When discussing computer security, it is very dangerous to adopt a one-size-fits-all policy. Viruses, worms, Trojans and hackers use all sorts of exploits to compromise your computers security. Every hardware component, every piece of software, every driver on your system can potentially contain thousands of exploits. If an attacker discovers one of these exploits then your whole system is wide open for attack.An exploit is an innocent bug or loophole in the software that was over-looked at design/development stage. Groups of hackers spend months or years looking for these exploits, once found they are used by the hackers to develop new viruses, worms, trojans and attack methods.

Microsoft does a very good job at securing the windows operating system. When an exploit is found, Microsoft releases a patch or update which removes the exploit and keeps your windows operating system secure.

It is very important that you keep your windows system up-to-date, as a computer user I get frustrated when I switch my PC on and I’m greeted with a “Windows is updating… please wait” message, this usually happens when I’m in a hurry to do something. Although at times this is unbelievably annoying, just remember that without this update service you have virtually no protection.

As any program or driver can contain an exploit, you need to keep all of your programs up-to-date not just windows. Most software companies are good at this, but some are not. With this in mind it is a good idea to keep the number of applications installed on your PC to the bare minimum, and regularly un-install older or un-used applications.