As I explained in a post about botnets earlier this week, downloading updates and security fixes for software on your computer is key to staying out of the clutches of cybercriminals.

There’s little excuse not to do it. Patching your computer is cheap (free, actually) and has become quite easy. Most major software providers now install updates automatically and with little hassle, if you want them to.

The time to do it is now. This week, three of the biggest software companies – Microsoft, Apple and Adobe – released important security patches for their products. All fix serious vulnerabilities that, if exploited, could give bad guys full control of your computer to make you part of their botnet, scour your machine for private information, turn it into a spam generate and, well, whatever else they want.

In fact, attackers were hitting the Microsoft and Adobe flaws – which are in PowerPoint and Adobe Reader and Acrobat respectively – before these patches were available. So there really is no time to lose in getting those fixes on your machines. The battle is already underway, and, if history is any guide, is likely to heat up.

The nature of the flaws mean that, “merely by opening up an (attacker’s) attachment or a file, you can be comprised,” says Chad Dougherty, a vulnerability analyst at the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute CERT/CC. “In the worst case, you won’t notice anything bad happened.”

If you have a Windows PC, you should immediately download the fixes from Microsoft and Adobe. And better yet, enable automatic software updates you don’t have to worry about this stuff in the future.

Setting up automatic updates in Windows differs for Vista and XP users.
In Vista, click the “Start” button, then “All Programs” and “Windows Update.” Then select “Change Settings” and choose how you want Windows to install updates. Microsoft recommends choosing to receive all important and recommended updates. (And while you’re at it, you may as well turn on the Phishing Filter.) If you use Microsoft programs like Office and you see a “Get updates for more products” button within “Windows Update,” click on that to make sure you’re getting security updates for those products, too. If you have XP, detailed directions are here.

If you have a Mac, you can feel a little better knowing that no one has been seen attacking the flaws fixed by Apple’s update. But there’s no reason to delay downloading the update either. After all, it fixes a large number of serious vulnerabilities that experts say are readily hackable.

“There are no real-world attacks for those 67 flaws, but notice I said 67 flaws,” says Corey Nachreiner, a security analyst at WatchGuard Technologies. “An attacker could theoretically take over your Mac computer.”

To get the update, click the Apple icon in the top left corner of your screen and choose “Software Update.” It’s a good idea to backup your data first, and you’ll need to quit all applications.

By the way, Mac users who have Microsoft Office with PowerPoint are vulnerable, and there is still no patch for you. So you may want to treat PowerPoint files with a bit of extra suspicion for awhile. If you’ve downloaded Adobe products, go get fixes for Reader here and Acrobat Pro here.

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