Microsoft Issues Record Number of Patches

By Ryan Fleming Published August 10, 2010

It has been a record-setting day for Microsoft. Whether that is a good thing or not depends on your point of view. Today, Symantec issued a press release stating that Microsoft would be setting a record for the number of patches sent out in a single month, and it would tie the record for the total number of vulnerabilities since it began its “Patch Tuesday” program of releasing weekly patches when necessary.

Good news for Microsoft, which managed to catch the security holes. Not so good news for people affected by the myriad of problems.

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Some of the patches directly affect security holes in Internet Explorer 8, which would allow hackers to take control of your computer. Other patches are to prevent “drive-by download”-style attacks, which can infect users just by visiting maliciously designed or compromised websites.

Two of the patches addressed critical issues with Microsoft Word, a program that most users do not typically associate with being unsafe. The patches closes a vulnerability that can allow malware to attack the user’s computer when the file in question is opened.

All security updates are available to download now.

Topics

Microsoft

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…

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