Security concerns this month

This is a neat article written by Business Data Services

Today's security tip: Online Holiday shopping has begun! Remember to be careful when shopping online! Only make purchases from secure websites! For more tips from Microsoft click here.

Microsoft Releases Advance Notification for November Security Bulletin
:::Threat Rank: Medium

Microsoft has issued a Security Bulletin Advance Notification indicating that its November release will contain four bulletins. These bulletins will have the severity rating of critical, important, and moderate and will be for Microsoft Windows. Release of the se bulletins is scheduled for Tuesday November 8, 2011.

What to do:Read the Security Bulletin Advanced Notification here.

Internet routing glitch kicks millions offline
:::Threat Rank: Medium

The seemingly indestructible Internet relies on a few backbone systems to keep traffic flowing smoothly. Sometimes, one of those systems blips -- and millions of devices get abruptly kicked offline.

That's what happened Monday morning, when a software glitch in the Internet's wonky sounding "Border Gateway Protocol" created a ripple effect that crashed data networks around the world.

The outage appears to have originated early Monday with Juniper Networks (JNPR), a company that makes router hardware for large networks. A set of updates to a core Internet routing protocol triggered a software glitch in some Juniper's routers. When those routers crashed, key Internet pathways went down with them.

Time Warner Cable (TWC, Fortune 500), one of the largest Internet providers in the United States, suffered a short but widespread blackout. "We appear to be recovering from a large but brief internet outage affecting most of our service areas," the company wrote on its customer-service Twitter account.

But Time Warner's problem most likely originated even further upstream: Level 3 (LVLT), a so-called "tier 1" network and one of the key Internet gateways in the U.S., got caught in the crash.

What to do: If you are still experience connection problems, contact your Internet Service Provider for more assistance.