Microsoft Corp. is giving early versions of its software security patches to the U.S. Air Force and other organizations, a practice some experts fear could give rogue hackers important details about how to break into unprotected computers on a massive scale.

Microsoft maintains that participants in its security-testing program abide by strict rules to protect these early software patches from leaking into the Internet's underground. For added security, it doesn't provide documentation to participants about which Microsoft products might be affected and allows only for limited testing in a computer laboratory.

By Ted Bridis at InformationWeek.

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