Stop! Is Your Computer Software up to Date or Could it be Vulnerable?
Do you know how secure the software on your PC is? I very much doubt it, as hackers are very clever at stealing your data or exploiting your PC without you even knowing it.
How do they do it? Through insecure or vulnerable software.
When you install software on your PC you expect it to be secure, because after all you have paid good money for the application. But unfortunately hackers are constantly finding weaknesses in a program. It is a never ending battle for programmers and software companies to keep their applications secure.
The more software you have installed on your PC the more insecure it could be.
So how can you make sure that the programs on your PC are secure, easy, by using a free scanning tool called Secunia Software Inspector.
How Does it Work:
Secunia Software Inspector runs a scan on your PC, (using a Java plugin, if you don’t have Java you can install it straight from the Secunia website), for applications installed. The detected applications are then matched against the Secunia Intelligence database to determine whether or not an application is up-to-date.
Not only does Secunia tell you the version number of the insecure application but it will also display the current secure version and direct you the relevant link so that you can download it.
I ran a scan on a test Laptop and the results are shown below.
Detection Statistics:
12 Applications Detected in Total
7 Insecure Versions Detected
5 Secure Versions Detected
You can either run the scan direct from the website or download and install the application, (you have more options with the installed version) the choice is yours. The scan is very fast and only takes a couple of minutes. Give it a try, you might just be surprised at how many applications installed are insecure.
Click on the link to go to the Secunia website.
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February 11th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Hi there. I think I may have to check this software out. I’ve had strange things happen on my pc lately.
You know how you go to leave a comment on a blog and your browser automatically knows your address? Well, mine has started bringing up someone elses site address! Also, something strange happened to my feedburner account at the weekend and there were 14 strange usages that also let to some error message.
Does this sound like I’ve been hacked, or am I just being paranoid do you think?
February 12th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Catherine,
I am not sure about your first problem, but feedburner has had some issues over the weekend, my subscriber account is still showing nill. The Feedburner bods have assured us that all should be resolved today.
No I don’t think you are paranoid, but it won’t do any harm to run the scan.
Regards.
February 14th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Thanks - I will try it.
February 14th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Catherine, let me know of the results.
Regards.