PSI Secure web surfing

The beta version of the Secunia software update and vulnerability scanning tool—PSI (Personal Software Inspector) version 1.0.0.5—is now available for download and distribution. Furthermore, it's just what the doctor ordered when it comes to dealing with system vulnerabilities, lack of patches or updates, hackers, and cyber security in general.

This handy application not only searches for updates on behalf of your installed programs, but it also alerts you against using specific browsers through a special browser evaluation feature.

But also gives recommendations to users in regards to which browser he should use for better Internet security.

You can get a "Not safe for browsing" message on your browser

of choice every time it has an unpatched and already reported vulnerability or security hole or it's lacking of add-ons that protect you against online miscreants and cyber criminals. This application is especially useful because nearly every PC known to man contains outdated software that can make your system susceptible to the whims of abusive and malicious hackers.

Programs that are enabled when browsing the web tend to be especially dangerous because they can be targeted by compromised web pages created by criminal elements from the Internet. Although you may have Microsoft Update installed into your system, it can only protect you so far because it only provides patches and fixes for Microsoft published products.

Luckily, Secunia's PSI tool gives you a workaround to these potentially harmful vulnerabilities that could lead to major system damage due to exploits, malware, adware, spyware, viruses, worms, trojans, and the like.

The application checks the user's entire operating system and compares the program versions present to a comprehensive catalog of known security holes and bugs.

Afterwards, it advises the user on how he can solve the problems it has found.

From there, the user forwards the details about the outdated or susceptible software to the Secunia website for further evaluation.

At any rate, preliminary tests on the beta's new function—secure browsing—ironically revealed some bugs and glitches of its own.

For instance, its evaluation of whatever version of Internet Explorer you have relied mostly on whether or not a certain PSI feature (the "include security holes that aren't easy to fix" option) was enabled.

PSI's default setting excludes such problems when scanning and when making an assessment, which can prove to be misleading to users who aren't particularly tech-savvy.

All-in-all, the beta's newest feature has a lot of room for improvement, but since Secunia is in the industry of delivering patches for glitches and bugs, the company should be able to improve on PSI's shortcomings in the next release.