One of the most important protections against malware is to have up-to-date versions of software in use. The base OS and some applications are very good at checking and updating themselves, but there are lots of applications that leave it up to you to check; and who has time for that?

The security services company Secunia has recently updated their Personal Software Inspector application, and you can find the v3 beta version available free of charge at https://secunia.com/psi_30_beta_launch/

This app scans your Windows PC, looking for outdated software; it then downloads and installs the updates for you. I have a Windows virtual machine here that I occasionally use, and it has very little installed on it at all; PSI still found updates for Firefox, Opera and most importantly Adobe Flash!

If you are responsible for maintaining the state of your own Windows PC, I’d recommend adding Secunia PSI to your toolbox.