A standard rating for the importance of security flaws in commercial software has been developed to help IT system administrators prioritise the dozens of software 鈥減atches鈥� they receive from software houses each week.
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) was developed by a consortium that includes Microsoft and antivirus company Symantec. 鈥淭here are just too many vulnerabilities for managers to pay attention to all of them,鈥� says Bruce Schneier, a security consultant with Counterpane Security in Mountain View, California.
CVSS assesses a vulnerability according to seven characteristics, including the threat of data loss and system crashes, and the extent to which it gives a hacker access to confidential information that might lead to identity theft.
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