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Secunia PSI 1.0 released

Nov. 25, 2008 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

Got a little note from Secunia this morning noting that their PSI 1.0 tool has been finalized. (It was a recently Windows Weekly software pick of the week):

Today is a really exciting day, after 17 months of beta testing the
Secunia PSI has reached version 1.0.

During the past 17 months the PSI has become impressively popular and
has been installed on more than 790.000 systems, during this time it has
received acknowledgements like: "quite possibly the most useful and
important free application you can have running on your Windows machine"
and "Not only does this impressive program provide extensive details on
the software installed on your computer, it gives you direct links to
update old and programs that are potentially not secure...We highly
recommend this useful freeware program to keep your software up to
date".

Today, we also launched a forum where users can get help solving various
issues related to patching and securing systems. Secunia staff will help
answering some of the threads / questions in the forum.

You can read more in the attached press release and in our blog:
http://secunia.com/blog/35/

The Secunia PSI is available here:
http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

Discuss this Article 15

mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 25, 2008
The sad thing (for users, not for Secunia) is that the entire app is only needed for the companies that didn't bother to sign up to be in the Windows Update/Microsoft Update programs. For those that did, the automatic update already keeps you up to date. Unfortunately, there are enough companies out there that don't and so a secondary scanner is useful.
johnbaxter
on Nov 25, 2008
Mike, PSI covers software well outside Microsoft (including the near-weekly Adobe Flash and Apple Quicktime updates). Does the Microsoft program reach out that far?
Dipsh t Admin
on Nov 25, 2008
Mike, as jb said, it covers much more than just MS products, and is quite good at weeding out those straggling old Adobe Flash versions lying around. And as part of a complete patch management solution, using WSUS and something else to verify that the patches took is actually very much recommended in bigger shops, heck, even in smaller shops. Particularly when compliance issues are at hand. Check out the patch management mailing list, which is frequented by the SBS Diva herself.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 25, 2008
johnbaxter Microsoft opened up their update programs to 3rd parties a while back so the answer is, no the program doesn't reach out that far but, yes, it could if the vendors chose to participate. Hence my posting that this was necessary because some companies don't join.
tayme
on Nov 25, 2008
@mikegalos - Would you not agree with john and dip that as admins, we must take a multi-pronged approach to patch management...even if the MS program was widely participated in by 3rd party apps? --tayme
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 25, 2008
tayme For actual admins, absolutely. The more tools the better since they have both specialized needs and are expected to spend virtually no time per computer.
Ocean
on Nov 25, 2008
>>some companies don't join<< What are the incentives/disincentives to joining?
Ocean
on Nov 25, 2008
>>For actual admins, absolutely.<< Why did you write it this way? Do you mean that non-admins (faux-admins?) have no use for this tool?
tayme
on Nov 25, 2008
@mikegalos - Then we fianlly agree on something! @Ocean - Dude?!? --tayme
Waethorn
on Nov 25, 2008
@Mike: Some of the System Center apps are already supported with plugins by third parties. Some features for updates, some for management.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 25, 2008
Waethorn That's the advantage of both writing platforms rather than apps and maintaining a good relationship with your partners.
sjaak327
on Nov 25, 2008
Alltought the idea is great, the applcition is eating away unbelievable amounts of memory (around 140 mb on my XP machine) That's the reason I haven't installed it on other workstations in my network, maybe the final product is more polished, so I might give it another try.
gorath
on Nov 25, 2008
Hang on, have I missed something here? "PSI has become impressively popular and has been installed on more than 790.000 systems" Is it even possible for software to be installed on a non-integer number of computers? If so, can it really be installed on 0.001 computers? that's a very fine grain of measurement!
Waethorn
on Nov 25, 2008
"Is it even possible for software to be installed on a non-integer number of computers?" Some countries do you different punctuation you know.... For instance, in French punctuation, they commonly use the symbols « » to encapsulate a quote rather than " ". In many "International English" (those that have adopted Metric mostly, which excludes the US), often the method used to separate digits in the thousands for better readability is a space. In the US, it's a comma. ie. 1,000,000 vs. 1 000 000. Secunia is based out of Denmark, hence the alternate method.
gorath
on Nov 25, 2008
I know, I was kidding! However, I didn't know 'why' some used decimal places, and hadn't guessed geographic location as a probable option. You learn something everyday I guess! thanks.

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