But in the case of another virus - the common cold - I believe it's an industry doing exactly this. If there were a cure, would there be as much revenue from cold symptom alleviation medicine? Ditto with the flu. They perpetuate the demand for their products.
It's unfortunate that it's taken MS so long to 'catch on' to the vulnerabilities. A non-computer-literate friend of mine was wondering why his broadband connection had slowed to a crawl... Turns out a friend of his had downloaded / installed Kazaa, and his PC was being used (very heavily) as a host. Over 200 established connections. And he didn't even know it - it was just 'slow'.
With MS having default installs with 'everything open', sure enough, as soon as you hook that laptop to the 'net, it's owned. I try to warn friends of this, but they look at me... and my hat... a little funny.
But in the case of another virus - the common cold - I believe it's an industry doing exactly this. If there were a cure, would there be as much revenue from cold symptom alleviation medicine? Ditto with the flu. They perpetuate the demand for their products.
It's unfortunate that it's taken MS so long to 'catch on' to the vulnerabilities. A non-computer-literate friend of mine was wondering why his broadband connection had slowed to a crawl... Turns out a friend of his had downloaded / installed Kazaa, and his PC was being used (very heavily) as a host. Over 200 established connections. And he didn't even know it - it was just 'slow'.
With MS having default installs with 'everything open', sure enough, as soon as you hook that laptop to the 'net, it's owned. I try to warn friends of this, but they look at me... and my hat... a little funny.
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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/216/24715#24715