A number of security fixes have been released by Microsoft in order to patch up a number of its flagship programs, highlighting changes small businesses in IT must make if they have systems provided by the company.

Among the targets of the upgrades is Windows itself, Internet Explorer and Office, following a number of flaws found in coding which have resulted in people attempting to hack into the products.

Symantec revealed that the 31 flaws highlighted by the company was the highest number ever released at once by the software giant, beating the previous record of 28 which was established in December 2008.

Additionally, 17 of the 31 vulnerabilities were classed as critical, with most sources understanding that the most significant response was to Internet Explorer, which in effect addressed the first flaw with its newest release, IE8.

Earlier this month, Microsoft asserted its dominance on the videogaming market by launching Project Natal at games expo E3, a motion sensor controller which is able to detect bodily movements, facial emotions and answer questions posed by the user.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.