Care About Security? Update Your Platform Now!

Thee DocKtor is very often offered insight into the practices of many IT departments, sometimes more than he wants to realise. One issue that comes up too often at large enterprises, single consumers, and even government docking station users is that their platforms are woefully in need of maintenance; maintenance per the manufacturers’ recommendations.

Gone are the days of waiting to apply patches for security, but more often forgot than implemented is the practice of platform maintenance. Just like automobiles, PC (and Chromebooks, Macbooks, etc.) require maintenance. This is not just to keep their Targus docking stations working, but more for security reasons, and to keep the PC functioning at its best and performing well. Some updates may even increase the useful life of the platform.

This maintenance goes beyond just keeping the OS updated, but more importantly, manufacturers are making changes for important security reasons. This has been especially important since the discovery of Side Channel Security Vulnerabilities, like Spectre and Meltdown. It’s now considered Cyber Security 101 to keep platforms updated and patched.

The new best practice, and Thee DocKtor highly recommends, for every deployed PC that IT departments and those responsible update BIOS, drivers and firmware as recommended at support.OEM.com (replace OEM with your platform's manufacturer or associated vendor). Many of these updates effect dock, and other device, operation, regardless of the underlying technology.

1. Apple
2. Asus
3. Dell
4. Google
5. HP
6. Lenovo
7. Microsoft
8. Toshiba
9. AMD
10. ARM
11. Intel
12. nVidia
13. National Cyber Security Centre

Thee DocKtor also recommends running and applying Windows, Chromium, macOS, etc. updates as appropriate after the updating the host per the manufacturers as described above.