FollowMicrosoft has updated the security on almost all of its services today in what was one of the company’s biggest ever security overhauls. The patch was released today, and targeted vulnerabilities in all of its Windows operating system variations, and other server products.
The security update includes 12 separate bulletins, containing a combined 57 different vulnerabilities that the Redmond based company wants to address. Out of those 12 bulletins, 5 are considered critical, meaning the update should be implemented at the soonest possible time, while the remaining 7 bulletins were classed as important. Those latter 7 can be applied more leisurely, but will need to be addressed, while the extent of the update means that almost every business and personal user of Microsoft products will need to download the patch.
The update roll out is among the biggest monthly patches Microsoft has ever issued, and it fixes problems in Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and RT, Internet Explorer 6-10, Microsoft Office, and other products. Interestingly, it also emerged today that it was Google employees that actually found most of the vulnerabilities, which is not entirely unusual, but the amount of problems found is.
Some of those critical bugs that need attending too are particularly dangerous. For example, two updates that focus on Internet Explorer were potentially able to allow a hacker to remotely access and operate an infected system and/or computer.
Just about every Microsoft user is in need of this update, so if you have automatic updates on your system then you should already have been prompted to download, and should do so. Users not operating with automatic updates should seek out the patches and apply them manually, while the non-critical updates need to be manually implemented regardless of users’ settings.
