In the past year, the Redmond, Wash.-based company quietly changed its procedure for releasing security bulletins and software patches for security vulnerabilities in its products, creating a carefully orchestrated process that predictably releases bulletins and patches to the public on Wednesdays, according to senior Microsoft security personnel.
The company never formally announced the change in procedure, which went into effect around May of 2002, nor is the policy mentioned on Microsoft's Web site or articulated in any document released by the company, according to Steve Lipner, director of security assurance at Microsoft.
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