The following is a guest post from Iris Bradbury, Security Analyst at DAT.
Keeping your software and systems up to date is one of the easiest and most effective ways to protect your devices and personal information.
Updates improve security, fix bugs, and enhance functionality. Ignoring the updates can leave your systems vulnerable to cyberattacks, which can leave your data vulnerable and affect your device’s performance.
However, the most critical reason to update your systems is basic security. Threat actors are always looking for outdated software to exploit. By keeping your systems updated, you reduce the risk of being targeted making your device safe to use.
Additionally, updates improve overall performance and often give you new features or tools, giving you a better experience. We see organizations leave themselves open to risk just because they don’t fix or update known security weaknesses in their systems.
In 2023, approximately 75% of cyberattacks exploited vulnerabilities that were at least two years old, highlighting that many individuals fail to apply security updates on time. This means that if you haven’t updated your devices or software in the past two years, you could be exposed to three out of four potential cyber threats due to known, patchable vulnerabilities. It’s entirely preventable.
Updating your software and systems is essential for maintaining security, performance, and functionality. Make it a habit to install updates promptly, or better yet, enable automatic updates to keep your systems running smoothly and safely. It’s that simple.
For more information on the importance of keeping your systems secure, read the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s blog, “Understanding Patches and Software Updates.”
