Industry News Home More stories like this... RSS Feed

Improper online security gives easy access to hackers

A researcher has claimed that hackers need only five minutes to find and break in to computers without proper internet security, reports ComputerWorld.

According to the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center, if an internet-connected computer is not equipped with the latest security patches from Microsoft, then it's survival is around four minutes.

"I have been asked many [times] by people if I really believed the survival time graph on the ISC site was truly an accurate representation of how long a new system had once connected," said Lorna Hutcheson, a researcher and analyst.

"The answer to this is 'yes' for most home users and systems that are Internet-facing."

And despite the computer survival figures varying depending on researchers, there is a unanimous agreement that having a machine without proper internet security is risky.

"Pretty much all agree that placing an un-patched Windows computer directly onto the internet in the hope that it downloads the patches faster than it gets exploited are odds that you wouldn't bet on in Vegas," said Hutcheson.

Internet security featuring our award-winning anti-spyware, anti-virus, firewall and spam protection. Visit www.pctools.com to upgrade your protection