ITS sends email to campus department security representatives when Microsoft issues a security patch for Windows. ECS installs those patches as soon as possible on ECS-administered Windows computers. If you have a Windows computer that you administer either in the college or at home, you must install such patches yourself. The best practice is to have automatic updates turned on so that patches are installed as soon as they are available. Microsoft publishes patches and information about them the second Tuesday of each month, and sometimes more often.

On the Microsoft update site, you will also find patches for Office; those should be installed regularly also.

Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com to install the patches.

The Microsoft Security page has links to several security options, including a list of all the security bulletins that have been issued. Search for "Microsoft Security Bulletins".

Click on each bulletin link to get information about the bulletin such as its severity (critical, important, moderate, low) and to link to the update site.

The ITS Security office publishes information about Windows security patches, viruses, and other security issues.