patches

Microsoft will take yet another crack this month at fixing a December update for Outlook 2007, the company said last week.

Oracle delivered its quarterly montage of patches and updates this week. The quarterly release cycle--like Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday--is designed to provide some stability and predictability for the IT admins who have to test and implement the patches, but at least one security expert thinks the Oracle system needs some work.

Microsoft today said it will ship three security updates next week to patch 11 vulnerabilities, including the first in Office 2010 pegged "critical."

Widespread publicity is probably the biggest driver in persuading IT managers to fix Windows zero-day bugs, not simply the fact that Microsoft sounds the alarm by issuing an emergency update, according to researcher Qualys Inc.

Applying security patches can be a big job in large corporations, so even if they wanted to, many companies couldn't patch immediately. Experts recommend that companies have patching policies in place that specify when and how to patch that gets the job done reliably and with minimal disruption to business. Typically companies take between a week and a month to apply a given patch.

After releasing its largest-ever group of security patches two weeks ago, Microsoft has done a little cleaning up.

With 13 patches released on Patch Tuesday, IT administrators have a daunting task of just deciding where to get started. Experts advise that the best place is where the most damage can happen, and where it can happen fast.

Microsoft yesterday wrapped up a months-long job of patching a critical bug it accidently introduced in a crucial code "library," one of the researchers who uncovered the flaw said today.

Microsoft will deliver its largest-ever number of security updates on Tuesday to fix flaws in every version of Windows, as well as IE, Office, SQL Server, important developer tools and the enterprise-grade Forefront Security client software.

Oracle has released 43 security fixes for a range of applications, including its flagship database, Oracle Application Server, E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise and WebLogic Server.

Microsoft released eight security updates Tuesday, including fixes for known Excel and WordPad bugs, for the largest patch release so far this year.

Microsoft was forced to pick up the patching pace in the second half of 2008, fixing 67% more flaws and released 17% more security updates in the period than it had in the first six months of the year.