Microsoft fixes 64 software flaws

Microsoft has released updates to fix a record 64 vulnerabilities in its products, nine of which are rated as critical.

Products affected include Windows, Office, Internet Explorer and others.

The software giant cited industry collaboration as a contributing factor to the discovery of these vulnerabilities, although some were already being exploited by hackers.

"In total, 21 finders coordinated with Microsoft for [this] release. Microsoft actively partners with the security community to assess threats and better protect customers," said Pete Voss, senior response communications manager, Microsoft.

Summarising what it described as 'Microsoft Black Tuesday', security training firm SANS listed six of the vulnerabilities as being currently actively exploited by cyber criminals.

Some experts suggest that the security industry needs to get away from patching, which is often reactive to already exploited vulnerabilities.

Paul Kocher, president and chief scientist at security firm Cryptography Research, says that the industry should rely more on cryptography.

"There are security structures that you can have high confidence in and will be secure and will remain secure. The computational power required to break certain cryptographic algorithms is sufficiently high we can be comfortable that it will never need patching."