This time, it looks like Microsoft set things right and saved the day by issuing the patch meant to clean the mess in Internet Explorer’s defenses without delays. Hackers had really begun playing havoc with it, and no wonder, as Microsoft itself referred to this vulnerability as being “critical”; they have four terms referring to such threats and this one described the worst of them.

The first time Microsoft officially acknowledged that things had gone horribly wrong was about a week ago, the next day after releasing the largest package of security updates in five yeas. At first, it seemed that only IE 7 had problems, but then it became clear that all versions of the popular browser had become a risk for their users. The last weekend saw a massive increase in hacker attacks; even legitimate sites were ruthlessly modified and triggered the vulnerability when opened with Internet Explorer.

This December 17 update is the second one that Microsoft had to come up with during these two last months. And it’s well and good that they did. Actually, many specialists say that the company acted with uncharacteristic speed and efficiency.

According to Computerworld, chief technology officer Eric Schultze from Shavlik Technologies admired the way Microsoft’s people rallied their forces and solved this crisis. “The out-of-band process worked exactly as intended in this case,” he said.

Indeed, Microsoft did this by the book, and Andrew Storms, nCircle Network Security’s director of security operations, called this prompt reaction “a classic case of what we would like to happen”. Microsoft started by quickly acknowledging their mistake, then they offered advice about how to temporarily work around it, announced the patch and managed to deliver it right on time.