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Welcome to the ValleyNet Security Website |
The three most important elements of computer security are a personal firewall, antivirus software and operating sytem and program updates. This page is devoted to operating system updates. Firewalls and antivirus can be be found on other pages.
More and more exploits are because of vulnerabilities in operating systems. We've all heard the news stories about security problems with the Windows operating system but do you think you're safe because you have a new Mac with OS X on it? Read this article dealing with a proof-of-concept trojan and consider the fact that the first few operating system updates for OSX were SECURITY PATCHES! The fact is, no operating system is completely secure. Operating system updates are an important part of maintaining the health and security of any computer.
The best way to download and install operating system updates is to use the utilty built in to newer operating systems. For Windows, that would be Windows Update and for Macintosh OS X, it's called Software Update. Both Windows and Mac OS X can be configured to automatically check for new updates and this is the best way to update your operating system. For Macintosh Classic (OS 7.0-9.2), see the Apple web site for updates. One important note on Mac Classic updates is that in general they have to be done in sequence,i.e, if you want to upgrade from OS 8.0 to 8.6, you would have to download and install the updates for 8.1 and 8.5.1 before you could install the OS 8.6 update.