Hey everyone, this is Mike Reavey from the MSRC. Welcome to the Microsoft Security Response Center Blog’s new home!
We here at the MSRC started the blog for our time at RSA 2005, but we had such great support and positive responses from customers that we’ve have decided to keep it going. Today we’ve moved the blog to a permanent home on TechNet. Thanks for making the move with us! You’ll noticed that we have migrated all the previous postings from the old blog here for your reference.
Today is the regular, monthly release of the Microsoft security bulletins so wanted to share some information about today’s release. First off, Microsoft is releasing eight security bulletins total and you can download and find more information about each individual bulletin here: http://www.microsoft.com/security/.
Also important to keep in mind is that, as noted in the Advance Notification that went out on Thursday, Microsoft released two non-security updates marked as “High Priority” through Windows Update to help provide all of the updates requiring a reboot in a single release cycle. More information on these can be found at:
- Microsoft Windows Installer: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=42467
- Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/842773
Ok…now on to some new resources for customers! There is a new Enterprise Scanning Tool (a supplement to MBSA) ready for enterprise customers that helps detect vulnerable computers in the event that MBSA does not. Check out the Knowledge Base article 894194 for more information on that. With this month’s release, MBSA can be used for all the security bulletins with the exception of the MSN Messenger bulletin, MS05-022. That’s where the Enterprise Scanning Tool can come into play to help you detect systems requiring this update.
MSN Messenger Alerts are now available for consumers who want to receive immediate information when new security bulletins come out as well as information and guidance from Microsoft in the event of a security incident. Consumers can sign up here: http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/alerts.mspx. Another helpful new resource for consumers is an RSS feed for security bulletins so customers will be automatically notified when new bulletins are ready. Consumers can sign up for that one here: http://www.microsoft.com/updates.
And as always there is an update to the malicious software removal tool which now cleans for a host of additional threats. You can be download and find information about what new threats are removed at www.microsoft.com/malwareremove. Be sure to also check out the monthly technical webcast for more detailed information about the bulletins tomorrow, April 12th at 11am PDT. Registration for that is here.
That’s a lot of new information this month but we have plenty of new resources to share with customers to help you get the information you need to help plan for security bulletins and help better protect against new threats. Thanks for sticking with us through the blog move over to TechNet and be sure to keep checking back for new information!
-Mike Reavey
*This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.*