Microsoft's decision to scrap February security updates unnerves patch experts

Microsoft this week canceled February's slate of security updates for Windows and its other products, including Office, just a day after saying that the fixes would only be delayed.

Patch experts struggled with the decision, pointing out that known vulnerabilities will go unpatched and that IT planning had been disrupted.

"I was shocked," said Chris Goettl, product manager at patch management vendor Ivanti, formerly Shavlik. "I was really expecting [the patches to release] next week."

On Tuesday, just hours before the month's Patch Tuesday updates were to appear, Microsoft announced a delay. "We discovered a last-minute issue that could impact some customers and was not resolved in time for our planned updates today," the company said at the time. The implication was that February's security fixes would ship as soon as that "last-minute issue" was resolved.

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