Once upon a time, you could afford to wait a few weeks after a security patch was released – see if it’s safe, bug-free, whatever. No more. The cretins who write hostile software are reacting faster and faster. InfoWorld reported this week about a pair of new attacks that exploit a Microsoft vulnerability for which a patch was issued on November 11. The attack code is only a demonstration at this point, but it’s probably a mere matter of days before this one gets translated into an attack that can do some real damage.
The moral: When a critical security update is released, download it and install it. Turn on your firewall. Don’t be a victim.
If you haven’t visited Windows Update lately, maybe now would be a good time.
Ed Bott 