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Security Report: Most PCs Run Outdated, Hacker-Friendly Software

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

Hardly anyone runs a PC without known holes that hackers can exploit, a Danish security company reports. Of those who run the company's free security-scanning tool, nearly half have more than 11 out-of-date programs.

Secunia Software's Personal Software Inspectorchecks programs installed on a user's computer to see if the latest, patched version is installed. More than 98 percent of users had at least one program that wasn't the latest version, the company found in a study of 20,000 users of its software.

The sobering statistics are not surprising, but they come as malware makers turn from simply exploiting easy holes in Windows.

In addition, hackers have been finding vulnerabilities in browsers, media players and file-reading software as a way into other people's computers.

While it may not seem likely that a hacker would rig a website to exploit a patched hole in a lesser-known media player like VLC, hacking tools make it increasingly easy for an infected webpage to check for many vulnerabilities in a person's computer.

Number of insecure programs per PC/user:
0 insecure programs:	1.91% of PCs
1-5 insecure programs:	30.27% of PCs
6-10 insecure programs:	25.07% of PCs
11+ insecure programs:	45.76% of PCs

Secunia's Mikkel Winther says the study shows that its just as important to keep programs up to date, as it is to have a good firewall and anti-virus programs. He also says the real numbers in the general populace are likely worse, because their sample is of people who have looked for security software.

"The results are shocking and prove as well as emphasize the need for a patching solution for private users," Winther said.

Keeping up with software updates can be quite tedious and annoying, even as software makers like Microsoft and Mozilla have built better update tools.

Those who don't care to download Secunia's software can try it's online scanner, though it only checks version numbers on a hundred or so programs.

Secunia does not sell security software to individuals, but does market a networked version of this scanner to companies.

Photo: Jared Tarbell/Flickr

See Also:

• Tune Up Windows XP Security, the Quick and Dirty Way
• Mac Users Get A Credit Card Stealing Trojan for Halloween ...
• Underground Crime Economy Healthy, Security Group Finds
• Feds Start Moving on Net Security Hole - Update
• Revealed: The Internet's Biggest Security Hole

Full post as published by Threat Level on December 08, 2008 (boomark / email).