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Downadup Worm — When Will the Next Shoe Drop?
alphadogg writes "The Downadup worm — also called Conflicker — has now infected an estimated 10 million PCs worldwide, and security experts say they expect to see a dangerous second-stage payload dropped soon. 'It has the potential to infect about 30% of Windows systems online, a potential 300 to 350 million PCs,' says Don Jackson, director of threat intelligence in the counter threat unit at SecureWorks. The worm, first identified in November and suspected to have originated in the Ukraine, is quickly ramping up, and while Downadup today is not malicious in the sense of destroying files — its main trick is to block users from accessing antivirus sites to obtain updates to protect against it — the worm is capable of downloading second-stage code for darker purposes."
the worm is capable of downloading second-stage code for darker purposes."
So it might download vista?
And now we rediscover why monocultures don't work (and are generally not found) in nature.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Use a hardware router, use a real anti-virus program that actually publishes updates everyday (Nod32 for me), and use a browser where you can kill anything that tries to auto install itself (firefox, chrome, etc).
And don't forward or respond to chain emails!
You'll all thank me when I deploy the second stage to install and run SETI@home and discover alien intelligence.
-Virus Author
Windows is actually far more secure than Linux. Get the facts, people.
.. that I can't get windows apps to do what i want without crashing, but it runs teh evil viruses perfectly?
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
"If we were a proper country like Soviet Russia they would get the Siberian wolf blowjob by now."
Thanks to the internet, not only do I know that for some people that would not be a punishment,
but that others wish they were the wolf.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
There's a more technical examination of the virus at https://forums.symantec.com/t5/Malicious-Code/Downadup-Small-Improvements-Yield-Big-Returns/ba-p/381717
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
"From where do you want to get pwned today?"
It's 2009... I can't believe we're still dealing with this crap in 2009.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
A computer worm that spreads through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without the latest security updates is posing a growing threat to users blitheringly stupid enough to still think Windows is not ridiculously and unfixably insecure by design.
Despite many years' warnings that Microsoft regards security as a marketing problem and has only ever done the absolute minimum it can get away with, millions of users who click on any rubbish they see in the hope of pictures of female tennis stars having wardrobe malfunctions still fail to believe that taking Windows out on the Internet is like standing bent over in the street in downtown Gomorrah, naked, arse greased up and carrying a flashing neon sign saying "COME AND GET IT."
Microsoft cannot believe people have not applied the patch for the problem, just because they keep trying to use Windows Genuine Advantage to break legally-bought systems. "Don't they trust us?" asked marketing marketer Steve Ballmer.
Millions of smug Mac users and the four hundred smug Linux users pointed and laughed, having long given up trying to convince their Windows-using friends to see sense. "There's a reason the Unix system on Mac OS X is called Darwin," said appallingly smug Mac user Arty Phagge.
"It can't be stupid if everyone else runs it," said Windows user Joe Beleaguered, who had lost all his email, business files, MP3s and porn again. "Macs cost more than Windows PCs."
"Yes," said Phagge. "Yes, they do."
Ubuntu Linux developer Hiram Nerdboy frantically tried to get our attention about something or other, but we can't say we care.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
It doesn't matter how bad and unsafe Windows is. Microsoft Windows is like the air. People are going to keep breathing it no matter who farted in the room. People live in the most polluted places because that's where they live, that's where they work, that's where they play. I could tell you all day long about this other place... with clean air, that's safe, that's stable and all that... and most people might be intrigued but very few will vacation there and even fewer will actually move there. This is how people work.
Linux needs an Apple logo before the masses will move to it.