Hackers Stepping Up Pace of Microsoft Exploits
The cat-and-mouse game that Microsoft Corp. and hackers have been playing for years escalated this week, just as the software giant was addressing some of the biggest problems facing computer users.
On Tuesday, the company released a record 26 security fixes for the Windows operating system and the widely used Office programs such as Word, Excel and Outlook. Yesterday, hackers pounced again, posting on the Internet information about vulnerabilities in PowerPoint 2003, one of the Office programs widely used by business customers and increasingly used by students. Microsoft, whose products are the largest targets of hackers because its products are used on most computer systems, issues software updates to protect users' computers from the viruses, worms and spyware that are spread through their products via e-mail attachments and the Web.
But because those patches are released on a regular schedule -- the second Tuesday of each month -- the people who expose and exploit the vulnerabilities in the programs tend to wait until a day or so after the monthly release to reveal other vulnerabilities they have discovered.
