Security App of the Week: Secunia PSI 3.0

Nice story and all...but again WHAT is average user who just wants to USE a computer to do? This article requires an UN translator and BS degree to navigate this bs. Users in general ought NOT be burden with any of this inside geek stuff any more than needing to fully understand how an appliance works. Average users do NOT even know the difference between downloading and installing, are naturally trusting, unaware that somethings are faked to trick you, or how to spot the difference, or continue to use IE which ought to be SHAMED totally out of existence. Average users are clueless, ignorant, and gullible. But the tech community is NOT stepping up to insist on simple due diligence of the safe construction of software and websites.

When will developer's be held responsible for the vast majority of exploits such buffer overruns? When will web developers be ORDERED/SHAMED into creating only standards compliant websites that pass W3C validation with browsers instructed to reject non-compliant sites by default? When will business users simply ASSUME all other computers are compromised? Shouldn't banks, for example, ASSUME, that all users computers are compromised and transacted business accordingly?

And of the three rules mentioned, I ask, what's the difference, to the user, between malware causing grief and an update causing grief. Recently a Flash update created days worth hassle and, of course, many blamed a virus, some didn't ack the problem at all, with the usual refrain, "Its working fine here."

Currently plague with Flash attempting to install ten times an hour! (Unrelated to above problem?!)

Funny to, installing Flash via Adobe website showing latest versions in a "complex table" to be 11.3... yet the website downloaded and installed version 11.2... without explanation. Maybe 11.3 still has the aforementioned BUG and to embarrassed to note that.

Then there's the Adobe example in general, given all the security concerns, privacy concerns, the performance problems, the update complexity problems, the shear number of bugs, its vulnerabilities, the hassle factor, the whole drag of all this on one's productivity, and yet to date, Adobe has only doubled-down on the all problems especially with Flash and Adobe Reader. The instructions, helps, explanations, and settings dialog are uniquely Adobe, and * confusing to most users. I don't use Adobe reader at all - nor do my clients - for the same reasons - thankfully a sound and better performing alternative is available.