TECHNOFILE
Patch – or stay
unprotected
THE EXPERT
Tech expert Tim is the
technology writer for
Executive PA Media.
He can be heard on
talk radio in his native
Australia and is a tech
presenter speaking
at conferences and
trade shows about
technology’s impact on
work and lifestyle.
In a perfect world, once a piece of software
is released, it would be free of flaws and
vulnerability. But, given the variety of hardware
and apps in the market, it’s accepted within the
industry that some users will eventually find parts
of the system that leave data available to hackers –
or software that crashes in certain circumstances.
What does it mean for me?
When a new danger, malware, virus or
ransomware is discovered, system developers
will quickly find a way to close the vulnerability
or ‘bug’, and release the ‘fixes’ to the market.
That’s when you see the message urging you to
update – whether for your phone, workstation
or laptop, upgrades and ‘patches’ are part of the
rolling support offered with any operating system
to ensure your device remains safe from hackers
and supportive of new applications.
For the busy EA, this message may seem to
always appear at the most inconvenient times – in
the middle of proofreading board minutes, booking
flights or reconciling an Excel spreadsheet.
Thankfully, you can often wait until overnight,
or when you shut down your PC or laptop before
needing to implement the update – but just make
sure to make time at some point very soon.
The dangers
Over the past year or so, some of the vulnerabilities
have been frightening – and when they’re
discovered, they make the news, which,
unfortunately, motivates armchair hackers to
wreak havoc upon devices around the world
before security patches can be developed and
hurriedly released.
w You may have heard of Meltdown and Spectre
– two viruses that allow for data to be stolen while
the hardware was processing information, separate
to what the software might be doing at the time.
w Similarly, ‘Heartbleed’ went looking for data
left lying around in pockets of machine memory
24 Chief of Staff | April/May 2018
There’s a moment when you check your phone
or shut down your workstation and words urging
you to update your software can leave you with
your finger lingering over the ‘OK’ button. Here’s
some advice, says Tim Stackpool: do it!
when apps were closed; delivered when a user
visited a website unknowingly carrying the
Heartbleed malware.
But, thankfully, some vulnerabilities never see
the light of day as they’re quickly patched when
White Hat hackers (the good guys!) discover the
dangers early and have the vulnerability patched
quietly while the world is none the wiser. For this
reason (while not a 100 per cent safeguard) it’s
also important to let your virus protection update
its ‘definitions’ whenever it requests to do so.
Be responsible
In larger organisations, responsibility for this area
lies with the IT department. Special commands
are sent quietly to their workstations via the
network; generally applying the updates when
the device is shut down or restarted.
This can become more challenging, however,
if your organisation entertains a Bring Your Own
Device policy, as such update commands are not
mandatory. If this applies to you, remember that
the longer you wait before accepting the update,
the more at risk you are to system crashes or
hackers successfully violating your device. Also,
always be sure that the update notification is
legitimate, and not an imposter message from a
hacker wanting you to click on a dangerous link.
A final thought…
Of course, these patches and updates are
sometimes issued so frantically that they can
actually cause other system failures, particularly
when the patch interferes with virus protection
software as both are trying to safeguard against
the same thing. In this case, the entire system
may crash or deliver the dreaded blue screen. In
such instances, patience is required as protection
systems will eventually address the problems
– but only after recording feedback caused by
those difficulties. At least your data is safe in the
meantime. S