Enable Security Updates

Security updates, or "patches", are released by software vendors every so often to repair security vulnerabilities.

Attackers use known vulnerabilities to take control of your computer. The longer your wait before installing security updates, the longer the attacker has time to find and exploit your vulnerabilities. Our campus receives 100,000's of scans each week -- attacks probing for soft spots like unpatched computers.

Software like Automatic Updates for Microsoft Windows and Software Updates for Apple OS X help you to stay safe automatically. Remember, you may need to wait a bit for updates to install. You may even need to reboot your computer.

Enabling automatic updates is recommended in our OS hardening procedures.