The Aurora target attack made me think about the client applications again.
This and when I saw Mikko Hypponen’s twitter message on the saveie6.com website (that was actually quite funny).

For some time the weakest link on computer security has been the outdated applications/OS.

At first, the OS (in this case I am specific about MS Windows) was the main target and Microsoft decided to include

the option to install updates automatically.
This definitely helped a lot the regular user. But what about the third party applications, such as another browser (Firefox, Chrome, Safari),

media player ( realplayer, quicktime…), doc reader,etc…?

For some years, the exploit kits such as MPack are quite smart on keep large databases of exploit for several different client applications.

Sometime ago I found an application that would keep track of all installed applications and check for the most recent versions and pop up

when it was available.

My main concern in this case was privacy.

How do you handle/manage client application upgrade? In your home or company?

Send me your ideas and I will post a consolidated list of suggestions.
__________________________________
Pedro Bueno (pbueno /%%/ isc. sans. org)
Twitter: http://twitter.com/besecure

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