[pchelpers] Re: News:Microsoft Releases Emergency Security Patch

Hi Ekhart,

Saturday, October 25, 2008, 3:28:36 PM, you wrote:

EGlnl> Actually, no; Microsoft never provides patches as soon as
EGlnl> possible unless there's already an exploit. MS is not
EGlnl> interested in protecting its customers, only in not getting too
EGlnl> many of them angry enough to not lose too many customers. MS
EGlnl> logic is that if not too many of its customers have been hurt
EGlnl> yet, it's OK to wait until next Tuesday because MS doesn't give
EGlnl> a damn about the security problems of individual customers or
EGlnl> about seriously trying to protect all its customers from
EGlnl> security problems.

MS has "Patch Tuesday" for a reason; every security patch that they
release is examined to find out what it is fixing, so that an exploit
can be created.  That means that when a patch is released, an exploit
is sure to come soon.

On the other hand, if you're administering more than a handful of
computers, you'd rather apply several patches at the same time, once a
month, than apply one today, then another the day after tomorrow, and
a third 7 days later, and so forth; you're spending 3 (and so forth)
times more labor that way. When a patch comes out, you need to put it
on as soon as possible, for the reason mentioned above.  Having most
patches come out at predictable times makes scheduling easy.  You know
months ahead exactly what you'll be doing on the Wednesday after the 2nd
Tuesday of the month, and "vacation" isn't in the description.

So, it's all a trade-off.

-- 
Scott.



-- 
-------list-services-below-----------
Regards, John Durham (list moderator) <http://modecideas.com/contact.html?sig>
Freelists login at http://www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/lsg2.cgi
List archives at http://www.freelists.org/archives/pchelpers
PC-HELPERS list subscribe/unsub at http://modecideas.com/discuss.htm?sig
Latest news live feeds at http://modecideas.com/indexhomenews.htm?sig
Good advice is like good paint- it only works if applied.

Other related posts: