Print - Microsoft: Worm Attack is Your Fault

Rival hackers have unleashed competing computer worms on the Internet which are designed to exploit recently revealed flaws in various versions of Microsoft's Windows operating systems. The worms are most notable for their arrival speed: They are quickly spreading around the globe less than a week after Microsoft announced the flaws they exploit. Microsoft, however, remains surprisingly unimpressed by the fact that its customers are being forced to take their PC systems offline.

"We are not aware at this time of a new attack," the company noted in a statement it issued last night. "Instead our analysis has revealed that the reported worms are different variations of the existing attack called Zotob. Microsoft has reviewed the situation and continues to rate the issue as a low threat for customers."

This statement bears little comfort for companies such as ABC, Caterpillar Company, CNN, Daimler Chrysler, The Financial Times, Kraft Foods, The New York Times, The San Francisco International Airport, SBC Communications, United Parcel Service (UPS), and Walt Disney, all of which suffered from computer crashes, downtime, and repeated reboots because of the worm attacks. According to reports, there are at least six separate worms that exploit Microsoft's recently-revealed flaws. David Maynor, a security researcher at Internet Security Systems in Atlanta told The New York Times that the hackers responsible were essentially involved in a "turf war" to control computers in the largest networks around the world.

Despite Microsoft's "low threat" assertions, security firms are rating this attack being more severe. Trend Micro is using the "medium" designation to describe the attack, while Symantec grades the Zotob attacks as a 3 on a 1 to 5 scale.

But back to Microsoft, which you'd think would be reaching out to customers and not explaining how they'd be fine if they simply upgraded to XP or installed patches the day they were released. "Zotob has thus far had a low rate of infection," the aforementioned statement continues. "Zotob only targets Windows 2000. Customers running other versions such as Windows XP, or customers who have applied the MS05-039 update to Windows 2000 are not impacted by this attack."

Only Windows 2000, eh? According to AssetMatrix, Windows 2000 is the most-often used Windows version in medium- and large-sized corporations, edging out XP 48 percent to 37 percent. Put another way, roughly half of all Windows installs in corporations are Windows 2000.

So we have an interesting situation. Hackers are now able to exploit Windows flaws within days, and when they do so, corporations are admonished by Microsoft. No offense to the world's largest software company, but that's no way to talk to customers.

Hey, like many posters here at WinInformant, they're simply assigning blame to the user rather than their swiss-cheese-security software. It's easier to do that than accept responsibility and put the blame squarely where it belongs.

Paul, I agree with your assessment, but I also have to ask who is asleep at the wheel at thos corporations? You would think, no matter which platform they have deployed across their servers and clients, that they would have both a defined patch management solution better than just running Windows Update (such as SUS, WSUS, SMS, or any other litany of patch management packages available), and that they would also have AV software on each desktop, that is both a modern version, and kept up to date on a daily basis. This would greatly mitigate this worm from spreading very far if those simple precautions are taken. I think that infection would be more prevalant in small to midsize businesses that don't have the money or expertise for a full fledged patch management and virus solution, not at big companies with huge bankrolls.

My main question... So does it or does it not effect Windows XP. I just bought a new computer about a month ago. Do I need to worry?

I'll have to agree that more blame needs to be put on the systems administrators. About 50% of our network is Windows 2000. Not one machine has had a problem. Why? Because we use antivirus software. Because we use patch management software. Because we use firewalls. The point is that the tools are there to be used. Some free of charge. You don't blame Ford when you get something stolen out of your car when you forgot to lock the doors.

"You don't blame Ford when you get something stolen out of your car when you forgot to lock the doors." Well, I would definitely blame Ford if they sold me a car without locks and something was stolen, which is the case here w/Windows and Zotob and even Blaster.

I'd blame Ford if they sold me a car that LOOKED like it had locks, but actually didn't or locks that could be slim-jimmed with a pencil. I'd also be annoyed if Ford expected me to drop by their service department daily to make sure there wasn't a service patch for my car. And I'd kick Ford's great grand kid square in the nads if he blamed me for not taking the time to drop by his service department to update the POS car he sold me! Maybe we should all consider Linux or Mac instad of Ford - er, Microsoft.

If Apple had 90% of the computer market share, would they not also be under the same attacks? Isn't the real issue about building a secure operating system.

I work for a fortune 50 company. I am currently monitoring our networks and our tickets, and so far we have zero reports of this virus on our network. Why? Because our testing and review process of Microsoft patches is quick. We utilize complete firewall protection. We use up-to-date virus protection. Blaming Microsoft is Lame, anyone in their position would have to deal with this. I think there a bunch of security professionals who need fired from each of these companies. This report is lame. Try supporting a company before you pass judgement. This was totally avoidable.

"If Apple had 90% of the computer market share, would they not also be under the same attacks?" No, that is just plain typical Micro$oft fanatical FUD. If a hacker was able to create a worm/virus that could successfully attack Mac OS X, he'd go down in history for the achievement. It hasn't happened. This is what hackers pursue notoriety. "Isn't the real issue about building a secure operating system." Are you not listening?! Apple OS X is far more secure then your precious Windoze. All ports blocked by default, Zero viruses available for Mac OS X, Zero worms, Zero trojans and Zero ad/spy-ware programs for OS X. I don't need or even use Antivirus software or a firewall with my copy of Mac OS X, it's that secure!!!

Keep your lame apple crap to yourself as well. Go back to your news about your new ipod alarm clocks.

"I work for a fortune 50 company. I am currently monitoring our networks and our tickets, and so far we have zero reports of this virus on our network. Why? Because our testing and review process of Microsoft patches is quick. We utilize complete firewall protection. We use up-to-date virus protection. Blaming Microsoft is Lame, anyone in their position would have to deal with this. I think there a bunch of security professionals who need fired from each of these companies. This report is lame. Try supporting a company before you pass judgement. This was totally avoidable." Thanks for this comment. It's great to see people comment from experience than just jump on a media blitz to grab attention. These comments from lame apple fans is stupid too! It's hallarious that this site gets security advise from people who use photoshop for a living.

A companies secuirty is only as effective as how seriously people take the matter.

Its a little quiet, where are all the Micro$oft fanatics...Oh, HAHAHAA, their computers are constantly rebooting because of Zotob!!! HAHAHA!!! I can see them now, crawling under their desks trying to unplug the ethernet cable to try and get their computer back to normal!!!! HAHAHAHA!!!

So Microsoft released the fixes and four days later companies who treat security in a lax manner get whacked. Well tough, that's their problem. Any Admin worth his salt will have had the patch distributed with 48 hours maximum. Apple released a bunch of patches this week, some which could be exploited by social engineering. Would I expect Apple admins to not distribute patches? Or linux admins for that matter? No ofcourse not. Any vulnerability (and there's lots more to be found on all platforms) should be addressed. Any Admin who doesn't treat security issue on any platform seriously deserves to be shown the door. I run several systems on Linux and when Apache release fixes (not an unusual event by any means) I'm expected to test and deploy as soon as possible.

"Keep your lame apple crap to yourself as well. Go back to your news about your new ipod alarm clocks." As opposed to your news about a brand new trojan controlling two-thirds of the world's computers? Chalk up another one for "Trusted Computing." By the way, my Mac is running fine. :) Zero trojans and spyware. That must suck for you to hear. ROFL

Worm created by Ballmer, Gates and Co. Translation: "Damit!! Vista won't be out until 2007... buy XP you ********!"

"OS X has zero viruses and trojans. Why do you guys continue to use such crappy, horrible, hole-ridden software and defend it?" Cause most people give up video games when they hit the age of 21 and start drinking. Not IT Pros.

""OS X has zero viruses and trojans. Why do you guys continue to use such crappy, horrible, hole-ridden software and defend it?" Cause most people give up video games when they hit the age of 21 and start drinking. Not IT Pros." IT Pros are frightened of OS X because they know it makes them obsolete and unneeded. Macs auto-network themselves and have no spyware or trojans. On Windows, you have to click through two wizards just to connect to a network, and even after that, the connection loves to drop every couple of weeks no matter how you configure your DHCP router.

So, Windoze kidz--all that trash-talking of Macs, and you sure are quiet today! ROFL!

Paul You are a loser. Stop dumping on Microsoft for you own loserness. This "worm" has been a non-event for all competent organizations whether patched already or not. The bad guys are the hackers. (And losers like you.)

Look at the pattern of who they hit and how large they are. Try patching 50000+ devices with over 800+ applications to test with the patch in such a short time. 6 days is not exactly what I would call 'lazy' admins. When you are that size, it takes a great deal of effort to distribute the patches AND ensure your apps don't break. Microsoft is to blame for the insecurity. The people that didn't use any semblance of responsibility by posting code of the whole before people have time to patch are to blame. And every hacker trying to do this destructive crap is to blame. And typically I would blame 'lazy' admins, but in this case, I think that is not quite right in this case. Patch mgmt systems for these large companies to test, deploy, support are expensive as crap and take a lot of resources. Add on top of that, SOX compliancy strains and just now emerging out of a slow economy where penny penching and staffing was thin for several years has taxed IT to the hilt. You can't blame the ones that want to do as much as possible to patch quickly, but are held by the 'business' side of a company that don't see justification for $ for such a proper manner of QUCK patching. Business runs IT. Until they see the impact (this one may actually help), they typically won't back the cost of patching and the requirements to maintain it on such a large scale. Argh! It costs more to secure and maintain technology (not just MS) than the cost of the software in the first case. P.S. By the way, there are several more Forture 200 companies that were hit bad and have made no mention to the public.

(from SANS) Wow Q2 2005....do I see "Compromise of systems running Mac OS." STFU! Apple Cumulative Security Update 2005-005 and 2005-006 Patches: Available. Affected: Mac OS X version 10.4.1 and prior Mac OS X Server version 10.4.1 and prior Risk: Compromise of systems running Mac OS. Exploits: Exploit code has been publicly posted for some of the flaws. References: http://www.sans.org/newsletters/risk/display.php? v=4&i=18#widely1 http://www.sans.org/newsletters/risk/display.php? v=4&i=23#widely3 http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html? artnum=301528 http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301742

I just love the desperate nature of people trying to push the switch campain. They watch as schools dump their useless macs for Dells. Desperate fools. No one cares about apples security. If I wrote my own OS there would be no viruses that could attack it because no one would bother writing one. OSX has 10 million more holes than windows. Windows code is tested and true. If Jobs ran the world we would all be in for a world of hurt, that's why he isn't. So go back to your site and learn if there are any more breaking news stories about your ipod accessories.

"Paul You are a loser. Stop dumping on Microsoft for you own loserness." HAHAHAA!! Even the Micro$oft fanatics are flaming Paul Thurrott! Yeah, blame it on the admins, not the software company for selling them an unsecure and clunky OS! "Windows is a security nightmare." - Paul Thurrott

"(from SANS) Wow Q2 2005....do I see "Compromise of systems running Mac OS." STFU! Apple Cumulative Security Update 2005-005 and 2005-006 Patches: Available." Nope! OS X has never had a single trojan or virus in its entire five year existence. And when patches come, they come once every two or three months. Unlike Microsoft and its "Patch Tuesday," ROFL! Have fun patching Zotob, kidz.

"I work for a fortune 50 company. I am currently monitoring our networks and our tickets, and so far we have zero reports of this virus on our network. Why? Because our testing and review process of Microsoft patches is quick. We utilize complete firewall protection. We use up-to-date virus protection." Patching? Firewalls? Anti-virus? I also work for a Fortune company, and we don't have Patch Tuesdays, firewalls, anti-virus, or anti-spyware software. That's because in 2003 we went all Mac and never looked back. The cost savings have been enormous, and it's made my job incredibly easier not having to deal with Windows' horrible networking.

Dear Crapple and Lindus Experts What does "Exploits: Exploit code has been publicly posted for some of the flaws." Mean? Is that virus or *** do we call it something else that is not a virus but really is a virus?*** Things that make you go Hmmm.. Do I need to talk about the itunes exploit? or how about as SANS says "Mozilla and Firefox Browsers Multiple Vulnerabilities" ? please get up off of it..your crap suxs too and is barely used.....sorta like a Yugo.....

Microsoft made the patch available. It seems odd to me people are all a tither about the worm. Installing patches should be routine. All platforms have to patch - Linux - Mac - Solaris - Windows. What then is the big deal?

Anyone thinking of switching the enterprise over to apple, take a look at your first server from APPLE. Dual 2.3GHz PowerPC G5 512K L2 cache/processor 1.15GHz system bus/processor 2GB DDR400 ECC SDRAM 3x400GB Serial ATA drive Mac OS X Server (Unlimited Client) Dual Gigabit Ethernet No video card Combo drive Mac OS X Server Maintenance Program $7,148.00 LOL I can build this myself for about 1600.00. Idiot Mac fool fanatics. I am glad your only function in life is to use photoshop or else we would have way too many problems.

"Microsoft made the patch available. It seems odd to me people are all a tither about the worm. Installing patches should be routine. All platforms have to patch - Linux - Mac - Solaris - Windows." Windows is the only one that has a Patch Tuesday and has two-thirds of the world's computers rebooting on a regular basis. Bit of a difference.

"Windows code is tested and true" Yeah, tested and it is true that its vulnerable to ZOTOB and other malicious spy/ad-ware, viruses, worms and trojans!!! "What then is the big deal?" The big deal is 10,000 SBC pc's crapped out, CNN and NYTimes pc's are down, not to mention countless other Corporations have pc's going down on them which will result in the loss of millions if not billions of dollars!

Not a single event at my company. We use a firewall, and we are serious about security which means we have a group of folks who test these patches and get them rolled out as soon as possible. Sorry if your company got hit, but that means you are not doing your job. These patches can usually be applied without testing and they break nothing. Not microsoft's fault. Apple fans, go away you are irrevant. Steve jobs blew off corporations, there are many studies out there that prove that you are all useless photoshop using idiots.

"I can build this myself for about 1600.00." No you can't. A complete lie. And you don't get all the software that comes with a Mac either. "Idiot Mac fool fanatics. I am glad your only function in life is to use photoshop or else we would have way too many problems." Your only function is to play The Sims in your admin account. Have fun patching Zotob! ROFL. :) I love how ****** and angry you are that people are having a field day with this latest world-rebooting Windows hole. See you in line for Intel Macs next year!

Your only function is to play The Sims in your admin account. Have fun patching Zotob! ROFL. :) I love how ****** and angry you are that people are having a field day with this latest world-rebooting Windows hole. See you in line for Intel Macs next year! Not a chance! I have it running on my dell already!! Not that I ever boot up that partition. Like I said, I could build the eqiv. to that server for about 1600, I wasn't joking, mac's are ripoffs, and their userbase is so offended by the mac fanatics that they will never switch. Have fun in your obsolete envorinment.

"It's hallarious that this site gets security advise from people who use photoshop for a living." LOL! But seriously, perhaps this guy talking about the ports being closed does not really understand what is going on here. Whether or not ports are open is irrelevant. It is whether the code is secure enough. Apparently, even the god you call Apple has some of its own problems. Have you updated your Mac today? Check the vulnerabilities that were reated highly critical here: http://secunia.com/advisories/16449/ To restate, if Apple had a bigger piece of the OS pie, than it would be attacked more. Plain and simple. All I would have to do is find these vulnerabilities and I'm in. Notice the words that Secunia uses: security bypass, manipulation of data, system access, privilege escalation, DoS. The Ford analogy is solid. But, we also have to understand that the average car is pretty easy to gain entrance to anyway. You can break locks quickly with the right tools. You ever see the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds." That was not Hollywood bulls**t, it is that easy.

"By the way, my Mac is running fine. :) Zero trojans and spyware. That must suck for you to hear." By the way, the entire Windows network for my company is running fine. :) Zero trojans and spyware. That must suck for you to hear.

Whether or not ports are open is irrelevant. It is whether the code is secure enough. We also have a strict policy for our roadwarriors. If they don't get patched up, they lose access to the network. Just like driving responsible, it is up to 21 century humans to use computers responsible. The super secure OS is a myth, it doesn't exist. Patch up or deal with it, but you won't have my sympathy.

"I also work for a Fortune company, and we don't have Patch Tuesdays, firewalls, anti-virus, or anti-spyware software. That's because in 2003 we went all Mac and never looked back." A Fortune company? Serious? Switched to all Macs? That is complete BS! If such a company did that, and were a Fortune company, Apple would be all over it using it as incentive for corporate American to switch. Has not happened, and since Apple isn't extending much effort to break in to the corporate space, it won't happen for a while, if at all. Probably was a MISfortune company.

What I don't understand about Paul is: you take a look at the top of the line work he just finished up on the winsupersite, excellent, almost no opinions, great stuff. then the very next day he posts this. I think the more he thinks about things before he posts them, the more accurate, and better journalism it is.

Sorry mac fans, your OS sucks. You get all your ideas from other companies. Get ready to sell your stock before Microsoft decides to sue you for copyright infringement! Stealing IP from Microsoft's patents!! Shame on you for even buying one.

"Windows code is tested and true." BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Thanks. I needed a laugh.

"A Fortune company? Serious? Switched to all Macs? That is complete BS! If such a company did that, and were a Fortune company, Apple would be all over it using it as incentive for corporate American to switch." Ummm...the last time I checked, Apple Computer was a Fortune 500 company, running one of the most popular e-commerce sites on the planet (iTunes Music Store), with one of the most reliable and highly-rated storefronts for their products, and they do the whole operation using Apple Hardware and Software. Your point is?

"Ummm...the last time I checked, Apple Computer was a Fortune 500 company..." Whoop de do! Of course they are going to use Macs, they are Apple! This guy was talking about that "he" worked for a Fortune x company, not that he was using equipment from a Fortune x company. If you want people to switch, eating your own dogfood is one way, but you need to have the backing of at least one company that has made the switch to an entire Mac infrastructure. The point being that they are not attacking that part of the market, and therefore will NOT be able to make huge traction in the market share wars until they start to attack that market.

Um, I am my company's CEO and I switched my entire platform to Macs. Um yeah and I have some property to sell you 50 miles south of Miami for real cheap.

Have you ever heard the term "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink"? How in the "H" can you blame MS when a patch has is available? If corporations are too stupid to have a descent patch process in place, then they deserve to get infected. Come on...stop blaming MS for everything!

If we don't put some blame on MS, the all they will do is release patch after patch after patch for every os they make.

If we don't put some blame on MS, the all they will do is release patch after patch after patch for every os they make. Please box your computer up and send it back. Thanks.

From newsday.com: "David Maynor, a security researcher with Atlanta-based Internet Security Systems Inc...said some IT professionals who considered their networks safe because they run Windows XP or 2003 were mistaken. The worms are automated Internet "bots" that need find only one unprotected computer running Windows 2000 within a network to propagate in the system." So much for "only" W2K machines being affected...

I am talking to an IBM tech. DHL and UPS are running on a 24 hour delay because their systems are out. Stupid admins.

With all the banter about Macs and PCs or up-to-date patching or not, it appears that we all have accepted that security vulnerabilities and the viruses etc that exploit them are a fact of life and here to stay. While I won’t lay all the blame at the feet of MS they do have some responsibility. Suggesting that I buy their latest OS is ridiculous given that they continue to issue patches for these systems as well. Patches take time to review before putting them into production and if you’ve ever had a patch that has screwed things up then you know testing is important. I am surprised that organizations as those mentioned in today’s press articles did not have up-to-date anti-virus software. However, given the small window of time from the release of the vulnerability to the spread of the worm we continue to approach the zero-day scenario. Fast patching will do next to nothing here. We all need to speak up about the terrible waste of time and effort caused by those spreading the malicious software so stiff sentences will be meted out. Additionally, demand that MS put more into securing their product rather than overloading each successive release with features that most of us don’t need. I don’t accept that these systems cannot be made secure out of the box; MS has just become comfortable release patch after patch rather getting at the roots of the problem.

"Its a little quiet, where are all the Micro$oft fanatics...Oh, HAHAHAA, their computers are constantly rebooting because of Zotob!!! HAHAHA!!! I can see them now, crawling under their desks trying to unplug the ethernet cable to try and get their computer back to normal!!!! HAHAHAHA!!! " Some of us have lives outside of the internet. I would like to remind you I haven't and won't be affected by this worm :). "So, Windoze kidz--all that trash-talking of Macs, and you sure are quiet today! ROFL!" Some people have jobs. Other people leach their school's internet connection when they're supposed to be working. "I love how ****** and angry you are that people are having a field day with this latest world-rebooting Windows hole. See you in line for Intel Macs next year!" LOL. Yeah, that'll happen @ /w Intel Macs. I'm actually enjoying this, because it seems someone's struck a nerve with you. You're posting psychotically as if you in some sort of "defense mode". "Windows code is tested and true" Windows code is tested. There's nothing false about that statement. I don't know what they meant by "true" though. "The bad guys are the hackers." Yes, they are. Yet Microsoft ends up getting yelled at for letting it happen. Sure, they DO DESERVE to be attacked some, since this is partially their fault, but people don't seem to go after the "hackers" anymore at all, which is sad. "Cause most people give up video games when they hit the age of 21 and start drinking." Most people don't start drinking when they're 21 (hint: younger), and even 30 year olds seem to be playing video games now for some reason (shooting at people is fun perhaps?). "Not IT Pros." I guess game makers aren't IT professionals then (you know, the people who write the complex engines that are probably way over your head)? "Virus free computing is a myth dude." There's always gonna be someone out there who wants to **** people off, and they'll find a way sooner or later...

"So much for "only" W2K machines being affected..." Just for clarification: W32.Zotob.E can run on, but not infect, computers running Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/XP. Although computers running these operating systems cannot be infected, they can still be used to infect vulnerable computers that they can connect to.

Stupid IT Folks!!! Stop hanging up on sales guys and start buying our products your putzes!!!! I told you you'd save THOUSANDS buy using my product, but NOOOOO. Well fool. When I call you next week, I guess you'll be ready to buy!! Sucks to be the folks that didn't purchase!

"Your toaster doesn’t crash. Your kitchen sink doesn’t crash. Why should your computer? With the industrial-strength Mac OS X, you’ll become accustomed to a computer operating system that crashes about as often as a paperback book. Which is to say almost never." http://www.apple.com/switch/reasons/reason01.html

That last post about Mac OS X not crashing is bullXXXt. Mac OSX crashes all the time while Win XP almost never does.

Agreed about XP rarely crashing. I've had it die maybe three times, and all of them were hardware related :\ (e.g. noticed my cd burner was acting up, so I unplugged it from the usb drive, got a BSOD. That's why you're supposed to use the "Safely Remove Hardware" thing :P.).

It's true, Mac OS X crashes more than Apple would want you to believe. Which makes their site dishonest, and the Mac troll dishonest by proxy :P.

"a computer operating system that crashes about as often as a paperback book. Which is to say almost never" Does anyone else notice the irony here? Apple brags about its computers sharing characteristics of books....hmmmm, I thought computers were supposed to make things like paper obsolete. Looks like Apple is trying to move in the opposite direction. Obviously, I'm not serious, but the irony is funny. And of course they lie. Everyone does.

Obviously, I'm not serious, but the irony is funny. --- What an idiotic post. Wow. Have you been outside in the last month?

"Virus free computing is a myth dude" Well. today I woke up in my mythical bedroom and went downstairs for some mythical breakfast... Excuse me I have to go take a mythical dump. Get a Mac. You'll forget about Virii. In fact, you can surf WinInfo for entertainment if you start to miss them.

Mac OS X crashes more than Apple would want you to believe. --- A kernel panic is possible... I haven't had one in about.. ah.. 6 months..

"Get a Mac. You'll forget about Virii." It would be hilarious if Leopard included some "new feature" with more shoft-sightedness (like with Dashboard), and someone found a way to exploit it and Macs all over the place got infected. Oh wait, Macs AREN'T all over the place. The security through obscurity sort of works for you guys, since there are less of you to be zombies than there are windows boxes. Lemme ask you this. Can something (in theory) in Mac OS X mis-represent itself as a document, when it's actually an executable? I mean, if so, what's preventing people from creating programs disguised as documents, than when ran, delete all your text documents (seems like that might be *REALLY* easy to do if Spotlight exports APIs for outside program usage)?

Another question... What if you're an Apple user running an HTTP server with a php module? All it takes is some bad PHP code, and a bunch of files might go bye-bye. Home-made PHP file uploaders are notorious. All ya have to do is upload a PHP file manager, and boom! Site h4x0red.

It's good to know that Apple is so Secure I should go get me one. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/mac/0,39020393,39213407,00.htm

This is not Microsofts fault at all - As previously stated, there is no completely secure software anywhere. The fault here lies with the systems admins. I'm a systems admins and my windows 2000 servers and pros are patched and secure - Microsft GIVE you the technology to do this and even automates it for you, if admins are too slow or can't be bothered to use it then they should be sacked. Speaking of sacking - anyone noticed the amount of bulls*** that Paul Thurrott is spouting these days. Its probably Paul that is the Mac troll on here. LOL

From http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/mac/0,39020393,39213712,00.htm "Apple's most recent security fixes for Mac OS X break support for 64-bit applications in the operating system, a software maker has warned. Apple released a large security update for Mac OS X on Monday. Security Update 2005-007 provides fixes for flaws in various parts of Apple's software, including the Safari browser, Bluetooth wireless and various networking tools. But the update doesn't just fix security bugs; it also breaks support for 64-bit applications in the operating system, according to Wolfram Research, maker of the Mathematica computation software. It's unclear whether applications other than Mathmatica's are affected." Seems like Microsoft and Apple are subcontracting their security patch development to the same company... Lol...

The plural of the word "virus" is "viruses", NOT "virii". "Virii" is a SPELLING MISTAKE. Here is a definition that I saw on the web which sums up the situation nicely: virii -- Incorrect pluralization of "virus", used by people who want to make themselves look smarter. Example: "My computer is infected with virii! I am also a moron."

I'm a systems admin for a small company, and there is only one of me. I managed to patch all of our systems within three days. Why? Because I've installed the necessary infrastructure to do so. Why should a large or medium size company be given a pass on this because they didn't patch??? That's completely stupid. You want to bash Microsoft for not caring? They issue a patch, and tell ALL their customers to apply it, and you say it's Microsoft's fault? Jeeze, you probably belive that it's the governments fault if I don't have a job either, right? By now, if any admin in this industry doesn't take security seriously, and implement the necessary infrastructure, they should be replaced.

Lol, APPLE just pulled a ""CRITICAL"" patch because it breaks ALL 64 bit apps. You hear that??? It breaks ALL now who has the most retarted engineers in the business!! Stupid Mac pushing fools! You have an engineering team which can not make it's own office suite, can not build it's own OS (Unix) can not even write it's own critical security patches, and they don't even test it out! Now you tell me why I have some stupid lame a$$ photoshop using idiot here telling me to switch to a Mac when he gets paid to make things look pretty, not secure. You stupid mac people don't seem to catch the hint, YOUR OS IS OBSOLETE, no one wants to buy your crappy OS, No one is going to! Give up! Go back to your stupid Ipod Alarm Clock news.

Lol, APPLE just pulled a ""CRITICAL"" patch because it breaks ALL 64 bit apps --- That lasted a day. Zero exloits. Zero viruses. Zero reasons to listen to anything Secunia or Symantec have to say.

"You stupid mac people don't seem to catch the hint, YOUR OS IS OBSOLETE, no one wants to buy your crappy OS, No one is going to! Give up! Go back to your stupid Ipod Alarm Clock news." Is that why every one of Vista's features already exists in OS X? LOL Better go tell the military since they host army.mil on OS X Server after getting hacked using Windows NT. Next. P.S. Why the obsession with an iPod alarm clock? I've never even heard of that. By the way, how's Vista doing? Oh, yeah, another two years away.

Windows--for playing videogames in your admin account while anti-spyware, anti-virus, firewall, and registry cleaner software runs in your system tray. Macs--for getting real work don

"Zero reasons to listen to anything Secunia or Symantec have to say." Hmm, maybe I shouldn't listen to instructions in a crowded theater on fire, either, since I've never been in a crowded theater on fire before. These things can bite you. But through all of your reasons why the Mac has zero viruses just proves how insignificant the market is. You guys just end up proving the 3% market share figures. Windows - for getting real work done, like actually running software that is required to run a business of a decent size (accounting client/server apps, Exchange messaging, SQL database, class leading and ubiquitous office suites, enterprise backup, terminal servers, print services), and to have fun too, playing the most amount of games that are available. Macs - for using the latest Photoshop plugins.

Ha, you guys can't even get a working sleep mode on your PCs. Your computers are ancient next to a Mac.

Shouldn't you guys be off patching for Zotob with Microsoft's "removal tool?" 3 days, zero incidients. If you use microsoft technology as intructed by Microsoft, you don't have problems. Our patches might act up here and there, but none would break ALL 64 BIT APPS SUPER LOL!! Hey guys, think we should test this before we send it out? Umm, it looks pretty let's ship it!

Just another note, My PPC phone plays MP3's from napster and any other real music device, has it's own alarm clock, and I would never waste money on Apple Ipod's becuase they are infringing on Microsoft's patents. Sell them all now! Better yet throw them away!! http://www.gadgetmadness.com/archives/20050615-ipod_alarm_clock_radio.php

Here’s a nice Mac experience: Insert a Sony protected audio CD into your sleek, cute buttonless white box and watch it crash instantly. Reboot, rinse and repeat as many times as needed to get your real work done. How do you remove it you ask? Just swing by your local repair shop! It’s that easy!

August is trojan month. August 2003: Sobig August 2004: Sasser August 2005: Zotob

I sure hope that the "IT pros" here are actually making sure they don't have Zotob, or whatever variant comes out next. It's a worm, it's life, deal with it. If you didn't patch, why not? Find out why, fire the guy in charge of that, or at least give something to do, journalist? Do you really think being a fanatic really makes people reconsider Windows or Macs? I'm suprised at all the hatred from these "Mac users". If you want people to actually "switch", then maybe you should spend more time coming up with a better reason to use the product other than "my OS X has no viruses, trojans, etc, you stupid Windoze Micro$oft n00b!". Of course it doesn't have a lot of that stuff (it has some, but you wouldn't know since you don't run AV and all your ports are blocked...ignorance is bliss huh?), it has hardly any market share. We all know that if OS X was in the same boat as Windows, the tables would be turned. Don't even argue, don't shake your head. Just shut up and accept the fact. I'm starting to think the Mac zealot posts are from one "Mac user". Come on Paul, don't you have anything better to do???

"My unhappy reaction to the Windows Hardware Engineering (WinHEC) 2005 build of Longhorn is now, shall we say, infamous. I wasn't trying to make a statement per se. But I did refer to the next major version of Windows as a "train wreck," so I guess it makes sense that people would latch onto that statement." Key words ... "latch on". That's all the insecure Apple wrecks can do, is latch on to ANYTHING even remotely negative that Paul has to say about an MS product. What a bunch of pathetic people. I mean, that is just SAD.

To the idiot that used the expression "You don't blame Ford when you get something stolen out of your car when you forgot to lock the doors." If I had a Ford and my doors sometimes would and sometimes wouldnt lock properly due to poor develope of the car.. YES, I would blame ford... Microsoft not only developed poor locks.. But they forgot to lock every door from the first release of XP. And every version of Windows after 3.11 as it seems. I currently use many different O/S's and Microsoft O/s's seem to be literally 10x more insecure than any other O/S i've ever used since I first started using computers back in 1982. Yet I use it anyhow. I agree everyone must run protection software as well as patch/update system regularly. But I am not taking the blame for my car failing to lock the backdoors today when it worked fine yesterday.. Especially if I just bought the damn thing and it fails me a few days later? Ok dude.. next time you buy something NEW.. You keep it when if fails,, breaks down or whatever.. and blame only yourself!!

oh yea.. and one more thing. in relation to your dumb locking the door comment.. Would you buy a car that had to be patched and upgraded NON-STOP .. and in often times day after day.. just to keep it running.. or just to keep it from being stolen, or something stolen from it? Would you want a home, car.. radio or anything like this? no... only your windows O/S requires such pathetic attention.. Thats not to say some other o/s`s require none. but as much? never... I hope you buy a $40K++ plus car one day that fails you as much as Microsoft does. I really do! :)

>>I's true, Mac OS X crashes more than Apple would want you to believe. Which makes their site dishonest, and the Mac troll dishonest by proxy :P. :P, Your the now know the largest :P u s s ever known to mankind and this "Pro" blog. You are the biggest waste of S p e r m your Dad ever had. This may mean your are the "blogist" (C) (R) (TM) of this site. Have fun at the toy factory. - Yawn!

"Would you buy a car that had to be patched and upgraded NON-STOP" Your analogy is flawed in so many ways ... My car has to be regularly serviced and maintained ! Brakes, clutch, lights, fuses. My windows has to be serviced and maintained ! Whats the difference? Microsoft don't make me pay for the maintenance. And "Patch Tuesday" is not weekly - its monthly you morons.

"it has some, but you wouldn't know since you don't run AV and all your ports are blocked...ignorance is bliss huh?" Nicely put.

"Any Admin worth his salt will have had the patch distributed with 48 hours maximum" I have seen a Windows 2000 patch take down half the servers it was applied to, so conclusively that we had to repair the OS and reapply all previous patches just to get the machines to the state they were in before. Think this is a 48-hour exercise? Think again. Large companies applying patches to hundreds or thousands of machines need time to test the "fixes" that Microsoft releases, to ensure that they don't break other working software and don't break the machines themselves. Of course, if Windows had been written without ten thousand security holes in the first place, the patch cycle wouldn't be so critical...

"Think this is a 48-hour exercise? Think again." Ours, and many other companines managed to beat the trojans. And this is a 15k user estate. Yes, patches need testing and you have to judge what level of risk to accept. However you should also have suitable recovery processes in place as well. If you don't then a patch problem is the least of your worries.

"You are the biggest waste of S p e r m your Dad ever had." I'm sorry stating the truth bothers you so much to resort to 5th-grade level insults. It makes sense for someone with 5th-grader intelligence though. Ignore secunia?! Why? Because they post information that might not be positive about your precious Mac OS X? You've gotta be kidding me :p

"Your analogy is flawed in so many ways ... My car has to be regularly serviced and maintained ! Brakes, clutch, lights, fuses. My windows has to be serviced and maintained! Whats the difference? Microsoft don't make me pay for the maintenance." Well put.

As a Security Administrator and a network not hit, the blame should go both ways; for the security administrators asleep at the wheel and for Microsoft who puts out software with so many vulnerabilites that I must a good portion of my time checking and updating my windows systems, and then being told by Microsoft that its no big deal! One might think that the worlds largest software maker might be a little more empathetic to its customers and spend a little more of their enormous R&D budget on security measures for their operating systems.

And "Patch Tuesday" is not weekly - its monthly you morons --- Monthly hmm.. who's the genius who figured out there's between 3- 5 Tuesdays in a month.. If it were monthly they'd call it by a NUMBER, to correspond with a date that only comes around once a month (i know.. amazing) like,... Thurrott's Third of the Month or something

Why do patches need testing? What's more expensive: deploying patches to computers and uninstalling them if a problem crops up, or delaying the deployment of patches and getting hit with a worm? The assumption that "patches need testing" is flawed. In a 15K seat organization, I'd wager at least 13K machines can be patched immediately and no great consequence will arise if the patch causes problems. The organization can deal with that situation with (relatively) little money list. Compare that to the cost of dealing with a worm that hits at 15K computers. Every organization must do its own risk analysis to determine which is more expensive: patching now with the risk of the patch causing problems, or waiting to patch with the risk of getting hit with a worm. Maybe some organizations really do need to test patches first. But for most organizations, "I need to test the patch before I deploy" is an unfounded assumption. Until you do your own risk assessment, you really don't know whether you need to test or not.

The blame is squarely on those who write the viruses and exploit the holes. Leaving your front door at home unlocked (while stupid) does NOT negate the criminal act. Perhaps if hackers and virus writers spent real FELONY time in hard prisons, they would be less likely to these things. We all like honor these folks as some kind of folk heros. Get real, they are criminals who trespass and steal just like the kid who robs the local mini-mart. There is no difference.

"Leaving your front door at home unlocked (while stupid) does NOT negate the criminal act." TRUE. Someone may not take precautions against a criminal act but that doesn't mean the act done against her or him isn't criminal. I think many of these people are missing the point. SUPPOSE I installed heavy doors on my house big dead bolts and installed heavier windows. Does that make my house more secure? Only to a point, because the theives need only a heavier axe. SO the problem isn't whether systems are secure or not, ulitmately, because one can always devise a way into systems save perhaps for the most attentively guarded super-secured systems. THE problem is human nature and the willingness of some to betray trust, hurt and abuse others, and take advantage of the weaker. They call Microsoft 'the beast'. But the real beast is the one who is willing to hack in, phish, spread malware, and hurt and abuse others. THE computer world 'should' be one of mutal respect, especially of individuals for other individuals. Sadly, much of it is not that way.

Windows--for play videogames in your admin account while anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, and registry cleaner runs in your system tray. Macs--for getting real work done.

I agree with the others who assign blame to the administrators. I have a home network and use WSUS on it. When Zotob hit CNN, I checked and found that the patch fixing the problem was applied to computers on my network a full week earlier. I didn't need to do anything or even be aware of the patch to be safe. These are very large, big-name corporations like CNN and ABC *should* have good network administrators but, obviously, don't. At least I can point out these companies in job interviews and say that a network managed by me wouldn't have met the same fate. That should earn me huge points with the interviewers. If you've let Zotob hurt you, it's your fault. Securing your computer is not a passive activity, especially if we're talking about business computers.

"Your analogy is flawed in so many ways" ???? What? -- you idiot.. that is replacement and maintenance of worn parts you referred to.. Floppy drives,, hard drive they wear out.. they go bad.... What I said was flaws.. errors.. problems with it from the *start*.. Duh? If you had to get the breaks fixed.. or lights from the start.. from the time you bought it new off the car lot. what would you do? its maintenance that you mentioned.. maintenance on a computer is defraging.. scan disk.. ect! maintenance v/s fixing defects that were there from the start are not the same thing.. My 7 y.o. little girl knows that difference.. Do you dare say you dont understand? Is my 7 y.o. little girl able to understand simple things like that better than you? Fortuantly I white-hat hack.. as in I find exploits hack my own boxes or on my network to test them with my group, we then report the finds directly to the company that produces the product, unlike others who post the exploit to public websites... Back doors on your car not locking when its new?? Thats not maintenance.. Duh? My computer having an open backdoor is not maintenance. Its a flaw. Why else do you think they are called -bugs, flaws, weakness in secuirty.. or EXPLOITS!.. nothing else need to be said.

I hear Linux is better than Windows, yet here I am on my Windows XP Professional

"The worms are most notable for their arrival speed" No, they're most notable because of the damage they do to an insecure operating system.

Of the 15k machines under 1000 were classified as medium to high risk. We could do this assesment quickly as we have full hardware and software audits of each system - we know what we've got and where. A test on our standard machine image took around 60 minues to perform rudimentary testing. The overwhelming majority of PC's run standard software. These we could patch immediately. Any that failed after patching could be re-imaged. F&P servers were slightly higher risk. So to prevent major issues we broke the mirror on the OS drives (OS only on a mirrored pair of disks, data Raid 5). So if the patch broke a server, we'd just put the other disk back in and leave the mirror broken until further action could be taken. Likewise with the more demanding servers (exchange, SQL etc). The mirror's or clusters were broken and patches applied. We had no issues on servers and only a few issues on some desktops. The only trojan issue we had were a few 'off net' laptops brought into the office. However the network is configured to alert on suspicious traffic so these machines we're quickly identified and isolated.

Strange to see that the Maccies see the "auto-networking feature" as a benefit - I would have thought that was more of a security risk in most organisations...

"Monthly hmm.. who's the genius who figured out there's between 3- 5 Tuesdays in a month.. If it were monthly they'd call it by a NUMBER, to correspond with a date that only comes around once a month (i know.. amazing) like,... Thurrott's Third of the Month or something" Heh, someone either hasn't ever owned an agenda or just didn't do well with math but whatever the case "Patch Tuesday" (a monthly event) has NOTHING to do with the number of tuesdays in a month. The point is that the patch is released once a month which varies maximally by 3 days (28 to 31 days), leading to 12 releases per year, regardless of which day they're released on. You can't release by dates (or NUMBERS as you call them) for two reasons: 1. Companies work on 5-day weeks, making a fixed day of the week for release easier considering the advantage of fixed planning and 2. Every date eventually lands on a weekend. Actually, if you manage to surf your Mac away from WindowsIT Pro (where you're apparantly getting real work done) you'll find that almost every company and organization that has monthly events works with numbered week days rather than dates.