Microsoft Technical Security Notifications

October 11, 2005

Better protect your computing environment by keeping up to date on Microsoft technical security notifications. Notifications are available in RSS, instant message, mobile device, or e-mail format, and are always available online at TechNet on the Security Bulletin Search Web page.

For Home and Consumers
For Home and Consumers

Learn about newly released and re-released security bulletins. Select from the following alerts:

For IT Professionals
For IT Professionals

Basic Alerts
Microsoft's free monthly Security Notification Service provides links to security-related software updates and notification of re-released Microsoft Security Bulletins. The goal of this service is to provide accurate information you can use to protect your computers and systems from malicious attacks. These bulletins are written for IT professionals, contain in-depth technical information, and emails are digitally-signed with PGP.

Comprehensive Alerts
The free Comprehensive alerts serve as an incremental supplement to the Basic Alerts. It provides advance notification of upcoming security bulletins, Security advisories, and timely notification of any minor changes to previously released Microsoft Security Bulletins or Advisories. These notifications are written for IT professionals, contain in-depth technical information, and emails are digitally-signed with PGP.

Security Advisories Alerts
Microsoft Security Advisories are a way for Microsoft to communicate security information to customers about issues that may not be classified as vulnerabilities and may not require a security bulletin. Each advisory will be accompanied with a unique Microsoft Knowledge Base Article number for reference to provide additional information about the changes.

[1] Note There is not a separate Comprehensive Email Notification service for Security Bulletins and Security Advisories

Help with Your Notification Services

If you have any problems registering, canceling, or receiving the security notifications, please contact us.

To cancel an email notification service reply to the notification with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

Verifying Our Digital Signature

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is an Internet standard for digitally signing and encrypting e-mail and other documents. The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) uses PGP to digitally sign all security notifications. However, it is not required to read security notifications, read security bulletins, or install security updates. You can obtain the MSRC public PGP key at the MSRC PGP Web page. Numerous third-party vendors produce PGP-compatible applications for a variety of platforms, but Microsoft cannot recommend the right solution for your environment.

You can read bulletins online at TechNet on the Security Bulletin Search Web page.

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