OT: News organizations think they've been targetted by Win2K virus

[blue2blue]

Is it a conspiracy to get news organizations?

 

Or a conspiracy of dunces who simply didn't patch their Windows 2000 systems when MS told them too?

 

You've probably seen the hysterical headlines from some news orgs.

More recent articles, like the Washinton Post apologia below, have taken a more moderate, less paranoid tone.

 

But if you look through the Google News headlines (particularly from yesterday, when the 'epidemic' was in its early stages), you'll see plenty of laughable screamers:

 

Major news organisations hit by fast spreading virus

 

 

This article from the Washington Post takes a calm 'explainer' approach and hopefully will be read by some of the Chicken Littles in the editorial rooms...

 

Brian Krebs on Computer Security As the Worm Turns Since Sunday, when Security Fix first warned readers about the emergence of the Zotob worm, nearly a dozen variants have emerged, each slightly more dangerous or sneaky than the next. Yesterday, it came to light that many companies, including several prominent news outlets, had fairly extensive infections by the worm and its brethren. This should be a surprise to no one, and these threats can be expected to continue to affect companies and individuals for several weeks -- if not months and years. There are a number of reasons for this: First off, patching flaws of this nature in large enterprises takes time, and Microsoft just released a patch for this particular problem one week ago. Also, patching across shared networks often is far more complicated ...

 

 

http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2005/08/as_the_worm_tur.html

[Guitar Centaur]

There's been an alert out about this vulnerability for weeks. MS didn't deem the threat significant enough for a special patch, and planned to roll it in with the next months update.

 

Any organization that didn't take the necxessary precautions by turning off vulnerable (un-needed) services deserves what they got, and their IT staff should be looking for burger flipping jobs.