METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SECURING A COMPUTER

A computer system (100) is arranged to run at east one user-oriented operating system (153) (e.g. Windows, LINUX, etc.) on which a plurality of user-oriented applications (152) (e.g. Word processor, web browser, spreadsheet application, etc.) may run, the computer system being further arranged to run a secondary program supporting environment (154), (155) (e.g. computer BIOS, Hypervisor, basic LINUX operating system micro-kernel, etc.). The computer system (100) is arranged to run the secondary program supporting environment (154), when the main user-oriented operating system is not miming in either or both of the following situations: prior to loading the main operating system at boot-up time of the system or when a user wishes to log back into his/her operating system after having previously logged out or having been logged out automatically and/or during a sleep mode of the computer system. The computer system (100) is arranged to run within the secondary program supporting environment an agent program or programs (157), (158) which are operable to communicate with one or more remote servers (300) to obtain security patches associated with the user-oriented operating system and/or the user-oriented applications.