One thing we all know we should do, but is very hard to, practically, is make sure the software installed on our PC’s is as secure as possible. Again, while this is a great idea, having to keep up with all your installed programs, OS patches, browser plugins, etc. is quite daunting. Instead, use Secunia’s Software Inspector.
Software Inspector is a simple idea which works very well. Basically, you run a scan on your computer (through a Java plugin) which detects the installed versions of your programs against a database of known vulnerabilities. If you have a version installed which has any risk, you are notified of them as well as the given a link the version which addresses the problem.
The process runs extremely quick and is free to use. Give it a try as you might be surprised what it finds.
Jason Faulkner is the man who brings you our daily tips. He is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Great idea. I just completed my scan and my adobe flash player was out of date. Another great find. Thanks man
How should one handle outdated items found in stored backups (not used, may never be,hopefully) on other drives?
Fred–
Not sure what you mean by this, but if it is a true backup (archived and not actively used) then I wouldn’t worry about it.
[...] wrote a while ago about a site called Secunia Software Inspector with scans your PC for software with known flaws. Along the same lines, another site you might want [...]