If your computer seems to be working fine, you may wonder why you should apply a patch. By not applying patches, you might be leaving the door open for malware to come in.
Benefits and key features
Malware will exploit software flaws on your computer in order to do its work. Knowing how to patch your computer automatically while at MIT can prevent major headaches. IS&T can help you set up automatic patches so that you don't even have to think about it.
Features include:
- Security updates for Mac OS and Windows
- New releases of IS&T provided software
- MIT Windows Automatic Update Service (WAUS)
- Red Hat Network (RHN)
Requirements
Download anti-virus, backup, and security software from the Software Grid, and subscribe to automatic updates. (MIT Kerberos account required)
Getting started
Microsoft
- Turn on the Automatic Updates feature in your Windows operating system. You will be notified of any updates before downloading them or automatically installing them. You set the frequency of notification.
- Subscribe instead to the MIT Windows Automatic Update Service (WAUS) to receive a more conservative selection of the most critical security updates from Microsoft.
Apple
- Mac OS X automatically checks for software updates. Choose a different schedule (set weekly by default) or check manually. If you see an update that you will never use, you can deselect it from the update menu.
Linux
- IS&T provides an update service for Red Hat Enterprise Linux machines. Other Linux systems are not as simple to patch because of the nature of Linux software and its many distributions. Each distribution has a different method of patching. Learn more about the Red Hat Network update service.
Learn more about applying patches and OS updates.
New versions of software
Check out the software grid to see if new versions of IS&T-supported software have been released.