Today is “Patch Tuesday”, and Microsoft will be rolling out a record number of critical (8) and important (5) patches. There is also a patch for a critical vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat Reader due for release today. Adobe coordinates their patches with Microsoft’s patches to make the second Tuesday of every month doubly important.

Checker for Compromised E-mail Accounts

Here is a useful tool. Anyone with an email account on Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, or AOL should take a moment to make sure their account was not one of the 40,000 or so that were compromised recently. The passwords for the compromised accounts have been released publicly.

It’s Only a Drop in the Bucket – But It’s a Start

The FBI’s Operation Phish Phry won’t make much of a dent in the proliferation of phishing scams that have invaded users’ inboxes, but at least some effort is being made to find and prosecute the criminals responsible. 100 arrests is a modest start, but a start nonetheless.

Dennis H in West Virginia, US

October 13, 2009