The
software vulnerabilities listed in Bit9's so-called 'Dirty Dozen' don't swoop in wearing a mask and brandishing a gun. They come in surreptitiously hidden in the coattails of popular applications. These applications aren't malicious in nature, but if managed improperly by the end-user, they become open doors for hackers and malware to penetrate computer and networks that are otherwise secure. How many times do you boot up your computer, receive a patch-update request, but close it because you're in a hurry? Or worse, click the option that says "do not ask me again." Users who don't take the time to install these patches have a big open-door sitting on their desktop.