Microsoft is delaying its regular Patch Tuesday round of security fixes this month. The software giant is blaming a “last minute issue” for the delay, and now plans to release the patches on March 14th, a whole month after they were supposed to go live. Microsoft was expected to patch a zero-day flaw in the company’s file sharing protocol, SMB, with its February patches, but Windows machines will now be left vulnerable to in-the-wild attacks until March 14th.

The month delay is unprecedented, and it’s rare that Microsoft even delays individual patches let alone the entire Patch Tuesday release. Microsoft first moved to a regular monthly patch release schedule in October 2003, citing a reduction of cost for distributing patches and the…

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