Oh great, another security problem for M$

jukebox hero

Go to Yahoo to check the daily news and what-do-you-know, another da*n security hole....



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...oft_security_4





Article warns that the hole is so blatent that a hacker could be in by days end if I don't patch it. So I go to microsofts site as it instructs and I cant find a link to any stinking patch. I click search and type "todays *ucking security patch" (a little angry by now) and it finds no results.



Thanks microsoft!

jukebox hero

next, of course, I type a more likely search criteria:



"security patch September 10 2003"



and what do you know, no results....



Seems like it would be a priority to make the patch available after blabbering it all over the news how easy it will be to hack into systems.

torifile

My favorite quote:

Quote:

"We definitely want people to apply this one," said Jeff Jones, Microsoft's senior director for trustworthy computing

As if they didn't want people to apply the others... Too funny.

podmate

HaHa!

I just informed our help desk and they are scurrying to "update" our 70 windoze machines.

Yet another disruption in our workflow.

Of course, I can keep working like nothing is happening.

I love my Mac!

podmate

BTW: here is the link to the latest update:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...n/MS03-039.asp

macsrgood4u

Quote:

Originally posted by podmate

BTW: here is the link to the latest update:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...n/MS03-039.asp

Here's a commentary from Mac Night Owl:

Quote:

Would You Really Want to Put Up with This?

Imagine if you had to add a quart of oil to your car every hour and change it every single day. How would you feel if tune-ups had to performed on a weekly basis? Now maybe your car is old and has seen better days, and so it sucks up so much oil that you do have to change it every 100 or 200 miles or so.



But for most of you, this would seem a ridiculous requirement. You'd replace the car if you could.



Now imagine tens of millions of Windows users being asked to update their virus software every day, or even every hour, to be protected against the latest outbreak of e-mail worms.



Did I say hourly? Yes. According to a publication known as WinXPNews, "During high risk periods, many companies will update their files hourly, and it's not unreasonable for you to do the same if you have an 'always on' Internet connection."



Their words, not mine! Now imagine having to do this sort of nonsense in a company with hundreds or thousands of PCs. It has to be a monumental management nightmare in the making. The equivalent of having everyone in your neighborhood change door locks every single day.



Have Internet intruders become so powerful that we are forced to run and hide or put thicker and thicker walls around our computers? Evidently Windows users are being advised to do just that, and the situation can only get worse.



Trustworthy computing my foot!



One would think that, in the midst of this chaos, PC users would be looking long and hard towards solutions to their misery. Obviously we'd like it to be from Apple Computer. Or does Microsoft expect them to simply sit back and accept the fact that higher levels of security are simply normal requirements?



Some might suggest that Microsoft could simply toss out those 41 million lines of buggy code that make up Windows XP and start over, but things don't work that way in the operating system world. Mac OS X, despite the flashy, modern interface, is built upon a core that has been developed and tested for many years. Apple's efforts to just build an all-new operating system from scratch failed years ago.



It would also take many, many years for Microsoft to develop a brand new operating system from a new code base, regardless of how much money it could throw at the project.



Now it's possible that one of the reasons the next version of Windows, known as Longhorn, is falling farther and farther into the future is simply because Microsoft wants to take the time to fix things up so it wouldn't be so easy to virus authors to cause havoc. I should hope so, because Mac users can't just sit back and ignore the whole thing.



Why do I say that? Simple. With companies worldwide depending on those very PC boxes Mac users despise, when business operations are interrupted because of an e-mail virus or other security issue, services and products we depend on may also be affected.



But pity isn't the answer either. I suppose one could simply point out that the Mac is relatively immune to such virus infections, but that, as I've said before, may simply be a challenge for Internet criminals to show us how wrong we are.



Instead, enhanced image advertising might be called for. Show the Mac's virtues of easy setup and low-cost maintenance. I suppose indirect references could be made to its ability to avoid many of the problems that infect Windows users, by mentioning that Mac OS X is based on a tried and tested Unix core that has been made more and more reliable over the years--and stop there.



But in the end maybe the growing frustration of Windows users in dealing with the security threat of the hour would make them sit up and take notice. It would be a real tragedy if they just decided to put up with it. Now I have to call the locksmith and order those new door locks.