Heimatsicherheitshauptamt says patch your Windows NOW

In a rare alert, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has urged Windows users to plug a potential worm hole in the Microsoft operating system.

The agency, which also runs the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), sent out a news release on Wednesday recommending that people apply Microsoft's MS06-040 patch as quickly as possible. The software maker released the "critical" fix Tuesday as part of its monthly patch cycle.

Details here.

The ISO image file of all August patches is available here if you do not trust Microsoft and wish to avoid installing, say, Windows Genuine Disadvantage on your machine through Automatic Update.