Yay! We've got a virus...

[Zwelgje]

At the place I work at (patholocy dept. at an academic hospital) virtually all new computers with Win2000 were infected. My old machine with Win95 wasn't. It was the only time that I was happy with my computer...
I'm quite worried about our computer-dept. though. Wasn't it possible for them to stop the virus from coming into the network?

 

[trumpeteer]

Originally posted by WillJ
But it's pronounced "yah," so I guess trumpeter has only heard it out loud and never read it.

Yeah, that's it. (or ja.) I obviously don't know German. (Well, actually, I don't know any of them but I knew how to spell the other two.)

I just read this thread, for the first time since I started it, and found out once again that I don't know nearly as much as I thought I didn't.

 

[Sodapop]

Originally posted by Zwelgje
At the place I work at (patholocy dept. at an academic hospital) virtually all new computers with Win2000 were infected. My old machine with Win95 wasn't. It was the only time that I was happy with my computer...
I'm quite worried about our computer-dept. though. Wasn't it possible for them to stop the virus from coming into the network?

Yes, whoever's in charge of the network should lose his job for not following MS security bulleting and not applying critical patches...

As for myself, I don't hate it. My three comp that have linux partitions were unaffected, except that the internet was painfully slow. As for the 2 comps among those three that has windows xp, they were protected because I patched, and the router did its job. Anyway, how can you hate a worm that DoS attack M$' site???

 

[Lucky]

Indeed. I was shortly before purposely getting that nice worm myself, just for last Saturday (last week).
Too bad the programmer didn´t know what he was doing.

In any case, the security hole was known and published by MS more than a MONTH before the worm started to appear. Everyone could simple click the Windows Update link and get the patch, a matter of minutes.
Problem is that people are lazy!

In any case, if you follow one of these simple guidelines, you´ll never have a problem:
1. Use a decent virus scanner and update the definition files regularly!
2. Get yourself a router or a real firewall (i.e. an extra comp running as the router for you real comp)
3. Get a personal firewall (the software stuff) and configure it properly.
4. Don´t use Outlook, Messenger or other MSN stuff!


Also, the attack didn´t really make the net slow, the thousands of people trying to patch their systems did that.
You should better worry about that new worm that spreads via email. But whoever click email attachments without a virus scanner running AND knowing what that attachment is, doesn´t deserve better.

 

[Sodapop]

The patch wasn't in windows update, hence the number of people that got infected... But someone who administrate systems must be on windows' security mailing list... Home users aren't and frankly, they can't be blamed for this... But a company that has IT workers that got the worm should either have a serious talk those IT worker or simply fire them.

And the net was slow for me. Oh, and your virus scanner, even with recent definitions, wouldn't have found that worm. Virus definition always get updated when the attacks are finished anyway.

Oh, and outlook, messenger and MSN are not dangerous for someone who knows how to not get viruses.

 

[Lucky]

Umm, sure it was. At least 1 week before the virus started spreading, the patch was put into the required updates of the Windows Update site.
That´s the reason why the windowsupdate.com was the target of the worm. To prevent users from patching the security hole!

Concerning the virus scanner, McAfee had a patch out long before Symantec started it´s big "panic" campaign. A few hours after the first reports of the virus.
Also, virus scanners look for peculiar behavior of programs. While they may not have identified the worm, the good ones would have prevented it from writing itself into the startup registry setting and also prevented it from spreading to other comps.

Of course, AV programs are usually more trouble than they are worth it. So the better solution is always common sense, routers and firewalls. Common sense to not go to sites where you get these virii.
And still, when big sites as mentioned above get affected, you can some time also get a virus through google. So a AV scanner is always good to have. If it´s a good one.

 

[Zwelgje]

Oh well, the IT dept. at my job is pathetic. I tested the firewall by going to the shields up website and it turned out that lots of ports were open. So I sent an email to the IT and told them that. I got an email back that I should stop complaining. Then I installed a firewall on my own computer and let it rest, a company that allows such an IT dept. to exist doesn't deserve any better than to get attacked a lot and contract lots of virusses.

 

[Sodapop]

If I were you, I'd try to take lots of virus from home, put them on your work computer, and enjoy the 2-3 days vacation

 

[Lucky]

If I were you, I'd try to take lots of virus from home, put them on your work computer and let them spread from there to infect the whole company, and enjoy the 20-30 YEARS vacation.

...
wait
...
maybe not.

But you could infect all other comps not protected by an extra firewall like yours and then blame the IT department.

 

[Zwelgje]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but maybe I won't do that until I quit the job OK?