Patch Tuesday a busy day this month

Stan Beer
Monday, 12 June 2006 16:57

Business IT - Security

Tomorrow is Microsoft's Patch Tuesday, the day when the world's largest software company reminds the world just how vulnerable its software is to those online with less than honourable intent. This month, there's going to be a lot of patching to be done because Microsoft has discovered an even dozen flaws, nine of which are in Windows, two in Office and one in Exchange email server.

According to Microsoft, some of the flaws carry its highest vulnerability rating of critical, which means the holes can be exploited without the user even knowing about it. Patching the flaws in some instances will require rebooting of machines.

The fact that Windows XP has been around for so long and is still full of so many critical vulnerabilities that need to be fixed each month is disturbing to say the least.

Last month, we were told by a Microsoft manager that the release of Windows Vista would make Patch Tuesday a thing of the past. However, even if that happens to be true, Vista is still very much a thing of the future. Right now, users are stuck with XP and each month Microsoft keeps reminding them just how wide open their doors are to potential attackers.