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Keep your system current - Keeping operating system and applications up to date is an extremely important part of maintaining a secure and operational system.  Many vulnerabilities, worms, viruses, and Trojans can be addressed or mitigated by applying vendor supplied patches as they become available.  Patching is such an intregral part of system maintenance that most operating systems and applications have the ability to "self-patch" by automatically downloading and applying critical updates on a regular schedule.  For example, the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems (XP, Vista, 2003, and 2008) all have the ability to download and apply patches automatically or just notify you of patch availability.  Similar capabilites exist in most popular UNIX operating systems as well.

Reference links for more information:

Windows Update - Automatic Updates

Microsoft Updates

 

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