With all the talk about backdoor encryption, phishing attacks and privacy, I think it’s a good time to mention that today is Patch Tuesday! That means that Microsoft is releasing a lot of critical updates to their software today; updates that deal with some of the concerns of the day.

So be sure to update your system as soon as you can, though for those of you who might not know how simply head to:

Microsoft Windows Update Center

There are a total of 14 updates today with four of them being of the critical nature, that is that the patches will prevent would-be attackers from using remote execution exploits on your operating system.  Remote execution exploits allow an attacker to execute exploits give that full remote control of your system which could result in spying, credential stealing or malware being installed.

The critical software updates are for the following:

• Microsoft Windows XP and Server 2003
• Microsoft Outlook 2007 and 2010
• Microsoft Sharepoint (all versions)
• Internet Explorer (all versions)

However there are also less critical but still important updates for:

• Microsoft Office 2003 – Remote Code Execution, Information Disclosure, Privilege Escalation
• Microsoft Windows XP – Windows 8 – Privilege Escalation
• Microsoft Active Directory on Windows Vista – Windows 8 – Denial of Service