Keeping your operating system and software up to date is one of the most important ways you can help to keep your computer and network safe from cyber crime.
This is because new security risks are appearing all the time, and manufacturers work to produce fixes to known security flaws, and to add other new security features. These are released to you as updates to your software. The sooner you install them, the sooner you are protected against these known vulnerabilities. Not installing them leaves you at higher risk unnecesarily.
Install security updates and patches as soon as reasonably practicable to protect your systems
As well as being a security boost, keeping software up-to-date has the following additional benefits:
- fixes known bugs
- improves software functionality,
- adds new features, and
- improves performance
The UK government’s NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) advises updating your:
- operating systems (not just on your PC – also on your phone, tablet, and other devices)
- all software, including apps and office software
- web-browsers and extensions
- antivirus
Some of these things will update themselves automatically, but don’t just assume that will be the case. Sometimes you will see pop-ups advising that updates are available. Sometimes you will receive other notifications about them. You may be prompted to re-start your machine to enable the update to install fully. In this case, follow the instructions. From time-to-time it might be worth checking that all your software is up-to-date, by looking in the “Settings” and then “Update & Security”. This is also the place you can select automatic updates, and other details, like any times of day you especially don’t want your machine to suddenly start running up-dates and restarting.
Some people worry that installing up-dates will slow them down, or cause problems on their machine. Occasionally there will be problems. Usually these might be solved by a simple shut down and re-start. It’s possible your machine doesn’t have enough space to install the files for the update. Or there may be other issues. But most of the time, updating is straightforward, and the benefit certainly outweighs the risk.