Get the patch - again

Even if you actually downloaded Microsoft's recent mother-of-all-patches, Service Pack 2 (SP2), experts say we really need to go to the Windows Update page for this one too, the Associated Press reports. Especially if we're among the some 200 million owners of Windows XP computers. Microsoft says an attacker could use the flaw this patches to install viruses or take control of XP PCs, that this can happen if people simple go to a Web page that has a specially doctored photo on it, or read an email message with such an image in it. The security flaw could also be in dozens of other Microsoft programs on your machine, which is why MS wants us to go to its update page to have our systems scanned for it.

And did you hear about the talking worm? Fortunately, PC security experts are calling it low-risk, but it really does talk. According to CNET, the worm "uses the Windows Embedded Speech Engine" to play a friendly little message in English (from a guy who says he's Turkish) after the Windows XP boot-up music has played. It "also deletes certain files, causing Windows to fail. It spreads automatically via an e-mail titled "Listen and Smile," and alters home page settings in Internet Explorer." The anti-virus software I'm sure you have installed will take care of this one.