Search: Home Bugtraq Vulnerabilities Mailing Lists Jobs Tools Beta Programs
Witty Extinction
Kelly Martin, 2004-04-07

The Witty worm set a dangerous precedent on the Internet because it introduced a number of evil new "firsts" in the ever-changing world of modern worms and viruses.

Comments Mode:
Witty Extinction 2004-04-07
Matthew Murphy
Witty Extinction 2004-04-08
Anonymous
Witty Extinction 2004-04-08
Leonidas
Witty Extinction 2004-04-08
Anonymous Coward
I think that equally disturbing, as some of the other firsts that were prevalent in this worm, was the response by ISS.

Effectively: no support contract - no patch.

There may be people who were pro-active in attempting to patch vulnerable software, who were not willing to shell out more money to upgrade to the latest-and-greatest solution from ISS, and got toasted anyway.

I realize that this is an effective strategy for reducing piracy and enforcing the legitimacy of licensing, it is quite possible that ISS?s policies also helped contribute to the effectiveness of this worm.

There is no other security product vendor (that I know of, anyway) that handles patch distribution in this way. While this may spell the extinction of the Witty Worm, it may also spell the extinction of the Black Ice product, as consumers find alternate methods of protecting themselves.



[ reply ]

Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/232/25729#25729
DiD is the key 2004-04-09
Anonymous (1 replies)
DiD is the key 2004-04-15
Reality
Witty Extinction 2004-04-13
Anonymous
Witty Extinction 2004-04-13
Anonymous
ISS not to be blamed 2004-04-14
Mohammed Abdel Kader







 

Privacy Statement
Copyright 2009, SecurityFocus