Next month, Microsoft will release Office 2010 into an IT world that Google has been reshaping as use of its Google Apps services spread to places like the City of Los Angeles and Genentech.

Early speculation focused on the Abobe Reader zero-day exploit as the source of the Chinese attacks on Google and other corporations earlier this week, but Adobe may be off the hook--or at least share the blame. Microsoft has determined that an unknown flaw in Internet Explorer was one of the holes used to launch the attacks which have led to Google threatening to shut down its Chinese operations.