Posted by Virus Bulletin on Feb 13, 2009
Browser should be treated as special case, say some.
The February 'Patch Tuesday' security bulletin from Microsoft this week contained four patches, two of them marked 'Critical', of which one was a 'cumulative' set of fixes for a selection of problems with the Internet Explorer browser.
With flaws in the ubiquitous web-surfing tool a regular fixture in the monthly patch cycle, it has been suggested by some security watchers that MS would be better off separating the browser from the standard monthly patch release pattern, to ensure best possible coverage of the frequent and often severe security flaws being found in it.
This month's batch of updates also included a vital patch for some serious vulnerabilities in Exchange mail server software, as well as fixes rated 'Important' for SQL Server and Visio, but it is the IE fix which has drawn the most attention, with a spokesman for vulnerability expert Qualys widely promoting the idea of removing the browser from the system and releasing updates as needed - which should, many argue, be far more often than once per month.
Details of the Qualys suggestions are in coverage at ComputerWorld here, RedmondMag here and ZDNet here, with the official Patch Tuesday bulletin, containing full details of the latest round of patches, here.
Posted on 13 February 2009 by Virus Bulletin
