By all means, Microsoft's software products are the focus of malware attacks. From the flagship products including the Windows operating system and Office platform to components such as the Internet Explorer browser, the Redmond company' solutions are under a constant barrage of fire with dedicated malicious code a constant threat. One point of entry for malware is of course exploits taking advantage of Critical security vulnerabilities that allow for remote code execution.

This is why Microsoft, as well as other software developers, has in place an update system designed to plug in any potential holes discovered in its products. For the Redmond company, this happens via the monthly patch cycle. On the second Tuesday of every month, Microsoft makes available the security bulletins set up to resolve all the security issues affecting its software. It is a rare occasion when the company actually skips a beat, but it does happen.

"As part of our regularly scheduled bulletin release, we're currently planning to release four Microsoft Security Bulletins rated Critical. These updates may require a restart and will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. As we do each month, the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool will be updated. Finally, we are planning to release three high-priority, non-security updates on Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) as well as two high-priority, non-security updates on Microsoft Update and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)," stated Bill Sisk, Microsoft Security Response Center Communications Manager.

Four Critical security bulletins are currently planned for March 11. All of them affect either the Office System or Office Web components. And essentially, if you are running Windows Vista, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or any other flavor of the operating system, you are safe this month. At this point in time, Microsoft plans no security updates for any version, both client and server, of its Windows platform.