It seems like only yesterday that Bill Gates was touting Windows Vista as "dramatically more secure than any other operating system released" and claiming that security researchers would be lucky to find one Vista flaw in a month. Yet, only yesterday, Microsoft released 19 critical patches, including six that dealt directly with holes inside IE7 running under Vista. Guess that pretty much covers the rest of the It seems like only yesterday that Bill Gates was touting Windows Vista as “dramatically more secure than any other operating system released” and claiming that security researchers would be lucky to find one Vista flaw in a month. Yet, only yesterday, Microsoft released 19 critical patches, including six that dealt directly with holes inside IE7 running under Vista. Guess that pretty much covers the rest of the year.In a way that huge patch release was good news — and not just because it fixes a nasty DNS vulnerability that had a lot of IT guys quaking in their Keds. There was a time when Windows holes went unpatched for months, and fixes were issued seemingly at random. Not anymore. And, as InfoWorld’s band of intrepid geeks have shown, Vista does seem to be more secure (or, for you glass half-empty types, less insecure) than prior versions of Windows.But don’t get too comfortable. The other day I was talking to a security wonk who tracks zombie nets for a living. He says anti-virus apps and spyware scanners may do a decent job of stopping known threats but they suck hard at catching zero day exploits. He says you could run every major anti-malware package available and be fortunate to catch one out of four new nasties. Two days ago I got an email titled “IE7 beta 2” that claimed to be from “Admin@Microsoft.com”. Inside the spam was a graphic with a live link to an executable file on some obscure Asian domain — a remote access Trojan called Virus.Win32.Grum.a. The black hat hackers simply take Microsoft’s new focus on security and turn it to their advantage. Give them lemons, and they make lemon-flavored poison. It’s not just Microsoft or just the Internet — insecurity abounds in every direction. The Transportation Security Administration recently fessed up to losing a hard drive containing the identities of more than 100,000 of its own employees, including their Social Security Numbers. Their solution? Free credit report alerts for TSA employees. Somehow I think they’re missing the big picture. (“Hi, my name’s Osama and I work for the TSA. Would you like to see my badge?”)Insecurity. Get used to it. Because it’s going to be part of our lives from now on.Are things really that bad or do I just need more coffee? Cough up your opinions below or send me a note. Top gossip and blog ideas may net you a new carry on bag. Software DevelopmentSmall and Medium Business