Windows 7 beta gets its first security update

This is Microsoft’s first release for Windows 7 [just being optimistic,  hopefully there won’t be alot more to come in the future]. This update is supposed to patch a critical Remote Code Execution bug along with two other spoofing related vulnerabilities.

Now available on Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center.

For more details:

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/03/windows-7-beta-gets-its-first-security-update.ars

http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/en/default.aspx

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Info Sec News, Dec 8, 2008 Updated

Upcoming details for this month’s Patch Tuesday can be found in Heise Online’s Microsoft wants to close six critical holes and PC World’s Microsoft readies Eight New Security Patches.

A Secunia blog states that 98% of all PC’s aren’t fully patched as was also reported in The Register and SCMag UK. No doubt this contributes to the millions of PC’s out there that are used as zombies unbeknownst to their owners. This happens mostly because people have too much confidence in their Anti Virus in stopping all threats. I’ll write about this more in another post, as for now, you might want to check out Secunia’s freely available Personal Software Inspector to check for patches their PCs may need.

Trend Micro researchers though, say that vulnerabilities only play a minor role (5%) in attacks. And that most attacks (53%) come in the form of Social Engineering attacks wherein the user is duped into downloading malware. An example of this would be fake anti-virus products that take up the top three positions in BitDefender’s Top e-threats (Heise Security also gives the list here). Which reminds me of what Zot O’Conner said in his talk at the Renaissance Makati in late October… that you cannot design a security product to defend against a user that just clicks and accepts anything.

In related news, Security Park reports that Human error continues to be the top cause of IT security breaches primarily because individuals are given the option to bypass them.

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