From: "Rod Gasson" 


"Bob Lawrence" 
wrote in message
news:1083673307{at}p12.f610.n712.z3.ftn...



>  BTW, I notice that yet *another* worm has infected WindowsXP and
> 2000. Microsoft say you can fix it with a patch. So where does that
> leave your assertion that all you have to do be secure, is *NOT* run
> the EXEs?

I guess you coneveniently forgot the comments along the lines of "and keep
your computer up to date with the latest patches"

FYI, this particular patch was released well over a month ago.  Long before
the exploit started making the rounds.

It's not like its hard to install the MS patches either.  One or two
keypresses is all it takes (and even this can be setup to be performed
automatically on a regular basis, eg, daily.

I stand by my claims that people only have themselves to blame for virus
infections.

> What is it that needs a patch to stop Windows running the worm?

It's another buffer overflow exploit.

>  Apparently, it infects any machine to which you connect,

It didn't affect any of our machines - all connected 24/7.

> and its effect is to become TSR and reboot... continually.

Funny you should mention this, because that ISN'T what the worm was
programmed to do. The rebooting is actually caused from a bug in the worm
code itself, which in fact helped slow down its spread.

> The patch is
> supposed to fix it, but the TV News did not say what was patched,

You really shouldn't take any notice of the TV news regarding viruses and
worms, because either they simply don't have a clue, or they just simply
choose to ingnoe many of the facts, and most of the fine detail (such as
what the patch was for, how long it has been available, and quite often,
they exaggerate the rate at which they spread.
There are a LOT of good rescources on the 'net where you can find all the
nitty gritty details about any given worm or virus, along with their methods
of propagation, the speed of their spread, the geographical locations
affected, along with sample code of how to take advantage of the exploits,
and many methods of preventing or removing said infections.

Rgds
Rod.
(Still virus/worm free after 10+ years of 24/7 access and not having a virus
checker running).







--- ifmail v.2.15