The phrase download internet security takes on a new meaning every month when Patch Tuesday comes around and people can see how alert Microsoft is when it comes to combating the latest virus threats.

And the latest Patch Tuesday, which allows computer users to download internet security patches in order to correct bugs, has proved a particularly big one. In this set, 14 alerts have been issued, with eight being rated ‘critical’ and the other six as ‘important’.

The most significant of these alerts that have been announced, affect Word, .NET, SMB Server, , MPEG Codecs and XML Core Services. As usual, the latest release also includes the most recent number of fixes that have been issued for Internet Explorer. Also included in this latest bulletin was a fix to solve the vulnerability with .lnk files, that has been causing a number of problems.

Coinciding with the release of the entry, Microsoft also wrote a blog entry describing and covering each of the most important fixes that were issued.

Adobe has also released some fixes; out of the three that were released, two were rated as ‘critical’ and one as ‘important’. This release – which had been timed to arrive at the same time as Patch Tuesday – was vital for fixing risky problems with Flash Player and Flash Media Server. As well as this, they release an important HotFix for ColdFusion.

Reader, a piece of software from Adobe, will have an emergency update released for it next week. Users will have to wait until this is issued before the vulnerabilities can be dealt with. In the mean time, any user who wishes to chose the alternative for viewing PDFs – Foxit Software – will have to update for a vulnerability that has affected a number of Apple iPhone users. The vulnerability is not, however, extended to Adobe users.

Users that download internet security patches are doing so to ensure that their computers remain safe from the host of vulnerabilities and dangers that are being created and released constantly.

Guest Article by Neil Camp