According to Qualys, 2007 saw a 300% jump in  security flaws in Microsoft software.
Amol Sawate, manager of Qualys’ vulnerability-management lab, states that the most visible of these issues are “primarily in new Excel vulnerabilities that can easily be exploited by getting unsuspecting users to open Excel files sent via e-mail and instant message.”

Part of the problems certainly come from Microsoft’s quality control. Another contributing factor is the maturing IT model.  Hacking software is no longer the bastion of a handful of ultra-talented geeks.

It is now a highly lucrative business, on both sides of the legal fence. Hackers have evolved over the last decade into a force that understands how to monetize  software flaws  - both by selling the information  and by creating countermeasures.

While it doesn’t let Microsoft off the hook of doing the best they can do to evolve tight, robust software;  the reality is that their software engineers are up against a larger, more motivated force of professional hackers.  Defeating new releases isn’t a matter of ‘if‘ but of ‘how fast‘.

But as a customer, this news underscores just how important it is for each of us to practice safe computing and to be keep informed of how to best protect our systems and information.

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