back to article Your browser may be up to date: But what about the PLUGINS?

Two in five (39 per cent) of computers submitted for testing to a free browser security test from Qualys were affected by critical vulnerabilities, mostly related to browser plug-ins. The findings, based on 1.4 million BrowserCheck computer scans, paint a picture of e-commerce buyers left wide open to attacks by cybercriminals …

COMMENTS

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  1. Tweetiepooh

    And if you can't update plugins?

    One issue with updating plugins is if you need a particular version for a particular product. This is especially true with Java and legacy applications that may not work (or may not be supported) on the latest version. And updating said application may be less easy even if available.

    This is on top of the application sometimes requiring older versions of browsers in addition to old plugins.

    1. Steven Raith
      Coat

      Re: And if you can't update plugins?

      Ah, Java - write once, run nowhere.

      Yes, I'll get me coat, it's the one that only fits me on a Tuesday.

  2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    "Click to enable"

    Been in my main browsers for years.

  3. Elmer Phud
    Boffin

    Three clicks

    is all it takes on FFox to check.

  4. Al_21

    Vulnerable plugins doesn't make end users vulnerable

    What about browser security measures? - Sandboxes?

    "Chrome has close to 40 per cent of its instances afflicted with a critical vulnerability" - Wonder how many of these are hackers actually able to exploit?

    The blog post is only lacking depth - end result = exaggerated concern.

    I still support the encouragement of keeping software updated of-course.

  5. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Could be wrong

    I thought Opera just had web based widgets rather than actual proper plugins?

    "Opera (34 per cent) came in as the best of a bad bunch"

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Safe money

    The Kaspersky feature "safe money" disables all plug-ins when it loads firefox, also doesn't display any bookmarks. Assume it does the same for IE. Opera not supported.

  7. JCitizen
    Coffee/keyboard

    That is what updaters are for..

    Or autoupdaters if you will. Several of them come to mind, but FireFox has been doing it automatically even on restricted Windows accounts. However, if they don't File Hippo's update checker works well on the Administrator account - Secunia PSI updates flash and some others in the back ground, unless it can't - then it pops up and notifies you of this. Avast anti-virus has a simple auto-updater(if you turn it on), that can update PDF readers, java, or flash, and other popular apps. I don't know how well it works, because I like doing it manually. If any one of them fails the other always makes up the difference. I hear good things about Ninite, but haven't tried it yet.

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