Cybersecurity Blog

Keep your devices updated with the latest security patches – 01/21/21

 

With criminals constantly coming up with new ways to hack into our systems, keeping your devices updated with the latest security patches is more important than ever. When you are on campus keeping your workstation up to date and secure is easy.  Shut down your machine at the end of the day Friday and start it up Monday morning.  However once you are working from home and your computer is always on keeping your machine updated isn’t so straight forward.

If you are remoting in to an MRU workstation you can’t shut it down. Instead, logout of the workstation and disconnect from GlobalProtect at the end of each work day. The updates are downloaded in the background as you work. Once you log out, your workstation is automatically restarted to install them.

If you have an MRU laptop assigned to you, it is setup to automatically download updates as you work. Once the updates are downloaded you are prompted to restart your machine to install them.  As long as you don’t ignore the prompts, you are good to go. If you choose to ignore them and call the Service Desk for support, you won’t be helped until you restart your machine.

If you are using your personal computer, make sure you have automatic updates enabled on Windows/Mac OS and all your applications.  From the Windows Start menu, select Settings>Updates and security to check your Windows update settings.  On a Mac, select System Preferences>Software Update and click the Automatic Updates checkbox. Just like MRU laptops, updates are downloaded in the background and you are asked to restart your machine to install them.

Once you know what to do, installing your security patches is pretty easy. While it can be annoying, it is well worth your time. With a little bit of effort you make it exponentially more difficult for attackers to compromise your data and mess with your life.

 

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