You may remember awhile back we discussed Adobe Flash and Adobe PDF Reader.  You cannot avoid these products since they are cornerstones of the Internet yet they have become high security risks.  We suggested that a good strategy to protect yourself was to frequently update the software in addition to updating your operating system while also maintaining a good antivirus program.

Adobe released patches to address the worst of the problems.  These patches corrected 29 vulnerabilities in Adobe PDF Reader and 13 in Adobe Flash.  To get and install these patches go to www.adobe.com/downloads.  Find the button for downloading Adobe Reader and press it.  Follow the instructions.  Do this again for Adobe Flash.  Press the button for downloading Adobe Flash and follow the directions.  I did this and it took me about 15 minutes to update both programs and that included the download time.  Times will vary depending upon your systems.

In the past, I wrote about cell phone software attacks.  Modern cell phones area actually complex computers; this includes the so-called dumb phones.  As you know computers can be attacked with all kinds of nasty software intended to steal your money.  That is now true of your cell phones.  There is even a version of the infamous Zeus program that attacks your online banking that now runs on your smart phone.

Another interesting attack we spoke about in the past is SMS or text messages. There are more text message users than there are email users so text messages are a good target for crooks.  A significant portion of text message crime involves offering non-existent prizes or asking users to call a premium rate phone number.  They collect the money via your phone bill and you do not win a prize.

A few things you can do to protect yourself are do not respond to text messages from people you do not know.  Make sure your phone updates itself at least weekly by turning it off then back on.  Many cell phones download and install updates when they are first turned on.  Do not download and install programs for your phone unless they are from a well-known and trusted source.