By Robert McMillan
IDG News Service

Next week will be a busy one for system administrators as Microsoft is planning to ship 11 security updates — four of them rated critical — for its products.

The patches will include fixes for critical security bugs in Windows Active Directory, Internet Explorer, Excel, and the Microsoft Host Integration Server, which integrates Windows computers with IBM mainframes, Microsoft said Thursday in a note on the patches.

The critical Active Directory bug affects Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, but not other versions of Windows, Microsoft said. The Excel bug affects both Windows and Mac OS X versions of the product.

There will also be six less-critical updates, rated “important,” by Microsoft, for Windows, and a “moderate” patch for Office. All of these updates are expected around 10 a.m. Pacific time on Tuesday.

[Learn how to secure your systems with Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog and newsletter, both from InfoWorld.]

FOR THE COMPLETE STORY:    http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/09/11_Microsoft_security_updates_due_next_week_1.html 

~Sandy G.