Why you should not bypass Java and other Updates

A very common complaint by end users involves “automatic updates” and some people go to great lengths to avoid them. We published this quick tip about when and how to run them to minimize the impact. There are several programs that you should think twice before bypassing or ignoring the update:

• Windows Critical Updates
• Adobe Acrobat
• Flash Viewer
• Oracle/Sun Java

The last item on this list is the primary purpose for this post, check out this bulletin from March 2009 related to Oracle Java. There were a total of 27 new security fixes:

“Due to the threat posed by a successful attack, Oracle strongly recommends that customers apply CPU fixes as soon as possible. This Critical Patch Update contains 27 new security fixes across all products.”

So please, when you get the notices for these updates – run them. Another great way to avoid many of these problems is to operate your computer with an account that has lower permissions. We will write a follow up describing how to do that and why.

If you’d like to see a chronological history of the Java updates or see if there are new ones go here. You can also add them to your RSS reader here.

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