Microsoft Delivers Bunch of Patches For Valentine’s Day

February 14th, 2007: Microsoft certainly hasn’t forgotten about Valentine’s day this year, however, instead of an armful of roses it will be bearing a dozen security patches.

Patch Tuesday will include nine critical and three important updates in its security bulletin, making up a magic 12 to brighten up the hallmark holiday for IT administrators.

Five of the critical bulletins address flaws in Microsoft Windows, two affect Microsoft Office, one affects Data Access Components Technology and one affects Microsoft's new malware solution, Windows Live OneCare.

Security patch and vulnerability management solution provider PatchLink says that the fact that at least five of these vulnerabilities target applications rather than the operating system directly show that hackers are moving up the application stack to exploit the application layer.

The company says that hackers with profit in mind will increasingly target applications beyond Microsoft platforms, a trend that is already beginning to rear its head with applications such as the VoIP software Skype and even Symantec Antivirus coming under attack recently.

“With such a hefty burden this month, IT administrators need to put security first”, says Chris Wood, PatchLink ANZ Sales Director. “Organisations will need to have a solid vulnerability management process in place if they want to test and deploy the bulletins released tomorrow without disrupting any Valentine's Day plans.”

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