Maintenance is keep

I tell my doctors that computer maintenance is key. Just like your car need routine maintenance and oil change, so does the computer. The same concept applies in health and the tooth. Having a check up is key to short and long term benefits. But why do people not utilize the same model structure in computers?

If your PC picks up a virus, whose fault is it?
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/if-your-pc-picks-up-a-virus-whose-fault-is-it/4039?tag=mantle_skin;content

The article seems to hit a great point that updates are necessary in the computer world. Software and hardware was safe at one moment. Then it is a liability the next week. It is imperative that all software needs to be updated.

What most professionals and clients, they feel it is a waste of money. Why? Because nothing happens! That is why maintenance is working!!! That is irony of IT. It is there to make things run smooth. They are the first one in the budget to be cut thinking there is no need for it.... I give the best analogy to compare. If you do not have a tooth ache, would you stop brushing your teeth?

Some interesting points from the article:

"With the firewall enabled, the mean survival time of the Windows XP SP2 systems increased to 336 days. No system with this control enabled was compromised in less than 108 days.

The result? Users who were infected became victims because they were missing security updates, typically for third-party programs.

In the results of the 640 hosts that were used for this experiment, no system was compromised with a zero-day attack. Many new and novel attacks against known vulnerabilities did occur, but not a single compromise was due to an unreported vulnerability. Further, no attack without a patch was used to compromise any of the systems. This means that if the systems had been patched, none of the attacks would have succeeded.

(Basis of rootkits on rogue website to attack your computer)
On the basis of the total statistical data of this study it is documented that following products frequently are abused by malware in order to infect Windows machines: Java JRE, Adobe Reader / Acrobat, Adobe Flash and Microsoft Internet Explorer."

It shows value to our company and team in providing maintenance contract and services. No one value it until they are hit hard and then they see the value. I hope people really see that maintenance takes time and preparation. It might be simple but it is the most overlooked process in IT