Microsoft patching up its security response
- Reduce text size Decrease text size
- Increase text size Increase text size
- Print article Print
- Jump to comments Comment
- Share this article Share
- Email article to a friend Email
Microsoft has pledged to reform its procedures for issuing security patches.
The software industry's record for promptly issuing security patches is, well, patchy at best. Little wonder that users tend to ignore them. But at least Microsoft has pledged to reform its procedures. "We have our best brains on it," says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
The company plans to bunch patches together and release them all at the same time, on a monthly schedule, unless the flaw is so serious as to require immediate action. It will aim to cut patches down in size by one-third and reduce the number of times that users have to reboot their systems when they download the patches. And it will also seek to cut the number of patching systems from eight to two.
At the same time, Microsoft will switch on the firewall built into its Windows XP operating system by default and overhaul the 'security zones' setting of its Internet Explorer web browser.
