Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
June 20, 2005

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Terry's Computer Tips newsletter - http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newletter for users of PC's.

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Volume 1, Number 1 -- Monday, June 20, 2005

IN THIS ISSUE:
* Security Updates for Microsoft Windows Systems - June 2005
* Backing up your Data
* Backing up your System
* Shareware/Freeware Pick of the Week
* Just For Fun

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Terry's Computer Tips email newletter. This free newsletter is sent weekly to individuals who have registered to receive the newsletter, have received an email confirmation notice that required them to confirm their subscription request, and who confirmed it.

If you would like to share this with friends, please forward the entire newsletter, not just portions of it. That way, they can subscribe, too.

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1. SECURITY UPDATES FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS SYSTEMS Microsoft released their monthly set of Windows Updates on Tuesday, June 14th. This time, there are a total of 10 patches for various versions of Windows products.

My Windows XP Professional notebook, which was up to date already, automatically selected eight security patches from this set, including one that updates the security of the revised Internet Explorer that came with XP Service Pack 2.

Microsoft classified threee of the updates as "Critical," four as "Important," and three as "Moderate." The updates rated Critical and Important were almost all meant to block vulnerabilities that would allow a remote user to control your computer. The other Important update would block an ability to use cross-site scripting (you visit one site and your browser pulls a vicious script from another site), of course, this could be used to generate that same remote control.

Remote Control of My Computer? Yes. As if they were sitting at the keyboard.

The difference between Critical and Important doesn't appear to be with the impact -- the classification difference appears to key to whether there is a single point of failure or whether it requires multiple circumstances to be present.

As an example, "Cumulative Security Update for Outlook Express (897715)" is classed Important, although it is designed to prevent remote control. In this case, the user would have to be using Outlook Express to read Usenet Newsgroups and be persuaded to connect to the News Server (NNTP server) run by the bad guys. This is not like web surfing to a different website. It's more like changing your email account's POP3 server. So, it is more unlikely in the real world to be a problem, so it gets an Important rating.

What should you do? Go to Windows Update immediately and get these updates. If you are using any browser other than Internet Explorer, you will have to use I.E. to get Windows Updates. The website is http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com .

The update program will identify the needed updates and require you to install all "High Priority" updates before you can install "Optional Software" or "Optional Hardware" (driver) updates. Then, if you wish, go back and see if there are any Optional updates, and install them if you wish.

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Continued in Part 2

Volume 1, Number 1 -- Monday, June 20, 2005
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Copyright © 2005 Terry A. Stockdale.  All rights reserved.