Microsoft today issued updates to fix more than 1,400 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and other software. Today’s epic patch batch dwarfs September’s record of nearly 1,000 fixes, which was already about ten times the normal monthly patch load from Redmond.

Just one of the weaknesses patched this week is considered a “zero day,” or already exploited in the wild. CVE-2026-96951 is a security feature bypass in the Windows Shell that affects Windows 10 and 11 systems, as well as some Server versions.

Windows 10 users might be wondering if they can still expect security updates after this month. Microsoft had been slated to stop shipping updates for Windows 10 systems in October 2025, but ended up adding another year of free updates after considerable pushback. A few months ago, Microsoft quietly extended that support for another year (until October 2027).

At least 78 of the flaws fixed this month are rated “critical,” meaning they could be exploited with little or no action by the user, and most of those critical bugs allow an attacker to execute code of their choice on the vulnerable system.

While Microsoft said there are no signs anyone is exploiting it yet, a security feature bypass in the .NET Framework (CVE-2026-108398) was publicly disclosed prior to today, potentially giving attackers advance time to work out how to exploit the bug.

Satnam Narang at Tenable said the number of flaws fixed this month far surpasses the previous record-setting year 2020, when Microsoft patched 1,261 CVEs.

“We’ve now crossed the 4,000 CVE mark with two months left to go,” he said.

Microsoft credits large language models for the high volume of bug discovery, and presumably AI gets credit for many of the patches used to fix these flaw. Meanwhile, security experts have been warning that these unusually large patch volleys from Microsoft are placing extra strain on corporate security teams, which often have to test individual updates before deploying them across a network to ensure the fixes don’t cause problems for other software.

Tyler Reguly, associate director of security research and development at Fortra, notes that just 26 Microsoft vulnerabilities appeared in the “Known Exploited Vulnerabilities” (KEV) catalog maintained by the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) so far this year, and security teams would do well to prioritize patching those 26 vulnerabilities first.

“Security leaders should focus on exploitable risk, and ask whether their teams have the clarity, capacity and support to act,” Reguly said.

Which vulnerabilities deserve the most scrutiny in your organization? The folks at Cisco Talos have a useful roundup of the more noteworthy flaws that Microsoft fixed today, and of course the SANS Internet Storm Center has a reliable roundup that indexes vulnerabilities by severity, CVE number and affected software.

Rapid AI adoption left workers cleaning up a flood of errors and low-quality work

Employers around the globe are grappling with the fallout from rushing to adopt fast-changing artificial intelligence tools.

Meta has scaled back plans to axe staff and use more AI agents after the company found employees were spending more and more time cleaning up technical and security errors, Reuters reported. And after thinning its workforce, especially middle managers, in a 2023 efficiency push, the company is expanding its managerial ranks again, LinkedIn posts from workers show.

Norway’s privacy regulator Datatilsynet has fined advertising technology company Xandr 92 million Norwegian kroner, approximately $9.6 million, for unlawfully processing and sharing sensitive information about Grindr users.

While the decision concerns users in Norway, the data-sharing practices were not confined to Norwegian users. BleepingComputer reports that information about Grindr users in other countries was also exposed through the advertising system.

Between July 2018 and April 2020, Xandr handled real-time advertising auctions involving Grindr users. These automated auctions let advertisers bid to display an ad, but also involved circulating information about the person who would see it. Sensitive information revealing sexual orientation could potentially reach thousands of companies.

Crucially, users did not have to disclose their sexual orientation in their profiles. Datatilsynet said that simply being identified as a Grindr user was information that indicated sexual orientation.

According to the regulator, Xandr relied on Grindr to obtain consent without checking whether that consent was valid. As a company jointly responsible for the processing, Xandr had its own obligations. It was not enough to simply assume the app had obtained the explicit consent required.

This was not a case of hackers breaking into a dating app. The information was flowing through an advertising business without a valid legal basis. Privacy group noyb, which filed the complaint in cooperation with the Norwegian Consumer Council, says such systems use tracking identifiers to build profiles of people’s interests, habits, and behavior.

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Although Xandr now belongs to Microsoft, the misconduct predates its acquisition. Microsoft completed its purchase of Xandr from AT&T on June 6, 2022, more than two years after the period covered by the fine. Microsoft told BleepingComputer it was reviewing the decision and assessing its options.

How to protect your privacy

This is a Norwegian enforcement action, but the data-sharing practices crossed borders. Users in the US and elsewhere shouldn’t assume their information stayed private just because the fine was issued in Norway.

You can limit how much additional information you disclose by giving a dating app only what you need to use it.

• Leave optional profile fields blank when the information feels too personal.
• Avoid publishing your workplace, home address, regular schedule, or other details that make you easy to locate.
• Review location permissions and advertising settings and limit them where possible.
• Think carefully before linking social accounts that reveal more of your identity.
• Don’t use dating apps on company-issued devices.

These precautions cannot guarantee privacy. Responsibility for unlawful sharing lies with the companies involved. This case shows that sensitive information can come from using the service itself, not just from what you write in your bio.

Scammers don’t need to hack you. They just need you to click once. 

Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection catches suspicious activity before it becomes a problem.