Whats the Missing Link in Computer Security?
You may feel safe behind a firewall and anti-virus software. But you’re not. Bad guys can still get to your personal information stored on your computer, and even take over your computer and run it as if it was their own. The gap in your armor? It’s the application software you use every day. Let’s look at just one recent example. Do you ever read Adobe PDF files, in your browser or with Adobe Reader after downloading? Tens of millions of people do; PDF is one of the most widely used file formats. In July 2009, hackers found a way to embed malware in PDF files using the equally popular Adobe Flash animation format. Even anti-virus software developers like Symantec were caught off-guard by this obscure vulnerability. New vulnerabilities are discovered in application software every hour, it seems. Software developers issue patches and updates that close these doors to hackers in a never-ending game of Whack-A-Mole. Vulnerability pops up here, hit it with a patch. Another pops up over the
