Comments on: The C Variant

By: thewill

thewill — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:02:24 +0000

That used to be the standard scare virus advice: turn your computer off on such and such day.

I think it’s silly fear mongering, and not that great a line of defense: turn computer off. As opposed to real security solutions like hardened O.S. models. I know you can’t advocate advanced approaches but seriously, “turn computer off” really takes the cake.

Let me know when you figure out how I can use a computer that’s turned off, since that would be step 2 in your solution.

By: John R Ramsden

John R Ramsden — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:25:29 +0000

Sometimes it almost seems as if Microsoft wants to encourage viruses.

For a start, each time one plugs in a USB storage device Windows immediately starts rummaging through it searching for a program to run, which on an infected device could easily be a virus, and there seems no permanent way of stopping this irritating feature.

Then there’s the insane default of suppressing file name suffixes in file explorer, so that a moderately crafty hacker could easily infiltrate a program called say funny_image.jpg.exe which an unsuspecting user would naturally double-click.

Also ActiveX and even Javascript seem to be riddled with bugs and vulnerabilities.

That’s three examples, and doubtless many more could be cited. I’m sure Microsoft are more than comfortable for viruses to be around up to a point and infecting PCs, because clearing a virus infestation is often a motive to do a clean install, and that is likely to involve a Windows upgrade at the same time.

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:56:59 +0000

We alreay disinfected it off our corporate network. I am a little bit concerned about DDOS attacks disrupting some internet service somewhere, but I expect that by Thursday it will be like nothing happened. Widespread minor annoyance, mainly from you all worrying too much about it. You all do have a backup strategy, right? You need to test it, but not for this. Not having a backup strategy that works is much riskier.

By: Low Math, Meekly Interacting

Low Math, Meekly Interacting — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:16:10 +0000

I am also surprised we’re not the victims of malware more often. Given the irrational hatred that flows from both sides, it seems natural that some Windows partisans would take the endless litany of “Macs R Safe, pee-cees R teh sux” as a challenge. We know from all the vulnerability patches we get that MacOS is not invincible. It’s arguably harder to take over the entire system on a MacOS machine, but it’s not impossible to do serious damage, and reportedly no more difficult. Yet there’s not a single serious malware threat that I’m aware of that targets Mac users. Why?

By: Ditch

Ditch — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:25:34 +0000

Next Wednesday, huh?

By: Sili

Sili — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:14:48 +0000

I’m actually a bit surprised that Macs haven’t reached critical mass yet. They seem to be pretty popular so I’d have thought they’d be able to sustain virusses of their own. Not least since Macheads like to hang out with Macheads.

Or are all malicious vira in reality made by Macowners? The hatred sounds so strong online that Windowsusers ought to have found some way to sabotage Macs by now.

By: eddie

eddie — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:12:44 +0000

speling FAIL

By: eddie

eddie — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:00:00 +0000

The particular vulnerability that this work exploits should have been patched a month ago. Only vulnerable systems is where the admins have not maintained the patches diligently. See KB 958644 for details.

If you’r XP PC is not patched, ans has this KB entry in your updates history, go to the windows update site now.

By: Low Math, Meekly Interacting

Low Math, Meekly Interacting — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:12:16 +0000

Fusion is off, and will stay off until the coast is clear.

By: Ezryder

Ezryder — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:10:43 +0000

…and all the villagers of Troy welcomed the magnificently crafted gift that had been rolled up to their impregnable gate….

“Perhaps we should send a thank you note to the Spartans who sent us this magnificent horse…

There are seriously bad people out there, and whether or not this particular virus is cybergoedden is beyond the point…This is the blueprint for how a cyberwar will be carried out someday.

Also, this worm has infected the British Royal Navy and Parliament, the French Air Force, the Houston, Texas courts and police, and many others.

Clearly there is not that much incompetence in IT security around the world.
This beasty deserves watching