It’s the second Tuesday of the month, so it’s once again time to play Patch Or Else, brought to you by Microsoft and Adobe.

It’s easy to get complacent about updating software: diligently installing updates as soon as they become available is an essential part of a good security strategy, and it means you’re less likely to fall afoul of malicious activity. But it also means that after a while you can lose sight of the risk of not staying up to date, and gradually become lax about installing updates. History is filled with stories of lost lessons; it’s apparently in our nature to forget what’s important when we aren’t reminded of the reasons for that importance.

Analysis of Microsoft’s Security Update Guide for the December 2018 updates reveals that this month we have sixty-seven distinct updates, half of which are flagged as having Critical severity. The updates address security issues in Adobe Flash (embedded in Internet Explorer and Edge), Internet Explorer, Edge, .NET, Office, Visual Studio, and Windows.

Update Windows and your other Microsoft software via Windows Update. In Windows 10, open the Start Menu and click on Settings > Update & Security settings > Windows Update. In older versions of Windows, you can find Windows Update in the Control Panel.

Presumably as part of the ongoing push for transparency in response to Windows 10 update problems earlier this year, Microsoft Corporate VP Michael Fortin posted an article, coinciding with this month’s updates, that explains some of the planning that goes into the monthly updates. Fortin points out that “During peak times, we update over 1,000 devices per second”.

Adobe’s contribution to the patch pile this month is a new version of Adobe Reader. The new Reader includes fixes for at least eighty-seven vulnerabilities, many having Critical severity. The release notes for Adobe Reader DC 2019.010.20064 provide additional details. Update Reader by pointing your browser to the Acrobat Reader Download Center.