Microsoft Braces for New Internet Attack

[newyawker99]

The second wave of an Internet attack by the "blaster" worm has caused barely a ripple - so far.

As of Friday night, Microsoft Corp. reported no major problems from the worm's attempt to turn thousands of infected computers into instruments targeting the software company's Web site and network.

The Redmond-based company had not noticed any extraordinary network congestion, spokesman Sean Sundwall said. There were also no reports of customers having major problems accessing the targeted Web site, which houses a software patch that fixes the flaw exploited by the worm.

"The silence is deafening," Sundwall said. "It's a great kind of deafening."

here we go again?

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Conspiracy of the Day:

Okay. What if the worm was real, BUT, Microsoft helped blow it out of proportion in order to get us all to upgrade to the new Post-PATRIOT ACT updates?

How many points do I get on the tin-foil hat scale for that one?

[soup]

3. I see your conspiracy and raise you

with - what if Microsoft was actually involved in developing the worm so they could blow it all out of proportion in order to get us all to upgrade to the new Post-PATRIOT ACT updates?

Do I get a cookie? - wrapped in tin foil, naturally. ;-)

[soup]

2. If I'm reading this correctly

the second wave is implementation of the worm and directed at the patch site itself. Don't quote me. I'm quite often wrong.

I do like this part of the article-

The worm left behind a love note on vulnerable computers: "I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!" It also carried a hidden message to taunt Microsoft's chairman: "billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!"

Microsoft doesn't take the taunt personally, Sundwall said.

Maybe they should?

[kathee]

4. I don't know who started it or why, but

We own a small computer repair business, and business has tripled in the last week. Hmm...

[RC]

5. The MSblaster worm

has 'caused' all sorts of hardware problems, logon problems, e-mail send/receive problems, changed passwords, deleted documents. Ask me. I get to answer the phone and have the 'victims' tell me so. None of this has been true so far. Ignorance rules out there!

What I think is that the MSblaster is a proof of concept. The next one is going to be leathal to all that did not get the message this time around.

GET A FIREWALL AND USE IT!

Don't be so cheap - pay some money and get some decent virus software and keep it up to date.

Those of you that don't are a danger to the rest of us.

[AntiCoup2K4]

6. Yeah, what's up with that anyway?

My cable modem came with a copy of Norton Internet Security, as do others, and a number of ISP's actually have free downloads of either Zone Alarm or Black Ice on their own websites. These are automated installations, so even a total newbie can set them up. There's no real excuse not to have basic firewall protection in Windows.

[cprise]

7. I installed Linux

Didn't even have to worry about the blaster (or any of the others). B-)

This is a great Linux-- easy to use and works well in an office environment:
http://www.xandros.com/

[J B]

8. I heard MS deleleted the web address that would've been hit

So this info may already be outdated. There may not be an attack (since the target is not there).