News

Microsoft's 2002 Security Bulletin Count Reaches 12

• By Scott Bekker
• 03/04/2002

The latest two bulletins address low-risk problems with mail relaying and denial of service. Both were issued Feb. 27.

The mail relaying issue affects Windows 2000 and Exchange Server 5.5, and in those cases only implementations that use the SMTP service. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS02-011.asp.

The denial-of-service problem involves Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional and Exchange Server 2000, and is also related to the SMTP service. That bulletin can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS02-012.asp.

Microsoft's security bulletins have come in a flurry this year since Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates issued an e-mail memo in mid-January about Trustworthy Computing. Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative involves reviewing code under development for security problems and placing a higher priority on security.

A Microsoft spokesman has said, however, that the recent increase in security bulletins is coincidental.

If Microsoft keeps up its current pace of about 12 security bulletins per month, it will release more bulletins this year than it did in 2000, when it issued a record 100. Microsoft put out 60 security bulletins last year, although many of those fixes rolled several problems into consolidated patches.