Bonn, Germany - Microsoft has released a series of new updates for closing security gaps this month as part of its monthly Patch Day event.

According to Germany's BSI Federal Office for Information Security, the security gaps were present in Windows system components responsible for rendering graphics. Other applications included Windows Media Player, Windows Media Encoder and Microsoft Office.

Hackers could have taken advantage of those gaps to introduce damaging codes, either by getting computer users to open manipulated data or to visit certain websites.

The BSI recommends downloading and installing the patches from Microsoft at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. (dpa)