Microsoft Monthly Updates And Nearly Everything Else Updated Too

Microsoft released it’s monthly updates this week.

It looks like Adobe and Apple decided to follow along.

Microsoft’s monthly update fixes up to 25 potential malware vulnerabilities.

One is rated “Patch Now” by the Internet Storm Center (a computer security site). This is their about their strongest rating, meaning there is malware out that will take advantage of it. There are several other critical updates also.

This fixes a potential drive-by Windows Media Player weakness.

Were the drive-by exploit to be used, it would allow an attacker to gain control of a computer just by embedding a video on a website. Visitors to the website would be infected just by visiting.

This Microsoft Update seems to require a restart.

If you normally leave your computer on, if you have not had to restart since Tuesday, you may want to do a Microsoft Update manually from your start menu. It never hurts to double check anyways. If you shut off your computer, it may not check each time you use it for updates.

While the most important update for Microsoft this month was released last week, you always want to make sure your computer is fully updated.

Adobe has released a new update also for Adobe Reader and Acrobat.

In a recent post I provided a video for a fix in Adobe Reader. I believe this update may be the longer term fix for the problem. This update fixes 15 potential exploits in Adobe PDF products.

The correct version you should have are:

• 9.3.2 if you have Adobe Reader.
• 9.3.2 or 8.3.2 for Adobe Acrobat (depending if you have Acrobat 8 or 9)

Any version less than these is running a very dangerous risk. I have seen some of the exploits these updates block in use, so they are out there looking for someone not doing the updates. To repeat, most computers should be updated to Adobe Reader 9.3.2.

Many of you are seeing the little red Adobe update icon in the bottom right corner of your screen.

Go ahead and click on it. You can also update from the help menu. Do it now!

Finally, Apple released an update.

This Apple OS X update follows another recent update. The update will also require you to restart your Mac. First the iPad, and now this.

Other companies like Oracle and Cisco also have updates out this week, but those are not something your average computer or user needs to worry about. Those are for the IT workers to work on and they are getting to know all about them (it is not a simple matter to update a database server).

Make sure your friends are keeping their computers updated and safe also. A good way is to send them to this site. Share it with them.