Feature: The Hidden Costs of “I’ll Update Later”
Deferring patches is like leaving the front door ajar. Attackers don’t need a master plan if the lock is already broken.
Updates are boring—until they’re not. The majority of consumer compromises in the wild come from well-known vulnerabilities with available patches. Criminals scan for these the way drivers look for open parking spots. The longer you wait to patch, the more scans you’ll endure.
Auto-update is the single strongest default you can set. When things occasionally break after an update, resist the urge to switch everything off. Instead, roll back the single troublesome app and keep the rest patching on schedule.
Phones make this easy: enable automatic OS updates, app store updates, and browser updates. Then add a reputable real-time web shield that blocks known phishing sites and dangerous downloads.