{"id":1347,"date":"2009-01-26T23:43:01","date_gmt":"2009-01-26T23:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm"},"modified":"2009-01-26T23:43:01","modified_gmt":"2009-01-26T23:43:01","slug":"its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s time to take patch management seriously"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Windows updates don&#8217;t normally feature highly on this blog&#8230; after all, they come along every month, you test them (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/02\/when-windows-updates-turn-bad.htm\">perhaps?<\/a>), install them, and leave things along for a few weeks.  Sometimes there&#8217;s an out of band patch release and that ought to indicate that there is a significant problem that requires attention.  So why have I been hearing so much over the last few weeks about the Win32\/Conflicker.B worm with people panicking to update systems, install the latest AV updates, and generally try and catch up after being so lackadaisical in the first place?<\/p>\n<p>Let me explain what I mean&#8230; according to an e-mail I received from Microsoft last week:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/security\/portal\/Entry.aspx?Name=Worm:Win32\/Conficker.B\">Win32\/Conficker.B<\/a> exploits a vulnerability in the Windows Server service (SVCHOST.EXE) for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2008. While Microsoft addressed this issue in October with Microsoft Security Bulletin <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/technet\/security\/bulletin\/ms08-067.mspx\">MS08-067<\/a>, and Forefront antivirus and OneCare (as well as other vendor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anit-virus products) helped protect against infections, many systems that have not been patched manually through Server Update Services and Microsoft\/Windows Update or through Automatic Updates have recently come under attack by this worm.  Attacked systems may lock out users, disable our update services and block access to security-related Web sites:<\/p>\n<p>In response to this threat, Microsoft has:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Updated the January version of the [MSRT] to detect and remove variants of Win32\/Conficker.B.  You can download this version from the MSRT from either the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.update.microsoft.com\/\">Microsoft Update site<\/a> or through its associated <a href=\"http:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/kb\/890830\">Knowledge Base article<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Created the KB article 962007 &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/kb\/962007\">Virus alert about the Win32\/Conficker.B worm<\/a>&#8216; to provide public details on the symptoms and removal methods available to address this issue.<\/li>\n<li>Announced the release of the items and the virus threat itself on the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.technet.com\/mmpc\/archive\/2009\/01\/13\/msrt-released-today-addressing-conficker-and-banload.aspx\">Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is our hope that these resources can assist you in resolving issues with unpatched, infected systems and that you can apply <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/technet\/security\/bulletin\/ms08-067.mspx\">MS08-067<\/a> to any other unpatched systems as soon as possible to avoid this threat.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure there are some people who feel that applying updates is an intrusion, an unnecessary interruption into the day (these are probably the same people that advocate turning off user account control&#8230;).  Others will claim that other operating systems don&#8217;t need patching so often (I don&#8217;t know about the frequency of updates but patches on my Macs always seem pretty big and Linux is in one big patch cycle as the open source model is one of continuous improvement).  Personally, I&#8217;m glad that Microsoft settled down to a predictable monthly cycle and for those who think that&#8217;s a problem because it gives hackers a predictable timeframe for reverse engineering patches and attacking weaknesses in unpatched systems it&#8217;s all the more reason why every organisation&#8217;s IT security people should be ready to look at the update announcements on the second Tuesday of every month and then to act accordingly.  And when a patch comes along outside that predictable schedule to consider that, yes it&#8217;s a pain in the neck, but it might just be important&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Which brings me back to the point.  Conficker (also known as Downadup).  As F-Secure put it:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"http:\/\/www.f-secure.com\/weblog\/archives\/00001576.html\"><p>&#8220;First \u00e2\u20ac\u201d It was an out-of-band update.<\/p>\n<p>Second \u00e2\u20ac\u201d It was given an &#8216;Exploitability Index Assessment&#8217; of &#8216;1 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Consistent exploit code likely&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>That kind of speaks for itself, doesn&#8217;t it?<\/p>\n<p>Third \u00e2\u20ac\u201d It allows for Remote Code Execution, in numerous versions of Windows (particularly critical for 2000, XP, and Server 2003).<\/p>\n<p>All of these combined factors equals something quite serious that should be patched as soon as possible. If you are having difficulties with Automatic Updates, the bulletin links to manual downloads.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/downloads\/details.aspx?familyid=0D5F9B6E-9265-44B9-A376-2067B73D6A03\">Security Update for Windows XP<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/downloads\/details.aspx?familyid=F26D395D-2459-4E40-8C92-3DE1C52C390D\">Security Update for Windows Server 2003<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s always a good idea to be ready for out-of-band updates. You can subscribe to Microsoft Security Notifications <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/technet\/security\/bulletin\/notify.mspx\">here<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The other thing that this worm has awakened is corporate IT departments saying things like &#8220;how can we check that all our machines are updated with the Microsoft update and with the latest antivirus signatures?&#8221;.  Well guys, there&#8217;s a feature called <a href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/network\/bb545879.aspx\">Network Access Protection (NAP)<\/a> and it&#8217;s implemented in Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.  Whilst you&#8217;ve all been bleating about how Vista is bad, perhaps you should have looked a bit further and seen some of the advantages it could bring.  If you still can&#8217;t stomach a Vista upgrade because somehow you think that Windows 7 will be easier from an application compatibility standpoint (I have news for you&#8230;) or think that Microsoft and security in the same sentence indicates an oxymoron then there are plenty of third party endpoint security systems with similar controls&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps we need an outbreak like this from time to time to wake up the IT Managers and persuade them to spend some money on security improvements within the infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Here endeth the lesson.  Now go and update your systems.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, check out <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.technet.com\/mmpc\/archive\/2009\/01\/22\/centralized-information-about-the-conficker-worm.aspx\">Centralised information about the Conficker Worm<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.technet.com\/msrc\/archive\/2009\/01\/22\/january-22-2009-ms08-067-conficker-worm-update.aspx\">MS08-067 Conflicker worm update<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Windows updates don&#8217;t normally feature highly on this blog&#8230; after all, they come along every month, you test them (perhaps?), install them, and leave things along for a few weeks. Sometimes there&#8217;s an out of band patch release and that ought to indicate that there is a significant problem that requires attention. So why have &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">It&#8217;s time to take patch management seriously<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1,20],"class_list":["post-1347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-microsoft","tag-patch-management"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>It&#039;s time to take patch management seriously - markwilson.it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It&#039;s time to take patch management seriously - markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Windows updates don&#8217;t normally feature highly on this blog&#8230; after all, they come along every month, you test them (perhaps?), install them, and leave things along for a few weeks. Sometimes there&#8217;s an out of band patch release and that ought to indicate that there is a significant problem that requires attention. So why have &hellip; Continue reading It&#8217;s time to take patch management seriously\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-01-26T23:43:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/01\\\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/01\\\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"headline\":\"It&#8217;s time to take patch management seriously\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-01-26T23:43:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/01\\\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm\"},\"wordCount\":850,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"keywords\":[\"Microsoft\",\"Patch Management\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/01\\\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/01\\\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/01\\\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm\",\"name\":\"It's time to take patch management seriously - markwilson.it\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-01-26T23:43:01+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/01\\\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/01\\\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/01\\\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"It&#8217;s time to take patch management seriously\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"markwilson.it\",\"description\":\"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \\\/dev\\\/web\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\",\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"width\":800,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Mark Wilson\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\"},\"description\":\"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/markwilsonuk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/markawilson\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/markwilsonit\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/mark-wilson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"It's time to take patch management seriously - markwilson.it","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"It's time to take patch management seriously - markwilson.it","og_description":"Windows updates don&#8217;t normally feature highly on this blog&#8230; after all, they come along every month, you test them (perhaps?), install them, and leave things along for a few weeks. Sometimes there&#8217;s an out of band patch release and that ought to indicate that there is a significant problem that requires attention. So why have &hellip; Continue reading It&#8217;s time to take patch management seriously","og_url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm","og_site_name":"markwilson.it","article_published_time":"2009-01-26T23:43:01+00:00","author":"Mark Wilson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@markwilsonit","twitter_site":"@markwilsonit","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Wilson","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm"},"author":{"name":"Mark Wilson","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"headline":"It&#8217;s time to take patch management seriously","datePublished":"2009-01-26T23:43:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm"},"wordCount":850,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"keywords":["Microsoft","Patch Management"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm","name":"It's time to take patch management seriously - markwilson.it","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-01-26T23:43:01+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/its-time-to-take-patch-management-seriously.htm#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"It&#8217;s time to take patch management seriously"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"markwilson.it","description":"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \/dev\/web","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468","name":"Mark Wilson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","width":800,"height":800,"caption":"Mark Wilson"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1"},"description":"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/markwilsonuk\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/markawilson\/","https:\/\/x.com\/markwilsonit","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A"],"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/author\/mark-wilson"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":194,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2005\/11\/windows-management-technologies.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1347,"position":0},"title":"Windows management technologies","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Thursday 3 November 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"At the Best of the Microsoft Management Summit 2005 event a few weeks back, Vlad Joanavic gave an overview of some of the \"free\" Windows Management technologies that are available (in addition to the \"paid\" products under the System Center brand). These basically break down into: Windows Software Update Services\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft Active Directory\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft Active Directory","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/active-directory"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":401,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2004\/02\/overview-of-microsoft-software-update.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1347,"position":1},"title":"Overview of Microsoft Software Update Services","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Monday 23 February 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I've spent the last few days working on a Microsoft Software Update Services (SUS) proof of concept for a client. In my last job, I implemented a hierarchy of SUS servers across Europe, to manage our Microsoft patch distribution. The system works - but it is a v1.0 product, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft Windows\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/windows"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":523,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/01\/patching-systems-shouldnt-be-this.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1347,"position":2},"title":"Patching systems shouldn&#8217;t be this difficult","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 25 January 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"With tools like the automatic updates client and Microsoft Update, keeping a modern Windows system up-to-date is pretty straightforward. For those who have a network of computers to manage there are additional tools, like the Microsoft baseline security analyzer (which helps to identify if any patches are missing) and Windows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Oracle (Sun) Solaris\"","block_context":{"text":"Oracle (Sun) Solaris","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/solaris"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":855,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/07\/wsus-30-delivers-huge-improvements-for-the-deployment-of-microsoft-updates.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1347,"position":3},"title":"WSUS 3.0 delivers huge improvements for the deployment of Microsoft updates","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Saturday 21 July 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been an advocate of Microsoft SUS\/WSUS since the v1.0 release. Sure, there are better enterprise software deployment products out there (Microsoft even has one - Systems Management Server) but as a low cost (free) patch management solution for Windows, it's hard to beat Windows Software Update Services (which, since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/microsoft"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":976,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/01\/management-of-microsoft-hyper-v-on-windows-server-2008-server-core.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1347,"position":4},"title":"Management of Microsoft Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 (Server Core)","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 15 January 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently bought a new server in order to consolidate various machines onto one host.\u00a0 The intention here is to license Microsoft Hyper-V Server when it is released but, as that's not available to me right now, I thought I'd use the latest Windows Server 2008 (Server Core) build with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft Virtual Server\/Hyper-V\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft Virtual Server\/Hyper-V","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/hyper-v"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":851,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/07\/apache-http-server-on-windows-server-2008-server-core.htm","url_meta":{"origin":1347,"position":5},"title":"Apache HTTP server on Windows Server 2008 Server Core","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Monday 16 July 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Microsoft's James O'Neill wrote about how: \"Some bright spark tried running Apache on [Windows Server 2008 Server] Core and having no special Windows dependencies it works.\" I couldn't find any references to this elsewhere on the 'net so I had to give it a go - it's actually really easy:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Apache\"","block_context":{"text":"Apache","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/apache"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}