14 DAY TRIAL // There are three main things that security experts say when they advise regular users on how to stay safe online: beware of suspicious content, install an antivirus, and keep software updated at all times.
This week’s security app is excellent for users who want to abide by this third rule without going through the hassle of manually checking for updates and installing them.
Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) has been around for quite a while, but the 3.0 version comes with some interesting improvements such as a simplified interface, its vulnerability scanning and patching processes are not intrusive, and the automatic patching system has been extended.
Secunia PSI is not only easy to deploy, but also easy to utilize. Once it’s installed, the customer simply selects the drives he/she wants checked and in a fairly short amount of time, depending on the amount of data, the results are displayed.
Regular users don’t have to worry about finding trustworthy updates since everything is done automatically for a large part of the 3000 pieces of software it supports.
While in certain cases the program is unable to silently perform the update process, it does warn the customer when an unpatched application requires attention.
For instance, PSI can’t automatically apply Windows updates because they’re made via Microsoft’s own update engine. However, the user is notified of the existence of patches for each different component and the operating system’s update process can be deployed from within the application.
Combined with a decent security solution, Secunia PSI can ensure that unless there’s a zero-day involved, Blackhole and other exploit kits can’t push anything malicious onto your computer.
Judging by the large number of compromised websites we are seeing these days, not to mention the large number of unpatched security holes, this app could really be a problem solver.
Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) 3.0 is available for download here and a complete review can be found here.