Older and outdated browser plug-ins could lead to potential vulnerabilities and security holes and make a way to enter malware and other security threats into your system. Because current browsers have no built-in mechanism for auto-updating plug-ins, we need to check it regularly by hand for a safer web experience.
The security company Qualys has developed a Browser Checking tool for Google Chrome, Internet explorer and Firefox, which is similar to Mozilla Plugin Check that scans your browser for installed plug-ins and lets you know if they need to be updated. However, currently this service scans only a few plugins and browsers, but they are very critical to the system security. Following are the list: – Windows OS support expiration – Browser version (IE 6.0+, Firefox 3.0+, Chrome 4.0+) – Adobe Flash Player – Adobe Reader 5.x and above – Adobe Shockwave Player – Apple Quicktime – Microsoft Silverlight – Microsoft Windows Media Player – Real Player – Sun Java – Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) plug-in for Mozilla browsers, etc This tool will also help you fix the security issues discovered by the scan. Interested readers can try it for Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. [via]
