It seems that every day there is a new batch of updates to apply to your devices. Is this really necessary?
Well, yes. It is.
Most of these updates are to correct security issues, often classified as critical. Crooks are either already exploiting these flaws, or soon will be.
How bad could it be?
It depends on how important your documents and photos are to you. A friend lost her only copy of a video of her wedding where her father spoke; he passed soon after. Almost everything we do is stored digitally and once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Celebrities have had their private photos and videos made public, and often embarrassingly so. Okay so maybe you are not a celebrity but do you really want everyone to see that dodgy selfie from Robo’s party, or your secret ‘no fail’ sponge recipe, or your picks to get you into top spot of the footy tipping competition?
You’re a ‘caring and sharing’ person, right? But do you really want to give all your friends and colleagues malware? Often once malware is on your computer it will try to spread by using your contact list. Your boss isn’t going to thank you for working late from home to get the report done if it contains a virus.
So why haven’t you updated?
Often the process is invisible so it can be difficult to even know that you need to update.
The prompt to update will come up at an inconvenient time. Maybe you need to post the hot selfie to Instagram, or add that witty comment to the viral post. So you defer it. And then again.
I get it.
I once saw an executive giving a sales presentation to a potential customer board of directors when his laptop decided that just then was the best time to restart and apply updates. He had no choice but to call a break until it finished.
Don’t let that happen to you. Make a time to apply updates; or even better, automate the whole process so it happens with out you having to worry.