Industry sources anticipate the disclosure of multiple vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system.

Microsoft announced its shift to a monthly patching cycle as a part of a new security initiative unveiled at its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans last month. Microsoft said it was introducing the new schedule to ease the burden on systems administrators struggling with the frequency of security updates.

However security professionals have avoided giving Microsoft's policy shift the thumbs up, saying the effect is likely to be neutral. Co-founder and chief technology officer with U.S. based security company Neohapsis, Greg Shipley, told ZDNet Australia the new policy will actually make some things harder.

"The measuring stick is the volume of patches, not the release times," he said by phone from Chicago. "It's difficult because now we have to regression test all these patches in one lump sum."

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