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Windows 8, available publicly for two weeks now, is getting
its first security update Nov. 13. It includes three critical updates; Windows
8 RT, for Microsoft's Surface tablet, has one critical update.
The vulnerabilities could allow a hacker to execute
malicious code remotely on systems that aren't protected. You can make sure you get the updates by setting your
computer to automatically accept updates from Microsoft.
There will be other updates too, for other versions of
Windows, including Windows 7, Vista and XP, as well as for Internet Explorer.
Meanwhile, security firm Bitdefender said Friday in its
own testing that Windows 8, using Microsoft's own Windows Defender anti-malware
protection, was "prone to infection" by 15 percent of the 100 malware
"families most used by cyber criminals this year."
Read another way, that means Windows Defender — which
is included as part of Windows — was 85 percent effective.
No anti-malware product, of course, is 100 percent effective
because code, viruses, worms, Trojans and spam are shape-shifters in the
hands of criminals or mischief-makers.
NBC News contacted Microsoft for comment about
Bitdefender's study. "Microsoft is committed to providing a trustworthy
computing experience and continues to invest heavily in continuously improving
our security and protection technologies," a company
spokesman said in an emailed statement.
Bitdefender said the malicious sample set it used
"consisted of the families of malware detected most frequently in the past
six months" by its own real-time virus reporting system
