Critical Windows fix on the way

Microsoft has announced that it will release three patches for its Windows operating system next week.

The fixes, which will carry a maximum threat rating of "critical," will be issued Tuesday, the company said. Under its two-month-old advance notification program, Microsoft typically gives the public early notice of the number of updates it plans to deliver and of the severity of the vulnerabilities the updates fix.

The only other detail the software giant revealed Thursday was that people may have to restart their Windows systems for the patches to take effect.

Microsoft did not say whether the patches will fix several three-month-old flaws in Internet Explorer. A security group released code at the end of December that demonstrates how to take advantage of the security holes and compromise a computer. That disclosure caused a security information company to raise the threat of those flaws to "extremely critical" on Friday.

Perceived security problems with Internet Explorer have resulted in the top browser shedding market share to its open-source rival Firefox.

[Tex Murphy PI]

Two months for a well documented problem

I would imagine that MS would have taken even LONGER to fix these problems - had that irresponsible Chinese "Security" firm held back on releasing the working code for the exploit.

Fortunately for a lot of people, MS will finally be patching these holes. Unfortunately for me, I just visited a web page earlier today that did exploit that hole and quickly dumped something onto my system before I could react.

To make the long story short, I'm glad MS took their sweet time in securing these bugs - otherwise, I would not have had the chance to use Firefox 1.0. It's quick, intuitive, SECURE and the useability features such as tabbed pages are amazing!

Thanks for the Push, Microsoft!

[Al Johnsons]

tabbed pages are amazing

http://www.analogstereo.com/honda_passport_owners_manual.htm

Browsers other than microsoft

I have tried to use other browsers and Microsoft makes it harder for me to use them. I need a firewall but my system is old and it does not seem to down load well. I hope microsoft fixes theng soon. Someone is hacking my system and it makes me want to almost throw up with this person and it is so sad.