A patch is a piece of software designed to update a computer program or its supporting data, to fix or improve it. Many people are aware that they need to patch or update the operating system in their computers. Microsoft and Apple offer automatic updates to patch their operating systems. It turns out though that people don't realize that they should check for patches for all the software in their computers. According to a report from IT security provider Secunia, Microsoft programs represent 40 percent of the overall share of programs installed on Saudi PCs, while the remaining 60 percent come from third-party vendors. The security of a PC is largely controlled by the number and type of programs installed on it and to what extent these programs are patched. Secunia found that 58 percent of vulnerabilities came from third-party vendors. Also, 17.4 percent of users have unpatched Windows operating systems. Secunia's Personal Software Inspector (PSI) Country Report for Saudi Arabia for the first quarter of 2014 revealed that the average PC user in Saudi Arabia has 86 programs installed from 29 different vendors and that 5.2 percent of these are no longer patched by the vendor. On the average PC, 14.3 percent of third-party programs are unpatched compared to 3.4 percent for Microsoft programs. “A lot of users have PCs that are inadequately patched and therefore easily compromised. As a result, cybercriminals tend to exploit any security gaps to access sensitive information,” said Morten R. Stengaard, Secunia's CTO. “We are on a mission to secure PCs worldwide and as the Middle East is a booming technology market, we want to make users aware of the threats to their PCs, and the solutions available to help secure them. Saudi Arabia is the biggest IT market in the region and findings from our report show that the users need education on the necessity of applying security updates to the programs on their PCs.” Vulnerabilities are discovered in software programs on a regular basis, and the vendor will usually release a patch for users to apply in the form of a security update. If users do not perform these updates, their PC will be vulnerable to attacks because hackers can use the vulnerability as an entry point. The free “Secunia PSI” scans PCs for weaknesses in third party programs such as Skype and Google Chrome. It then supplies your computer with the necessary software security updates to keep it safe. The Secunia PSI is available in Arabic. There's also the free “Secunia PSI for Android” that will scan an Android smartphone, looking for security holes and making updates. Neither Secunia application is a replacement for anti-virus software, but a fully patched computer is much tougher to attack. Learn more about both from: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/
