October 8, 2004

Plugging Holes in the Security Dike

By VINCENT KIERNAN

Some colleges turn to automated services for repairing defective software, while others opt out

When faculty and staff members at Hillsborough Community College go home in the evening, their computers aren't done with their work for the day.

After hours, each computer on the Tampa, Fla., campus runs a program called BigFix, which checks if the computer's software contains any newly discovered security holes. If so, the program automatically downloads and installs a patch to

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