changes in appeMozilla Firefox 13 introduc silent updates (Chrome has had them since the beginning). The feature has its positive effects on security, but there are also its critics…
Silent updates are one of the ways to automatically update computer software, which is now increasingly gaining ground in the field of web browsers and some of their add-ons, l by the extend Flash Player plug-in from Adobe, due to considerable user and mia attention. The principle of silent updates is that the update is install without the ne for any interaction with the user.
The update is handl by a service or process running in the background. Everything will happen fully automatically, from detecting the availability of the update to downloading it to applying it. Updates are thus distribut and install practically immiately after their release (of course, it depends on how the distribution is distribut in order not to overload the source servers). It does not wait for the user’s consent to install them.
The user does not have to learn about the ongoing update process at all, and in the worst case, he will not even learn about the successful completion of the update installation or about the fixes and news it brought. And this is one of the things that bothers the critics, but first let’s talk about why the creators of various browsers came up with this system of distribution and installation of updates.
Silent updates come due to user laziness
Silent updates have both their supporters and critics, and as is often the case, the critics are somewhat louder and more visible. However, there is one strong argument for silent updates: security. Years of experience show that even the simplest and most self-indulgent user-dependent update mechanism is not effective enough in spreading security updates.
Technical innovations (automatic offering of updates or their automatic incremental installation) and at least two decades taiwan phone number data of ucation do not lead to the desir goal. Many users still ignore security updates, even though they are serv right under their noses. An unpatch web browser is a big security risk.
A successful system infiltration can happen
Just by loading a web page. At the same time, the user does not ne to navigate to sites that are generally consider risky. The latest observations show that, for example, the danger of porn sites has become just a widespread cliché. Symantec, for example, states that websites with religious themes are much more dangerous .
Attackers attack legitimate and hitherto fully trust websites and silently place code on them to spread the malware infection. They often use known security flaws in popular open source publishing systems that are us by millions of websites to run (such as WordPress and Drupal), or in popular add-ons and templates for them.
At the same time, infecting one computer is not a private problem of its owner or user. Infect computers are put together in so-call botnets, and their collective power is abus for a variety of nefarious purposes, from various forms of attacks on specific services and servers to the massive dissemination of unsolicit and fraudulent messages not only via e-mail, but nowadays increasingly also via social networks.
Spam emails
From a certain point of view, any infect computer with Internet access can be consider a problem for every Internet user and, of albert einstein later prov their existence course, companies offering or operating their services on it. Not to mention attacks of the nature of international or industrial espionage (see recently, for example, the Flame worm ). That is why security updates are given such importance and why (not only) web by lists browsers resort to the most efficient solutions for their distribution. Top among them are silent updates.arance and functionality.