From: ZDNet News > Security –

Microsoft (MS) addressed 20 flaws, in its Windows operating system and other software applications, in a collection of 11 separate patches released yesterday under its regular monthly ‘Patch Tuesday’ Security Bulletin.

As ZDNet’s Robert Vamosi reports, MS rates four of the patches ‘critical’.

As part of its new policy to share details of patches and the flaws they address, MS this month inaugurated a new ‘exploitability index’ in its patch report – a further refinement of its existing danger rating system which labels threats ‘critical’, ‘moderate’ or merely ‘important’. The new index indicates, on a scale of one to three, how likely MS feels that a given flaw will be exploited by hackers, as opposed to the ‘Critical / Moderate / Important’ system, which indicates how serious the damage might be if the flaw is exploited.

As usual, all the new MS patches are available at the Windows Update Web site. If you haven’t set your Windows computer to auto-update, you can get the patches manually by clicking on Windows Update in your Start menu.