Microsoft’s most recent Security Intelligence Report, which discusses security risks the company identify from feedback from over 600 million PCs for the six months to end December 2012, highlighted the new No. 1 vulnerability on your network, internet browsers.
Most people intuitively think that email-borne viruses are the greatest threat to their data but the top position is now taken by web-based threats, which exploit internet browser vulnerabilities through malicious code. 70% of damage done to company networks came from this source.
In the long-term Microsoft intimate they will redesign how browsers interact with their Windows operating systems but in the here and now it remains critically important that network users keep their internet browsers up to date with security patches. Microsoft’s own browser, Internet Explorer, remains a dominant player in the browser market but the importance of security patches remains, whether you use Chrome, Firefox or another alternative. All should update automatically as soon as a patch becomes available.
As well as subscribing to malware protection software (often under-defined as antivirus software), you should, of course, also subscribe to signature updates for an appropriate firewall (such as the SonicWall range we are so fond of). You install a firewall to protect your network from malicious attack but by the time you have it out of the box it will already be out of date. SonicWalls, and their equivalents, automatically receive updates several times per week. They then analyse each web page before it gets to your browser.
