Microsoft's security team is having a busy month when that traditionally hasn't been the case in November. As such, IT departments need to prepare for six security updates next week to fix flaws in both Windows and Office.

"Six is the lucky number this month," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security. "Really, anything less than 13 is a lucky number."

That's only half as many that were issued last month, which set the record for the most updates ever since Microsoft starting shipping the monthly patches six years ago. But next week's updates, which will patch 15 separate vulnerabilities, also sets a record for November, a month that's traditionally been pretty low-key.

On the bright side, none of next Tuesday's updates affect Microsoft's recently released Windows 7 operating system.