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Flood of Security Bulletins Coming Next Tuesday

IT departments worldwide should have an exceptionally busy Tuesday next week, evaluating and deploying a flood of patches from Microsoft.

In its monthly pre-"Patch Tuesday" notification, Microsoft on Thursday listed up to 13 security bulletins it planned to issue on its monthly patching day, which falls on Feb. 8 this month.

Bulletins Microsoft is currently preparing for release include:

  • Nine affecting Windows. At least one of those bulletins will be critical.
  • One critical bulletin affecting Office and Visual Studio.
  • Another critical bulletin affecting Windows, Windows Media Player and MSN Messenger.
  • One bulletin with a moderate severity rating affecting SharePoint Services and Office.
  • One bulletin with an important severity rating affecting the .NET Framework.

    Microsoft made the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advanced Notification program available to all customers beginning with the November patch cycle. The idea is to give IT managers a general idea of the amount of time and resources they'll need to set aside when Patch Tuesday arrives. Prior to November, the advance notification program had been available to some customers.

    • About the Author

    Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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