Our correspondent added that the back-up computer on the rover had previously been used to test software updates before they were installed on the main machine.

BBC: Mars rover

Because updates for Java software are installed on demand rather than automatically, there is a longer shelf-life for vulnerabilities.

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The privileged local administrator account that is created when Windows is first installed should only be used for sensitive administration chores such as installing updates and software and reconfiguring the host.

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