Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20 minutes
 

This is worrying, a report released 17th Aug on Zdnet: donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t connect that new PC to the Internet before taking security precautions, researchers at the Internet Storm Centre warned Tuesday. link

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20
 

Last time I connected an unprotected PC to my BB connection at home, it was a matter of seconds rather than 20 minutes before it got Nimda all over it. This time round I had the firewall and anti virus install files saved from the last re-install...

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20
 

This is why a router is such a great idea. It features Network Address Translation which acts like a hardware firewall & keeps out viruses which spread via Microsoft networking. If you don't have one then remove 'File & Printer Sharing' from your network connections before connecting the computer to the net. Enabling the Firewall in XP is also a good thing. In either case, the first thing to do on connecting is to head over to windows update & download all those security patches. Bring a book to read while you're waiting.

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20 minutes
 

yep, when we got this pc, i plugged the ethernet cable in, ran the ntl cd, and just as we were half way through registering, we got the blaster worm... that wasn't fun i can tell you...

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20
 

Never a truer word spoken - my last reformat saw me downloading 64Mb of updates, and that's not including the huge SP2 :disturbd:

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20
 

This is just general advice for everyone.....

If your xp cd permits - create a slipstreamed sp2 cd for the next time you have to reinstall.....

Ok so you still have to install some updates - but not the whole lot

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20 minutes
 

Thank god this notebook's firewall is protecting my other computer :erm:

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20
 

Can you expand on that one about a slipstreamed sp2 CD, is it possible to save the updates to a folder so you can archive them to CD for the next time?

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20
 

Have a look here...

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1626

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20
 

You can. Go to Windows Update, select "Administrator Options" then "Windows Update Catalogue. You need to know which updates you want though, it doesn't automatically find the missing ones.

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20 minutes
 

It's not unpatched PCs - it's unpatched PCs with Windows operating systems greater than Windows 98 SE, particularly Windows XP. I can connect a Windows 98 SE PC to the Internet without problems.

XP for you - and still you love it :no:

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20
 

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20 minutes
 

So if everyone decided to abandon all common sense and switch to *nix then people who've been exploiting windows loopholes will start targetting the more popular OS, i.e. linux, then in a few years time you'll be going "Linux for you - and still you love it :no: "

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20
 

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20 minutes
 

First, I should say that ALL operating systems are vulnerable to attack. Anyone who say's their OS is invulnerable is likely to get hacked.

Microsoft have made some stupid decisions in the past which have helped attackers, but they do seem to be taking security more seriously now. Especially with XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003. One particular problem is that in the past, the default install of Windows has turned everything on (I have lost count of the amount of times I have had to disable IIS while installing Windows Server 2000). Server 2K3 disables virtually everything, and asks the Administrator to turn on what they need. Far better idea. XPSP2 also turns on Automatic Updates by default, and nags you every 20 minutes if you disable it. Another good idea.

As Bifta says (above), I suspect the main reason that Windows is the most compromised operating system is not because it is inherantly any less secure than any other OS, but simply because it is the most popular.

Still, one thing that buys more time for patching. Install a good firewall.

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20
 

Does Windows Update work (either selecting "Start", "Programs", "Windows Update" or typing http://www.windowsupdate.com in the address bar in IE)?

If you look at the Windows Update website, the Administrator Options should be listed in the bar on the left of the window.

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20 minutes
 

Thanks for the info. I have now got a CD full of updates, never knew you could do that. Anybody out there in CF land knows how I can get into the Administrator account on my computer ????

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20
 

ermmmmm.....why is microsoft now asking me to install and run 'windows update'?.............it's never done that before :erm:

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20
 

Were you on update v4? The new one is v5 - so it could just be asking you to update.

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20 minutes
 

That's illogical though - it doesn't follow that a popular OS is more likely to be hacked. The reason Windows is a target is (a) it's full of holes; and (b) everybody (apart from CF posters ;)) hates Microsoft - it embodies everything that is bad about capitalism. Are Apache webservers constantly being hacked? Is Apache full of security holes? Nope - but it is the most popular webserver.

With open source everybody can see the source, see the bugs, and fix the bugs - no reliance on a company to be honest and to provide a patch. It's a better system and hopefully, one day, all software will be open source and companies will make their money out of supporting the software.

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20 minutes
 

I don't doubt that the fact that Windows has security holes (and, sorry to say this, it's not the only OS that does) and the fact that people hate Microsoft has persuaded some hackers to turn their attention to it, but the fact is that hackers (particularly script kiddies) are more likely to go for the more popular OS (whatever it happens to be at the time). This is simply because any exploits for it are more likely to publicised. I personally think the same would apply if Linux were the predominant O/S.

Re: Warning unpatched PCs compromised in 20 minutes
 

I've just tried to create a slipstream disk but the update file in SP2 doesn't seem to like the /s suffix!

:confused: