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What I'm about to tell you may seem shocking and cause you to raise objection, but rest assured the average pchacker is already well aware of this information. The purpose here is to stress the importance of patch management and how automated patch management software can prevent someone from entering your system.
The average pchacker is not some computer wizard with years of experience, but rather a person just learning about computer security and patch management. You may not know it, but every time a weakness is found that would allow someone to comprise your system, that information is actually posted on the internet with detailed instructions on how to take advantage of that weakness - I'll post an example in a moment.
If you think this sounds crazy, then you're not alone! There have been and still are, heated debates about publishing such information on the web, and freedom of speech is in the lead. There is a positive side to publishing this information in that it keeps vendors honest and allows those who use patch management software to ward off the would be pchacker.
Windows Patch Management is an excellent example. When Microsoft releases a patch, it's usually because someone found the flaw and made that information public. Many sites who post the exploit code will first contact a vendor such as Microsoft and give them a window of time to issue a software patch. Once the Windows patch is released, the pchacker immediately begins looking for his victim.
Lack of patch management software or a patch management program is what the pchacker's are looking for. Sites such as http://www.securityfocus.com/bid post information about a computer's weakness, as well as the solution, and make available the instructions necessary to take advantage of that weakness. pchackers follow this information on a daily basis and look for un-patched computers from which they can conduct their illegal activities.
Patch Management can prevent this from happening to you. Manually applying software patches can be difficult and very time consuming, a task that can be eliminated by automated patch management software. Microsoft patch management comes built into the system and is free, UNIX patch management, Linux patch management and other vendors also offer patch management programs.
Patch Management software won't solve all your problems, but it will prevent over 95% of them!
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