Fully patched PCs are a rare breed

[FreewheelinFrank]

Can’t hurt to beat people over the head with this one:

A small minority of users - as few as one in 20 - is running fully-patched Windows PCs.

Just five per cent of newly-registered users of an online security inspection service Secunia came out with a clean bill of health, while more than 40 per cent have at least 11 insecure applications installed.

The data is based on scans of 20,009 computers whose users recently installed Secunia’s freely available software inspection tool. Secunia claims a total user base of more than 200,000 users for its free Secunia PSI tool. A survey of a different sample set of Secunia PSI recently discovered that one in five software apps installed on computers are insecure or out of date.

The Danish security firm said stats from its service show users are struggling to keep their PCs up to date. “Patching a PC is as important as running anti-virus and a personal firewall,” said Thomas Kristensen, Secunia’s CTO. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/09/secunia_insecurity_survey/

[system]

I’m fully patched always ;D

[system]

When I do A thorough scan,Secunia tells me my Thunderbird needs updating to 2.0.0.9. I have 2.0.0.9, if I open Thunderbird and check for updates,I get no updates available.So I’m one of the unpatched ? So maybe their findings are not as accurate as they say !

[Mac]

@micky77 post:3

When I do A thorough scan,Secunia tells me my Thunderbird needs updating to 2.0.0.9. I have 2.0.0.9, if I open Thunderbird and check for updates,I get no updates available.So I’m one of the unpatched ? So maybe their findings are not as accurate as they say !

Maybe some are not accurate, but as many people ive helped out around my neighborhood 1 in 20 sounds about right.

Just last week I reinstalled WIndows on a friends PC who still has XP SP1 on his machine. SP2 has been out how long now?

[bob3160]

Damien,
Patches are for bluejeans. ;D Updates are for computers.
My genes are patched and my computer is fully updated.

[FreewheelinFrank]

@micky77 post:3

When I do A thorough scan,Secunia tells me my Thunderbird needs updating to 2.0.0.9. I have 2.0.0.9, if I open Thunderbird and check for updates,I get no updates available.So I’m one of the unpatched ? So maybe their findings are not as accurate as they say !

Do you have a second copy of Thunderbird in another location for some reason?

Does the location given for the out-of-date Thunderbird match the location of the Thunderbird you are using?

[system]

Can’t quite work this one out, Secunia tells me my version Thunderbird 2.x is out of date,yet when I do the same scan using the sandboxed browser it says my version 2.0.0.9 is upto date.Weird.Not to worry though,its probably some blip on my computer.I actually use thunderbird with DropMyRights while sandboxed ;D maybe thats confusing Secunia.I confuse myself sometimes

[Abraxas]

FreewheelinFrank:

Can't hurt to beat people over the head with this one

I'm sure those stats are pretty close to the truth . Most PC users just wanna use their PC , not do a lot of updating . The more I suggest to people about the dangers online the less people listen , sad but true I'm afraid ::)

[Lisandro]

@micky77 post:7

Weird.

Secunia informs the path of the non-patched file. Which is it?

@micky77 post:7

Not to worry though,its probably some blip on my computer.I actually use thunderbird with DropMyRights while sandboxed ;D

I don’t think so. Secunia won’t detect this situation.

[system]

Installed on Your System in:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe

[Lisandro]

@micky77 post:10

Installed on Your System in:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe

Ok, strange… is it in English or other language? Even so, seems a bad detection.
I have this in the past, not anymore. I have both XP and Vista systems with Thunderbird installed and not a problem with Secunia. Maybe you could run the Thunderbird setup.exe file again and repair the installation…

[system]

@Tech post:11

@micky77 post:10

Installed on Your System in:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe

Ok, strange… is it in English or other language? Even so, seems a bad detection.
I have this in the past, not anymore. I have both XP and Vista systems with Thunderbird installed and not a problem with Secunia. Maybe you could run the Thunderbird setup.exe file again and repair the installation…

Thanks, I will wait untill next thunderbird update,and see if that rectifies the matter.I emailed Secunia,they might get back to me.

[Lisandro]

@micky77 post:12

I emailed Secunia, they might get back to me.

Ok. Please, post back. It’s always good to solve a mystery 8)

[Dwarden]

there is some irk with PSI … sometimes custom rescan / realtime monitor fails to accept You updated ‘insecure’ application

usually this is resolved in full scan

[YLAP]

Tring to keep my box up to date as possible, but sometimes it’s hard to do. Windows are kept up to date, but other programs sometimes not.

[FreewheelinFrank]

New tool identifies security patches needed:

http://www.f-secure.com/healthcheck/

[Lisandro]

@FreewheelinFrank post:16

New tool identifies security patches needed:
http://www.f-secure.com/healthcheck/

Seems good… but unfortunately requires IE.

[system]

my windows xp sp2 is fully patch [this is what the microsoft update site says " no available updates for…] any suggestions with the SP3 that microsoft is offering?

[Lisandro]

@vartismz post:18

any suggestions with the SP3 that microsoft is offering?

Bob posted something related to SP3 in forums…

[system]

ok tech i’ll go check it out… am just about to download the stanalone sp3, but i really need to hear from you guys before i hit the download button thanx again…