SIA Alert - Microsoft Patch Tuesday - 2/10/10

Microsoft issued a massive set of patches for February, almost as large as October of last year.  If you are one of those folks that rely on Microsoft's Automatic Updates, you might want to double check that these go through. 

Gregg Keizer of Computerworld summarizes this month's updates as follows:

"For the second time in the last four months, Microsoft today shipped a record 13 security updates that patched dozens of vulnerabilities in Windows.

The 26 flaws fixed today were off the record of 34 set in October 2009 when Microsoft last issued 13 security bulletins. However, if Microsoft had waited until today to deliver the rush Internet Explorer (IE) update it released late last month -- the IE patches were original slated to appear as part of today's collection -- this month's lot would have tied the vulnerability record.

Five of the 13 updates were marked "critical," the highest threat ranking in Microsoft's four-step scoring system. Seven were ranked "important," the next-lower rating, while one was pegged "moderate." Eleven of the 13 affected Windows, while the remaining pair impacted Office XP and Office 2003 on Windows and Office 2004 for Mac."

The rest of Gregg's analysis can be found at: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9154298/

Quotes of the Month

"Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice." - Anton Chekhov

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." -- William Arthur Ward