Take care of Your NAS – install necessary updates!

Synology NAS needs software updates, as all other smart devices. If You don´t update, some old software glitches may appear or security patches may be missed for securing Your device.

Software update is a simple thing some Synology users may forget, because if everything works, then why to change anything?

It´s still important to update Synology NAS: updates can add useful new features, keep program code more effective to run faster on hardware and of cource – to patch system security vulnerabilities that may occur.

Software features and additional user interface developments are done by Synology team, but some updates and security patches come from Linux development. Technically, Synology NAS software is based on Linux kernel. It´s one of the most secure platforms on Earth, but it still evolves all the time. From time to time new code and programs are added, some security features embeded and vulnerabilities removed. Linux benefits from fast development and big community behind it and all needed updates come out very quickly.

How to check if Your NAS is secure?

• Open Synology Main Menu (top left), then Security Advisor. Push Scan and Synology will do security check for Your NAS. Follow further instructions to remove security problems.
• Klick Synology Main menu, then Control Panel, then choose Update & Restore and make sure that Status line is green with sentence “Your DSM version is up-to-date”. If not, start updating manually by pressing Manual DSM Update. To be sure in the future, check “Install newest DSM update automatically” and it is not possible to forget important updates not anymore.

How to update Your NAS?

It´s easy to update Your NAS. You can do it manually or automatically.

Log in to Your Diskstation, klick on Control Panel and then start Update & Restore.

Klick on Settings and select to update Diskstation Manager always to newest version or to update most important updates only.

You can du automatic update from third selection: update to newest version on scheduled time or update only most imprtant updatest on scheduled time. You can also check to not update automatically and install, when You want.

Latest security patches – necessary in Linux world

There are always security updates for Windows, Linux or other platforms and You can´t ignore it. It´s strongly recommended to keep Your computers and storage devices always up-to-date and install necessary updates.

For example, DSM 6.0 update on May 6 removes NTP (Network Time Protocol) glitch, what allows to attack NAS with Denial of Service (DoS). According to NTP consorcium recommendations all involved companies updated NTP software in their systems, including Synology. This update renewed also OpenSSL software, ehere buffer overflow security breach was discovered in April 2016.Synology patched also Imagemagic code even before official security patch went out.

Security breaches may be disturbing and oncomfortable, but usually, if something happens, responsible companies are working out updates very quick and users with right updates are staying secure with their smart devices. So, if You want to minimize risks, update Your devices. Every time. And don´t switch off automatic critical updates.