Slashdot Mirror
Worm Exploit Distributed by Advertising Network
Zocalo writes "Given that a lot of Slashdot readers also check The Register, it's important to note that their Internet advertising provider, Falk AG, was compromised by the BOFRA exploit yesterday. The Falk AG service has been suspended by The Register and a statement from Falk AG is due on Monday. The upshot is that if you visited the Register yesterday morning and use IE as your browser, then you probably need to run a full virus scan with up to date data files. Of course, those of us running other browsers and something like AdBlock have nothing to worry about. Again." You're OK for now if you're running SP2. There's also a good security writeup about the problem.
Or, yet another reason to use the latest version of IE. You'd have problems using old versions of Firefox, too. Do you think that Firefox has never had security issues?
Y'know, Windows really, really, really sucks as an operating system if it's not capable of updating itself while running other software (ESPECIALLY since you can't easily exit the GUI). Does anyone know exactly why this is? Is Windows incapable of updating files while they are open, or does its scheduler suffer from major, serious bugs? What particular aspect of Windows precludes it from updating without devoting my entire computer to the (overly lengthy) process?
I know it's gotten better, but it's still absolutely laughable compared to Linux, Solaris, etc. Why exactly is the data stored on the filesystem seemingly not independent of the currently running processes, until they are restarted? It seems like Windows has some serious fundamental technical failings that should have been addressed like 10 years ago.
How about blame the person/people that actually developed the exploit, and the societies that breed this kind of destructive mentality.
I resent having to have my choice of OS/Browser/whatever dictated to me not on the grounds of functionality, but by how easily it's going to get attacked (not that in this case I'd choose IE over FireFox anyway, but that's beside the point), and having my valuable system resources taken up by having to have a virus scanner run permanently in the background.