Hey all of you website owners out there. No, not you bloggers who don’t know a PHP function from the “New Post” button in your wordpress admin area… the real ones who own servers sitting in REAL datacenters who have to fight off those pesky spammers, DOS attacks, etc on a day to day basis. Notice your Firewalls, Switches, Windows 2003 Servers running funky the past few days? Hey you Windows XP users, notice your home network slower, your memory usage through the roof, and is your spam blocker blocking more and more spam every day? Wonder why? Microsft, that’s why..

I’ve been battleing GHOSTS on a few of our nodes the past 36 hours and now I know why…  fucking MICROSOFT, that’s why.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Microsoft Corp. has taken the rare step of warning about a serious computer security vulnerability it hasn’t fixed yet.The vulnerability disclosed Monday affects Internet Explorer users whose computers run the Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 operating software.

It can allow hackers to remotely take control of victims’ machines. The victims don’t need to do anything to get infected except visit a Web site that’s been hacked. [1]

Oh by the way don’t believe the hype “The victims don’t need to do anything to get infected except visit Web site that’s been hacked” is a bunch of bullshit. Your machine can be randomly infected through the exploit through node seeking network/port scanning. We have network packets and logs to prove it.

Does this affect Linux / Unix nodes?   YOU BETCHA.. for instance, if your xp machine is infected and being monitored guess what, your root passwords are now compromised. Really? YES Really, it happened to us last night and sure enough I thought I was going nuts.  Now Government websites are dropping like flies all over the globe and if you know how to properly manage your network security and traffic you can see it with your own eyes.

Don’t get me wrong, if you’re lucky enough to catch it you can completely lock down your network and stop any possible network bottlenecks like we did but for those of you who are not so lucky and are a primary target…. best of luck.

On a personal note this is exactly why I switched to Mac last year. I’m so sick and tired of Microsoft’s SHITTY stance on security and the Gonvermnet not doing anything to protect the consumer from this fucking Giant. Microsoft you suck shit and I hope our Government slaps your ass with the largest antitrust lawsuit and/or provisional fines the world has ever seen.

More:

Federal Web sites knocked out by cyber attack (Yahoo)
South Korea sounds warning after hacking attacks (Routers)

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