In association with heise online

26 July 2007, 08:40

Now reveal your missing patches!

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Is my QuickTime up to date? Is Flash-Player on my PC full of holes because it's out of date? Is my Java installation still secure? From now on, these and other questions can be answered free of charge by Personal Software Inspector (PSI) from security service Secunia, which makes an inventory of the software installed on Windows computers and compares the versions with the available updates. PSI makes it easier for private users to get an overview of their PC and prevent holes from remaining open due, for example, to an ancient Adobe Reader version when new versions are available in which holes have been patched.

Secunia Personal Software Inspector
Although the system is up to 76% up-to-date, whether it is safe to move around on the Internet is questionable.

PSI recognises more than 4200 applications and is able to deliver the appropriate assessment for each one. When checking, the English language version of PSI runs a comparison against a server via an SSL connection in order to place the applications in the categories Insecure, End-of-Life or Up-To Date. Users should realise that, under certain circumstances, Secunia therefore gets a complete overview of all the holes in the system.

The first time Secunia PSI is started it silently registers without asking for user details. Secunia has informed heise Security that registration is anonymous. However, according to the licence conditions which have to be accepted before installation, Secunia stores the information up to the "end of registration" (whatever that means), but erases it in any case after no longer than 12 months.

When applications are placed in the category "Insecure", you can display further information or go to the download page of the program concerned via a link. An overall score shows how up-to-date the system is.

See also:

(mba)

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