Sober.P Worm Accounts for 5% of all Email Traffic

destuxor writes "The grave insecurity of the day is the Sober.P worm which is currently pushing nearly 5% of all email traffic at the moment. Unlike previous worms, Sober can disable the Windows Firewall and Symantec Antivirus. Interestingly, patched machines are not vulnerable to the exploits used by this worm. What are we going to have to do to convince "ordinary users" to visit WindowsUpdate once in a while?" update percentage corrected.

Comments

Re:potentially hazardous tool

[hazah]

Then he should get a play station. Your point does not change the fact the computer is NOT an easy to use appliance, and the consumer has been brainwashed to think it is.

A PC tower is general purpose, which means it NEEDS configuration. A system not allowing you to configure it bit by bit is a crippled system. Why is ignorance a reason to cripple a perfectly functional concept that is Linux?

Again, of joe blow wants to play games, joe blow is better off getting something that plays only games, not something as general purpose as a PC, that's overkill. In this case, I think, the best tool for joe (if he wants that interweb) would be a mac.

Re:ISPs should take some responsibility

[The FooMiester]

Go ahead, mod me flamebait.

Listen asshole, there are us responsible people that like to get our email no matter what. I remember when this place was filled with open-source running geeks, and not windows script kiddies. I remember when anyone who mentioned port blocking as a blanket policy would get modded to -1 troll, not +4 Informative.

I really don't care if my email has trojans in it or not. I don't need my ISP trying to tell me what mail I should and shouldn't get because some idiot might open in and say "Oooh, look, an attachment! It's a zip file! I'll open it! Look, an .exe file! I'll run that". People like that, and people who think that is acceptable behavior, should shut off their computer, throw it out the window, and go outside and read a book.

If ISPs want to filter anything, they should look at outgoing mail, and not do the current "in" thing and just drop it on the floor if something's wrong, but actually bounce it back to the user. If I have something I want to send ot someone, I can do it thru my own mailserver, unless shitheads like you have their way and block outbound 25 to everywhere.

I'd like to know exactly how far you'd take this. Would you fall into the trap of blocking access to IRC because botnets run there? Just think of how many ddos attacks we could prevent if we blocked all users access to IRC! Besides, the only other use for IRC is to steal music.

While we're talking about stealing, let's get rid of usenet. The only people who use usenet are the ones trading warez, porn, movies, and music! That's a waste of time and bandwidth.

Those things sound like items that you'd want to impliment. You'd think it would make for a better internet. I think real geeks know better. Who wants an internet where all you can do is surf the web?

Apparently, you do.