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Windows Infected in 12 Minutes

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-that's-what-I-call-secure dept.

Uber-Review writes "The speed with which PC's can become infected has now shortened. If your Windows computer is not properly protected,it will take 12 minutes before it becomes infected, according to London-based security company, Sophos. They have detected 7,944 new viruses in the first half of 2005, a 59% increase over the same time span last year."

4 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Holy Dupes, Batperson! by Willeh · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/01/021 8209&tid=172&tid=220&tid=218

    Not to mention the original article was a lot better, and not a link to yet another news aggregrator that in turn links to another site: http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM .20050704.gtvirusjul4/BNStory/Technology/

    --
    Will wank off Linus Torvalds for fame.
  2. Internet Storm Center is tracking "survival time" by UnderAttack · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Internet Storm Center is tracking a similar number for while. See the "survival time". It has actually improved over the last few months!

    --
    ---- join dshield.org Distributed Intrusion Detec
  3. Re:not always enough - hardware firewalls are bett by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you're running a router then just enable NAT and bingo - a simple firewall. I always deploy ethernet ADSL modems now for many reasons - but this is the main advantage.

    1. Go to new site
    2. Plug PC into modem
    3. Configure modem
    4. Plug phone line into modem
    5. Download latest windows patches

    Note that at stage 5 the PC is already protected by a firewall. Just need to AV and patches to protect against email, adware etc.

    But then I also configure Thunderbird - which limits the email viruses as well (the number of times I've been called becuase a user can't open an email containing a virus ...)

  4. Re:What'd I'd like to know by clonmult · · Score: 3, Informative

    What version of windows are you running?

    I was running a Win98 PC as a gateway for the kids PCs connection at home, and it was generally fine, the odd virus, but nothing major.

    However, when I put in Win2K (SP1, no firewall or AV initially installed), it was virtuall unusable within an hour.

    According to the firewall, the machine gets attacked/probed maybe up to a hundred times a day, its ridiculous.