M$ has surrendered to the Blaster worm

[MisterMe]

This is not a rumor.

According to this Seattle Times article, M$ has shutdown its WindowsUpdate site in order to foil the Blaster worm. According to Netcraft, M$ replaced its Windows 2003 server running IIS with an Akamai Linux server running AkamaiGHost.

[Jack Hammer]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahaahhahahahahaah

[Reality]

Hahahaha! It's so sweet.

[Ricky]

rofl.

Microsoft Works is an oxymoron.

[fryke]

Well, what exactly would YOU have done, if you knew in advance that a few thousand computers were going to attack your server(s)? Exactly, you'd have let the worm run into a void, just as MS has done. What MS had done is only to step aside while the danger is present. Windows Update will be restored after that.

[Arden]

That doesn't change the fact that they screwed up badly with this one. They still programmed the security hole into Windows, intentionally or not, and now they have to deal with having to fix it across millions of computers.

[Lycander]

And Microsoft's answer to their users is: "Reinstall Windows." That's the solution for cleaning up an infected computer, reinstall everything. Buggers. I have a few PCs at home and if they get infected it won't be Windows going on there after I fdisk it.

[fryke]

Well, this is not the case. The security hole has been issued. A patch is available. The actual problem is threefold...

1.) Microsoft _is_ a security problem. There are far too many holes in all Windows versions to be found. This shouldn't be like that, but it is.

2.) Microsoft is usually a bit slow in preparing patches. And when they're fast, they screw up big time (happened a few times, patches that opened new holes...).

3.) Microsoft has a trust problem. IT staff doesn't like to install patches just when they come out, because they're afraid to break a working system. That might not be such a big problem for a home user, but if a patch screws up a server (or a dozen) or a multitude of client computers, it's the admin's problem, isn't it.

The solution? Microsoft should become faster in testing patches across more (and different) setups. The goal would be to persuade IT staff to let servers and client machines be automatically updated by Microsoft. This way, you (as an admin) could even stay at home if something like this worm crops up. The patch would be automatically installed and your system would be safe (again).

But this doesn't happen soon.