Yesterday, as promised, Microsoft issued a massive number of security bulletins and fixes as part of its regularly scheduled monthly security update release schedule. The company released 12 security bulletins for various products, including several Windows versions, Microsoft Exchange Server, Office XP, Windows Media Player (WMP), MSN Messenger, and Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). Eight of the bulletins are rated critical, the company's most serious rating.
  
"Microsoft is committed to delivering security updates on a predictable and consistent monthly schedule," a company representative said yesterday. "As we do every month, Microsoft will hold a technical Webcast on Wednesday morning to discuss this month's updates. This Wednesday's Webcast has been extended to last for 2 hours." You can sign up for the security Webcast on the Microsoft Web site.
     
The eight critical security bulletins include fixes for the Licensing Logging Service in Windows; the Windows Server Message Block (SMB) service; the OLE and COM technologies in Windows, Exchange Server, and Office; the Dynamic HTML (DHTML) Editing Component ActiveX Control in Windows; Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE); the Hyperlink Object Library in Windows; Office XP; and the PNG processing facility in Windows, WMP, and MSN Messenger. You can download these and the other updates issued yesterday from the Microsoft Security Web site .