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Symantec Claims They Knew About Slammer In Advance

Posted by michael on from the marketing-ploy dept.

truthsearch writes "Wired is reporting 'Symantec claims to have identified the Slammer worm that ravaged the Internet during the last weekend of January hours before anyone else did. Symantec then shared the information only with select customers, leaving the rest of the global community to get slapped around by Slammer.' I'm not bothered I didn't know Slammer was coming, but Symantec has a moral responsibility to inform the public if it thinks millions will be affected." It isn't clear to me how Symantec could know, hours in advance, about a worm which took ten minutes to spread throughout the entire Internet, unless they had something to do with its release. Update: 02/14 16:54 GMT by M : Wired has their math wrong; Symantec apparently had at most 20-30 minutes of early warning. Symantec claims in this press release that they discovered the worm "hours before it began rapidly propagating".

2 of 548 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Doubtful. by stratjakt · · Score: 4, Flamebait

    I can bring mysql, oracle or postgresql down as easily as SQL server. You can get root in a poorly secured linux box, or hardlink out of a poorly configured chroot jail, just as easily as you can get a process to run with administrative rights on a poorly secured NT domain.

    There are as many 'hotfixes' and 'service packs' for linux based software, they just call them patches and releases.

    Linux just isnt ubiquitous enough to be a worthwhile target. Yet.

    All the bragging and dipshittery that uninformed OS fanboys are doing will bite them in the ass in a big way if linux is adopted into the mainstream.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  2. What an idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Yes, I do believe the viruses come from miscreants sitting in Mommy's and Daddy's basement, and not from the software houses.

    If you have some proof that Symantec et al. are responsible, then let's see it. I'm sure the whole world would be very interested in the details. But if you don't have any proof, then running around saying such things so no better than saying, "I can't prove it, but I'm convinced all Italians are in the mob, all blacks are lazy, all the Irish are drunks, all women can't drive, all Linux users are arrogant slobs", etc.

    In other words, put up or STFU.