Adobe Reader Security Risk or the User’s Fault? – Alternative PDF Readers??
As far as I can remember, Adobe Reader 5 I think, this was the best little software in the world, heck I think Adobe Reader was the only PDF document software at the time. Either way it has become very convenient over the years, especially for archiving old documents or current documents. However, over the last few years Adobe Reader has become the new Internet Explorer because of how it used by hackers to get into computer systems by using holes in this software.
Since then the boys and girls at Adobe have been working hard trying to patch up the security holes and zero day attacks to get back some of the market it has lost. As to why they lost some of the market in PDF reading software is that several others showed up since then such as Foxit Reader, PDFFactory. There are several more PDF readers out there but if I wear to take a guess on which one people would rather use then Adobe would have to be Foxit.
The reason I say is Foxit is claimed to be faster in uploading documents and more secured then Adobe reader, but alas this is an adobe power user and so I be sticking with Adobe Reader for awhile. Especially since I have Adobe Acrobat 9 on my computer and use it now and then to create PDF documents.
Although I talk about the alternatives, the main reason for this article was one done by PCWorld, in which they mention there was over 2300 attacks on Adobe reader alone. However, it is not as simple as that or maybe it is since it requires a using to open the PDF file from an email attachment. Although I should not even go through the basics of email security again, but for the 2300 people that let this happen, do not and I mean DO NOT open attachments or links from people you do not know.
Of course, I will admit, since I am avid e-book reader, that I should not be so trustful of all these downloads I get, but so far I have been lucky about it. I guess it will be a matter of time before I get suckered into that but in the mean time I love my e-books. In addition, PCWorld provided a link of their own for other PDF readers and so if you think that that Adobe Reader is old news check out theses ones.
Leave your response!
You must be logged in to post a comment.