7 June 2022
Advice on best practices for keeping software on smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop PCs up to date.
To prevent known vulnerabilities from being exploited, software must be kept up to date. This means installing patches released by the software developers to close security holes found in their products. Hence the name 'patching'.
They will often also contain security patches and new security features, both of which it's important to install.
What to keep up to date
You should make sure you have ways of keeping each of the following important types of software up to date:
- Operating System (OS): Most operating systems support automatic updates but will need the feature to be enabled. It's normally enabled by default, but could have been turned off.
- Web browser and extensions: Web browsers are particularly vulnerable, as they are very complex pieces of software and the sites you visit could potentially exploit flaws in them.
- Third-party apps - especially office apps: Apps you install yourself will need to be kept up to date. Some apps will update themselves, some will update through your device's app store, but some might need you to install updates yourself.
- Anti-virus: If you use anti-virus or endpoint security apps, you'll want to ensure that these are updated regularly. Like other software, anti-virus updates include bug fixes and new features, but also include new signatures which can be used to detect new malware that's recently been detected by the AV companies.
