Early last month, Microsoft released 13 security patches as part of Patch Tuesday.
While such security measures are usual, this one was particularly important because six of those patches were categorized as critical and require user attention to be put into place.
These six patches addressed programming flaws that had the potential to give cyber-attackers the means to gain full user rights in a wide array of Microsoft’s software programs. The remaining seven patches address the elevation of privileges, denial of service, and ways to bypass security features.
The programs that were at risk from these flaws included all supported versions of Microsoft Windows, the new Edge browser, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office (including Services and Web Apps), Microsoft Server Software, Adobe Flash Player, and Microsoft .NET Framework.
According to Microsoft, these flaws were detected before any actual security breaches stemming from these issues actually occurred.
If they had not been discovered, cybercriminals may have been able to gain user rights to Microsoft programs via specially crafted websites from remote locations.
Microsoft strongly urges Windows Vista and later operating system users to ensure the latest updates have been installed, especially if they do not have their systems set for Automatic Updates.