begin, all these devices run an operating system, this is the software part of your devices that allows you to interact with the HW components of your device. Then on top of the operating system we install applications that help us do stuff in our devices, this could be browsing the internet, for which we use a browser software (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, etc), write documents, spreadsheets or presentations and check our email (office software), edit or browse your photos, listen to music, and so on. In fact, for any task you want to do on a computer or mobile device, you will require a software application. In the old days being online was not as ubiquitous as it is today, so normally you will need to purposely connect to the internet by using a modem which was installed in your device, nowadays our devices are always connected as long as you are in proximity of a WiFi or LTE network. This is amazing, but it brings with it a window for bad hackers to attempt to take control over our devices, steal personal information, or just gain access to your device and keep it for later use. Why would this happen, first of all, because all software applications contain bugs/mistakes in the code. Usually, these issues are not put there knowingly, but due to mistakes either directly or indirectly. These malicious hackers know about these issues and take advantage of them to gain access. So the main point to take from this article is that we need to be relentless in keeping all the software in all our devices always up-to-date.
How hackers know?
Understand that one way the malicious hackers find out about these issues is by looking at the updates/fixes themselves, companies produce the newly updated software, the hackers look at the release notes and they compare the old version of the software to the new version and based on the difference they can figure out what was fixed, hence if you don’t update your software you open a door into your device through the specific vulnerability. Not all issues fixed by updates will be related to vulnerabilities that can be exploited but in many cases they are, and if you prefer not to read the release notes, then just keep your software up-to-date. What should be done to prevent it?
How to Prevent it?
The easiest option is to update your computers and devices as soon as you see a notification about a new update to the operating system, this is usually shown in iOS or Android devices (iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones and tablets, etc) with a badge number in the settings icon. Similarly you will get a notification message on your macOS, Windows, Linux or ChromeBook computers. Then all your applications must be updated, the easiest ones are those applications that have been installed from the app stores (apple app store, google play store, Microsoft Store, etc). Those stores will notify you of new updates, but many other applications are downloaded and installed from the original provider directly from their internet website. For those you need to be more diligent and check regularly for updates. Make it a habit to check for updates on these applications when you execute them and before you start working with the application, usually the application will have an option “check for updates”, normally located in the Help menu or in the preferences window.
Operating System (OS)
As mentioned above updating the operating system in your devices is really important, as this is the largest platform for attacks, no matter what application you run, the OS is always running in the background. Also hackers will concentrate their work on the operating system that are more popular (Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS). In the macOS environment, Apple does not push updates very regularly, but when one is required the computer will prompt you to perform the update. Make sure you run the updates that relate to security fixes as soon as possible. When it comes to upgrading the OS, such as going to a major software release you can take time before applying it so that you can verify that it does not cause any issues with any of your installed applications. I usually wait a week or so before I let the upgrade execute, in that week I can check online if other people are having any issues or whether issues with specific applications I use have been reported.
Microsoft Windows on the other hand has a different approach and they provide an update on the second Tuesday of each month. They call it “Patch Tuesday”, I recommend you check for updates a couple of days after the patch Tuesday (there has been some of these updates that caused issues to some users), this was similar to what I said above for macOS, in here you can also give a quick search to see if issues for that update are being reported or discussed online.
To conclude I want to stress the point that we need to act upon making sure the software in our computers and mobile devices is always up-to-date, this way you ensure that you have the lowest number of vulnerabilities. As you have seen on your devices there is updates available very frequently and although not all these updates are to fix zero-day or security bugs, many of them are to add new features or functionality, but with these new functionality, there might be new issues that will be resolved in a later update, keeping this endless loop going.
I hope these few lines guide you in making you a bit more conscious about keeping your software up-to-date and help you further understand the software update reasons and ultimately help you minimize any stress you might feel related to keeping you safe online.
I agree, test comment from Jeff Arthur