Third-party apps open door for hackers

Research by security company Secunia suggests that third-party applications are increasingly being used by hackers to download malicious software to PCs in preference to operating systems.

The company said that the problem is exacerbated by the fact that private users are not aware of this problem with software such as Adobe or Realplayer, meaning they fail to download the patches developers release.

Thomas Kristensen, Secunia’s chief technical officer, said: “The criminals are developing more and more targeted attacks, focusing on the applications that are most likely to be unpatched.

“I would not hesitate to say that the biggest threat to your PC probably is a program you installed yourself, simply because it is out of date and insecure.”

The data the company gathered was taken from its Personal Software Inspector (PSI) tool, which showed that there were far more unpatched applications than operating systems among its users. Moreover, it also found that patches for these applications were not applied as quickly as fixes for operating systems.

Secunia’s figures were backed up by data in Microsoft’s Security Intelligence Report, released earlier in April. It reported that 90 per cent of serious vulnerabilities were not found in third-party applications.

Mr Kristensen said it doesn’t help that software companies fail to give sufficient information about the importance of updating or provide sufficient updating mechanisms.

The Secunia PSI tool is a free download for consumers. It scans the user’s computer for seriously outdated software products and if an update or patch is needed it will link users to links where they can download the updated version.