Category: Microsoft

Everything about Microsoft

More Information on the downadup Worm

Paul

If your working to get rid of this Downadup Worm, F-secure is giving out a free removal tool to help with that task.   According to F-Secure Worm:W32/Downadup.gen description which Talks about how bad this worm is.

[ad#ad2-right]Due to companies not updating the MS 08-067 patch, it is the primary way for this worm to get onto a system.

Graham Cluely’s Blog ask a question and got quite a few answers from the users. The results of the poll are 53% believe the hackers are to blame, and 30% think the System Administrators are to blame, and 17% think Microsoft is to blame for this worm.

I have a mix feelings over who is to be blamed for this worm. I think the person who wrote this, did it for a specific reason. We can’t expect any software we use to be 100% safe, even Macintosh are not 100% safe. Microsoft isn’t to be blamed because they tried to patch this as quickly as they could. I know that companies have a hard time keeping up with Microsoft updates, and they really can’t be blamed. I think Hackers are always going to make a virus just because they can. That’s in there nature and we will never be really rid of the virus or worm writers. They are in it for the Money, to boast, to take control of, or steal sensitive information. Windows being the Alpha Dog, people are always going to test the waters because of that.

So who do you think is to be blamed?  I’d like to hear your thoughts on this.

Who do you think is to blame for the Downadup Worm?

1) End Users
2) Microsoft who did patch it
3) The person who Wrote this Worm
4) Companies who didn’t implement updates
5) No one it is going to happen
6) People who pay the writers of Virus/Worms

View Results

Make your own poll

If you think someone else is to be blamed just make a comment.

Please bear in mind that this poll is not scientific and is provided for information purposes only. The comments expressed on this page are those of a subsection of poll participants, and not necessarily those of Tech-linkblog. Tech-linkblog makes no guarantees about the accuracy of the results other than that they reflect the choices of the users who participated.

Admins are shaking in there boots due to the Ms 09-001 Patch

Paul

I have to talk about this because this is a big deal.   According to Techworld and I’ll quote:

“This one scares me – a lot,” says Eric Schultze, CTO of Shavlik Technologies. “It is a lot like Blaster and Sasser. It is the same exploit vector. If I am an attacker and I can touch NetBios then I can execute code with no credentials.”

[via Techworld]

[ad]Now This is due to the fact of what is happening with an update that came a few months ago the MS 08 – 067 that still people haven’t patched their systems.  According to F-secure the Downadup/Conflicker has grown overnight by a million computers being infected.

Now why are they scared of the recent patch (MS 09-001), because of so many vectors of infection, you don’t need any credentials.  The virus  does not  need to know any passwords or user names to gain access.  Just like the Downadup variant that is hitting the internet right now, this virus tries to access accounts by guessing weak passwords or even putting itself on flash drives or other mobile media to get other systems infected.

So why are admins scared over this new patch?

Most  companies don’t patch there system as quickly as Microsoft would like them to.   You see most companies have quite a few computers depending on the size of the company it could be quite a lot.  So many in fact that it would have several IT personal just to keep the system going.
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So why don’t they just put the new patches on the systems?

Depending on the size of the company and what they do has a lot to do with them updating there systems.  Some use really special programs or have a network going that is vital.  Even the smallest update to the system could bring the network or the program down.  Most companies liketo test it out on test machine for a while to make sure that the patch doesn’t  prevent the business from doing business.   Here are a few articles that prove why companies do not want to just install patches automatically:

Some companies are using older systems like Windows ME or some older Windows Operating systesm.   Although there isn’t anything we can do about those because Microsoft has stopped supporting them with updates and all.  I know we are all thinking thesame question?

Is there a way to fix the problem with Windows Updates?

I personally don’t have an answer but I am sure hackers will find ways to exploit codes so they can get on your system so way.  I’ve recently read a story about Adware Author and now I understand even more about why people do all of this.

This is one of the questions every admin has to ask themselves?  How do we update all of the systems we are responsible for?  There are no easy answers to this.

Microsoft Keynote CES 2009

Paul

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Some Key topics talk about in this Keynotes are:

Windows 7 — Lighter, Faster, and Reliability. Windows 7 Should boot quicker and faster, and enables cool new interface touch.

Windows 7 — Beta will be available Worldwide on January 9, 2009 and will be available for download on MSDN and Technet.  Also it will be available at : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7 For those who want to download it from Microsoft directly.

Windows Live Essentials — Windows live Messenger, Mail, and Photo Gallery works with Windows XP, VISTA, and Windows 7. It is available for download worldwide. Dell will also be putting this on their consumer and small business computers.

Windows Mobile — 11 Different Mobile phones.

Verizon Mobile —  Windows Live Search will be available through Verizon and it’s a partnership with Microsoft.

Demo of Windows 7, Live, and Mobile:

Windows 7 will have Windows touch and be able to use net books with Windows 7.

Windows 7 has been designed with the Touch DNA in mind.

Windows Mobile demo with an Panoramic display.

Windows Live Demo —  Various things they discuss here including Photo’s and Silver light.

Windows XBOX:

[ad#ad2-left]Halo Wars — Strategy game and will Available February 28, 2009. The Bungie Will have a demo version February 5, 2009 and will be available for download.

Halo 3 ODST — Will be available in the Fall of 2009. New Characters, new events and will be like Halo 3.

Various stuff about Xbox Live 360

These were just the main things that I thought was important to let people know what was mainly the important highlights of this keynote. I will recommend everyone to go and watch it for yourself, I am sure I’ve missed something that someone would consider very important and understand that. This however is a personal and will be different in everyone. I watched this and am excited and can’t wait for windows 7 to be released so I can get my hands on this and see how it fairs with a Vista CPU and GPU. So only time will tell. I hope you enjoyed this little run down. Please feel free to leave a comment and talk about this or anything else in the Disqus community.

Microsoft Readys to Layoff Around 15,000 workers

Paul

According to sources around the net, Microsoft is about to start laying off around 15,000.  One source and I’ll quote:
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Currently Microsoft employs about 90,000 people across the world and from what we’re hearing, some 15,000 of those are expected to be giving marching orders come January 15th. That’s almost 17 percent of Microsoft’s total work force, not exactly a small number.

[Via Fudzilla – Rumor Mill]

Now this is hasn’t been confirmed but is expected to happen around January 15, 2009 right after CES.  I don’t know how true this but if you want to check out the other layoffs click here.  If I hear anything else about this I’ll post it as soon as I find out.   Some other Posts your might be interested in:

You might find some other cool tidbits when you search my site.

BREAKING NEWS : Microsoft issues 961509

Paul

Microsoft as issued an new security advisory about the possible way someone might be able to take your sensitive information using an invalid digital signature:
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Microsoft is aware that research was published at a security conference proving a successful attack against X.509 digital certificates signed using the MD5 hashing algorithm. This attack method could allow an attacker to generate additional digital certificates with different content that have the same digital signature as an original certificate. The MD5 algorithm had previously shown a vulnerability, but a practical attack had not yet been demonstrated.

[via Windows Technet]

Although Microsoft has stated in the advisory most companies are using the SHA-1 algorithm.  Some are still using the MD5 and should stop using it immediately.   Microsoft says there is none in the wild but you can be bet on it someone will do it sooner or later.  Certificate Authorities should stop using MD5 and go to a much stronger better Algorithm. This is what Microsoft is saying and they aren’t providing much information for the end-user on how to prevent from using MD5 certificates on your system. You can remove the MD5 certificate manually if you are a system administor and want to protect the computers at the office.  Please don’t do this unless you know what your doing, you could very well break your system if you did something like this.