Perhaps none of us need any more convincing to keep our systems up to date, but a gentle reminder of the importance of it came this week following a recent Microsoft patch. Last week, Microsoft patched an ActiveX related flaw in IE7, currently the most popular version of the browser, which is now seeing active exploitation. Trend Micro has warned that the hole is resulting in systems being compromised now, though it didn't specify to what degree.
Any security flaw that allows for code execution could result in system compromise, and this one is no different. So far the exploits seen in the wild have apparently been more targeted to Chinese users and are apparently politically motivated. Regardless, it is an example of why, as annoying as a system reboot can be, keeping a system up to date is important. Even if Microsoft does provide a fix, they cannot force people to update, which unfortunately helps propagate malicious software.