From BBC News, 23rd August.


Patrick Boylan

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MICROSOFT WARNS ABOUT SECURITY HOLES

Millions of people using Microsoft's Office and  Internet Explorer
programs are at risk from  security holes that could allow malicious
hackers to change files on their computers.

The vulnerable programs include Microsoft  Office 2000, Office XP, Money
2002, Money  2003, Project 2002 as well as software used  on internet
servers.

The world's leading software maker has advised computer users to close
the critical holes by downloading software patches from  its website.

The flaws are the latest headaches for  Microsoft, which launched a
"trustworthy computing" campaign earlier this year to  improve the
security of all of its software. The security flaws in the software means
an  attacker could use e-mail or a webpage to send commands to a user's
computer to view  files, run programs, alter data and even  reformat the
hard drive.

One of the products  affected, Office, is used by around 100 million
people to write documents and crunch  numbers and is a major  source of
revenue for Microsoft. But the company said  it was not aware of  any
specific security breaches or the amount of any potential damage that
might have occurred due to these laest flaws.

"Microsoft is committed to keeping customers' information safe," said
Microsoft Security Program Manager Christopher Budd in an  e-mail.

Since Microsoft boss Bill Gates launched his  company's trustworthy
computing initiative in January, the software giant has issued at least
30 security bulletins for flaws in its software. Earlier this month it
investigated reports that  its browser has a loophole that could expose
a  computer user's name, passwords and credit card numbers.

Security experts say that Microsoft has  become far more open about
warning  peopleabout security failings. "They are becoming very good at
telling people when there are problems and that is a good  thing," said
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at anti-virus firm Sophos.
"But one of the really disturbing things is that   people don't patch
their software," he said,  urging users to download the latest updates
from Microsoft's Windows Update site.

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