Mark DuBois Weblog

After deleting yet another 9 meaningless comments in this weblog, I must rant yet again on this topic. I realize these are simply bot programs that place meaningless drivel with comments to various sites. For those who care to read this post, there is a simple truth – even if I were to allow the comments, they will not matter one bit in the larger scheme. Only a fool would actually follow the nonsense. And, more importantly, major search engines (like Google) now completely ignore web log comments and their embedded links. So the only reason for posting such drivel is not valid. There is no way random strings of words will actually increase search engine ranking of any site. Over the few years this weblog has been active, there have been 1,637 attempts to inject drivel. None have succeeded. The majority are caught by filters I have installed; the rest are removed once a month. I am curious if readers of these thoughts have additional insights as to why weblog spam continues. Yes, I will approve actual insightful comments.

I recently reviewed the November OUCH newsletter for SANS. Bill Wyman put together an extensive list of commonly installed software products (and the patch sites for each). I thought it would be helpful to share this with readers. This is used with permission. If you do not subscribe to the SANS OUCH newsletter, I encourage you to do so. Yes, I am a reviewer. Here are the links to patches for these commonly encountered systems.

Windows: http://update.microsoft.com and http://www.microsoft.com/security/updates/bulletins/200910.aspx

OS X: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1338

iPhone/iPod: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305744

iPod: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1483

Acrobat Reader: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/

Adobe Flash Player: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/update/

Safari: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/application_updates/safari.html

Opera: http://www.opera.com/

Google Chrome: http://googlechromeupdate.com/updates.html

Java: http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

iTunes: http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/22/itunes-9-0-1-now-in-software-update/

Symantec: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/docid/2002021908382713

Norton: http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/definitions/download/detail.jsp?gid=n95

McAfee: http://www.mcafee.com/apps/downloads/security_updates/dat.asp

Kaspersky: http://www.kaspersky.com/avupdates

Sophos: https://secure.sophos.com/support/updates/

Panda: http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/downloads/clients/

BitDefender: http://www.bitdefender.com/site/view/Desktop-Products-Updates.html

Microsoft Security Essentials: http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

I would appreciate comments as to how helpful this list is to you.