Firewall's vs. Security Patches.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jack Gillis
  • Start date Start date
J

Jack Gillis

I'm just curious about something and would like a little information.

There are so many security patches available from Microsoft that it is
hard to keep track of which one does what. Are they really needed if a
computer has a good firewall, such as Zone Alarm, up and running all the
time? If not absolutely needed, what are the advantages of having
them installed?

Thank you.
 
Consider a firewall like a security alarm system you may place on all the
windows and doors of your house. It will alert you to someonetrying to break
into your house.

Consider the security patches like a smoke alarm or motion detector inside
your house. It detects, blocks and/or protects against things inside the
house.

If you think that a firewall alone will protect you - you're wrong. Most
security breaches are not from the outside coming in, but from the inside.
All it takes is one faulty computer, say one laptop that already has a
trojan virus on it to be connected to your home network to instrigate a
disaster.

And as far as the "there's too many security patches to keep up with"
argument --- two things:
1. upon closer observation, you will see that Microsoft generally announces
most critical fixes on Wednesday - so plan your reviews accordingly
2. all you really need to do is to run Windows Update and apply any
"critical" patches that are listed. Please note, there are 3 types of
patches listed in WU - critical, recommended, and drivers. I personally do
NOT install either the recommended or driver patches. If you concentrate on
making sure the critical ones are applied, you will be fine.

Finbally, I personally try to reboot my computers first, BEFORE applying
patches, and then rebooting again afterwards.
-kw
 
Greetings --

It's not wise to rely upon a single layer of security protection.
A firewall helps prevent intrusions by malicious applications; while
the security patches help preclude or minimize the damage of anything
that does make it past the firewall.

Protect Your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/default.asp

Home Computer Security
http://www.cert.org/homeusers/HomeComputerSecurity/


Bruce Chambers

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