Microsoft "Swen" Worm Squiggles Into Sight

greenhide writes "As forecast in this story, a new Microsoft worm has indeed wriggled to the surface. The W32.Swen's claim to fame is its professional looking email advertisement that pretends to be a fake Microsoft patch. Earlier viruses have made the claim, but none of them looked this good. It appears to have infected over 1.5 million machines. "

Comments

Phew

[archonon]

~160 M$ patches in two days...damn, windows has more holes than swiss cheece.

Huh?

[HanzoSan]

Whats wrong with Linux? Linux isnt the operating system with a new worm coming out for it every week.

I feel pretty damn safe under Linux, how do you feel worrying about when the next worm will take over your entire machine? How do you feel about viruses, hows that Zone Alarm treating you?

Re:Huh?

[HanzoSan]

1.) Applying the patch

Tell this to the people who were infected and then applied the patch.

2.) Using *any* software firewall. Even WinXP's own firewall. ZoneAlarm is trash in my opinion. But it isn't your only protection.

Microsofts firewall doesnt work and you can get infected by the new set of trojans even with that firewall on.

3.) Using a hardware firewall which blocks the RPC port anyway.

Yes thats your best option but the average user doesnt have a hardware firewall.

The only defense is to stay vigilant and be smart about computers. Just because someone is using linux doesn't make it secure. No matter what Operating System you are on, you have to be somewhat proactive in protecting your computer.

Or if you arent a computer expert and dont have time to stay smart about computers, try Linux.

Sure just because you use Linux doesnt make you immune, but it makes you more secure than you would be using Windows. A newbie on Linux is more secure by default than a newbie on Windows.

Re:Wow

[HanzoSan]

And why would I help you get Windows running? I dont use Windows.

Use Knoppix or call Microsoft.

When you are ready to graduate to Linux let me know.

Re:First Post

[Jugalator]

First Post
-snip- You guys are going soft.

Umm... Same goes for you? :-)

Seen it, virus scan caught it, end of story

[rocketsled]

Oh yeah, hahahahahahahaha to anyone who does not have virus scanning, patching and policies in place. P.S. I really don't want to sound mean but hahahahahahahahahaha.

Re:Wow

[The Spoonman]

Would you believe that some people don't have administrative priveledges on their computers at work?

Well, then, there seems to be an obvious solution: fire your entire IT department. They're not doing their jobs. I've administered Exchange servers with Outlook clients for the last 6 years and NEVER ONCE did I have a virus outbreak. NEVER ONCE. Why? I did my job, which included making sure these babies were never even SEEN by the masses, let alone have a chance to infect their machines. It's really not that hard, people. Perhaps if you put your Linux CDs down long enough to learn how to use the systems you support, you'd figure it out, too!