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Malware Hijacks Windows Update
clickclickdrone writes "The BBC are reporting a new piece of malware is in the wild that can hijack Windows Update's functionality and bypass firewalls allowing it to install malicious code on users PCs. The new code was discovered by Frank Boldewin in an email. The attack utilizes the BITS system."
I'm not FUDing, and I disagree strongly with your assessment. I offer the following three statements in support of my position:
1. I would not use Mac OS/X as a server; I believe it's much more suited to providing a workstation environment. In that capacity, I've used it for years without a single crash (mostly for Java programming, writing in OpenOffice, playing Alien Vs. Predator 2, web browsing, and email).
2. At home, I use Linux as a workstation (specifically, I run Slackware). No crashes. No down time. Just pleasant, efficient computing without any difficulties.
3. Even the STOCK MARKET is now running Linux. Obviously it's got the stones. Note that they did NOT pick Windows. As for your "linux lab going down" one catastrophe "fixed by the next version" does not a strong argument make. For all I know, you misconfigured the environment and caused the crash yourself! I haven't heard anyone else reporting such an event... Yeah, must have been you. Sorry, dude. Not buying it.
Again, this isn't FUD, it's common sense.
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Listen, I'm not picking on you here, and please don't take this comment as any sort of hostile taunt, ok?
If you're still running Windows 98, and it's connected to a network, TRUST ME, you've got malware running on it. You may not be able to see it, and you may not know about it, but you are almost certainly the proud owner of a 'bot. Maybe a whole community of them.
Just because it LOOKS "stable and pleasant" doesn't mean it IS. A well-written piece of malware is invisible to the owner of the machine. You wouldn't even know it was there. The fact that you don't think you have to do any work on your '98 box is a dead giveaway; you're probably wide open. And that poor woman probably has at least a keylogger and a spambot running on it. Keeping her machine on Windows 98 does her a great disservice and you should IMMEDIATELY replace it. If you're dead-set on using Windows, at LEAST get her XP Home Edition!
As far as your Vista box goes, well, it might be locked down enough to be ok. I don't know since nobody I know is even THINKING of using Vista. Our general opinion of it is that it's like a very pretty, tricked-out Hummer which has a small 4 cylinder motor in it and four thousand pounds of lead plates bolted to the chassis. Looks great, moves reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal slooooooooooooooooow.
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A-HMMMMM... He said.
Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaah. Good luck with that.
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