 | By Susan Bradley Merely searching for images and websites can be hazardous to your PC these days. Two critical updates released this week will help close down those vectors. It’s a big batch of updates this month, most of which you can install immediately. But a few I’ve put on short-term hold. |
MS11-050 (2530548)
Internet Explorer 9 gets its first updates
Browsing the Internet can be risky even if you’re using the latest browser with the most up-to-date security features. Microsoft Security Bulletin MS11-050 covers 11 vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, from IE 6 on — including the new IE 9. (I’ll report on whether to roll out IE 9 on Windows 7 in the next Patch Watch.)
This patch is rated critical for nearly all current Windows desktop and server versions. The exception is Windows Server 2003, for which the patch is rated moderate.
To get infected via one of these vulnerabilities, all you need do is browse to a malicious webpage. Just Googling might get you infected, if you’re not careful what you click. These exploits are easy to code, so we’re likely to see exploits within the next 30 days.
Even if you use an alternative browser such as Chrome, you should still install this patch for better overall operating-system protection.
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