Microsoft Patch Tuesdays yield 400 security bulletins

With its massive security update last month, Microsoft Corp. marked the end of the sixth year since it moved to a monthly patch schedule. An informal count of releases in Microsoft's bulletin archives shows that the company has released about 400 security bulletins since October 2003.

The bulletins have addressed about 745 vulnerabilities across almost every Microsoft product. More than half of the bulletins (230) have addressed vulnerabilities that Microsoft called "critical," meaning they would allow attackers to take full administrative control of a system from a remote location.

The total number of flaws disclosed and patched by the software maker so far this year stands at about 160; Microsoft reported 155 for all of 2008. The tally for the past two years is more than double the number of flaws disclosed in 2004 and 2005, the first two full years of Patch Tuesdays.

More: http://computerworld.com/s/article/344844/