Ties record with 13 security updates, plans to fix 26 bugs in Windows, Office. Microsoft today said it will deliver a record-tying 13 security updates on Tuesday to patch more than two dozen vulnerabilities in Windows and Office.

The company will ship a total of 13 updates next week, five of them pegged "critical," the highest threat ranking in its four-step scoring system. The 13 updates will tie the record from October 2009, when Microsoft issued the same number of bulletins, but fixed a total of 34 vulnerabilities. According to Jerry Bryant, a senior manager with the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), next week's updates will patch 26 flaws.

"A lot? That's an understatement," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security. "But we could have had 14," he added, referring to the emergency Internet Explorer (IE) update Microsoft released two weeks ago. That "out-of-band" update was originally slated to be included in the collection set to ship this month.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9152258