Calls for NAC grow as Microsoft releases critical patches

IT security and control firm Sophos has advised companies to consider the benefits of Network Access Control (NAC) in light of Microsoft's latest announcement that yet more critical security patches have been released.

As part of its monthly "Patch Tuesday" schedule, Microsoft has issued seven new bulletins, three of which are 'critical', about security vulnerabilities in its software, including Windows Media Format Runtime, and Internet Explorer. A number of different versions of Microsoft's operating system are affected by these security holes, including Vista.

Sophos advises users to patch against these vulnerabilities as a matter of urgency. All three critical patches address remote code execution vulnerabilities - if exploited, a hacker would be able to take complete control of a system running with administrative privileges, whether that be viewing and deleting data, or installing new malicious or unwanted programs.