Get and Stay Secure

Keeping up with Service Packs and Security updates can be a full time job, especially if you're managing a production web server or other critical systems.  To make sure you're always up-to-date you should visit the Microsoft Security Site often or subscribe to the Microsoft Security Notification Service.

"This is a free e-mail notification service that Microsoft uses to send information to subscribers about the security of Microsoft products.

The goal of this service is to provide accurate information to our customers that they can use to inform and protect themselves from malicious attacks. Our security team investigates issues reported directly to Microsoft, as well as issues discussed in certain popular security newsgroups. When we publish bulletins, they'll contain information on what the issue is, what products it affects-if any, how to protect yourself against, what we plan to do to fix the problem, and links to other sources of information on the issue."

This month alone Microsoft released security rollups for Windows 2000, .NET Framework Service Pack 1, a cumulative patch for several versions of Internet Explorer and several other updates a good system administrator and web developer should be aware of.

In addition to security patches and service packs, you should also stay aware of the latest Virus threats that could damage your systems, as well as the latest Virus Hoaxes.  I think "hoax" viruses can be even more annoying than the real thing because everyone loves to "pass along" the latest virus "threat".  If you receive one of these emails, be sure to check it out first before passing the hoax along.

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