Keeping your computer safe from security flaws is important, but many people haven’t patched their media players and other run-time software: Java, Flash, QuickTime, Adobe Reader, and RealPlayer. This exposes you to infected media files.
Here is a service that scans PCs for applications that lack available security patches. I highly recommend you run this test on all of your computers.
Secunia.com provides you with aggregate counts of the number of products installed and the percentage that are unpatched.
http://secunia.com/software_inspector/
I ran the full system scan on my computer and found 2 of 11 of my applications were not up to date. You should run this on your machine to make sure you don’t have applications running that may be vulnerable to security or attack.
When you get to the main page, just click on Start Now. You’ll be asked if you want to enable the Inspector to search for software installed in non-default locations. Since it’s the first time running this… I’d recommend you check the little box and just let it scan your entire computer and external devices attached. On my system with two external hard drives and a ton of files and software, it took about 15 minutes to complete the entire computer scan. Just grab your favorite beverage and let Secunia do it’s thing.
Once finished, it will show you how many of your applications are NOT up to date…and a link to get them updated. After doing any recommended updates, there will be an option to allow Secunia to notify you upon any releases or updates being available to you. Go ahead and sign up for the automatic email notifications. That way… you don’t forget to perform this system-wide scan (at least monthly) for any recommended updates.
If you have to update any applications, be sure to do a system re-start to enable those applications to fully install the updates and remove any vulnerable versions that may still be sitting on your hard drives.